low_delta

I was talking about how tired I've always been of the idea that you're great if you work when you're sick. That toughing it out is seen as a virtue, even though you're infecting the people around you. So I said that I was glad to see this mindset changing, since employers are now urging people to stay home if they think they might be sick. This was kinda stupid to say, though, since it's not permanent. As soon a the worst danger for Covid has passed, people will be like, "oh it's not a big deal now. Covid isn't as deadly as it used to be." They lived through the worst, so they feel the risk has dropped severely and they're not going to worry about it. And some are already to that point.

Omicron is not as deadly as previous variants. In Wisconsin, cases are just above the previous high, of November 2020 (and are not predicted to slow for a few weeks). Deaths are around half their peak of that same time. Nationwide, new cases are well over double the previous peak, while deaths are under half the previous peak. So a lot of people aren't very worried about it.

I was talking with a guy at work today. He went to a few large gatherings over Christmas. He told me half his family got Covid (I think he wasn't at that particular gathering), including his mom and brother. I said I hoped it wasn't too serious. "No," he said with a dismissive wave, and he went on to say that those two were hospitalized, and his mom developed pneumonia. I'm not sure how hospitalization qualifies as "not too serious." Maybe they never felt she was in danger of dying?

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When the quarantine started, one of the guys decided we'd have a meeting with all of us, in Zoom. This is my group of friends from high school, and some of the wives. It's been weekly. They do it early enough that sometimes supper gets in the way, and I'm not in a big hurry to join. One week I was late because the kitchen sink was clogged, and I had to take it apart.

One week I decided to scan all my photos of the group from years ago. Mostly in the 90's. So I shared them through Zoom, and everybody loved them. The next week I had just a few more. Then someone decided maybe she had some photos on her computer that she could share. So she started taking us through her photos from her phone. And she couldn't find the ones she really wanted to show us. And there were technical difficulties. And then another one of the guys showed us photos of his family's trip to the Badlands, which was not quite as boring as the slide show just prior. The night was so boring! I did not join the call the following week. I told them we were going to celebrate Cindy's birthday, but that was only partially true. (Her birthday was on Tuesday, but I thought it would be good to celebrate on a Saturday, which we sorta did, but it didn't really take all day.)

But I was back on the call this week, and it was fine. One of the things we always talk a lot about is the COVID. But there's only so much you can say about that. We'll see how I feel about next week's meeting. These are guys I usually only see a couple of times a year (some of them see each other more often). There were six of us tonight. We were down one, since someone's dad just died. Tonight's call was kinda quiet. People have gotten used to the format. You can't be too talkative because you might talk over someone, so we are generally polite that way.

I'm worried about my sister. In the last several months, she's been in the hospital, and diagnosed with severe asthma. If she gets the virus, she's in trouble. Her husband is on chemo, so he's probably in even worse shape. One of their kids is in high school, the other home from college. I'm not sure of their quarantine regimen right now. And then there's Cindy's brother in law, who is a transplant patient, and is also unlikely to survive an infection.

They've been talking about limiting contact with people, to limit the speed of the spread of the virus. They've been saying "flatten the curve." That is, change it from a taller bell curve of a shorter duration, which would overwhelm the hospitals, which would leave more people dead, to a lower bell curve, which lasts longer.

Given that I think everyone will eventually get the virus, And many people are not destined to survive it, it's much better that we slow the advance. The longer it takes to get around, the more likely it is that they will develop a vaccine before the illness gets to everyone.