Is it over?

Tonight Erudite Partner and I will get our third COVID boosters. It's been nearly a year; I'm sure we need an immunity upgrade.

Here on the Reno campaign, I'm the COVID safety officer. We are very careful, far more than most people around us. Every canvasser who can drive has their own rented car. Everyone has their own separate lodgings. We ask that all of us wear masks when inside and try to eat outside at restaurants. And, every day, all of us fill out an electronic form that comes to me, examining ourselves for symptoms.

If someone reports possible symptoms, I have them stay home at the motel and visit with a rapid test and a thermometer. So far it's always been allergies and/or exhaustion. We're going as far as we can to keep ourselves COVID-free.

So far so good. No coronaviruses here (nor were there any on the Reno campaign using the same protocols in 2020). Obviously we don't want our folks getting sick, but we are also very aware that a super-spreading event could shut down the whole operation. 

• • •

New York journalist Jill Filipovic had an interesting and quite different reaction to receding coronavirus restrictions than we're having here. 

I am definitely in the relief camp when it comes to lifting Covid restrictions. I’m also generally physically healthy, and I have a relatively high tolerance for risk. At some point, every society has to make cost-benefit decisions, including about health and safety. ...

But it also means an opportunity for straightforward conversations about how we weigh the various costs and benefits of any policy change. And it’s an opportunity to get a little more creative: What worked during the pandemic? What didn’t? What could we try to maximize people’s health and their desire to return to normal?

... [I] chafe at a return-to-normal path that simply tries to recreate Before Times without much thought to how we could integrate the lessons of the past three years as we chart our way forward — when it comes to health and safety, but also work, family, culture, and society. There is ample opportunity here to rethink the way we’re living. It’s a shame our policy-makers largely aren’t taking it.

Certainly the level of careful distancing we're maintaining here isn't appropriate to most lives. But have we learned anything enduring from the precautions of the last few years? All comments welcome.