Pandemic blues

I had a telemedicine appointment yesterday. There's nothing acute wrong with me that I know of, just a few aches as might be expected of a somewhat used body. But Medicare expects me to have an annual check-up (or in this case check-in) and my doc plays by the rules.

So we checked in and agreed there was nothing much to be done for me. She's been my doc for half a decade, but we aren't close. But, just to be decent, I asked her whether the pandemic has been crazy for her.

Immediately, her anguish and rage came pouring out. I've never seen her so animated. She almost cried. She's at home, with two kids under ten, out of school now for nearly a year.  They don't take well too zoom. The San Francisco Unified School District can't seem to open even for the little ones. She'd never thought this could happen, but maybe they'll have to go to a private school if she can find one. Meanwhile her employer expects her to see patients both by telemedicine and half-time in person and she's at her wits end.

All I could say was "Hang in there ..." And wonder whether San Francisco parents might indeed recall our foot-dragging School Board.

• • •

Washington Post pundit Molly Roberts offered some musings for this awkward pandemic in-between time, when some of us are fully vaccinated, some have had one shot so far (that's me), and most are still wondering when there will be enough of the magic elixir to reach them. Not to mention the considerable number who don't intend to be vaccinated.

We’ve silently written laws for responsible but tolerable existence over the past year. Now, we are in the process of amending them to accommodate a more nuanced reality.

... We’ve stayed sane so far because we’ve lived this lonely life together. Maybe that’s why officials are so reluctant to tell the vaccinated they now have a pass. Everything might fall apart when we stop asking everyone to sacrifice.

... We’ve spent a spring, summer, fall and winter calibrating our socially distanced lives, and now another spring has arrived and we’re beginning again. The yeses, noes and maybes are changing — but some of them are only changing for the vaccinated, and others of them can’t change as fully as they might so long as the unvaccinated remain. Yes, you can go to the grocery store now if you’re vaccinated, but still limit your time and your trips. No, you can’t throw out your mask, no matter what.

... Socially distancing we’ve finally figured out; socially sort-of distancing from some and socially even-less distancing from others will prove a puzzle.

... And this isn’t only a concern of figuring out what is safe, but also of relearning how to behave. ... Back to normal, when we make it there, won’t feel normal at all.

Let us all just get there as soon as can be ...