Covid Support Thread
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I can vouch for Christian Scientists largely getting it if that’s who you’re referring to. They don’t ban medicine and they do follow public health guidelines.
No major religion forbids the Covid vaccine. But plenty of pseudo-religious kooks are handing out “religious exemptions” like candy – some for a price.
Yes – I was thinking of CS. Yes, this is my point. People are claiming religious exemption, but leaders (like the Pope) or coalitions (like the Baptists) have not demanded exemption.
So who has to accept a religious exemption? If you take any OTC or Rx medicine, if you have any implantable device, I’m not accepting your exemption. You want to live on essential oil – fine. But here’s your damn mask. I catch you without it, you’re out.
Yeah so that article MJ shared seems to think employers will not want to push back too much on religious exemptions.
I always had one as a kid, until I wanted to get into college, and there was never any issue. But nor was there any epidemic or outbreak ever going on in our community. During this pandemic, CS are doing the right thing and getting vaccinated.
So I do anticipate anti-vaxxers going out and getting bogus exemptions (my friend did that a few years ago, I think a Catholic one though she was not religious), and I anticipate their employers largely accepting them because they don’t want to have legal exposure. We’ll see.
So I flew yesterday to Denver. On Southwest. You know… unassigned seating. Anyway, the seat between me and a twenty something black woman who was ALSO wearing a mask was empty. Til the end.
But at the last possible second — this idiot chunky dude showed up all can I sit here?
We were like — uhh… HELLO! Where is your mask?
They were LITERALLY making announcements about how YOU HAD TO BE MASKED. He rolled his eyes but pulled one out and grumpily put one one.
I was fucking OVER it.
He was a thirtysomething Latino guy. I was an angry old white man. I get this fucker voted to recall Gavin Newsom.
Rare bit of good (or at least more specific) news: in our NIH Town Hall this morning, Dr. Fauci said that if the timetable goes as expected, Pfizer will submit their data for the 5-11 age group to the FDA and apply for the EUA by the end of September. The review of the data should take about 3-4 weeks and the EUA will likely be issued by late October, at which time the vaccine becomes available for kids age 5-11. Moderna is a few weeks behind Pfizer, so will likely have an EUA for kids under 12 by mid-to-late November. He didn’t really hedge about this timeline at all, so I’m going to hang my hat on it! If I heard someone say “late fall” or “midwinter” again, I was bout to lose my shit…
I’ve flown twice now during COVID and it has been fine. The first time was during the spring, and I kind of assumed that since then, things had changed on flights and people were letting their guard down at airports/on airplanes, but that has not been my experience. My flight to SF last week was only half full. We were at the front of the economy section and when I walked to the back to use the bathroom, not a single person had taken their masks off, chin strapped, or pulled it below the nose. The way home, we were on a much larger and full flight, so I guess harder to feel like I saw everyone or even most people. The people I observed were all following the rules, though.
I had to fly last weekend, to Albuquerque from DC, to help out my mom (she was having surgery, and there was really no one else she would let stay with her – and of course it wasn’t really considered that my brother might do it – that’s a resentment for another post…but anyway) There are no direct flights, so I had a layover in Houston on the way there and at O’Hare on the way home. The DC and Albuquerque airports were basically fine. Houston airport was a festival of uncovered noses and general mask-flouting. O’Hare, while being Before-Times level crowded, had amazing levels of mask compliance and people wearing high-quality masks (surgical or KN95s). All my flights were full but people mostly kept their masks on. I hid in a corner during each layover and unmasked for like 10 minutes so I could stuff a granola bar in my face, but otherwise was double masked the whole time. I definitely don’t want to repeat the experience until my daughter is vaccinated! I’m waiting for the results of a covid test now – I’ve been masking up around her so I don’t unwittingly pass something on.
My husband and I were just joking that if we can start the vax process with our kid in October, the grandmas are going to really start beating that drum for us to come for Christmas. And I was like…maybe we don’t want the FDA to work TOO quickly…haha. I would bet that this year’s holiday travel is going to be absolutely nightmarish.
