A pandemic diary: Die hard, live longer
June 24, 2021
We just bought a fresh batch of N95s. We’re not making travel plans. Takeout remains the order of the day (pun intended) and “eating in” means our own table. Actually, we often dine on the deck, looking out on a leafy street with bluebirds flying around and the temperature hovering in the 80s, which is unseasonably and pleasantly cool. But I digress.
What I’m getting at is that my wife and I are diehards when it comes to safety and are perfectly comfortable that way. Yes, we’ve been jabbed. We’re playing it cautious until we’re certain the virus has been beaten down. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, people, and it ain’t over yet, not with the Delta variant spreading faster than voter suppression. According to this article, “In early April, Delta represented just 0.1 percent of cases in the United States…As of a few days ago, the estimate hit 20.6 percent.”
Delta may make victims sicker than other strains, and since vaccination rates in the South are lagging badly, there’s bound to be more of it around here. Fully-vaxxed folks are believed to be well protected, but in our county, that’s only about a third of those eligible. It doesn’t make sense to be in crowds routinely, for no good reason.
Things came into focus the other night when I picked up dinner at our favorite barbecue restaurant. The place was packed to the gills with Republicans attending a campaign party for a U.S. House candidate who’s pushing Trump’s lies about election fraud. Of course, there wasn’t a mask in sight. Needless to say, I grabbed my order and got the hell out of there, stat.
Call me paranoid if you will. I’m content to be a passenger on the slow boat to normalcy, which is a lot better than riding the ferry across the Styx. Take care, y’all, and please stay safe.
Originally published at http://davesswan.wordpress.com on June 23, 2021.
