I have a group of friends who have gone back to normal for the most part. Restaurants, concerts, clubs, bars, etc… One of them tested positive today and that sparked the standard slew of get well messages from the rest of them. All well and good, I’m not gonna sit here and act like we should point and laugh at the sick. However the conversation that followed didn’t sit well with me.
I asked the group if they normally quarantine from the rest of their household when only one gets sick, or if they just wing it. Someone said they stop kissing and sharing food, but stay unmasked and still sleep in the same bed. They were adamant about not sleeping on their couch. (must be a huge inconvenience to sacrifice a little comfort for their health). Anyway, same person proceeds to say that it wouldn’t matter that much due to incubation time. I responded anecdotally that in the past quarantining from my household while sick has worked for for us and kept the healthy people healthy. No response after that.
The conversation continues with someone else who was saying they did the same thing I did, quarantined in their office and slept on the sleeper sofa to keep their partner healthy, AND IT WORKED!!! This person then proceeds to question how they got it in the first place because they are fully remote for work… They would understand if their partner got it because of their on-site job, but couldn’t reason with how they themselves the remote worker would get it. Mind you, all these people indulge in dining indoors at restaurants and bars, going to concerts without masks, running errands without masks… So, I said just that. “Probably restaurants? Honestly anywhere public.”. The conversation ended right there, no one responded to me after that.
The bright side of the whole convo was that someone did eventually chime in and say that “It’s best to assume COVID when you are feeling sick, because even a cold isn’t worth spreading.” Only to be countered by the sick person saying, “if I would have tested positive sooner I would have been wearing a mask or cancelling appointments” Felt sick and didn’t care until the 2 lines showed up on the test.
So yeah, at the end of the day vibes and treats rule the world. No one wants to be told that their incessant need for good vibes and tasty treats is what may have gotten them sick with a highly communicable disease.
It’s really exhausting…
It feels harder to maintain friendships with people who’ve gone back to pretending covid isn’t a thing. At this point I won’t hang out indoors with anyone who won’t wear a mask
The most annoying thing about this is that if more people masked, thered be more opportunities to hang out because you’d know that person is safe
TOTALLY! Instead I hang out online and vent to some homies on the bear site.
Lighthearted anecdote related to this tho. I started dating my wife during COVID and she always jokes that me meeting her in the parking lot of my building with a mask on was the sexiest thing ever.
It’s extremely hard to maintain these friendships. Most of the group I mention here were colleagues who all linked up via Discord in March of 2020 and got very close during quarantine. So its especially tough for me to see them acting contrary to how they were early on. Hell! One of them was leaving amazon packages outside the house in a clear tupperware for a week before even bring them inside. Now that same person is out at clubs every weekend. The complete 180 is more confusing than anything at this point.
I always mask around the house when I have anything that seems like a respiratory illness. Why wouldn’t you? The people you love are right there! Maybe they’ll catch it from you, maybe not, but at least give them a chance, right?
Exactly! It’s wild to me that we have learned absolutely nothing from the pandemic.
Sometimes it had seemed like people were learning, but in retrospect so much of what people were doing was to chase the stigma and the demon away, only mimicking infection control measures they’ve heard about, mixed with semi-superstitions, and sort of accidentally getting it right at best. Without a foundation of scientific thinking people cannot come to grips with the real nature of the problem, and without the confidence that politics can belong to the masses they cannot dare imagine a solution.
It was inevitable most would be overwhelmed and psychically torn, and would fold under those conditions, and were only awaiting the first announcer to tell them it’s okay. It is a source of continued relief to them that the small number of people maintaining Covid measures on scientific grounds do so without hegemonic backing, and our squawking can be ignored without apparent consequence. All according to Porky’s plan.
I will never stop squawking, though
Yeah, for a little while it really did feel like we were making progress. The comradery that everyone felt during the “flatten the curve” stage was very beneficial, but also extremely short-lived. As soon as the mainstream decided that vaccines operate in a way that they fucking don’t, all bets were off. Everyone was convinced that the vaccine was the only viable preventative measure anymore and began to use that as an excuse to throw caution to the wind.
When rumblings began that maybe the vaccine isn’t magic, that’s when we began to see the push towards “we aren’t going to live in fear” and “I did my part for years and it seems like its here to stay.”. Then the general public learned the word endemic, but not the definition of it, so that started to get thrown in our faces. No amount of squawking was gonna sway people anymore at that point, but i too will never stop.
Look at pictures of the recent RNC protests, crowds of 1000+ people of which most are atleast “progressive” liberals. Look at the amount of people not wearing masks, they very clearly outnumber the people wearing them and this is at a protest. Ya know, one of the places where you probably should be covering your face anyway. It’s even worse when you see the sections of the crowd from various socialist parties and orgs, who should know better, still not masking.
We are so cooked.
I made a pretty unhinged comment about a year ago about COVID also being a mind virus that makes you want to ignore it / actively spread it. I know it doesn’t do that. It’s part of my copium to believe the general populous is infected with an unknown psychogenic aspect of COVID.
One of the tests they used for a post-Covid study in Germany (i think) to test cognitive slowing was a go/no go test. It’s meant to test response times, but also your ability to stop yourself when you realize you’re wrong. Even like a 1/3 of people without long Covid symptoms were showing cognitive slowing.
Has anyone been able to convince someone to care more about COVID here? I feel like it’s easier to argue any other topic at this point.
Unfortunately not, the vast majority of people outside of this community appear to be accepting the risk for the sake of normalcy. The only reason I still drag on about it to other people is because it plays a major part in how I live my life now. People ask me to go to dinner, or a brewery, or tell me they are playing a bar. The only thing I can do is reiterate the same “excuse” and move on.
