Have all these pansies been vaccinated?!? Hmmmm...
The CDC and WHO say to us vaccinated saints:
- Wear a mask indoors in public places.
- BUT it's fine to be unmasked indoors with vaccinated friends.
This being unmasked indoors with friends made sense a short time ago -- ahh, those few halcyon days of carefree delight, when we Vaxees romped through the world with abandon! I cherish the memory.
But NOW we know:
- Breakthrough COVID infections in Vaxees are "uncommon but NOT rare."
- Vaxees who have been infected can infect others just as easily as the un-vaxed can infect people.
AND we know that, while it took 15 minutes of exposure to the original virus to get sick, it can take only five seconds..
five seconds
five seconds
five seconds
five seconds
five seconds
... of exposure to the Delta variant to get sick.
The Delta variant is
three times as contagious
as the original COVID.
Five seconds is about two breaths.
My vaxed friends and I have been gathering indoors unmasked within the past 15 days.
THEREFORE...
It is possible that right now I am carrying the Delta variant, even though I have no symptoms -- and I could spread the virus with two breaths.
So why the fuck is it OK for me
to be unmasked around my vaxed friends?
And why the fuck is it OK for them to be unmasked around me?
IT IS NOT OK.
I was not the first of my friends to act on this principle. I mean, I've kinda sorta felt it deep down for a little while, but hey, it was so very nice to be sitting in my kitchen with a friend, drinking tea and chatting unmasked. Who would give that up when the authorities -- I'm talking about great big GIANT authorities -- say that it's OK?
I mean, how can I choose my own common sense over the wisdom of GIANT authorities? That's a tough one. HOWEVER, these giant, presumably scientific authorities, have turned out to be susceptible to politics. First Fauci said that it took 14 days of quarantine to be absolutely sure you're clear of the virus. THEN he said, 14 was ideal, BUT 10 days was really OK too. That made no sense to me. We're dealing with a gen-you-wine world-wide pandemic, folks. If it's 14 days, then so be it. Maybe Fauci was pressured to reduce the number of quarantine days. Or maybe he decided on his own that "freedom-loving" U.S. citizens just wouldn't DO 14 days for the good of humanity. Whatever it was, I don't trust the GIANT authorities when their positions conflict with my common sense.
So on Sunday morning, driving with Carolyn and her niece JoyAnn to the beach to walk the pups, I coughed. Just a brief little cough. And I was struck with terror, just for a moment, that I might be spreading the virus. I put on a mask. The moment passed, and on the ride home I didn't mask until I coughed again.
THEN in the afternoon, Betsy & Heidi came to drive me and our total of three poodles to a DIFFERENT beach. Yes, it was a pretty great Sunday for Nikki & Loulou.
BETSY & HEIDI ARRIVED TO PICK ME UP, WEARING MASKS.
This was the first time I encountered vaxed friends masking up with me, when they knew I was vaxed. Of coursed I immediately masked up when I saw them. On our walk, B&H told me they have THREE vaxed friends who've suffered breakthrough infections. (Remember: Uncommon but NOT rare) None of the friends had to be hospitalized. But being sick with COVID was worse than a bad flu. And one of them still has symptoms a month after being covid-free. So she might be a long-hauler.
So now Betsy & Heidi wear masks indoors (and in the car) with everyone. We walked on the beach, however, unmasked. Different rules for outdoors.
That did it for me. Almost. The next day, I hugged JoyAnn goodby, both of us unmasked.
That evening, I opened the door unmasked to Maria Elena, who was masked. Clearly, she had come to the same conclusion as B&H. I hurriedly put on a mask, and that was the turning point for me.
From now on, when I am inside, I will wear a mask around EVERYONE -- except my podmate. Yes, I think it's time to form pods again. A pod is a person, or a group of people, who agrees to the boundaries you accept -- so that you can be comfortable unmasked when you're together. So Elizabeth agreed she would only be unmasked with me. So she's my podmate.
Interestingly, When Maria Elena and I were drinking tea and talking, I wasn't really bothered by my mask. I just briefly lowered it for every sip and then up again it went. It didn't seem so terrible. I don't think eating together would work though, because then we would be constantly lowering our masks.
So, unlike a year ago, I feel comfortable having people -- vaccinated people -- in my house if we are both masked. I am comfortable shopping for groceries when everyone is masked. So I am not nearly as restricted as a year ago. But things I have done recently without a mask -- dinner with friends in my house, wandering around a museum, having lunch there (I did have doubts about that at the time) -- those things are in my past and (I pray) in my future, but not my present.
Bloggelinis: It's so difficult that the situation is changing all the time. We thought that vaccination would be the solution, and it WOULD be if.... Well, I'm not going to get into The Rage of the Vaccinated at The Insanity of the Unvaccinated at this moment. Anyhow, I feel I have to continually re-evaluate what makes sense to me and then follow through, even if it means forgoing freedoms I just enjoyed briefly a few weeks ago. Terry
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