Where I Live, No One Cares About Covid

Covid is not over and probably won’t be over for the next decade.<p>We can’t just pretend it doesn’t exist, because it infects and kills people anyways. But we also can’t just cancel things because it‘s here for a while and vaccination is <i>very</i> effective at preventing severe cases.<p>For me, this means getting the vaccines and boosters and wearing masks in essential places e.g. stores and doctor’s offices. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to do these things even if it’s for the long-term.<p>I do think it’s unreasonable to ask people to avoid holiday celebrations and weddings and bars everywhere long-term. I especially think half-assed measures like wearing masks in restaurants “except when eating” and putting carefully-planned events online last-minute is unreasonable.

Alternate title: I recklessly ignored health guidelines around a pandemic that has killed 5.3 million people in 2 years.

Favorite quote “ I am old enough to remember the good old days when holiday-advice pieces were all variations on “How to Talk to Your Tea Party Uncle About Obamacare.” As Christmas approaches, we can look forward to more of this sort of thing, with the meta-ethical speculation advanced to an impossibly baroque stage of development. Is it okay for our 2-year-old son to hug Grandma at a Christmas party if she received her booster only a few days ago? Should the toddler wear a mask except when he is slopping mashed potatoes all over his booster seat? Our oldest finally attended her first (masked) sleepover with other fully vaccinated 10-year-olds, but one of them had a sibling test positive at day care. Should she stay home or wear a face shield? What about Omicron?<p>I don’t know how to put this in a way that will not make me sound flippant: No one cares. Literally speaking, I know that isn’t true, because if it were, the articles wouldn’t be commissioned. But outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.”<p>I’ve decided to make that word which cannot be named, like Voldemort.<p>I’m done talking about the thing to help prevent it, the thing itself, and the thing that purportedly helps the thing from spreading but behaves more like a sign of which team you’re on.

Would be curious to read the authors thoughts on terrorism or immigration to see how they align with his thoughts on covid.

&quot;As far as my wife and I are concerned, an atmosphere of parochialism hangs upon relentless adherence to CDC directives. By European standards, hand-wringing about masks in schools is as silly and absurdly risk-averse as the American medical establishment’s insistence that pregnant women not drink coffee or wine.&quot;<p>By which European standards? Last month we took a vacation to Italy (Naples and Rome), where pretty much everyone in stores wore masks and restaurants were rigorous about checking vaccination cards.

I mean… I suppose “ignore it, and just up morgue and crematorium capacity” is… an approach?