In 2020, we quarantined to avoid sickness and exposing others to a disease that passed asymptomatically. We wore masks and answered contact tracing questions to protect people we love. Covid changed how we think about disease as a society. Precautions have gradually loosened. Last year when we traveled, I overheard the following in a Choice Hotel breakfast room.
“You need a mask.”
“You can’t make me wear one.”
“No mask. No food. This is a Choice Hotel. You have a choice.”
The protestor put on a mask and plastic gloves, selected food, sat down and removed the mask to eat.
I wonder what the protestor would have thought about the hotel where clerks distributed grab-and-go sacks stuffed with: yogurt, crackers, sweet rolls, a heat-and-eat sausage biscuit and juice. Guests could use the microwave but the lack of chairs discouraged eating in the dining room.
We warmed our food and left.
This year, we have not encountered any monitored breakfast rooms. In one hotel, we were thankful for the hostess who asked if she could make us an omelet and indicated a table and chairs for dining..
Last year with Covid restrictions going strong and people still staying home to avoid the illness, we had open roads and no competition for rooms. Overnight stays cost less.
Last year, I woke up early to wash clothes in the small laundromat inside one hotel. I sat and read all by myself as the machines chugged. With a closed door and the early hour, I did not bother to wear a mask. At least I didn’t until some guy looked in, stepped back in fear and went to the desk to tattle, “she is NOT wearing a mask.”
This year we visited shops and restaurants where no one offered us a mask. Many emphasized, “No mask is required.” Roads and hotels are busier.
I still see a few folks wearing masks as they leave church or shops, and I understand the precaution in these indoor settings. However, I do not understand the folks who wear masks while playing at the inside water park along with a few hundred other families. Surely all that warm water and humidity provide the perfect hot house for germs for every part of the body in the water. Or, if not there, walking through the enclosed hallways between the water park and room. Masks seem useless at indoor water parks.
Last year we carried masks because we had a choice, and we like our free breakfast at the hotels. This year, no one said anything about wearing a mask. Apart from a neglected thermometer at the entrance of a nursing home we visited, no one even had the means to take our temperature.
I have seen the same decline of the entrance rituals at Champagnolle Landing where I exercise. Initially patrons logged in, recorded their temperature and time upon entering the building. That is no longer required, for the thermometers have worn out. Few adhere to the sign mandating “Masks must be worn.”
That has been the situation at churches as well. No one mans the check-in desk. The handheld forehead thermometer lays unused, and boxes of masks have no takers.
Is Covid over? The answer depends on which side of the argument you support. Some say it is over for reasons as varied as “I already had Covid.” or “I had the shots.” or “I’m just over it all.”
By 2022, we have wearied of the precautions. What will perhaps never change is that if your loved one contracts Covid, you do everything possible to get them well again while the rest of us step back and allow space to convalesce.