I have a pen pal in the United Kingdom who provides me with interesting information based on solid research, or not so solid, as this virus and variants wreak havoc amongst us all over the world.
But a video I was sent the other day provides some clarification about the new outbreak in the coronavirus saga: the Delta variant.
A British physician on You Tube had cut through the haze and focused on what people knew versus what could be proven. Again and again, he said that America, especially the CDC, is slow on the uptake. It's so careful not to go overboard that it overdelays confirmation of what, in practice, nearly everybody knows.
Yes, the Delta variant is awful. Yes, you can get sick from it much, much faster, and it's starting to go from a crawl to a gallop. But if you've gotten the vaccine, you're still in much, much better shape than someone who hasn't.
Which means: You may feel lousy for a while. But in all likelihood, you won't need to go to the hospital. And dying from it is very, very unlikely: Far more unlikely than it would be if you never got it. The numbers can't be denied.
If you don't want it--and who the hell does?--you need to mask up again, especially indoors. Freedom from the annoyance of breathing through a mask isn't over, then. But I never did throw away my masks, and I have a decent (for now) supply of one-use supplements. Time to get them back out again.
If it were only that. But the numbers are starting to spike, and with it, hospital beds will fill once more. That wouldn't matter, normally, either, but those are beds the rest of us won't be able to use if we are sick or injured from something else that would be entitled "normal" in the everyday passage of life.
The worm of resentment has turned. Those unvaccinated complain that those who have had the shots consider them stupid or inferior. Well, yes. I haven't met many of them and now the reason why I'd rather not has been doubled down. Who wants to intentionally get to know someone who's far more likely to be sick from this malady and absolutely guaranteed to be unprotected from it? Is that an expression of superiority, or one of logic?
I've written this here before and I'll say so again: Instead of those who have actually been vaccinated getting cards proving it, there is now a need for those who haven't to tell everybody who have to stay the hell away. Taking the whole country into consideration, the latter are about twice as few as the former, so the burden now belongs to them. The danger still lurks, and they are far more likely to be carrying it than someone like me would.
I met someone like that the other day. He's adamantly refusing to get vaccinated. He said it was "not [my] business" to know why. I later learned, from someone else, that he's a Christian Scientist. Okay, that explains it, but I'm wondering why he didn't tell me. Did he think I would ridicule his religion? Or just him?
If he's attaching his refusal to his beliefs, he should, I would think, be proud to profess them. Resisting an explanation points to false piety and hiding another reason. Admitting that Biden's right? That's the reason he's risking death?
I don't get these people. I can't get him tied to the stake. I'm sure not going to talk him out of it, ridiculous (and dangerous, including to himself) as his position might be. How sensitive will he be when he gets into the hospital and gets that awful thing shoved down his throat?
I also met the surviving member of a family that lost its father. He got pneumonia, Covid on top of that, and Covid pneumonia on top of that. He had a respirator for an entire month. They removed it a couple of days after Christmas. He lasted, she said, maybe 15 minutes.
Of course, many of those unvaccinated would freak out at the latest vestiges of government control. But like the fines leveled at some ridiculous members of Congress for going maskless--which have been renewed--the price to pay the fiddler might indeed bring them around. I don't know. Feels like the only option left before they may start to die, again, in enormous numbers.
I'm getting tested again just in case. It's much easier now, and a much faster response. The Delta variant's way too ornery. Besides, I want to stick around a little longer.
Be well. Be careful. Get vaccinated. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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