COVID-19 says "Don't forget about me!"

There wasn't a post last week, a result of my doing some travel.

It felt great to get away. 

We were as responsible as we could be in terms of being vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining distances. It may still have been irresponsible.

Over the course of this last week, I am aware of a memorial service that was attended by one person who then tested positive for Coronavirus, and a day care that had a worker in the infant room test positive, and a memory care facility that has had its first COVID case of the entire pandemic. That is all in Washington county.

There are breakthrough infections, especially as more variants emerge. We are hearing more about the Delta variant, but there are really concerning things about the Lambda variant.

There are also still many people who are not vaccinated. 

This has been called a "pandemic of the unvaccinated".

There is a level at which that makes sense; the odds of infection and of complications are definitely higher without the vaccine. There are also some problems with it.

The first is that our mental image hearing that is of people who are foolishly suspicious of a highly tested vaccine, the effectiveness of which we have been able to observe for several months now, but fine with taking a horse de-wormer after some internet searches. 

(Horse de-worming pills will not cure your COVID. They may bring on liver failure, which could make the COVID less of a priority, but that is clearly not ideal.)

It may feel like you can't effectively communicate with that segment of the population (possibly true), but there are many others with additional obstacles to getting vaccinated.

Children under twelve are still not approved for the vaccine. Also, children are not immune to the virus and do not always survive it. Especially as schools start back up, we need to think about that.

There are people with compromised immune systems. That is a wide umbrella term, but there are some who cannot safely get the vaccine, and some who can get it but will not be fully protected by it.

In addition, while we have the supplies here in the United States to vaccinate all residents, there are many other countries that are not so lucky. 

They are all susceptible. The greater the number of people infected, the greater potential for variants. That increases the danger even for the vaccinated, but also, getting COVID is not your only risk.

Hospitals are getting filled to capacity again. Some already are. There are a lot of different conditions that require hospital care. If you or someone you love needs that, there will be a need for available beds, equipment, supplies, and staff, which cannot be guaranteed now.

I understood the pressure to open back up, but I also strongly believed that it was too soon. That was not merely that not enough people have been vaccinated yet, but also the amount of cases that were out there and still spreading, as well as knowing that it would be harder to close something again than leave it closed.

Yet here we are.

Please, if you haven't gotten vaccinated yet, do it. 

If there are other people you can encourage, do it.

Especially, if you have the ability to help get patents set aside or restrictions waived so other countries can produce their own vaccines, or other methods to help globally, do it.

Then still continue to wear a mask and social distance, because of variants and lag and other issues for which we do not have a magic wand. 

Is it fair? No, but how many of your life problems have been resolved in the interest of fairness?

This is just where we are. It sucks, but we need to act accordingly.