May 10, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 618: Quick update on writing and walking. Got 1036 words written yesterday, and this morning I did my hour-long walk, first time since dental work.

However, a brief background context for the photo below.

Throughout the covid pandemic, part of the difficulty in getting people to comply with the sensible precautions that have demonstrably worked to limit the effects of the virus (masking, staying out of unventilated environments, especially unmasked, social distancing, testing and vaccinations and boosters) has been the difficulty the science has had in keeping up with a rapidly mutating virus that presents itself with different patterns in different populations, different parts of the world.

I know that this isn’t the fault of the scientists who have done a remarkable job, moving with life-saving swiftness, in a difficult social, economic, and political climate.

However, the fact that just when the research comes out to support such statements like…”it is difficult to catch the virus if vaccinated” (generally true with delta) then a new variant like omicron evolves that is so much more transmissible that breakthrough infections go up.

Or, initially it looked like children were much less likely to get covid, and then, again with mutations, they did. Or, as research has begun to reveal, some people seem to have a genetic based ability to resist getting covid even if exposed. Or, for some subsets—like the elderly—the number of anti-bodies from the vaccines, or the rapidity of waning protection, varies.

So I get why people often decide they can’t trust the experts or decide to ignore them because they hope they will be the lucky ones who don’t get any severe effects.

I am also thankful that of all the people I know personally who have gotten covid (a distressing percentage) only two have died, and they got covid before vaccines were available. I am thankful that my daughter was able to test my grandsons immediately when they showed symptoms, thereby sparing her boyfriend from getting exposed, and because my grandsons had been vaccinated, they had mild symptoms and tested negative and were back in school in a week’s time.

But I am also thankful for all the scientists and medical personnel, and first responder who have been working so hard, for so long. Because, as someone said to me-- trying to fight covid has been like trying to put out a rolling dumpster fire.

And the photograph below is not of a dumpster, but of a recycling garbage truck that caught on fire yesterday afternoon on the street below our house (photo is from our backyard.) Boy, did the dumpster truck metaphor become real to me then.

My husband was in the kitchen making soup in the afternoon, when he saw the flames. Within seconds we heard sirens, and the fire trucks were there within minutes. But it took at least five hours for them to get the fire completely out and we were going to bed as they were finally starting to clear away the truck What a mess!

But thanks to the experts, those first responders, the truck’s gas tank didn’t explode, the flames didn’t damage any houses, nor did any sparks ignite the canyon that lay only yards beyond the truck. After years of drought, that would have been a true disaster.

And thanks to covid preparations, I had 3 excellent air purifiers to turn on in the house to deal with the toxic smoke (we are talking recycled plastic here) that started to pour into our house in the few minutes it took for us to figure out what was happening and close up.

So, over all, a good deal to be thankful for today!