Just to document how things stand right now:
The hospitals and ICUs handling the high number of serious COVID cases hasn't let up yet, and it's causing serious burnout for nurses and doctors who've been fighting this pandemic for almost two years now.
The trumpian Far Right are intentionally going out of their way now to ignore safe vaccination in exchange for utter denial thanks to political and religious ideology. 'Course, they've been doing that for months, but the evidence is so obvious now you'd think these deranged morans would get Baker Acted for it.
Schools are not any safer today than they were in August. Vaccines for kids older than 5 may be available by November.
And there's idiots out there going out of their way to travel for vacations while not enough of us are vaccinated and not enough places are enforcing CDC guidelines like masking and social distancing.
Idiots like me.
I admit it. I'm being a hypocrite here. I've gone quite mad like millions of others across the globe, unable to enjoy some of the things I did before the pandemic shut down the world. Instead of going to bars and movie theaters, I am making the risky move of going on a trip to Virginia to hang out with some of my online friends from the golden era of TNC'S Open Threads.
I will do my best to reduce the risks: I will be masking extensively, probably even while I'm driving in my car (I decided against airline travel because of the risks of both COVID and anti-maskers being assholes on airplanes. That's a thing now). I will be making at least one hotel stop, and I'm 90 percent sure the hotel website says they're following CDC cleaning protocols (I still will be washing my hands every ten minutes). The place my group is gathering is following those CDC protocols, and we're planning on keeping it a small group (no super-spreader bike rallies!). Everybody's vaccinated, except for the younger kids, but we'll all still be masking and social distancing where we can.
Still, I admit this is reckless of me. I know I'm vaccinated, but COVID can still infect me (the Moderna vaccine should reduce the risks I will spread to others) and I have certain health factors that can become a danger to me.
But I also admit I need the break. Even with my introverted, social anxiety ways, I need to get out of the daily grind of work and crashing at home. I've gotten cabin fever y'all, and I've decided to take a risk that with all my precautions the trip should go 80 percent okay (I'm guessing here, I got a C in college-level Statistics).
Knock on Unitarian-crafted tabletops for luck.
If things go well, I shall return with pictures. And a couple of negative COVID tests when I get back.
1 comment:
It doesn't have to be this way:
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-us-is-ass-backwards-when-it-comes.html
There have been many, many successful mass gatherings where sane protocols were followed. They call them concerts, and they are beginning to ramp up again, with many artists realizing that their livelihoods depend on them getting this under control.
There are also dangerous idiots pushing back against the sanity, but they are not fiscally sustainable, so I am optimistic.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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