I have some questions:
* During a pandemic, is it really important to eat inside a restaurant when curbside service and delivery options are available?
* During a pandemic, is it really necessary to go to a movie theater when there are so many other options for staying home, including HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and other pay channels; Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV, Acorn, Prime Video, Roku and Fire Stick, Chromecast and I don’t know how many other devices and streaming services?
* During a pandemic, is it really important to attend a sporting event that’s being shown on TV or through a live internet stream in your house, where you can get a hot dog and beer in your own kitchen and have easy access to your own personal restroom?
* During a pandemic, is it really important to go shopping inside the supermarket, Walmart or any other store that offers online shopping and will happily carry out the items you purchase and place them in the trunk of your car?
* During a pandemic, is it really important to sit inside a church to demonstrate your faith when ministers can stream their services directly into your home? Besides, aren’t you supposed to demonstrate your religiosity all day every day from wherever you happen to be?
* During a pandemic, is it really important to hold birthday parties, wedding showers, funeral services and celebratory receptions of all kinds in packed churches, clubs, bars, restaurants and banquet halls, instead of taking a year or two off for the sake of public health?
Which of these things are really important, I wonder, and which could be postponed or canceled altogether? I’m asking for 650,000 dead Americans and 3 million dead people worldwide who have succumbed already to this pandemic, which – far from being over – is predicted to get even worse before it gets better.
I ask these questions as someone who has been called “snowflake,” “weakling,” “sheep,” “lemming” and other names that are a lot worse because for the past 13 months, I have chosen to isolate myself at home from the activities I mentioned above, venturing out for necessary doctor appointments and little else. I take advantage of the drive-up windows at the pharmacy and bank, the pickup option at the supermarkets and the mailbox outside the Post Office, and I buy other needed products from online suppliers.
I have been criticized by those who claim their rights are being violated by mask mandates and limited services and others who believe the virus is a hoax. Yesterday, on CNN, I watched an interview with an evangelical minister that went like this:
Minister: “I believe this virus is a hoax. I don’t know a single person, white, black or brown, Honduran or Mexican or whatever who has ever caught this virus.”
Interviewer: “But sir, both of your parents have had it.”
Was the man a liar or just stupid? You decide.
Covid-19 and its many variants is not a hoax and it is far from under control, despite a wave of pandemic fatigue that is overtaking Americans. We’ve opened restaurants, bars, theaters and businesses to full capacity and that can’t be good. We have states that have never to this day instituted mask mandates (I’m looking at you, South Dakota) and others that have signs on their doors but rules that are not enforced.
I have chosen to obey the scientists and avoid the pandemic risks not because I am weak but for the opposite reason. I believe that people who are staying home and trying to do the right thing are the strong ones with the discipline and restraint required to live their lives as fully as they can while avoiding unnecessary risks that could lead to serious illness or even death.
Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers like to cling to statistics that show the survival rate from Covid-19 as being 90-some percent (the number varies), but that’s little consolation to the millions of people who have died from the virus or will die from it in the future, as well as their families who have lost or will soon lose their loved ones ... not to mention the survivors left with long-term health effects.
So call me whatever name you want, I don’t care. I’ve had my two vaccinations but I’m still not going into the supermarket or the Post Office or the movie theater or Walmart or any place that will come out to me in my car, and I won’t be attending any baseball games or concerts in the park or birthday parties and the like. To do so now would make the last 13 months of self-isolation a complete waste of effort, and put me at risk of becoming the next Covid death … and I’m not willing to take that risk.
Besides, there are already too many people out there ignoring the scientists, spreading the virus and “exercising their rights” while risking their own lives and the lives of people around them. There’s no way I can stop them from doing that, sadly, but I’m sure as hell not going to help.
