Posted on 01/03/2022 2:07:38 PM PST by nickcarraway
I am starting the new year feeling frustrated and verklempt. It’s not how I usually start a new year. I generally am full of hope for the months ahead even while acknowledging that time is a social construct and that nothing dramatic is going to happen when Dec. 31 becomes Jan. 1.
But this year is different.
My community is ever so slightly more at risk, and I’m distraught.
For the past few weeks I have been hosting, in a separate unit, a mom and her son who are moving to Marin. By now they should be settled into their new digs and the kid into his middle school classes. Neither is vaccinated and as far as I know — and can say pretty confidently given our conversations — do not plan to be.
And so two more people who are unvaccinated are in our midst.
Maybe it’s not that a big deal. Marin is in great shape when it comes to taking COVID-19 seriously. More than 88% of our eligible residents aged 5 and older have gotten two COVID vaccinations, and more than 90% have gotten one vaccination, according to county officials. These are great numbers, which makes me incredibly proud of my county. That said, not even half of our more than 254,000 residents have gotten their booster shots, which the CDC is strongly encouraging. In fact, it’s even considering defining being “fully vaccinated” as having two vaccine shots and a booster, especially as we face the aggressive omicron variant that is wreaking havoc on everyone everywhere, including the vaccinated.
There are many people who think that the unvaccinated are proving Darwin right — if they want to risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones — including their young children, who have no agency of their own and depend on their parents to do the right thing to keep them safe (sorry kiddos) — and get sick, end up in the ICU and maybe die since the overwhelming majority of those dying from COVID now are unvaccinated, well, so be it. The smart ones, the ones who believe in facts and science, will likely survive..
But it is a big deal. For one, vaccines, as great as they are, are not 100% effective, so some vaccinated people may be exposed to the virus from the unvaccinated and get sick. Some may even die. They can also bring the virus home to children too young to get vaccinated. Beyond that, the more unvaccinated people in a community, the more virus transmission, experts say, and more virus transmission leads to more sickness that may be long lasting in some people, and may cause financial, emotional, physical and relationship issues. It impacts more than just the person who gets COVID, or who has to isolate because they were exposed to someone who has the virus — the impact is far reaching.
And fewer vaccinated people means more virus mutations.
Marin hasn’t experienced overwhelmed hospitals and exhausted doctors and nurses that a lot of other places have had, thankfully. Not to say that we won’t at some point — who can predict anything with certainty anymore when it come to this virus? — but even now, as our COVID cases are spiking, we seem to be OK. For now.
Still, all you have to do is look at what omicron is doing across the country to see our future. Hundreds of flights have been canceled during the holidays because there just weren’t enough pilots, flight attendants and other staff available. Sure, there was bad weather — hello climate change! — but they also had either contracted the virus or had been exposed to someone with it and had to isolate.
It’s crappy to have to deal with that when we’re just trying to be with loved ones and then get back home. What’s probably not making the headlines is how many people working in grocery stores, medical and dental offices, day care centers and schools, transportation, restaurants — the people we count on — may need to be away from work. And, perhaps more scary, those who’ll show up to work sick because they have no paid sick days and thus have little choice.
“The concern I have, is that even if a very small fraction of people who are infected end up hospitalized that could add up when we have hundreds of cases a day,” Marin’s public health officer Dr. Matt Willis says. “We’re as concerned about staffing shortages as we are about cases of severe illness.”
Me, too!
Like many people, I am eager to see the end of this pandemic as soon as possible. But as long as people refuse to do the right thing — vaccinate, boost and wear a mask — or can’t easily access vaccinations, overwhelmingly our working poor, it’s not going to end anytime soon. And I am tired and, yes, upset.
I don’t want two more willingly unvaccinated people in my community. I’m done with having to be nice to them, unless they have a verifiable health issue that prevents them from getting vaxxed. I feel like New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow does: “I am furious at the unvaccinated, and I am not ashamed of disclosing that. I am no longer trying to understand them or educate them.” And like Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., who is done with the unvaccinated’s petuance: “So if those people are angry, guess what? They’re not the only ones. The difference is, their anger is dumb, and ours is not. Theirs is about being coerced to do something they don’t want to do. Like that’s new.”
Vaccinations are a “sensitive topic,” my guest told me. No, there’s nothing sensitive about getting vaccinated and protecting others. Actually, not getting vaccinated when you easily can, when the science is available for all who care to inform themselves with facts, is the height of insensitivity and selfishness.
I don’t want that in my community. Please, go back home. You’re not welcome here.
Marin was gone by 1980. See “Serial.”
Marin was once a glorious place——lived there for over 20 years myself. Left in 2009 when the economy crashed—as a building contractor my business evaporated.
You know-—miss the weather, landscape—few places like it-—aside from the people—a truly remarkable place, sometimes I drift away to my “ happy place”-riding my mountain bike—all alone on a beautiful redwooded path-miles away from anybody, a perfect 75 degrees-no humidity-—just rollin’ with God out in nature.
Beat me by 13 seconds.
Thank Christ
Another alibi for me if anyone tries to frame me for something there
there are estimated to be 100,000 more deaths per month than normal, and its not from the covid...its from the vaxx....
I grew up in Marin County and lived there for 31 years. Even the liberals there used to pretty much leave others alone. The totalitarian views of this author nicely represent the change in Democrat political culture over the last two decades: all remnants of libertarian liberalism forcibly replaced by Stalinist totalitarianism.
Disjointed article evidenced just that.....just move to another place.
My SIL told me on Christmas Eve that she thinks the unvaxxed should be “shunned.” I was too speechless to reply. I’ve read lots of books about 1930s Germany. “Othering” starts with “shunning.”
“...And, perhaps more scary, those who’ll show up to work sick because they have no paid sick days and thus have little choice.”
The fact that she approvingly quotes Charles Blow is a real tell.
“These are great numbers, which makes me incredibly proud of my county.”
Let that sink in.
FYI... I have just talked to two of the shops I do work for this afternoon now that everyone is back after the holidays. Both have approximately 2 dozen people. Everyone of them “has a cold.” No one is panicking. No one is rushing off the get tests. I am incredibly proud of my cohorts...
It’s been refered to as ‘Moron”
Unvacksinated are not welcome unless you are an illegal immigrant.
Just tell her she belongs in 1933 Germany.
Marin County. The Land of Fruits and Nuts!
I honestly think this is a satire piece. Nobody can possibly think this way for real.
An excellent point, indeed.
In the spirit of Émile Cammaerts's famous quote on atheism:
When irrationally frightened, grossly misinformed people no longer believe in reality and facts, they do not thereafter believe in nothing. They then become capable of believing in anything.
That would be my bet.
Uh, yes they can.
I have a relative who rushed out and got boosted against these dangerous variants because it was the responsible thing to do.
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