Covid 19 Two Years Later

 

I looked back on blog entries to see when I first posted about Covid 19.  It was March 13, 2020.  It is amazing and really terrible to see how long this disease has been with us.

I am particularly thinking about it today because Dan and Alex were planning to spend the afternoon with us and have dinner here.  I bought another ice cream cake and planned to have the rest of the birthday lasagna we made earlier this week (and froze.)  They just called to say that Dan has had a positive Covid test.  He followed it up with another test which was negative and Alex's test was also negative.  But being cautious and considerate, they are not coming to see us.

I am disappointed but so much appreciate their thoughtfulness.  I was suddenly aware that we did not test ourselves last weekend before we went to see the Conways and the Princeton VKs.  It didn't even occur to us to do so.  We had no symptoms but neither did Dan.  We do have some tests available which I had ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago.  When we arrived at Jeff and Susan's, Susan told us that they had all had negative tests earlier in the week.

We wear our masks when we go to CVS for prescriptions or to McCaffrey's for groceries.  I wear my mask when I go into the library to get my requested books.  Otherwise we have gone nowhere in public.  We continue to worship using livestream from our church on Sunday mornings at 9:15 am.  We plan to join a Lenten small group which will meet at someone's home but that does make me a bit uneasy.  Maybe we will all wear masks.

Someone told Jim in a phone conversation this week that Covid was over and that masks don't do any good.  We wonder where this person is getting their news when we see news of hospitals still overwhelmed with patients and many new cases and deaths recorded daily.  It continues to be sadly political.  A friend who lives in Western Michigan told me that she was the only person she saw wearing a mask when she shopped for groceries this week.  I am thankful that is not true here in New Jersey.  

We are vaccinated and we are "boosted."  However, that doesn't mean we are in no danger because there are breakthough infections.  And even if they are mild, there is the danger of the so-called "long Covid" which has plagued many people with unpleasant or worse symptoms.  

So we will continue to be careful and pray for an end to this pandemic.  It would be good to be able to have the freedom to do more without worry.  However, we have come a long way since those earliest days of empty shelves, ventilator shortages, and portable morgues (and no sports on TV--not as big a crisis!).