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Does this time of the year feel different than it normally does, or different than it should? If so, give some examples of what feels different.
Tests are rationed in drugstores. Today in Boston: 4 per customer at Walgreens, 6 per customer at CVS. My brother-in-law wanted as many as possible, so yesterday my sister and I ended up in a bunch of different stores, and she bought 18 packages -- 36 tests -- in total. At $25/package, that's a pretty penny. I didn't say anything (though I did buy her an initial set of four to match her first 4 in the first store), but it felt pretty awful to me to be buying so many when there's such a serious shortage. Today the shipments seem to have just come in, but for days people all over Boston apparently were scrambling and home tests were completely unavailable. Meanwhile, people waited in long lines for equally hard-to-obtain PCR tests. My bro-in-law's justification is crap. Said something about someone last spring who'd said "it's everyone for themselves" upon scrambling to jump the queue to get vaccinated -- but of course he's doing exactly the same thing by getting all these tests.
December 27, 2021
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Talk about what you think the world will be like after the pandemic is over.
When the coronavirus pandemic is over the world will be a much different place than it was in February 2020. Millions will have perished from this virus. The families of the dead will continue to suffer greatly from the loss of their loved ones. Many millions more will die not from the virus itself but from one of a number of human errors that is tragic in scope. Many more people will die from hunger and starvation. People will die from lack of medical care for other diseases from a lack of medical resources. For those who manage to survive past these issues many will be poor perhaps for the first time in their lives. Downward mobility will be the next normal and the chasm between the haves and the have nots will widen. Violence and hatred will erupt all over the planet and if anyone is paying attention, this has already started. Yes, the world will be a much different place.
April 25, 2021