To the best of my knowledge, I still haven’t gotten Covid. I would like to thank my superhuman immune system, my strict adherence to scientific protocols, and a social circle that could fit comfortably in a Mazda Miata. Oh, and the Academy.
Just kidding. At this point it’s all down to luck. Nearly everyone I care about has had at least one case of Covid. Most took the pandemic seriously for the first couple of years, but then, like me, quietly and gradually said to hell with it. Now it seems that despite all the masks and vaccinations and social distancing, it’s less a question of if you get infected, but when. Turns out you can’t put out a fire if half the onlookers keep tossing books on it.
I know: simply writing about this probably guarantees an epic case of Covid within the next few weeks. And some of us still don masks once in a while. Last week I went in for a blood test at Quest Diagnostics, a venue usually jam-packed with shambling, sneezing hordes of the halt and lame. Covid aside, a mask in that situation is just common sense.
Is the pandemic over? Which one? Don’t forget the flu, RSV, and shingles. Measles and polio are back in the game too, thanks to the same MAGA mindset that neutralized any unified response to a public health emergency. Hell, let’s get smallpox trending. Come on down!
So here we are. This pandemic is over in our minds, if not in the real world. On the bright side, I don’t miss hating the people who refused masks from the get-go. That was just exhausting. Now we’re back to judging people mostly on their bumper stickers and dopey hats.
On the dark side, future pandemics will probably be worse, since we learned all the wrong lessons from this one.
Books for nothing
When beggars are choosers
Potpourri … and Palin
Sidewalk swine
Rachel’s real estate
The Mrs. and I are still being careful, masking up in most public places. Here in the L.A. area I would say 80-90% of people have stopped masking altogether, but we’re not alone (yet) in sticking with it. It’s not us we worry about so much as the elderly and frail folks in our extended family, some of whom we help to look after. We’ve rolled the dice and had a few big family gatherings after vaccines became available. It was one thing to tell at-risk folks that they had to skip Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2020, and quite another to say that, to stay safe, they should never see their loved ones en masse again.
To clarify, I should have said masking up indoors. With the generally nice weather here, we are lucky to be able to dine al fresco at restaurants and not worry about masks.
Same here in Florida. We rarely go out to eat, but when we do it’s usually an outside table.