Today is the day we take our first injections of the Moderna vaccination against Covid-19. It is a long anticipated day, and one I am glad we get, considering that once there was a time when a pandemic could run rampant till it ran a course and killed whomever it did, using up all potential hosts. While it is so that Covid-19 will be with us for years and years to come, maybe forever, We are lucky to be able to get a shot back at a normal life once more.
But, about that. We have had a fairly normal life despite the pandemic, just because we live a rural life, and don’t have a lot of neighbors who visit, or friends who stop by. We are fairly isolated and accustomed to it. This has been one point in life when that has really paid off.
Some states are announcing up to 70 and 80 percent of their population are vaccinated. I am not sure where our state stands, but considering the number of tin hat conspiracy theorists that live in Idaho, I suspect we are a bit lower than that. Still, we have the ability to live in isolation and do a fair bit to protect ourselves, and have avoided getting in line for the vaccine too soon in order to keep the queue down for those who have to work in public and who have greater need due to health reasons. Maybe it only makes us feel better to do so, and I am sure that we will find out later today when we are in for the vaccine and can talk to the healthcare workers about it.
We are among the few now who continue to wear masks when in public. Is that because Southeast Idaho and Northern Utah are so efficient with their vaccine roll out? I have severe doubts. I think it comes down to the proclivity of the local population to demand their freedoms at any cost, in a kind of “Give me Liberty or give me death,” fashion. There is a line when that needs to be reworded as “Give me stupidity or give me death.” But to each their own. We are no scientists, but we will take sound science over piss poor politics when it comes to health and safety.
The last year and change has been astounding. It has been a collision of science, politics, and ignorance, that has cost 600,000 people in the US alone their lives. If it has been an act of terrorism, it would have elicited a completely different response, but as it was not, then just like the virus itself, it has been an enemy from within. It has been more destructive than it has needed to be because of it. Getting back to normal is probably just sweeping this all under the rug and getting back to pretending that the crazy uncle is not related to us when we see him on the street.
As for what the future holds, we have learned that we never know. I don’t know of anyone who saw 2020 and 2021 coming quite as it did. There was a toilette paper shortage? Really? And this with a pandemic which kills a relatively small number of those infected. Some viruses remain in nature still that can kill as high as 60% of those humans who could get infected with them. That is ‘kill’! That is not even mentioning the illness and the bankruptcy or lack of treatment altogether of those who don’t die from it. What happens to them? Do they die of starvation or dehydration because there is nobody well enough to look after them? We were overwhelmed in our healthcare capacities with a sort of 1% to 2% mortality rate!
What can anyone do within reason to prepare for the future? How do we plan for something worse than what this has brought us?
Now, I look outside and the skies are hazy with smoke from nearby fires. The humidity has been down to single digit percentages, and the breeze has been steadily blowing, gently, but enough to spread flames across a tinderbox landscape. The temperatures have been in the high 90’s. It is only June, and the hottest months don’t hold much promise for anything good. There is a drought in the Western United States, and populations from places like California have been displacing here already. What happens if sparks fly loose here?
The world is changing. Humans seem to be running their course, having devoured their host. What previous generations gave little to no thought too, we now worry about. We owe our kids a better world, and we cannot even agree on how to make it that. I can only hope that their generation is smart enough to look at the science, and agree to follow it, rather than the money. But that would put this as the height of human civilization, or the low point, depending on how you look at it.
As for me, I am going to go and take care of a few animals in my care, and try to better our little plot of ground in some way so that it is better prepared to take care of us. I am going to go find a way to better cooperate with my neighbors, and be there to help them so that whenever the pushing comes to it, they will know I am someone they can trust. And I am going to go, this afternoon, and get my vaccine. No tin hats. Masks as required till the second shot is complete, and the antibodies have a chance to build up. Be a proponent of science and step forward, cautiously, and with sound judgement based on good understanding, not on misinformation and paranoia.
Happy first vaccination day.