#100 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday July 26)
Good morning,
We are now 100 straight days into the days “Beyond the Bunker.” I would have hoped I could have renamed the next 100 days as “Starting Anew” or some such thing. After all the predicters of vaccination rates that were published earlier this year showed a great trajectory upward. But we’ve stalled, with only around 50% fully vaccinated. Sadly, the “Beyond the Bunker” days are still with us, as we’re not yet out of the woods.
It is my fervent hope that we are not in the days “Between the Bunkers,” and that the Delta Variant and whatever variants lie ahead don’t send us in reverse even more than the current mask mandate in Los Angeles County.
It remains astonishing to me that the groups of vaccination “naysayers” have not yet acknowledged that MAYBE they were wrong. Had we not had a well-oiled propaganda machine working to cast doubt among those on the fence, we may well have been through the worst of the pandemic and well on our way to herd immunity.
There are a number of people out there who continue to refuse vaccination, notwithstanding the science, the efficacy, and the relatively few side effects. Among them: We have people who either don’t trust government (after all, that tracking device in my arm sure itches). We have people who believe a government directive (or even advice) to get vaccinated infringes on their civil liberties and right to “choose” (ironically, many of these same people purport to be “pro-life”). We have people who want to be “free riders,” relying upon the rest of us to vaccinate and mask-up. We have people who think their Internet research trumps the scientists and doctors. And we have people who are just against the whole concept of vaccination (note that these same people are protected from measles, polio, and smallpox by virtue of earlier vaccination programs).
I suspect we will be spending the winter with masks indoors and staying relatively distanced through waves of reinfections. And I suspect those reinfections will continue to plague those areas with the lowest vaccination rates. But here’s the rub for those of us vaccinated—these selfish people who refuse to get vaccinated will continue to spread the variants and, although the vaccine is protective, it isn’t 100% effective, so some of us will get it because of these numbskulls.
The commentary on human nature that one can extend from this is that people don’t care that much for others, even when the evidence of infection is so patently obvious to them. Imagine what these people think about climate change…they probably won’t care until a relative dies or their house is floating down the river.
Get ready and stay safe,
Glenn
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