PANDEMIC
For a year the pandemic has been over and forgotten. When I was traveling overseas for six months this last year almost no one wore a mask. Beginning in 2020 for two years we were deathly afraid of dying in the ICU on a ventilator and thought anyone not wearing a mask was nuts. We didn’t go out and when we met friends and family we met out on the porch.
And then suddenly a year ago the pandemic was over, no one wore a mask and anyone who did was odd. People in distant place kept getting sick and dying, but here we blotted that out. The pandemic was over. Even when I arrived in Montevideo in August for a month and immediately got Covid and stayed locked in for a couple of weeks, it was just bad luck, because the pandemic was over. Anyone who wore a mask was timid and odd. There certainly was no pandemic in Sicily and Greece when I was there in October and November with the streets full of shoppers and people having a good time (and me unable to read a newspaper or listen to the news, clueless).
And then last week at Virginia Beach with the Mahy clan three people got Covid, including my daughter Susie. Suddenly pandemic behavior came rushing back, we all wore masks, kept the windows cracked in spite of the cold and banished the sick ones to the porch. On the way back from the beach with Susie in the back seat we kept the car windows open and were chilly. But after a week of being sick Susie tested negative and so did Todd and me. We were home free until a week after we got back Todd began to feel sick, so Susie tested herself again, she was positive again. And then Todd, whom we were trying to protect because of his type 1 diabetes tested positive. I am still negative but when I went to pick up Don Collins to take him to our old man’s group today he didn’t appear. I phoned him. He didn’t have Covid but he had a terrible case of the flu (it turned out he did have Covid). If I’d picked him up a day earlier I would have been a goner. And now family reports are coming in from all over. Lisa who was at the Mahy Reuion reports that of her group of 14 women who make a hike together every year, 8 will miss it this year because their household is quarantined with Covid. Many of the people who came to the Mahy reunion had had Covid shortly before coming. The morning news says that this winter is recording an onslaught of respiratory diseases that no one is paying attention to or trying to avoid. Apparently, for many people, the pandemic is still over.
But I have to get on a plane for 24 hours on Tuesday and sit next to strangers. If I am feeling a little queasy on Monday will I test myself? Or will I protect my non changeable basic ticket by only testing myself when I am safely in Sri Lanka? Anyway, until then I am laying low and wearing a mask. Finally, for me anyway, the pandemic is not over.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 