Yesterday's post was about how the pandemic is not over, even though people are letting restrictions go right and left.
Personal choices can still be made. I am not sure when I will go into a movie theater or dine in a restaurant again. I will still be wearing masks at the store.
It's not for me; I feel pretty confident in my vaccinated status. It is for children and the immune-compromised and front-line workers and for the people that love them and worry about them.
Not only do I want to help keep them safe, but I want to relieve some of that stress that can only be rising with how many people are making mask-shaming their new hobby.
(Plus, less flu, colds, and blocking some allergens doesn't sound like a bad idea.)
Funny thing about that: for all of the concerns that have been expressed about how pandemic restrictions hurt businesses, when the Enchanted Forest was ready to re-open, they received so many threats about their intention to require masks they had to delay their re-opening.
It kind of makes you question the sincerity of the fascist bullies.
As it is, it is worth pointing out that a lot of businesses have done really well under COVID.
For big corporations, Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Pfizer have done great. So have Procter & Gamble and Apple.
Even some restaurants have done pretty well, though sometimes that involved adapting to incorporate take-out.
That wasn't an option for all companies, and there are surely some businesses that have failed, and people who have decided to retire sooner rather than later. That can work out too, though there are discussions to be had about it.
Personally, we have gotten take-out from Chang's about five times during the past year. That may not seem like a lot, but we normally only go in person once a year. Their takeout option has been so convenient and such a good value that we went more.
They have had some dining in again, but if they are also keeping the excellent take-out options, then that is an improvement to how things were. One restaurant's options don't make too much difference, but let us consider whether instead of "getting back to normal" -- which was not really that great -- can we take this experience and become better?
If not everything has been terrible under the pandemic, what can we improve going forward?
For example, if working from home options have reduced stress for some employees, and allowed greater participation by employees with disabilities, is seems like that flexibility should be continued going forward.
If stimulus checks reduced food insecurity and hardship, which in turn reduced anxiety and depression, then that seems like something we should be interested in:
There can be questions about whether the best way to keep that going is going to be UBI or wage increases. Regardless, that people not having to worry about their next meal increases their personal well-being and ability to be productive seems like a net positive. We should care about that, right?
If it turns out that some people are not getting regular access to health care, and also that some people have almost no news literacy and it makes them susceptible to all kinds of misinformation, well, that's worth looking at, right?
The world has lost at least 3,937,437 people, all unique individuals. That includes 599,089 from the United States. People are starting to say 600,000, and we will almost certainly hit that and surpass it before that is done. Not all of those were avoidable, but a lot of them were.
Are we ready to decide we want better than this? Are we willing to change for it?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment