Everything Fred – Part 41

24 August 2021

I have a sometimes walking partner in the mornings. We don’t plan anything but while walking, we sometimes bump into each other and will continue walking together. We usually catch each other up on the news of the neighborhood. In short, we gossip. I know some things she doesn’t and vice versa. Lately the topic has been Covid-19.

As of this writing there are 10 Covid cases within a block of me affecting five families. To my knowledge, none were vaccinated at the time of their testing positive. Four became very sick.

In some of the cases, either the vaccine had not been developed or they were not eligible at the time of their infection. However, several were eligible and chose not to get vaccinated for one reason or another. I certainly don’t know their specific reasoning and it’s not for me to judge but I find it pretty significant that there are that many cases within one block of me.

In my own extended family, I have eleven relatives who have tested positive, some vaccinated, some not. Some have had severe cases and others have not, even within the same family.

A friend who still teaches was notified by a student she tested positive for Covid. She was tested on a Monday, received the results on Wednesday, yet attended three classes while positive. The entire class was masked and my friend was vaccinated but the CDC has no specific guidelines on that particular case. She’s being trying to get tested but she teaches most of the day and the testings sites are closing by 1 pm.

The college does not offer rapid testing on campus, probably because they are afraid the governor will cut funding to the college if it even acknowledges the threat of Covid. The college encourages students to be tested and encourages them to wear masks but doesn’t mandate either. I think professors can require masks but not testing and vaccination.

It seems there is no end to this pandemic. I’m getting to the point that I am thinking of going back to the stay-at-home scenario and stop going out in public. I become eligible for a booster shot on September 29th and I intend to get it as soon as I am eligible.

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I still wear a mask anywhere indoors or anywhere I can’t get six feet of distance from other people.

It seems people have decided they have to live with the idea of Covid and have adjusted accordingly. I dined al fresco with Michel and Nancy on Sunday night at the Boathouse at the Riverside Hotel on the riverfront. The hostess wore a mask but the waiter did not.

About half the people wear a mask when I shop Whole Foods on Sunday. All the employees wear masks but some of them have them below their noses.

The media is full of stories of people who chose not to get vaccinated, developed Covid and said they wish they had it to do over – on their deathbed.

The giant Sturgis, SD motorcycle rally has resulted in South Dakota reporting a 312% increase in cases. What is even more scary is that that is only South Dakota reporting. The majority of the supposedly 450,000 participants come from all across the United States.

Florida’s governor has changed the way statistics are reported to CDC and in some cases the CDC has to guess at the number of new cases, particularly on weekends when the state doesn’t report data. Now the state simply reports a seven day trend. As of yesterday, the seven day trend in Florida was 21, 208 new cases. Even with my poor math skills, that seems to be over 7,000 new cases daily in the sunshine state. In August we’ve been accounting for anywhere between 16-20% of Covid cases nationwide.

Even with that, he’s also about to withhold pay from administrators that put mask requirements into effect in the K-12 system. He’s adamantly opposed to schools requiring (1) masks (2) tests or (3) vaccinations for students and faculty.

At least we now have a fully approved vaccine by the FDA and the military will now require everyone to get vaccinated and some businesses are beginning to require vaccinations.

Still, there is a significant part of the population of the U.S. that will never agree to be vaccinated. We may not stick together but we may all die together.