"It ain't over until the fat virus sings". So here's my prediction for fall 2021 and winter 2022, we will be back right where we were last year. Sounds ominous I know, but that's my gut feeling.
This summer we have enjoyed some normalcy, well at least corona normal. While the numbers are down from spring and now into summer there has been an uptick across the county of cases. The virus is kind of like waiting for albies to show up, you see none or less in the summer, and then in the fall they show up, and then show in good numbers.
A lot, not all, of people have been vaccinated. I know it has wrecked several members of my family, including myself. Those with preexisting conditions, especially those with autoimmune disorders, are susceptible to having more side effects then those who don't. The reactions are a case by case basis, who cannot broad stroke this one away.
I am not an antivaxxer. I fell in line and got in myself. According to the Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy Covid vaccines are 99.9% effective at preventing disease and 99.9993% effective at preventing deaths among the 4.4 million people in New Jersey who are vaccinated, which is about half of the state's population. With that, there have been 31 deaths of fully vaccinated people due to covid through June.
What does that mean? In my opinion. Numbers will increase as the fall and flu season arrives. Business and schools will go into, not panic but prevention mode, and will make mask mandates at first voluntary and then mandatory again. The Governor will order a state of emergency. Unemployment benefits will continue. Schools, at first thought to go in-person only, will have so much push-back from parents they will be forced to go hybrid with a virtual option and then close so often due to actual or suspected cases they will be closed several times a month. And as far as the colleges go, don't get too excited dropping the kids off to college, the mandatory vaccine requirements will wreak havoc and the college experience will not go as planned.
And then there's work. People, at least those with a stable household with normal spouses and kids, and climate control, have enjoyed working from home. Business are up in the air, they don't have the control, still have to pay out the overheads, but haven't seen that much of a dip in productivity. But they are scared their employees will jet for greener pastures if they make in-person mandatory again. Its like the inmates are running the asylums.
While we are seeing people down the beach, restaurants and bars full, and travel and airlines moving more people across the country each day, the abrupt stop is coming. It's just a matter of when.
It sounds like I'm a Danny-downer. This week Provincetown moved to reintroduce mandatory mask zones in their tourist laden town. States will start to try and lock down and protect their states, balancing the thin line of a tourist season money grab and public health. When one state does it the next will follow, and the later the season gets the "stronger and tougher" they will be, after the banks are full with the tourists cash.
Soon the push for people to get the flu shot will begin. Once only available at your doctor's office, now at the pharmacy, places like WaWa and Chic-Fill-A will be ready to jam you in the arm. And there's the booster shot for the covid vaccine, not here yet, but coming.
For me, it doesn't matter if Trump or Biden is in office. Every person will have their angle or skew. But I fear its going to get worse out here. Yes, maybe they won't be storing bodies in box trucks outside hospitals like we did last year, but people will still die, life as we know it today will no be come the fall and winter. Stay safe and hopefully the grim reaper doesn't make an appointment to visit you or your family anytime soon. I hope I am wrong on this one.