Some days I am terrified. Other days I’m indifferent. There are even days I wake up and don’t think about it until it’s brought up. Because of the nature of one of my jobs, I may be asked to expose myself willingly to COVID-19 knowing full well that where I’m going, the people are positive. In my opinion what I do is a drop in the bucket compared to what actual medical professionals and hospital staff are facing everyday. Perspective
Some people pretend the risk isn’t there and just go all in on anti-mask and anti fear statements. What a privileged world to live in (until it’s not). Trying to see the healthy fear that has kept our species alive for millennia as foolish, this is their prerogative. I think, at some deep level, it helps them to feel better and keeps their brain living a quasi-normal life. Although, I believe there are very few of them that would walk up to a Grizzly bear, without a gun, and shake its hand. Even when it’s proven that someone young and healthy with no prior comorbidity dies, I’ve heard them say, “There must have been something else wrong with them.” Perspective
To me, that’s kind of the point of having a healthy fear of COVID-19. In a place like America, where healthcare can be hit and miss for so many, how is anyone actually going to know if they have a comorbidity? There are so many scenarios where this could play out. Losing your job (insurance tied to work), having insurance through the marketplace but not being able to afford the copays and deductibles, and just plain not having insurance because you can’t afford it. How is anyone going to actually know if there is something wrong with them? Some think that if you just simply get a better job, none of these things would matter. I have a friend that held that opinion. They lost their job during the first part of the pandemic because they got COVID-19 long haul and couldn’t return to work. Perspective
Insurance companies ultimately decide what they will pay for and what tests your doctor can do or what illnesses they will let them treat you for. The whole thing is ridiculous. So when I hear someone say that a person died of their comorbidity, I just roll my eyes and wonder what their comorbidity might be, and honestly, where I live, most people have obesity as a comorbidity. Add one or two more to that, and the odds of me picking you up becomes more probable. So many people do not understand that they are on the borderline of type 2 diabetes, COPD, or undiagnosed heart problems. Are you deficient in the vitamins they say we need? Is there a gene to thank for the actual death of 300,000 Americans? If that really is the number, right? There are some people out there that say a comorbidity shouldn’t be counted as a COVID-19 death. Are you in the camp that claims if science doesn’t know everything about COVID-19, then science doesn’t know anything about it? Is there a gene that makes some of us more susceptible to death or long haul? After all, how do we explain a 104 year-old man surviving it and a 41 year-old congressman dying? There have been a few children that have died, as well. Seriously, most people would not know if their children have a serious heart defect unless it was found. Some people find out when their child drops over on the basketball court. Some have found out this year due to COVID-19. Some have heart problems this year thanks to COVID-19. Not very many children die, though, so why should we worry? Perspective
To be clear, I’m not an EMT. I’m a deputy coroner. This ride does not go to the hospital, unless, of course, I’m picking you up there. In some states the hospitals have started to make the ambulance service triage each case. If someone presents as dead on scene, they are not to be brought to the hospital. They are to be worked on for 20 minutes, and then time of death called. Not sure if they are doing medevac, but I doubt it. In case I’m not being clear enough, non COVID-19 cases are now being turned away. But people are having a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that their elective procedures are being rescheduled. Weird what qualifies for an elective procedure when all the beds are full at a hospital. Perspective
I know people that haven’t left their homes in months. My mom is one of them. At this point, even with a vaccine, I don’t know if I’ll ever get her out of the house. Mostly because people have been so mean to each other this year that she doesn’t want to be around any people. I don’t blame her. She’s 70 this year. She watches one of the worst possible news sources out there, MSNBC. In my mind they are the left wing equivalent of FOX. They are pushing the narrative of people not getting vaccinated because they are afraid of the vaccine, they don’t know what’s in it, and now she doesn’t know if she should get it because hospital staff who don’t know much about the science behind these vaccines are refusing them. A self fulfilling prophecy. Get enough 65 and overs saying it, and that shall be the gospel. What’s in it? YOU PLAYING IN THE BAND is in it. You seeing your grandchildren is in it! The thing you love to do most in the whole wide world. That’s what’s in it! Seriously, you’re 70. No one in your family has ever lived past 83 that could remember living that long. You smoked and drank all your life which is one more vice than the 83 year old had. By the time they figure out what the negative effects of the vaccines will be, it’ll be the least of your problems. You’re not Keith Richards and you’re not going to outlive God. But you could have a negative reaction to it. Dying is a negative reaction to COVID-19 as well. Perspective
I have exposure issues on a lot of different levels in my house. The least of which is just going grocery shopping. I can now shop a whole store in less than 15 minutes. Which is still too long to be exposed. But I trick myself into thinking if I keep moving it helps. For me speed shopping is a skill I’ve been trying to hone in on forever. I hate shopping! I didn’t think it was possible to hate it more. Then I see the guy stocking shelves with his mask below his nose and I get pissed because I know there is a 70-something wonderful lady working the register. Why doesn’t he care about her? Why doesn’t he care about the 70-something lady coming up the aisle next to him? She sees him and looks like she just saw a monster. She is fully masked and obviously understands the way the masks work because she immediately leaves the aisle. He doesn’t care because he probably saw a stupid video of a guy blasting an aerosol can through a mask. Idiot fodder and not science. These are the same people that believe a google search is research. The personal freedom to not wear a mask means that there’s an awful lot of people that lose their access to the world. According to anti-maskers, the people who don’t want to be around their naked face get to choose if they want to be a part of a world where disease is being spread, because someone thinks they have the right to make this a choice. Personal freedom vs personal freedom. There is no winner here. Perspective
We seem to have lost the ability to watch out for our neighbor, to lend a hand, to only take one package of toilet paper, and not horde the hand sanitizer. We look past people losing their homes and jobs because we still have ours. We are living in a country that severely lacks empathy and turns human suffering into numbers to allow us to sleep better at night. Death tolls are drug out and minimized. There is no ceiling to the amount of death and suffering we are willing to minimize, because it’s not like 50 million people died, or something. People die every day. (Funny because I don’t remember hospitals having to put off heart surgeries and lung transplants from all that death that happens anyway). Perspective
I never thought something like a pandemic would divide this country like it has. I have seen this country come together over so many natural disasters, 9/11, and the deaths of prominent leaders. Who would have thought that, in just one year, a pandemic could be used to tear us down and make a mockery of our Democracy. As countries go, we are still a toddler. I guess if you think of it like that, then it makes sense. I sure hope we grow up someday. Perspective
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