I was added to a group text this morning, with several cousins. Amadi, said they, you planned our family reunions before and it’s been more than 10 years, we think we should have another next summer. You have all the stuff from planning those first three, will you take the lead since you don’t work?

I had to sit with that for a while.

“Do you remember WHY I don’t work?”

Sure, your disabled, chronically fatigued, immune compromised cousin will plan an event she can’t safely attend. Why not?🙄

COVID is still real. There’s nothing indicating that next summer will suddenly be safe when it comes to this virus. I would love to see my extended family. Since the last time we’ve all been together, my mother has become the local family matriarch, of sorts. She’s the eldest in any case and would love to be able to see everybody, and there are children that none of us have met, but there’s no way to do this kind of thing safely, with people coming in from across the country.

Because the abled world decided that COVID was over for them, COVID will seemingly never be over for some of us. All of the abled people who continue to whine about having to stay at home in 2020 (it was never lockdown, and I will never call it that) and how horrible it was to go without social interaction have pretty much ensured that some of us will never be able to socialize with anyone except through screens.

Hospitals are reinstating mask mandates and they’re still not getting it.

@amaditalks Ugh I'm so sorry. I've stopped seeing family as well except briefly in my N95, and they've stopped doing anything at all to protect themselves from covid as far as I can tell and they've had it multiple times.

My household remains covid free because we are *careful*, and yes it suuure does feel like the entire world has moved on and decided to just play roulette with this thing until they die of a suspicious heart attack or an organ failure that ofc had nothing at all to do with their five covid infections.

Sending solidarity. <3

@squeevening thank you. Solidarity with you and your efforts too.

@squeevening @amaditalks

yes, same. ✊💜

@amaditalks Huh? So what do you propose? Eradicating COVID was not an option once it spread out of first city in China, so yes, we have to live with it. At least vaccines are now available. Is the post 4 years too late?

@pavel this is what living with it looks like for those of us who remain at high risk, because we are immunecompromised, chronically ill and/or disabled. We don’t go places, we don’t do things, we don’t see people. Eradication isn’t the issue, it’s the lack of any common sense precautions. Air still isn’t being cleaned, people are still going around in public while sick without masking, and there’s been an abysmal 7% uptake of the 2024 booster vaccine in adults in the US.

@amaditalks Well, at least you can get vaccines to reduce COVID risks. But I'm afraid COVID is not the only infection that spreads through air, and yes, it would be nice if ill people stayed separated, realistically I'm afraid we are back to 2018 situation basically...