No. At some point you've got to ask if these measures are worth living for. It's winter in the northern hemisphere. It'd dark and it's cold.
Keeping people locked up at home for a third season is absurd.
Keeping people locked up at home for a third season is absurd.
I don't consider myself locked up. I miss in person game nights the most, i miss dinner with friends (in a private home or restaurant) somewhat.
We do gamenights online using videochat and products like roll20 and boardgame arena. It's not super awesome but it works for us for now.
I leave the house, go on walks go shopping etc. But I take very reasonable precautions. I shop during low traffic times, get up early and hit the grocery store before work, I order food for pickup and wait outside for it. During the more temperate months we'd set up a few tables in the backyard and have friends over for meals, each 'pod' got their own table nicely distanced, we were probably a little louder than most dinner parties but it was nice just to have them around.
For a friends birthday we wanted to go see spiderman, we rented a theater (it was actually not especially expensive) invited about 20 people who we knew were supervaxxed and responsible enough not to come if they though they might be exposed and had a grand, masked and distanced, time.
I'm just trying to be responsible, I know several people that are immunocompromised and they can't even do half that stuff. I'm trying to be responsible so that they can. When some asshole declares that 'covid is over' I just realize how fucking narcissistic they are.
Unfortunately most are living under wildly different and much more difficult circumstances that they are being asked to bear month after month with no end and with dubious effect.
CDC told us not to wear masks initially. Democrats were vaccine skeptics until Biden won. But who cares? Thats in the past, get vaccinated or not. Go out or not. Just dont try to control others.
Also, the world hasn’t stopped it so it is unlikely ANY US only measure would have done much unless we went fill isolationist which would probably have had worse outcomes.
and then we have the mandates. presumably, your behavior is the same with v.s. without them. as is the case for most people i know. with the exception of my one friend who was building a japanese-style coin-operated 24/7 unstaffed arcade business in a stripmall off aurora. she ditched that a year into the pandemic because navigating the mandates as a business owner is not easy (how does one check vax cards at the door if their business only works because it’s unstaffed? once she does find a solution, how long until the next mandate changes things for her again? it’s settled down a little, but the policy changes were really chaotic through to last summer).
“return to normal” as a phrase is a bit ambiguous. does it mean everyone goes back to living how they did two years ago? or does it mean everyone, within each area of their life, has the option to return to what worked for them then, while keeping the parts of their current lifestyle they prefer? obviously, we can’t grant that level of optionality to every area of life without bifurcating society (e.g. separate schools for in-person vs virtual), which doesn’t sound great. but we can grant that optionality in lots of areas of life that are already adept at catering to different preferences — e.g. restaurants (if you want italian food, go to an italian restaurant), entertainment venues, gyms, and really most small/medium businesses.
i’d love for my friend to be able to open her arcade some day, and i know there are hundreds of other individuals in a similar position as hers trying to bring new things into our community. i think it’s reasonable that we allow a “return to normal” in the areas of life that are already adept at catering to different preferences, and leave the mandates only for those areas in which there’s less optionality (e.g. public transit, schools — for now, etc).
You are welcome to live any way you like, but please don't judge others for examining the situation and deciding how to live their own lives.
People complain about seattle's wetness a lot, but as someone that's lived here their whole life we generally get a few stright up downpour days, but most days (in the colder months) are somewhere in the overcast and misty to drizzly range.
It doesn't really change my assertions though. Even on days with downpours I'm pretty happy to swaddle myself in rainjackets and waterpoof shoes and take a walk or wait for takeout outside. When we had our little bout of snow this month I took walks every day, but little to no takeout because seattle essentially shuts down at the sight of the first flake.