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Safely comingling with COVID-19

Let's chat about living together during COVID-19.  This is my eighth installment in my series about COVID-19.  We know quite a bit more about how to live together than we did at the beginning, so this will likely be shorter than other entries.

We've missed our opportunities to get this under control through social distancing, masking, testing, contact tracing, and quarantining -- we will not follow the path of New Zealand.  But, while solving it that way is basically off the table (Fauci's statement notwithstanding), this is still the best pathway to keeping it from getting worse.  Surely we don't need references for that now, right?  Fine, here, and here, and here.

Vaccines are on their way from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstroZenica.  But who will take them?  We need about 3/4ths of the population to take it to reach herd immunity, at the 90-95% efficacy reported (for Pfizer and Moderna).  So, take the vaccine, even if you already had, or think you had, COVID.  The vaccine's small side effects are way lesser than the effects of COVID-19 (see the primary and secondary side effects in my previous posts).  Everyone (that can) getting vaccinated is the best way to live with COVID-19. [Edit note: I cleaned some language in this paragraph after getting feedback that my intention was unclear]

That said, the most important thing to do to live with others, though, is ... give each other grace.  Certainly expect people to not be malicious, and we can push each other to be considerate, but we all have difference experiences.  There has been so much misinformation, and beyond that there are just competing values of health and fellowship, quantity and quality, risk and reward.  There are impossible choices to continue to make. Lead with love and empathy.

From six feet away. 😉

If you want some good advice, swing by here or here.

Okay, beyond that, here are a few little things:
  1. We should become more proficient in general at virtual meetings.  If you made it by being outside this whole time, those days are over in much of the US -- you need to be inside to be comfortable.  So ... Zoom it is.
  2. Stop buying all the freaking toilet paper.
  3. Take care of your mental health, and do your part by being nice to others.
  4. Stop posting malicious junk on social media. 
  5. Wear pants when you are on Zoom. If the camera falls, you don't want to cause mental health problems that will be posted on social media.  
  6. Try to go a day without buying something on Amazon.
  7. Really, get the vaccine when you can. It won't hurt you.
Next time will be less tongue-in-cheek as I look at all the crazy divisiveness.  Good night, and good luck.
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