Alpha And Omega

Kevin Sorbo, who played Hercules on TV, recently tweeted: "I am not getting the covid vax. Who's with me?" George Takei, who played Sulu on Star Trek replied: "Actually, nearly every single person who died recently of Covid-19 is with you." 

And so here we are, nearly a year and a half after the pandemic began, watching television celebrities of various stripes haggle over the best way to handle our collective response to a virus that doesn't seem to care much about TV or our collective response to it. The virus continues to mutate, and new strains continue to appear, causing those of us who felt smug and free from worry after their masking and vaccination experience to wonder if maybe we rushed into something. 

A very great friend of mine who works in the business of health care wondered aloud why this all couldn't have been our "kumbaya moment." She was deflated by the way this disease had become politicized instead of being framed as a moment where we could all come together as humans to fight this invader. Instead, it has been picked up as a stick with which we can poke one another based on our relatively uninformed medical opinions. 

Recently, a Delta variant has been causing great concern as science rushes to catch up to its impacts and effects. If you're not up on your Greek alphabet, that's the fourth letter, and those same scientists have already assigned Lambda to another. There are only twenty-four letters in the Greek alphabet. We would, collectively, rather not use them all up. Meanwhile we can all continue to argue with one another about the best way to proceed in a world that doesn't seem to be as gung-ho about defeating a virus as we are about getting the neighborhood Chili's open or having the Olympics come off as rescheduled in Tokyo. 

The CDC recently announced that vaccinated students and teachers could go back to school without masks. Which I suppose would be great if all those students and teachers who heard this announcement were vaccinated. Or were willing to wear a mask in the event of a new strain or mandate from the powers that be. I recently returned from a trip where I went through a series of different expectations about vaccinations and masks. In the airport and on the airplane, masks were to be worn. Period. Elsewhere, new signs on business have begun to appear, allowing those who have been vaccinated to enter without a mask. No one was checking vaccination badges or records. We are anxious to be open and willing to trust one another while we go about our business. 

I suppose it makes sense that the son of the Roman God Jupiter might be confused by all those Greek letters, and it would take somebody with experience with warp speeds to explain it to him. But I still don't understand how we got this lost.