Well, here we are again. I’m back to blogging, this time on my website, rather than my older blog. I’ve been away for a couple of years trying to get my science fiction books published, and the first book, titled Explorer, should be out later in 2023 or early 2024. (See the Explorer page on this website for more on what the book is about.) It’s been a long road to get to this point and I’m excited to be able to self-publish it. I’ll have more detail as the time for publication comes nearer.
But more to the point of why I started blogging in the first place, which was to express my opinions and inclinations on several subjects on which I feel qualified to comment. That’s why, if you look above the title of this post at the subheading of this page, it’s “What follows is commentary.” That’s a short preface that the late NBC newsman and analyst Chet Huntley made many, many years ago when he began a short opinion piece on the NBC Evening News. I don’t remember the topic he commented on, but that short introductory phrase stuck in my mind, so I borrowed it. (Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say I “stole” it. I hope NBC doesn’t mind.)
Right now, a little on COVID. We’ve just been through a long three years of pandemic, and only this year have we gotten back to what could be called “normal,” or if you wish, “near normal.” Most people are not wearing masks anymore, though I still see a few masks every now and then, especially in groups. We have returned to shaking hands mostly, the fist bump is rarely used anymore, and social distancing has largely become a thing of the past. Yet, the flu season is upon us, and COVID and RSV (which stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus) are now also circulating in the general population. (The transmission of those two other respiratory diseases can be seriously reduced using the same measures as for COVID.) In years past, before the pandemic, we never did much in terms of social distancing or variations in personal hygiene during the yearly flu epidemics. I never heard of Zoom meetings, and very few wore a mask. It never seemed necessary, and the CDC never emphasized it very strongly. It was always a good idea, but influenza never seemed enough of a problem to cause us to change our interpersonal habits to any significant extent. Probably to our detriment: influenza kills several thousand every year. Only the pandemic of a more serious disease caused us to change our ways, and now those changes have been more-or-less dropped, and we are back to old habits. I suspect this return is a reaction to the severe and prolonged forced isolation, the necessity of getting a vaccine and all those boosters, the loss of jobs and income, the less-than-optimal requirement for Zoom learning in school instead of the in-person group classes we are so used to, and so on, that we had to put up with for about two years. We, as gregarious humans, don’t like being isolated, and personal contact is so important to us. I fully understand, and even though I’m relatively introverted, I am glad that the old ways have returned. Zoom meetings have their place, but there’s nothing like a good face-to-face meeting.
But with the loss of these pandemic mitigation devices, we do leave ourselves open to the introduction of a new virus (God save us all), which could cause us to have to return to those hated and dreaded public health measures. Any new virus that comes will almost certainly be a respiratory virus because transmission by that route is so easy. Get your vaccine.