Covid Is Still Here. Mask up. Hey, you can even look gorgeous while doing the right thing for yourself and others
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
Covid is still here, unfortunately. On the bright side, today we have a guest post from THEODORE SCOTT. He’s an acupuncturist. On the topic of Covid, he knows what he is talking about.
Before I turn this blog over to THEODORE’s voice of experience on Covid, hello! As always, I invite you to pause any time you learn something new. Or you disagree. Or you have any kind of strong reaction that you can wrap words around. Go into our COMMENTS boxes and share with the rest of this learning community.
Depending on what you write, THEODORE may get back to you. Or me. Or both of us, one after another. Let’s make this blogpost sparkle with active discovery and engagement. And yes, I’ll supply some questions for your comment-consideration as we continue.
Although Covid Is Here, What Else?
What else is still here? Your free will, that’s what.
Covid still presents us with important choices. How will we live in a time of pandemic?
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way;
“Isn’t Covid Basically Over?”
No. It’s still ripping through the world population and causing mass death and disability.
At last count, 32.9 million excess deaths have been estimated since the start of the pandemic. That’s pretty close to the combined population of both Australia and New Zealand. Can you imagine if the entire population of both these countries just got… wiped out within a four year period?
And that grim toll has been speeding up in the last couple of years, not slowing down.
In Australia, Covid has become the third leading cause of death – but only since 2022, when we collectively stopped fighting it with any seriousness.
“Why Does It Feel Like the Pandemic Is Over?”
There’s a lot of moving parts here and I don’t pretend to understand it all. Here’s what I think I do get:
- We’re sick of it! This has been a nightmare plague and it’s been too much to keep worrying about. We just want it to be over already – I certainly do.
- This has built up in Collective Consciousness and has become a way of thinking that is difficult to avoid. The collective belief of billions of people has real weight!
- Governments and health officials know people are sick of Covid, and that people don’t want to hear any more about it. These officials have had to deal with protests and riots and death threats and accusations of dictatorship.
In short, the people we rely on for leadership on this got told to Shut up about Covid. They’re only human. Many people who were just trying to help got seriously punished for their trouble.
Blog-Buddies, it’s Rose here. I invite you to COMMENT below with your thoughts about this.
“Isn’t Covid Mild Now?”
No. We’ll get into that soon.
“Hasn’t a Combination of Vaccinations and Previous Infections
Left Us Basically Protected?”
No. Hybrid immunity is not happening with Covid. And the Covid vaccines, which were a miracle of modern medicine, are being steadily out-run by the rapid mutations of Covid.
To be very, very clear – I love vaccines. I just had my sixth Covid shot. It is still critical for everyone to get every Covid shot for which they are eligible! But all tools have their limitations.
Covid doesn’t need research and clinical trials and funding before it can update itself – but the vaccines do.
It’s never been enough for us to rely solely on vaccines to save us. More is asked of humanity, if we are to protect ourselves and others from Covid. Because, like it or not, Covid is where? It’s still here.
Look to Your Ethics, Folks. This Is a Pandemic.
One thing I’ve noticed about Covid these days?
Many people who I know are deeply caring, sensitive and smart individuals – people who would never intentionally hurt a fly – I think they’ve been taking a concerning perspective on Covid prevention.
Specifically, I believe these good, loving people have been thinking about Covid more in terms of their own personal risk. I believe they have been thinking about their lifestyles in terms of, “What level of risk to myself am I comfortable with?”
Now, this is a totally appropriate way to think about many things in life. In most areas, we are the ones who choose the parameters of how we live.
We are free people and we live accordingly, as is our right.
Covid has some characteristics that warrant extra thinking about, though.
Related questions from Rose: What if you unintentionally cause — or contribute to — other people being sickened by Covid? What if people become significantly disabled?
Maybe you don’t believe in “any of the nonsense about Covid.” Will you still be creating karma for yourself… by causing the virus to spread? Please, COMMENT below with your thoughts about this.
Why ISN’T Covid Over Yet?
The reasons might surprise you. But more is at stake than satisfying your intellectual curiosity.
I believe that we ignore this disease at our peril. Also, ignoring Covid endangers others, whether we happen to think about them or not. Here come three reasons why Covid sure isn’t over yet.
First Reason: Covid is Still Extremely Contagious
It may be one of the most contagious diseases ever seen.
- It is fully airborne – able to hang in the air like smoke for long periods of time.
- Prior infections do not meaningfully protect you from future infections, and you can get reinfected over and over again.
Second Reason: 30 Percent of Infections Are Asymptomatic
You can absolutely:
Third Reason: Covid Is Still Extremely Damaging And Dangerous
Covid can give you a range of serious illnesses.
Or make you disabled.
Or kill you outright.
Even initially asymptomatic infections can still do serious long-term damage
And each reinfection does cumulative damage.
I invite you to pause here and take a minute to really think about what it means, that all three of these factors are in play at the same time.
Adding up These Three Key Points? It Becomes Clear
Protecting yourself from Covid doesn’t only help you. When you protect yourself from Covid, you’re also protecting everyone around you.
I believe that people at this blog are caring individuals with powerful consciences. Probably you’d be upset if you so much as stepped on somebody’s foot.
I truly believe that the only reason anyone reading this, here at this blog, would be ok with risking infecting someone else with Covid? Would be if they genuinely didn’t realise it was still a big deal.
If you have found yourself in this position, don’t be too hard on yourself. You are right there with nearly everyone else on the planet.
But, as you read this, your understanding has a chance to wake up. We can all realise now that taking Covid seriously matters. Likewise, protecting yourself properly matters.
This understanding keeps you from inflicting serious harm on others:
Harm that I know none of you would ever want to commit, were you in full knowledge of that harm.
Though Covid Is Here, Really Here, Does It Seem Abstract to You?
In many ways, Covid IS quite an abstract threat. This legitimately makes it harder to grapple with and take seriously. Layers of abstraction include:
- We can’t see, smell or feel it. Covid is invisible to all our senses. Our grasp of it can only be conceptual.
- The disease is totally impersonal. (Wouldn’t it be easier to take this threat seriously if it were, say, advancing on us with a knife?)
- Often there is a big delay between an initial infection and discovering the full damage long term.
- Understanding it is a bit technical: namely, realistically understanding the complexity to how Covid spreads.
Thank you for reading this article, developing more of this technical understanding. Now let’s consider…
How to Protect Yourself against Covid
Come to terms with something extra abstract about this disease: Covid has a delayed mechanism of action. This, to me, is one of the most confusing and dangerous ways in which Covid is abstract, making it difficult to get a solid handle on how to protect yourself.
Basically, it’s my experience that people are used to thinking of most infectious diseases in terms of a single event. The popular notion is that you catch a cold or a flu, then you have it until you don’t. And then it’s over.
One of the things that makes Covid so obscenely dangerous? It’s how much of the damage from Covid won’t show right away. Often that damage doesn’t reveal itself fully until later.
For example, say Sam has an initial Covid infection. Once the acute phase is over, he might think, “Well, that wasn’t too bad.” Alternatively, Sam might think, “That was tough, but at least it’s over now.”
Frequently, though, lingering damage is done by even mild or asymptomatic infections.
Blog-Buddies, this apparent paradox has intrigued me. (Rose.) This year we’ve had many blogposts around the concept of High Truth Value. Sometimes this is immediately apparent, nothing twisty involved. Like, a big coffee cup holds more than a dinky little cup.
I invite you to COMMENT below with your thoughts about a second paradox: How natural it feels to understand many ideas with High Truth Value. Versus the counter-intuitive lingering damage caused by an asymptomatic Covid infection, also an idea with High Truth Value.
Related to Covid’s Delayed Mechanism of Action
It is very common that people catch Covid, with any degree of severity in the initial phase (including asymptomatic infections), and then a year later, find out they suddenly have diabetes, or heart damage, or blood clotting that leads to a stroke… or they just have no energy to live their lives.
Remember, Covid-19 has only existed for 4 years! We haven’t had much time to collect what’s called “longitudinal data” – what happens with this disease over long periods of time. But the early data we’re getting back is… rough. Often, the damage caused by a Covid infection — over time — is showing itself to very often be much more than people realise, during that initial acute phase.
For Those of You Who Have Already Had Covid
For those of you reading this who have already had Covid, please do not despair! This is still essential knowledge for you too – even more important for you, than for those who have never had Covid. The most important thing for you to consider is the issue of reinfection.
Basically, every time you catch Covid, the chances of experiencing a serious health effect, like Long Covid, organ damage, disability etc – this chance increases every time you catch it. And because it mutates so rapidly, your previous infection does very little to protect you against future infections. You can catch Covid over and over again.
Additionally, we’re learning that Covid infections damage your immune system, making you more vulnerable to yet another Covid infection (as well as other potential infections you may have previously been able to easily brush off).
I know this isn’t how most people are used to thinking about infections! But unfortunately, it seems that Covid infection erodes your immunity, rather than strengthening it.
The good news is this – the more you do now to protect yourself, and the sooner you start doing it, the better your chances are of avoiding serious damage from Covid, or limiting further damage beyond what you may have already experienced.
Don’t waste time on fear and despair! Instead, take action, and learn how to protect your health even better now. Preventing future infections is essential for giving you the best chance of full recovery from any previous infections. You can do it!
Your Invitation To Leadership. Take a Stand
What’s desperately needed right now is leadership. Anyone who takes Covid seriously right now, and protects themselves and others, will count as a leader.
A huge part of the problem is: Because nearly everyone thinks Covid is over, that makes it seem very normal to think that Covid is over! People out there in the community who take Covid seriously help to disrupt that dangerous consensus.
When you take Covid seriously, you are pushing back against the Collective Consciousness juggernaut of “Don’t worry about Covid” that is killing us.
To see how many hits on that nonsense, see my (Rose’s) COMMENT below. I’ll also let you know how many hits I find on my Google for “Covid is over.” Holy cow!
Also, do any of you think that, if a person says or does something by way of leadership, that might shows in the person’s aura? What think you?
Our group here, in the Energy Spirituality community, would be a seriously meaningful addition to the current dearth of leadership on Covid.
On a personal level, I care about the people in this community, and I want you and your loved ones to survive. This pandemic won’t last forever – but it’s going to take way, way longer if we avoid dealing with it!
First step is to go here and start studying. Now, there’s a lot and you don’t have to read it all in one go! Start from the top and take your time to really understand the situation, because Covid is a bit technical. Consequently, developing the necessary understanding to meaningfully protect yourself is a bit technical too.
From Rose: We’re drawing close to the end of this guest post by Theodore. I have just one more question to prompt your COMMENTS, Blog-Buddies.
Some of you readers here are empaths. Likely, you regular readers of the Energy Spirituality® Blog are familiar with the system of Empath Empowerment®.
Therefore, you know the difference between being an unskilled empath versus becoming a Skilled Empath — a life skill that you can acquire in as little as a month. My question is, “Why might it be particularly difficult to go through the continuing Covid problem… for folks who are unskilled empaths?”
Just a Little More Expertise Can Help So Much:
Level up Your Masking
Theodore Scott. Covid is not over. Note how the mask he is wearing is NOT cloth. Whereas the mask worn in the photo at the top of the post is made of cloth. Cloth masks aren’t good enough.
Look, I’m not asking you to become experts on every aspect of Covid. But what I am inviting you to do is spend a bit of time developing a little expertise about masking.
Know enough to save your own life and the lives of the people you care about! You will pick it up in no time.
If you develop expertise on nothing else, get good with masks.
Learn how to find authentic N95 masks. (Yes, there are fakes and they don’t work).
Learn how to fit and seal them properly to your face. (Men, remember – masks can’t seal if you haven’t had a shave that morning – more in the COMMENTS below).
Develop a really strong understanding of when to use them – which is any time you might be at risk of catching or spreading Covid. Remember that Covid is running rampant right now, and you can’t tell who has it due to the 30% asymptomatic infection rate – so erring on the side of caution is a good start.
There’s more to it than masks – you’ll see as you study – but good masking habits and skills are the sine qua non of an effective Covid defense. This document goes over the basics of masking as part of a broader strategy, and help you think about where and when to apply all your protective measures..
Let’s do our best. This is a community of leaders – let’s show real leadership on Covid!
Thanks to you Blog-Buddies who have been sending in COMMENTS. Keep ’em coming.
For now, my new computer is having some problems. When these probs are solved and I can make your COMMENTS live, I sure will.
Computer is doing well today, so prepare for a bunch o’ comments, Blog-Buddies. THEODORE may respond to comments too. Okay, here goes.
In the main article I offered to tell you the number of hits on, “Don’t worry about Covid”.
On my Google right now, 120 MILLION hits.
That makes this idea subconsciously influenial, and influential in mainstream culture. Although that idea is false. Witness THEODORE SCOTT’S guest post here.
Also I offered in the main article to let you know how many hits I find for “Covid is over.”
On my Google this afternoon, 4 BILLION and 510 MILLION hits. Holy cow!
Wishing doesn’t make it so.
One of my (many) favorite parts of THEODORE’S guest post goes like this:
“In short, the people we rely on for leadership on this got told to Shut up about Covid. They’re only human. Many people who were just trying to help got seriously punished for their trouble.”
One example in America is how Dr. Fauci received unfair criticism and even death threats.
The doctor’s stellar record of public service in epidemiology is a matter of public record.
And what did I find from facilitating a Skilled Empath Merge with Dr. Fauci? Huge inspiration. See for yourself, by clicking on the link just provided.
As knowledge about causation continues to emerge at the leading edge of Energy Spirituality®, I was surprised to take a look at this article just now — while providing that link — and guess what was tucked into that Skilled Empath Merge of that astounding world server, Anthony Fauci?
“And yes, today’s aura reading is the first time here that I’ve researched a Causational Specialist.”
I had no idea.
Thanks, MELISSA. Much in this article was a surprise to me, too.
I congratulate you and all readers of this article who have had the curiosity — and maybe humility — to learn more than you used to know about the dangers posed by Covid right now.
Thank you, Theodore. A really powerful and salient blogpost.
I have previously been dismayed at the blasé and lacklustre response from the UK government on COVID, particularly on the rush to get people back into work / public spaces – even prior to vaccine rollout.
It’s also been increasingly difficult to get further vaccinations here, as eligibility is based on age and health risk.
This is also trending globally, with key manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna reporting profit warnings and tumbling share prices as global government demand for the vaccine has fallen considerably.
Simply, there’s less vaccines being administered and demanded now, even in the face of continuing infection.
Thank you for the education, the links, and the call for Leadership.
And thanks back to you, CAMERON, for these important observations.
It occurs to me, having read about Covid’s Delayed Mechanism of Action in THEODORE’S article, that many people on Earth now may find it impossible to comprehend a danger that is so abstract.
Many good people are, as I blogged about earlier in the context of Mask Deniers; many (not all Mask Deniers, of course) are quite simply baby souls.
Meaning, they’re not evolved enough yet, spiritually, to understand abstractions about Covid.
As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I find something similar with the reactions that people have to understanding what really happened with the Shift into the Age of Awakening, a little more than a decade ago, on Dec. 21, 2012.
So many people are only using models that come from Age of Faith-style psychic readings.
Let’s face it. Baby souls are the majority on Earth now, for statistical reasons. Many of them have scant interest yet in cocreating with the Divine.
One possibility is that they’re not evolved enough yet to want to become God’s grownup, rather than God’s sweet, supplicating child.
Sometimes folks simply can’t understand books about how to adapt to the Age of Awakening, such as “The New Strong.”
Inwardly, they just might not be awake enough. (I know that’s a bold statement, but it’s my considered opinion, based on reactions I’ve heard from different people.) Whereas other readers are hungry for this knowledge and they understand it well.
Theodore, in 2020 and 2021, maybe since then as well, Covid has been the third leading cause of death in America as well.
[Link inserted by Blog Monitor]
Ygad! As folks would have said in England at the time of Chaucer.
I had no inkling. Maybe Covid isn’t over after all. ;-)
Thank you, Theodore and Rose, for your leadership and the educational information in this blogpost!
You’re welcome, HENRY. This might be a good blogpost to share elsewhere.
Incidentally, I have published on Medium a version of this article that doesn’t include much at all about Energy Spirituality. The link just provided might be a less controversial version to share with others.
Thanks for this, Theodore.
I had definitely relaxed around Covid masking lately. I didn’t know that Covid damages your immune system in such a way.
NOAH, I appreciate your contribution to this Comment Conversation.
Just out of curiosity, I’m going to google “Relaxing about Covid.” Hoo-boy, 300 MILLION hits.
Isn’t that a curious turn of phrase. What if mainstream slang were to change and substitute:
“Risk my health by not taking precautions against Covid.”
Thank you, Theodore and Rose, for this blogpost and for educating us on how to take leadership in this ongoing pandemic.
I appreciated all the links to the information. This blogpost is so so important, and it’s also so well-written and thought-provoking. Thank you!
You’re welcome, ARIA. Such stirring words from you (as usual)!
Sometimes I see well meaning people trying to do the right thing on Covid – but when they don’t have much technical knowledge and skill, these people make big mistakes that undo all their good intentions.
Only recently I saw a man in the street wearing a N95 mask – great, right? N95 is the minimum necessary mask standard for serious protection from Covid.
But! But.
He was wearing a mask with an exhalation valve, so the people around him weren’t protected from his exhalations. Whoops!
Additionally, he hadn’t had a shave that morning, so his facial hair was holding the mask slightly off his face.
When men have even one day’s stubble, this lets air sneak *underneath* a mask, rather than being filtered *through* the mask (which is the entire point of masking).
So *he wasn’t protected from other people’s exhalations either*. Whooooooops!
In short, his well meaning effort was unfortunately rendered *completely useless*, because he didn’t know enough about how to protect himself and others from Covid.
Well intentioned but pointless gestures are not what this community is about.
I know that all of you care about being *effective in objective reality*. This is a totally achievable level of ability on Covid that everyone can acquire!
So important, these observations, THEODORE. What did this guy think the exhalation valve was for, a fashion statement?
This is pretty interesting. Thanks for educating us and providing truth, so we can better weigh the multi-dimensional risks in our lives.
JANICE HOOPER, “the multi-dimensional risks in our lives” is a brilliant turn of phrase. Thank you, as always.
I also recommend subscribing to Violet’s Pandemic Roundup.
[Link inserted by Blog Monitor]
It’s a newsletter where Violet pulls together authoritative sources on what’s happening with Covid, now that we’re not talking about it much.
There are still doctors and scientists researching Covid, trying to protect us from it, but the spotlight has fallen away from them.
This roundup helps you know what’s going on, and lets you see the work those good people are doing to protect humanity from Covid.
Stay on top of current events – Covid is continually changing!
Yes! Thanks, THEODORE.
BTW, everyone, today Mitch and I are getting our latest Covid booster. We never miss the chance.
Thank you Theodore for this article – it’s great to see all this information put together in one place.
I agree that the layers of abstraction between catching and spreading Covid can make it difficult to understand and communicate about the disease.
Agreed, KENDRA. I think you put this so well, “the layers of abstraction between catching and spreading Covid.”
When I first submitted this article for Rose’s consideration, the death toll was 30.8 million, per the Economist.
By the time of publication just under three weeks later, I had to update that figure to 32.9 million.
Two million people dead in three weeks!
The term “unnecessary deaths” from Covid has always seemed a bit weird to me, but understanding is beginning to dawn for me.
I wear a mask everywhere I go, and I get some funny looks.
Sometimes people on the street even step out of the way to avoid me, assuming that I must be sick!
But to me that is a very small price to pay for maintaining my health and slowing the spread.
I don’t get many (if any) questions or comments about why I am wearing a mask.
I would actually welcome the opportunity to share some information, based on science and research, about the ongoing impact of Covid on our society and us as individuals.
Isn’t that something, KENDRA?
Yet, how about this? I wear a mask everywhere I go indoors. (Here in this suburb of Northern Virginia, there are few pedestrians and it’s easy to avoid them.)
Yet… when I see another person wearing a mask, even I have this automatic reaction, like a low growl in the back of my mind…
“Covid HYPOCHONDRIA“!
Hey, I’m going to google that. From previous experience, when I have the occasional like a low growl in the back of my mind… usually that string of words has a very large number of Google hits. Here goes.
860 THOUSAND hits.
I also work with a number of people who I know have had Covid, more than once, and have told me about their ongoing health problems following the infections.
This is very personal information to share, but none of them have mentioned to me the possible connection between the two.
Instead, they have told me they are getting their iron levels checked or other tests.
Which may be perfectly appropriate steps to take – I am not their personal physician!
But it makes it apparent to me that much of the ongoing damage of Covid seems to not be widely discussed at all, and even be invisible to people.
Perhaps then individuals would be stirred to make better choices about how they protect their health and other people’s health.
Instead, much of this evidence is only discussed and available in population-level studies, where the impact is clear and widespread.
Isn’t that something, KENDRA.
Again I wonder if the abstract nature of Covid causation, such as the Delayed Mechanism of action, is too hard for some people to wrap their heads around.
Long Covid is, again, relatively abstract. Symptoms of Long Covid or plain vanilla regular Covid? These can be soooooo seemingly abstract.
I just googled “Weird Symptoms from Covid.” 10 MILLION, 700 THOUSAND HITS
I’m wondering how many “asymptomatic” cases of Covid are really cases that include symptoms that are simply unexpected.
For instance, see this article from a prestigious university in America: “Unusual Symptoms of Covid 19 You Need to Know about“. Examples include:
* Covid toes
* Headaches, dizziness and confusion
* Hallucinations
* Blood clots
* Hearing loss
* High blood sugar
Does “being relaxed” about Covid still seem like a cool way to live?
Rose, thank you for publishing this article and helping me spread the word here.
Right now we are facing challenges that just won’t go away unless *we make them go away* – climate emergency, Covid and so on.
Until we come to terms with that, these problems will just continue to intensify and cause more and more damage.
Melissa, thanks for reading the article!
Cameron, thank you.
Yes, unfortunately, the very powerful cultural leadership powers available to the US and UK governments were not just squandered, but frequently got in the way of effective early responses to Covid.
There could not have been a worse possible time for Boris Johnson and Donald Trump to be heads of state than right at the start of the pandemic, when we still had half a chance to shut Covid down early.
I am also dismayed at the near-universal pressure on everyone to go back to offices as if nothing has changed.
This collective push is lethal if safety measures like masking, air filtration and ventilation are not implemented properly (or at all).
It is appalling that vaccines are being rolled back and made harder to acquire in many parts of the world (where they were even rolled out much in the first place).
They might be less effective than they used to be, but they can still be the difference between life and death. Vaccines save lives.
Marty T, thanks for finding that.
One thing I think that’s important when reading about top causes of death, is that most of the other causes that populate those lists often take long times to develop.
Heart disease, cancer, stroke, dementia, cerebrovascular disease – these can take years to decades to become dangerous.
Conversely, Covid has rushed up these lists in a very short space of time (as well as contributing to most of the other causes on the top 5 lists).
I think that this makes a case that Covid may even climb higher on those lists soon.
Henry, thank you!
Noah, thank you. You have been in a lot of company, with that relaxation.
It has been thoroughly normalised. I think what really matters is what you do next.
Aria, thank you!
Rose, regarding your Comment #36, I think that the public health messaging around masks didn’t quite land on their technicality.
I believe some people were left under the vague impression that merely having them somewhere on the face, in any kind of configuration, was enough.
Very difficult to do complex public health messaging, I think, particularly for a global audience.
But there’s just no getting around the fact that key tools for Covid prevention have a little technicality to their correct use.
Congrats to you and Mitch on getting your next shots! They matter so much.
Regarding masking indoors and out – I personally mask up outdoors as well as indoors – basically, in any situation where I am not *confident* that the air is safe.
My mask only comes off at home, or in outdoor situations where there is *very extensive* distance between myself and others.
You definitely catch Covid outdoors.
The “social distancing” model of 6 feet between people was predicated on a droplet transmission model, where the idea was that the droplet size needed to contain a dangerous load of Covid particles would not fly further than that.
Unfortunately, the droplet transmission model is not accurate for Covid. Covid is fully airborne.
Here is an easy way to think about it, and to consider how far away you need to be from someone, to be out of range of their exhalations.
Imagine the nearest person to you is smoking a cigarette. Would you be able to smell it at all?
If so, you would be inhaling their exhalations.
How far away do you need to stand from someone to not smell their cigarette?
A lot, lot further than 6 feet. And an errant breeze might carry their exhalations right to you.
So, the smart play is to stay masked up except in your home or outdoor areas where nobody else is around (an indoor space with nobody in it might still be full of cigarette smoke, or covid particles, from someone else who had been in there hours earlier).
Janice Hooper, thank you!
Kendra, thanks for sharing your experiences with Covid in the broader community.
I agree that people are frequently not joining the dots between their Covid infections and their new, mysterious symptoms.
More abstraction! Covid can cause so many different symptoms, as Rose has outlined here.
Thank you so much for these informative responses to comments here, THEODORE. Besides learning sound information that I didn’t know about before, I’m grateful to you for the tone.
For instance your noting that the Droplet theory about airborne Covid is no longer considered true. How you wrote that?
Reading that was like balm to my soul. For this observer of my society, two things have (temporarily) torn me apart inside when I’ve encountered them.
The first has been the careless masking.
I found this immensely soothing:
“I believe some people were left under the vague impression that merely having them somewhere on the face, in any kind of configuration, was enough.”
Now for the second aspect of reactions to Covid, the one that has been even more upsetting to me. THEODORE and other Blog-Buddies, I wonder if you can say anything about the following:
During the Pandemic under the Trump administration, many people clamored to keep the bars open, keep the gyms open, and close the schools.
This article from VOX considers the economic drivers of this decision. But I’m still baffled.
It’s like, in my heart I’m still screaming my incredulity: “What is wrong with you people? Where are your values. Can’t you think properly?”
Other developed nations did not make this foolish choice, hurting our children’s learning… in the guise of protecting them.
For instance, “Sweden’s decision to keep schools open during the pandemic resulted in no higher rate of infection among its schoolchildren than in neighbouring Finland, where schools did temporarily close, their public health agencies said in a joint report.”
In any crisis or emergency, people reveal their values.
I’m still grieving over what I learned about some of my fellow Americans during the height of the (first?) pandemic.
Your thoughts on this, Blog-Buddies? How have you made peace with this?
Or didn’t it seem like a big deal to you.