Happy New Year...

I wish all of my readers a healthy 2021. May you be happy, free from harm, and live with the ease of well being.

Here...

  A recent comment posted here asked whether I would take the current Covid 19 vaccine. Since the virus is now known to cause neurological changes which I don't need and potentially leave lasting disability in its wake, unless I want to risk catching it, the answer is yes.

Because I am already disabled and neurologically impaired, I really cannot afford to catch anything that could worsen that situation. Additionally, being in a wheelchair most of the time puts me at a disadvantage as does my age because at this point, I would very likely not be a candidate for a ventilator should my lungs and breathing become problematic. With the continuing spread of COVID and hospitals now jammed, doctors are having to decide who would be more likely to benefit from recovery, something I knew and read about from the earliest days of this pandemic. I have also always known that I might get the short end of the stick if doctors were forced into making tough choices because people would not stay home, would not wear masks, would not avoid mixing households for holidays and would not socially distance themselves properly. 

That day has come for too many and watching this all unfold has left me tired, paranoid of any human contact and disgusted by irresponsible behavior, particularly by so-called educated people who want what they want how they want and when they want regardless of the possible consequences to themselves or others because they feel entitled to do whatever they damn well please. 

The new, more virulent strain of COVID and the fact that people can have COVID and be shedding the virus without symptoms means that everyone is a potential vector of disease.

While vaccines offer the prospect of more normalcy and freedom of movement, seventy percent of our population must be  injected before we can begin to live without masks and think of once again enjoying group activities beyond our own households safely. How long that will take to occur is anyone's guess but at the end of the day, I will be vulnerable until then and possibly beyond.

While COVID is in the forefront of the news, it is flu season and I have forgone that vaccine this year because I really cannot take public transport or afford to sit in the car of a friend who has not yet been vaccinated against the COVID virus.

I do not go to shops, I do not go for walks, I do not sit six feet from anyone and share time, food or conversation. I am at home and worried every time groceries or packages arrive now because so many are sick. I live each day connected via the Internet and only that, to the rest of the world. For the most part I am content to be well and do not complain. This is my reality.

Another piece of my reality is that people with disabilities who contract COVID 19 are more likely to die and have a greater risk of dying post-vaccination as well. So, this virus could kill me either way, another reason I'm a bit short on sympathy for the able-bodied who grouse about their perceived lack of freedom.

A friend who works in the public health sector has suggested that masks and other COVID 19 measures may last well into the coming year.

Those of you who are well and more able-bodied but carry on about the abridgement of your lives, your movements, your plans, please focus on the larger picture of staying put and potentially staying well. Stop taking your lives and whatever entitlements you feel are so damned important for granted.