I’ve noticed something interesting about the reports of various individuals who are contracting COVID. They appear to be of varying ages and not limited to blocks of infection in nursing homes, or choir practice, or communal gatherings.
Anecdotally, people are becoming infected from a random friend or relative with whom they’ve shared an hours’ worth of conversation.
A brother comes to visit. You talk outside for a few hours, in this case wearing gaiters (the sport nylon neck warmers—which, not coincidently, have been shown to increase aerosol risk—for both you and others—rather than decrease it!)
Unbeknownst to you, your brother had COVID, and now you have it.
A friend comes to share a treat with you and you share a beer together, of course, unmasked. Your friend had COVID, and didn’t know, and now you have COVID.
All this hand washing, mask wearing, social distancing, temperature taking, and hand-wringing may be for naught, because it all comes down to a random social encounter. One person is unaware of having the virus and the other is unprotected in some way.
It leads to a tragic question: why, so many months into this crisis, do we not have relevant protection in the face of simple human need?
Are we to forgo our socializing or togetherness—a need that humans require and thrive upon—for the duration? Will the fundamental connections in our society change forever?
Sure, yes, vaccines and everything, but it will take many iterations before they 1) exist, and 2) are distributed and have the chance to have an impact on the whole.
With all this diligence, how many random encounters will continue to result in infection, before this happens?
What if we had devices that “dropped” the air during conversation?
What if everyone had proper masks and really knew how to wear them?
What if everyone cooperated?
Asking people to do without meaningful social contact—those “real things”—stolen moments with friends, as opposed to Zoom calls—is painfully inhuman.
A little real contact goes a tremendously long way.
But with the mystery and ignorance surrounding this virus, that contact could be also fateful.
Without relevant protection, our number comes up.
It is difficult not to drink the water in an oasis in the middle of a desert. All the virtual contact in the world, or time with family, does not prepare us to avoid the real thing.
Be extra careful with those random contacts. The wind between you is full of aerosols.
Do not throw caution to the wind.