Friday is here. May 14, 2021 is the date to be exact. We are at just about 1 year and 2 months from the date the pandemic became serious as a heart attack real. Seems like forever. Seems unbelievable. Change however is coming.
Yesterday the CDC released new guidelines that basically remove mask wearing requirements for most of life’s activities…if you are vaccinated and if you are not living in a den of anti-vaxers. This point has been coming in increments.
Three weeks ago, I ate at restaurant on the deck at a table ten feet from any other table. We talked and had beers and had our masks off except when we were talking to service staff because everyone at the table was at 2 weeks plus from their second shots. For about a month I have been walking without a mask on my solitary jaunts for exercise. Last weekend we went to an outdoor party of about 25 people, all of whom had been vaccinated or who were wearing masks. People actually hugged. Also last week we held a dinner party for 8 people here on our deck all of whom were vaccinated.
Grocery stores are still requiring masks. Most still have delivery/pick-up options available. Courts and city governments are still doing Zoom and Teams meetings. People for the most part are still practicing social distancing. Travel is nowhere near back to normal no matter how much people are wishing it was. The world is not reopened and with good cause, just look at India. But the door to the post-pandemic world is cracked open just a bit.
According to a daily hospital blog a third of all Americans are fully vaccinated. Closer to 40 % of my fellow Michiganders have been vaccinated. Makes me proud Michigan, makes me proud. Mississippi and Alabama are dragging far behind with barely a quarter of their respective populations vaccinated fully. Whether it’s the clarion call to “Freedom” or the fear of being injected with Bill Gates DNA I must shake my head at the risks these folks are taking.
My guess is that we will be entering a new normal come late summer. I think that there will be vaccination requirements for travel without quarantine, for continued admission to colleges, and for work in jobs where densely packed staff are the norm. My guess is that schools will be more hard-nosed about student vaccination proof for kids 12 and older. Personal space and seating arrangements will be different. We may not be keeping everyone at a distance of six foot but my guess is that three feet will be the new hard line personal space zone for Americans. In addition to flu shots each year we will probably be getting Covid vaccine boosters.
By fall my guess is that outdoor patios will be full but not packed. Concerts will resume but with smaller density than in years past. College football will resume but again I think there will be an increased spacing between patrons and fewer seats sold. We will stumble forward toward a new normal and by trial and error will we come to a point of acceptable boundaries.
Make no mistake this will not be the world’s last pandemic, and the next one may be deadlier. But it well may a turning point in our health behaviors. Hand washing will occur multiple times every day, every time we return from a group gathering/setting. Mask wearing on public transport will continue. Mask wearing might be seasonally mandated. Humanity has a short collective memory but maybe this time will be different.
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