Two Years of Covid Fears

Two years ago yesterday the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Covid has been a world-wide event that has caused pain, suffering, death - and at times panic - to millions of people. In the early days we had no idea how our lives would be impacted, and certainly never dreamed the effects would still be felt two years later.

Here are the latest Covid statistics: North Carolina has had 2.61 million cases and 22,932 deaths. In the United States there have been 79.4 million cases and 966,000 deaths. Worldwide there have been over 455 million cases and over 6 million deaths. The United States is at a 65.7% full vaccination rate. Worldwide that number is a discouraging 57.3%.

As health restrictions eased, many US citizens have gone back to resuming their lives as if the virus has been eradicated. While it is certainly true that the number of positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has been on the decline, there are over 42,000 people in the US testing positive on a daily basis. Though many mask mandates have been dropped, the US government has extended the one that applies to flights, buses, ferries and subways until at least April 18th. This is no doubt an attempt to try and limit exposures during the spring break season.

But just as people were beginning to think it would be safe to travel outside the country again, last month Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, ordered the largest full-scale invasion of a nation since WWII as he tries to regain control of Ukraine. Obviously a devastating turn of events for the citizens of Ukraine, the economic implications of this war will be felt globally.

It appears 2022 will be another year unlike any other. And there's nowhere to run.

safe statues

Is Covid Over?

heart and sole

Walk into any store, restaurant or building around here and you will be hard pressed to find anyone wearing a mask. Unless I happen to be there, because I STILL don't want to get covid. The greater Charlotte area is in Mecklenburg County, which has had a mask mandate in place since August 31, 2021 because Covid cases continued to rise. When that mask mandate was put into place, the ruling said that the Covid test positivity rate must reach 5% or less for four straight months before the mandate would be lifted. In November, 2021 the ruling was revised to state that the mandate would be lifted when a 5% or less positivity rate existed for seven days straight.

To date, we have not reached that benchmark. In January the positivity rate was around 32%. By last week it had dropped to 20.8%. The latest number from February 13th shows the rate at 15.7%. The numbers are definitely trending in the right direction, but how much of this is due to a decrease in Covid cases versus the fact that many people are utilizing home tests? The home test numbers are not often reported to officials.

Tomorrow the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners will vote on whether or not to keep the mask mandate in place. They are getting a lot of pressure from employers, schools and businesses to drop the mandate. The states of California and Oregon have already dropped their mask mandates. I suspect Mecklenburg will do the same.

Does anyone else see the irony of our federal government paying for and distributing 400 million N95 masks right before we are all told we don't need to wear one anymore?

February - What's Not to Love?

It's the first of February, and we are at the threshold of going into the third year of Covid-19. The omicron variant has had at least two mutations of its own, and while they appear to be less deadly they are also seemingly easier to transmit. Hospitals are again near capacity, and the beds are filled with mostly unvaccinated people. The vaccines and boosters do not protect as well against the omicron variant, but vaccinated people are less likely to get as sick and/or hospitalized as unvaccinated people. There is a growing sense that we are all going to get covid at some point. When this pandemic is looked back on in the future, historians may well be examining who DIDN'T get covid - and why?

free Covid-19 test kits

The U.S. government is offering two covid test kits free of charge to each household. We ordered ours through the government-provided link, and they arrived in a couple of weeks via the postal service. I had previously ordered some from Amazon just to have on hand, so we are set with tests for the moment. Too bad I can't get reimbursed for those as they are costly at $19 per box.

Health experts are now saying that the medical paper masks that most people wear, as well as cloth masks, are not sufficient in protecting you against the spread of omicron. They recommend wearing an N95 mask (normally only used in hospital settings) instead. Those were in really short supply earlier in the pandemic, and we were all asked to save those for health care professionals. Somehow our government is now distributing 400 million N95 masks to citizens at no charge. Where did these come from? Who knows. It looks like you have to go to a pharmacy to get the masks, and each person can have three. 

I think it's important to note that these mask are not washable and aren't meant to be reusable, so I'm not sure how that's going to work. In the meantime, I'll keep wearing my washable cloth mask - the one I made with a pocket to insert a filter. It's fitted, has a nose piece, and gives me four layers of protection, so I think I'm good as long as I continue to socially distance and stay away from crowded venues.

layered face mask

A Cold January

I have been sick for the past week. It began with a slight sore throat, which went into a runny nose and coughing. With Covid on everyone's mind, of course that is where my mind went. But I didn't have any other Covid symptoms - no headache, body aches, loss of taste and/or smell, or fever. It has been pretty much classic cold symptoms. But the weird thing is that I have not been around anyone besides the people in my house since December 28th. (With the exception of being with five neighbors in the back yard socially distanced on New Year's Eve.) And none of them are sick. It didn't seem possible that I could have caught a cold much less Covid. 

Despite that fact I tried to schedule a Covid test as our daughter was flying back home today and obviously had been exposed if I was positive. Home tests are pretty much unavailable, though I have some on order through Amazon. But none of the testing sites had appointments available for the next four days. One of my neighbors offered me a test this morning, so I gladly took it. As expected, I am negative for Covid. That was a relief to all of us.

But we are in a bad situation in this country when people who have some symptoms cannot get a Covid test so they don't expose others around them. Across the country people are waiting in lines for 5 hours or more to do the drive-thru testing. It's ridiculous! The government has had over two years to get this figured out. No wonder the virus is still spreading at an unparalleled rate. We are in for another rough winter in more ways than one.

Pickleball in Paradise

Sandals South Coast

As mentioned in the last post, we went to Jamaica on November 7th for a week-long stay at the Sandals South Coast. There were over 30 of us from the greater Charlotte area on the trip for this pickleball adventure. Sandals is an all-inclusive, adults only resort. The only negative is the hour and a half bus trip on precarious roads to get to the resort. 

The grounds of the hotel are fantastic, resembling a botanical garden oasis. There are numerous restaurants and swimming pools, and of course multiple pickleball courts. Though the courts are striped on tennis courts, they functioned well for our purposes.

Due to the heat and humidity, we limited our play to several hours in the morning. This left the afternoons and evenings free to swim in the ocean or pools, rest on the many loungers, or take advantage of the water sport options. We did drills and had coached play, and the week culminated with a round robin tournament on Saturday, followed by a banquet that evening. All the people in our group were super-nice and we made some new friends that we will continue to see in Charlotte. I feel like I learned some new game strategy, and hope to put those into play.

On Friday (two days prior to departure), Sandals provided Covid tests to anyone in our group who had been fully vaccinated. Those who had not been vaccinated had to wait until Saturday for their tests per new United States entry requirements. Our appointments were at 11:15, and we were able to walk right in to the testing room. This test was very different than the one we completed prior to travel. It involved the long testing stick, which felt as though they were literally picking your brain. It definitely brought tears to my eyes. Later that evening we got our negative test results back, thankfully.

flying home

On Sunday the same bus and driver repeated the harrowing drive back to Sangster International Airport. The checkin line at the airport was pretty long, but moved quickly. Our plane boarded on time, and again we had a very civil group of passengers on the flight. With all the horror stories of passengers yelling and even striking flight attendants over the mask mandate, you never know what might happen. But while this trip went fairly smoothly, I am not in a hurry to leave the country again anytime soon. It's just a lot of hassle right now.