This getting old stuff certainly isn’t for wheenies, is it?
While I was picking up our surplus produce box today, I overheard someone talking about being sick and out of work for seven weeks and how horrible it was an how she didn’t get UI and couldn’t pay her mortgage so now she has a late fee and she still can’t work because she has brain fog. She also told folks that she was in the medical field and got tested every week, but not to trust the up the nose tests because there is a better one and that everyone should be careful because COVID sucked.
I lost all respect when she said that at least she wouldn’t have to be vaccinated because now she was protected forever.
I think it’s so cool that you hold dances! I wish more people did. They sound like fun. I bet you’ll require boosters next time, though. There’a an article on CNN today about Michigan’s surge in COVID cases:
“Since January, we’ve had about 289 deaths; 75% are unvaccinated people,” Dover said. “And the very few (vaccinated people) who passed away all were more than 6 months out from their shot. So we’ve not had a single person who has had a booster shot die from Covid.”
I couldn’t require boosters because when I set the rules, not all of my dancers were legally eligible for boosters. I did strongly encourage them, and I’m pretty sure everyone who was eligible early enough for a booster to have kicked in before the dance got one by then. A very high fraction of the dancers were boosted.
We also picked the venue in part due to our belief that it had good ventilation. One of the attendees brought a portable CO2 monitor, and reported that the ventilation was, in fact, excellent. So I’m hoping to return if we organize additional dances.
I would like to know more about these dances. Maybe in a new thread? What kind of dancing? Folk dancing, square dancing, ballroom, rock & roll? I wanna go!
I wasn’t really sure where to post this so I thought the general thread would be OK. I read this article this morning.
I thought it would be an assessment of how Covid burn-out is occurring or about how people who haven’t come in contact with actual cases have a skewed view of the risks. Instead, it seems that the writer is a self-righteous person who is aware of the dangers of Covid but just doesn’t care. He doesn’t bother to consider that with hospitals in his area overwhelmed by Covid patients, he is at risk of substandard treatment should he himself or a family member require heath care for any reason. He states that European countries are much more relaxed about masks in schools while ignoring the fact that most of them still require masks for secondary school students and teachers. He complains about booster shots but more importantly, neglects to mention whether he and his family are vaccinated (which could logically partially justify some of his laissez-faire attitude). He asserts that because his wife and her friends drink more than the CDC recommends, that is a reason to ignore any of the CDC recommendations instead of perhaps addressing his wife’s drinking problem. Most important, however, is his absolute lack of concern for public health in general. His attitude is that since he is not affected, he has no motivation to care about anyone else and is free to mock those who are trying to contribute to overall public health. I was prepared to assess how we address those who are tired of two years of Covid restrictions but this article somehow bothered me more than the conspiracy theorists who at least think they have a valid reason for avoiding Covid prevention.
I agree. That was a disheartening article. Not just for the author’s casual disregard of vulnerable others, but for his evident contempt for people who do wear masks and get boosters.
I see the same thing in my relatively small town, and at this point I’m just glad I’m not a doctor or a nurse, because I don’t think I could handle the dissonance.
The author of that article sounds like quite a piece of work. I wonder what his thoughts are on whether the Earth is round and the age of the universe.
He should be hired by The Onion and just be asked to write truthfully about the world as he sees it.
The Atlantic sometimes runs pieces sure to generate a lot of outrage. This appears to be one. The author is the editor of a Catholic literary magazine and a regular contributor to TheAmerican Conservative. His bubble is very small but filled with hot air.
Just glad it wasn’t just me. I was thinking maybe I was overreading his attitude and he was just trying to document the feelings of people in rural areas and maybe I was too sensitive given that I am in the DC area and in the medical field. It looks like others agree with me about him, though.
Apropos of ceasing to care about COVID, this was also in The Atlantic
Taylor Robertson wasn’t expecting his freshman year of college to end at home. The 21-year-old William & Mary junior spent most of 2020 away from his campus after classes went remote in March…
…
A year later, Robertson’s classes are entirely in-person. His college has a vaccine and indoor mask mandate, and almost everyone he knows is living a “normal” life. His parents’ house was full for Thanksgiving this year, and he’s gathering with family again this winter at a ski resort. “People don’t want to talk about COVID anymore,” he told me. “It’s just not a thing that people enjoy doing, really. What is there to talk about with it that isn’t just a drag from the rest of the life that we want to be getting on with?”
Robertson echoes a feeling that has permeated the minds and lifestyles of many young people who have missed out on experiences, friendships, and milestones over the past two years of coronavirus disruption. There is a sense of needing to make up for lost time and reclaim a sense of normalcy, even as case counts rise and new variants take root. For these cohorts of Gen Zers and “Z-lennials” (those born roughly from 1993 to 1998), they’re once again learning and working in-person; they’re dining, drinking, and dancing indoors; they’re traveling and celebrating birthdays and holidays; and they don’t have plans to stop anytime soon—Omicron variant be damned.
…
“There’s this general exhaustion and burnout from all of the information” young people have gotten, “and a lot of people haven’t necessarily been directly or indirectly affected by the virus itself,” she told me. “They haven’t gotten sick; their parents haven’t gotten sick; they don’t know someone directly connected to them who has died … and that’s the general kind of invincibility of adolescence: ‘Those bad things you’re talking about, those are other people; that’s not me.’”
I think this article is a real reflection of how a lot of America feels right now. I know some people who feel like this. “okay, it’s endemic, I’m not going to stay home and wear masks forever, so I’m just not worrying about it any more.” fwiw, the people I know personally who feel this was ARE vaccinated. They aren’t stupid, and getting a vaccine is not a large imposition – not like wearing a mask all the time, and certainly not like cancelling Thanksgiving.
Our years on this earth are finite. Not infinite. We don’t have infinite time to socially distance and shelter in place. At some point it comes down to risk assessment.
People who are vaxxed, boosted, kids now vaxxed, masked in church, masked in school… yeah, that’s about all we can do. The cancelled events are never coming back. I feel bad for those who missed out, keep in mind there really is no “make up” to them, there never will be, as I predicted when this all started. My kids are still masked in school, but in person is far preferrable to virtual. Virtual only worked for a limited time, the quality was declining at the end of over a year of virtual, because people just stopped caring.
I am fine with masks for the time being. My daughter did a play in masks. It was fine. They are not ideal, and I would like to have them off someday. I’m sure that whenever that happens, it will be too soon for some. That’s the way it goes.
Yes, this. Sadly, we can’t beat covid once and for all. It will be endemic. We will probably need seasonal covid shots like seasonal flu shots. At some point, there will be a new balance of addressing risk vs returning to normal pre-covid life. I hope that the balance will still include staying home if you’re sick, no stigma for vulnerable people choosing to mask, vaccine mandates, and perhaps testing before visiting residential care facilities or other vulnerable people. I think masking for things like church and school will fade away.
I’m hoping the omicron variant is indeed very mild, because one way or another, covid will spread through the remaining unvaccinated who haven’t had covid, or haven’t had it recently.* And it looks like omicron is incredibly infectious. So my fingers are crossed that it is very mild, but provides good immunity, and that it outcompetes other variants. It might be the best we can hope for, even though many will still die. Mostly unvaccinated people, who are choosing not to decrease their chances of dying…
*I know omicron reinfects people too. But my point here is about the completely unprotected population. The partially protected population may get a wave of infection as well, but will remain at least partially protected. Moreso after an omicron infection, even.
This is something I’ve been thinking about. For the past couple of years, especially before the vaccine, the “correct” moral stance seems to be, “I don’t care about what fun things you’re missing or your discomfort wearing a mask or your mental issues. People are dying. Suck it up. If you object, then you’re just a bad person whose opinions we should freely ignore.” And that works for a while, especially pre-vaccine, as I said. But when does it stop being compelling? Does it ever, on a moral basis? Does going to a carnival ever justify putting immunocompromised or similarly vulnerable people at risk of actual death? (I’ve considered making this its own thread, but not sure it’ll go anywhere.)
On a somewhat related matter: I have a couple of stacks of disposable masks I got near the start of all this? Should I just toss them? Are they worthwhile in any way? I’m starting to get the sense that even the handmade cloth masks and free cloth masks I got from the health department near the start of this are doing nothing but giving me a false sense of security. N95 or nothing? Am I just a big stupidhead?
I have a stack of cheap surgical masks i bought in the middle of the pandemic, that I’m similarly tempted to toss. Partly, they are stiffer, and less comfortable, than other surgical masks I’ve bought. But partly i have since invested in a large box of KF94 masks which are a lot more protective (and comfier) so … is there any reason to keep those surgical masks around?
I think I would donate the procedure masks. The best uses for them at this point in my opinion is to double mask with them, which is mainly a healthcare professional thing – protecting the N95 mask by wearing a surgical or procedure mask over it – or give them to a space that requires masks and might need to provide them, like a homeless shelter, or similar place.
I would not be keeping them around for my own use at this point.
Folks who can should be using N95, KN95, KF94, FFP2, or equivalent.
What I posted above. It’s a tradeoff because our lives don’t last forever anyway. Therefore, we can’t adopt forever strategies. It’s not just about fun. Some of it was about fun I suppose. People that are in their 20s are going to be in their 20s for 10 years, no more, no less. Tick tick tick goes the clock. Simply asking people to punt away time, there has to be a limit to that. Even in cases of war, people go off to fight the war. They might die, but at least they are living for something they believe in. Here you are asking them to die slowly, punt away time they will never get back. At some point there’s a tradeoff and limit to that.
There’s never going to be an all clear. Not for a long time. It will trickle down maybe, but it’s going to take a while. Especially for the worst off. But then I had relatives die during the pandemic, non-Covid deaths, and they missed stuff at the end, they died, and they won’t get that time back.
There’s a huge difference, however, from acknowledging the inevitability of society deciding to go back to normal and people deciding they’re too worried or burnt out on restrictions and thus are going to act as if the problem has already subsided.
I don’t see why anyone is even thinking about “forever” moves at this point. Pandemics don’t last forever. Nothing we’re doing now is supposed to last forever. Sure, maybe they’re lasting longer than some people expected, but that’s not the same thing as “forever,” and it’s not an excuse to give up early.
The message from the beginning is that we have to stop being selfish. We have to do things to protect others. Masks, vaccines, lockdowns—all of it is about protecting others. The risk when you refuse is not yours alone to bear, which is why the individual has no right to decide the level of risk. You don’t get the right to determine much risk someone else takes.
It’s one thing when I read about these kids who don’t know anyone who has died (though I do question how that is possible). I know that teens and young adults have issues comprehending mortality, as their brains haven’t formed. It’s disappointing they weren’t raised better, but I get it. Hopefully we can get them to realize how selfish they were.
But hearing about adults who want to pretend the pandemic is over? Fuck that shit. It’s bad enough the people who took this position from the beginning. (At least some of those were tricked.) But to have known that we have to put others first by wearing masks, getting vaccinated, staying home, but then decide to just suddenly ignore it? To pretend you cared about others but then give up on it?
I find it hard to have sympathy for such people, to say the least. Best I can do is assume they’ve developed some sort of mental disorder and are in denial of reality.
It depends on what you are proposing. Only 3% of ICU beds in my state are available, and that number is falling. It really gets under my skin when people talk about COVID as though it were in the past while 1200 Americans die every day.
So, is it reasonable to for vaccinated people to get together in small groups? Probably. Is it reasonable to have large indoor events without any vaccine or even mask requirements? I would say not, yet those events are happening with horrifying regularity. And people continue to die by the thousands.
