Stray Thoughts on the Current State of the Pandemic

1. As an educator I am on the list of people who can get their COVID vaccine booster shots, though I think that list has now expanded to include every adult in the US so while I no longer feel special about it I do welcome the fact that it’s now pretty much openly available for most Americans. This isn’t really something one should feel hipsterish and exclusive about. I got mine on Thursday evening and felt fine until Friday afternoon, whereupon – BAM! – flu season was upon me. But by Saturday morning I was fine again.

2. I may still get COVID, of course – no vaccine is perfect, and breakthrough infections do happen – but the odds are well over 98% that it will be a nuisance rather than a life-threatening event if I do. I’m good with those odds.

3. This of course means that dying of COVID is now essentially a voluntary choice – a far cry from where it was just a year ago. Why so many people feel a need to do that, as if by choking to death on their own lungs they will have scored political points and I will somehow feel “owned,” is a mystery that frankly I don’t care enough about to try to resolve. If I have learned anything during this pandemic it is that I am not a good person, and at this point I am perfectly willing to let those who want to do so die of this. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Maybe once the deniers thin out a bit the rest of us can go back to normal life again. It certainly won’t happen while they’re out there screwing things up for everyone else, anyway.

4. Hello, Florida! You suddenly came to mind for some reason. Not sure why!

5. This is, of course, a partisan thing because of course it is. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study noted that while the percentage of the unvaccinated was roughly split evenly between Republicans and Democrats as late as April 2021 (36% of the unvaccinated were Democrats while 42% were Republicans) that has widened significantly. As of October, only 17% of the unvaccinated were Democrats while 60% were Republicans. Party affiliation is a stronger predictor of who is unvaccinated than age, gender, education, socioeconomic class, or religion. I suppose the fact that the same party that actively rejects the whole idea of Darwinian evolution is the one also actively rejecting vaccination against the worst pandemic in a century isn’t all that much of a surprise, but you do sometimes want people to stop confirming your stereotypes now and then.

6. I am continually astonished at the toxic levels of egocentricity and narcissism that it must take for antivaxxers and Covidiots to believe that Mysterious Powers have spent billions of dollars and diverted entire industries researching vaccines, that millions of people have died of this pandemic across the globe, that economic leaders have made decisions that have cost them trillions of dollars in profits, and that entire political systems have launched themselves into action in order to develop tracking devices all in order to keep track of … them? Seriously? Big Brother doesn’t have time or interest enough to care about such fools. Get over yourselves.

7. Should I be worried that my spell-checker no longer flags “Covidiot” as an error? Or should I be happy? Enquiring minds want to know.

8. The fourth wave of COVID is now sweeping through Europe, which means that in about 4-6 weeks it will be sweeping through the US. Apparently there are Covidiots there engaging in violent protests against trying to prevent the resurgence of the pandemic from getting worse – because Reasons – and I suspect those nutjob protests will be coming here too. But we do violence pretty well here in the US – as the recent Kenosha jury verdict amply demonstrated, we’re okay with jumped up wannabe vigilantes slaughtering people in the streets on whim as long as the murderers are right-wing white men – so it’s going to be an interesting time of things no doubt.

9. It still feels strange to go to a restaurant, even now that I am fully vaccinated. I’ve only done that a couple of times in the last twenty months, and it never feels quite right. Take out is where it’s at, I suppose.

10. Forty-eight hours after my booster and still no 5G service. I feel cheated.