Climate Crisis -- the unexpected Covid edition

Image by brgfx on Freepik

Because we seem to be trying to turn a planet that supports life into one that does not, I’m posting a question or topic here every week to see if together we can work out some nuts and bolts of how to survive.  The whole linkable list of prior questions/discussions can be found here.

This week’s question was supposed to be something else... until I finally got Covid.

I was one of the only people left I knew who hadn’t had it yet.  Fully vaccinated and up to date on boosters, always masked in public indoors, and then FLiRT got me, as it’s getting large numbers of people here in the west.  

The FLiRT variants, so named due to the location of their spike protein mutations, are about 20% more transmissible than the JN.1 strain responsible for the winter surge. These variants have spread much faster than earlier versions of the virus.

The above quote is from the SF Chronicle, “Bay Area’s summer COVID wave prompts renewed mask guidance from health officials”, by Aidan Vaziri, 7 August 2024.  

Indoor masking is being recommended again in the Bay Area, wastewater coronavirus levels have quadrupled since May, etc.  You know the drill.  

So I now know the taste of Paxlovid (metallic), have had the thrill of multiple positive covid tests (whee), am generally flu-ish, and trying hard not to infect anyone else.  I know exactly 1 person who has not had covid yet, and I expect he’ll be getting it soon as he’s still going to indoor events unmasked.

So, I’m not up to my usual story today.  But I still have a question, based on a discussion I had with a former student after the first year of the pandemic.

I’ll detail the conversation later, somewhere in the comments below.