Ross: The unexpected downside to ending the pandemic
Mar 10, 2021, 7:41 AM | Updated: Oct 2, 2024, 8:39 pm
The end of the pandemic also means no more working in sweats. (Pexels)
(Pexels)
I feel that I am getting closer – everywhere, people are getting vaccinated. At hospitals, in stadiums, at drive-through vaccination clinics!
You can even sign up to go “standby” if there are leftover doses, and if you’re willing to hop in the car at a moment’s notice and drive 50 miles. I’m sure many of you now go to sleep fully dressed with one sleeve rolled up just in case.
And it’s working — 2.1 million shots a day, and over 32 million Americans fully vaccinated with both doses.
That’s 32 million people who are now free to travel, dine out, square dance in an unventilated room on a cruise ship while yelling – even as we, the unvaxxed, stand forlorn at the window watching the world returning to normal without us.
Unless this is what we secretly want. I didn’t want to admit this, until I saw Tuesday’s opinion piece in the Washington Post by Lucy McBride, who describes herself as a practicing internist and health-care educator. So she is a medical professional, and admits to being a little worried about getting back to normal.
She’s not worried because she might be randomly hugged by a yelling square dancer. No, she’s been vaccinated and is one of the chosen. She’s worried because she kind of likes Zooming in sweatpants and finding that comfortable spot on the sofa.
She points out that for a lot of us, “the pandemic granted permission to clear our calendars, prune our social lives, and trade commuting time for more sleep, exercise, and family bonding.”
That’s true. For those of us who get to work from home and don’t have kids to raise, you get to live life on your own terms. Wear what you want, nap when you’re tired. No panic attacks while stuck in traffic.
Could that be why I’m not as desperate to get the needle as everyone I work with thinks I should be?
It is a question I am choosing not to confront because I’m at work now, and this is not the time to deal with personal business. The place for that is the Gee and Ursula Show, not here.
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