Suppose we knew the current situation would be the status quo for an extended period. What should we do differently?

Honestly, I would be much happier with a continued masking requirement on public transportation, including airplanes, than a testing requirement for flights into the U.S. I have crappy lungs and will continue to mask in crowded public places for the foreseeable future. I just had to fly to NYC to be with my dad in the hospital after some extremely major surgery, and it boggles me how many people are not masking on public transportation. There was much better masking in Queens, where he lives, than in Manhattan or NJ. COVID is the main reason I hadn’t seen him in person in more than 2 years, but his surgery to remove a 20-pound malignant abdominal tumor, along with a kidney and a chunk of liver, finally got me on an airplane.

I nearly throttled the paramedics who transported my dad from the hospital to the rehab facility - no masks for them. Might have made a bigger stink if I didn’t know that Dad is vaxxed and double-boosted, and had an asymptomatic case of COVID pre-vaccine.

I am still avoiding any activity that requires being indoors with unmasked people. Haven’t eaten in a restaurant indoors since the beginning (with the exception of one that was requiring presentation of vaccine cards for everyone who entered, and we sat in the corner between two floor-to-ceiling open windows, so it was almost like being outdoors). I stayed with my aunt, who lives alone, for part of the time I was visiting Dad, and my cousin stopped by for a few minutes - but they had both just tested negative for unrelated reasons. I will likely skip the main portion of my upcoming HS reunion, because it’s indoors, and stick to the outdoor picnic, even though I’m on the damn organizing committee. I get bronchitis or even pneumonia at the drop of a hat after any kind of respiratory infection, and I have plenty of vaxed and boosted friends who have still gotten pretty darn sick with COVID, so I would like to skip that.

I REALLY miss hanging out with people and going to concerts and restaurants, and I sure hope life will go back to something closer to normal before I lose my fucking mind. But we aren’t there yet.

This year would be my 20th HS reunion, but I haven’t heard about anything being organized. If something does get thrown together, I’m leaning toward not going. On the one hand, I’m mostly back to doing everything I did pre-pandemic, but on the other hand, pre-pandemic me would’ve loved such a good excuse not to go to this thing.

The various health authorities seem to have forgotten that endemic diseases exist. They’ve thrown their training and common sense out the window – to listen to them, one would think that this pandemic will continue indefinitely.

Of course there’s no such thing as an indefinitely-long pandemic, but you’d never know that based on the pronouncements of the CDC, WHO, etc.

This morning when I was about to head to the grocery store I checked the site and was thrilled to see my county listed as Low. Woohoo!

It felt like low-key streaking not wearing a mask. So naughty.

This is exactly the case in South Florida too. Some staffers in some retail wear masks. Other stores don’t. Ditto staff in restaurants. Only a couple percent of the general public wears masks routinely. Restaurants, bars, and nightclubs are back to normal customer counts: i.e. packed elbow to elbow on Fri & Sat night & real busy the rest of the time.

IME most of the USA is running this model, not the masked-staying-at-home model.

I go about my work and my life exactly as I did pre-COVID. A dozen or more meals out per week, all over the Americas. Lots of public concerts & such. The only difference pre-COVID versus now is that I carry a mask in my car and in my suitcase in case somebody someplace wants to insist on masking. With which I will comply without complaint.

Having said that I just caught COVID for the first time a few days ago. Probably at work. Maybe in Mexico, maybe in Puerto Rico, maybe right here near home. It’s early yet, but so far I’ve had worse colds than this is. I’m also fully vaxxed, unlike the suicide-pact goofballs.


COVID, like flu, will be with us forever. Live the rest of your life how you want to. But IMO “sheltering until it’s over” means “sheltering until you die of boredom, self-induced mental illness, or old age.”


For folks with major league bad health already, COVID may well be a societal game-changer, where the risk of trying to live an ordinary daily life went from barely tolerable to totally intolerable. I feel sorry for those folks. But I don’t know what alternative we can offer, even in a more ideal world of better science, better citizens, and better funding.