Journal of the Plague Year 13

 So now appears the Delta Variant of the corona virus. The CDC recommends that vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens begin again wearing masks indoors. It seems today that the pandemic will never end. The New York Times on July 30 reported that new cases in the United States are up 151% and new deaths up 15%. Apparently, the new cases occur in those who have for some reason remain unvaccinated. I expect the numbers all to rise in the coming weeks and months. 

I don’t know what to do anymore. I have not ever stopped wearing a mask when I ventured into a store, but recently I have been more liberal in restaurants and bars. I mean, I haven’t ventured very often into either establishment, but I think it might be nice to have an option not to cook at home tonight, not to order in (not how I like to dine) or to be able to meet with vaccinated friends outside our respective homes. Recently on a visit to New York I dined outdoors with my brother at a lovely pizza restaurant and for some dessert enjoyed a gelato unmasked indoors. I was unmasked but not the gelato. The next evening I dined with friends in a temporary structure that actually moved into the street at 70^th Street off Amsterdam Avenue. These structures were an exception made to some city code so that restaurants could remain open during the pandemic. Thus, waitstaff could continue to have employment. In the winter these structures used heaters to continue service in comfortable environments. On this July evening my friends and I were able to sit unmasked and could engage in conversation that was fluid and thrilling. It has been so long. On New York streets these structures continue to serve customers who would prefer not to sit indoors in closed spaces. In the hotel masks were worn. I haven’t noticed that these structures have been added to the St. Paul Minneapolis landscape because I haven’t ventured out very far. And now I do not intend to do so.

And now the Delta variant threatens to halt every advance we have made in stopping the spread of the corona virus. And the bastards continue to refuse vaccination and continue to deny the necessity for wearing masks—they swagger tand  bray “this is America, and we are free to do what we ever will, dammit.” I wonder how many anti-vaxxers, so protective of the autonomy of their bodies are hypocritically against abortion. How many of them refuse to wear seat belts! And these thick-headed, senseless idiots continue to contract and spread the disease. As were the aliens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, these obstinate resisters (and too many Republicans, damn them all) look normal, but they are dangerous..  They continue to make the society unsafe; I am not comfortable again going anywhere out in public. In A Journal of the Plague Year, HF says of such individuals, “When I speak of those People who really were thus dangerous, I suppose them to be utterly ignorant of their own Condition; for if they were, they must have been a kind of willful Murtherers, if they would have gone Abroad among healthy people . . . the infected people were utterly careless as to giving the Infection to others, and rather forward to do it than not . . . .” And such murtherers are being coached and supported by their Republican congress sycophants cum fascists who would do anything to gain and keep power and the right wing social media that spews out lies and accusations and insults to protect the violence and anger of the audiences they would support and expand. They are all, all despicable people.

And then, on top of all that and as if that wasn’t enough, this week the smoke from the wildfires in Canada and the Northwest have drifted into the air in Minnesota and has led to unsafe conditions out of doors. I went out anyway for my two daily walks, but amid the haze and the smell of smoke, I wore my mask.