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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Today, for the second time in just over a year I'm traveling from a country--Spain-- where I've watched people do what they're asked: wear a mask, distance, and this time, get the vaccine, to flatten the curve. When I arrived in Spain in early July they were in their fifth wave, as they call it, cases rising and hospitals filling. Only 30% of the people were vaccinated because they had just started. Now, the last day of September, almost 80% of the population is fully vaxxed. The cases have plummeted. Some regions are fully opening up, although still requiring masks. On the train to Madrid yesterday, everyone wore a mask. No complaints. This picture basically says, "for you and for me" always wear a mask. To me it represents such a cultural difference from the US, where I'm from. It simply says "we're in this together" and people understand that. They might complain about restrictions, but the follow them because they understand that society is a collective endeavor. Today, I'm heading back to the US and dreading it. Back to the country where people think individual freedom includes the right to infect others. Where people are still pouring into emergency rooms with covid and asking for the vaccine. Where people still think covid doesn't exist.
October 6, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
So I am currently on hold, waiting to speak to the NH vaccination information line. I'm trying to find out if they will be able to move up my appointment for the second dose, to within the recommended time--at the moment it's 8 weeks out, its supposed to be 3. The frustration for me as an MD is realizing how much is simply unknown. I'm used to being able to look up studies or data on most things, and if the data isn't there, there's usually enough related info to take a good guess. With COVID, there just hasn't been time to do the studies, and there's simply no information. If I get a second dose of Pfizer in 5 weeks, or 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, what does that mean? Should I go back and start all over? Is it just as good? I gather (I think) that England has decided to extend the interval to 12 weeks, but based on what? Meanwhile, life goes on, or doesn't. There's an overall sense of "floating," not entirely unpleasant, but gets old. I'd love get treatment for some minor but annoying medical issues. There are people I miss, and the social vicissitudes of telling people you now don't feel safe seeing them when you did before (because of the ore contagious variants now out there) are hard to navigate. I'm listening to a long, detailed message for the fifth time. Giving me information that is different from what's on the website. Still on hold. But I'm glad I'm dealing with NH--if I were at home in MA, I gather it's a zoo, and it would be a long wait.
February 3, 2021