Vaccinated AND Safe. Really.

 I continue to suffer from an abundance of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the Covid-19 ministrations of the leadership of several of the states, and the experts of the CDC, as well as dear Dr. Fauci. I still can't get over how we went from his masks don't help on or about March 8, 2020 to masks, double masks, in addition to six feet distancing is an absolute of the "science". I post an article that seeks to diminish the cognitive dissonance. It is denominated a "fact check". It is a spin on the "facts" from my perspective. Those who think it's reasonable, raise your hands. About half of you. The other half is considered, what is it, perhaps, "neanderthal"? 

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-fauci-outdated-video-masks/fact-checkoutdated-video-of-fauci-saying-theres-no-reason-to-be-walking-around-with-a-mask-idUSKBN26T2TR

What Dr. Fauci said you see was BEFORE the superseding better understanding of the CDC. Uh-huh. Ok, I tried to buy it, for the sake of a vestige of sanity during this last, about to be a year on the 13th or 14th. 
But it ain't over the dissonance. Not by a longshot.
I have noticed on the Facebook Feed to which I have returned with some trepidation as scrolling and reading can cause agita, that friends are posting a picture with the phrase "I am vaccinated and safe".
Vaccination has been the holy grail in all of the sturm und drang of the last year. We got it. The CDC has sort of lifted some of the heavier suggestions about with whom one may mingle.
 

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart.
• Visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.
• Refrain from quarantine and testing if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19 after contact with someone who has COVID-19.

But this does NOT mean that if I am outside, in a supermarket, in my Church, or, I assume if ever we are allowed to do anything cultural again, like movies, I can go without a mask and social distancing. This is because so many people are still unvaccinated. So, the way I see it is that I will be vaccinated, and STILL not safe. Well, I will be safe, from others, but they will not be safe from me. And what if a lot of people don't get vaccinated? I will be able to visit with unvaccinated people without a mask or staying six feet apart if EVERYONE in the other household is at low risk for severe disease. (Everyone get their medical records ready to prove it!). But outside I will never know who has been or not been vaccinated (well, I might when those little cards are all getting are checked at the door of every venue), so I and you will be wearing a mask and distancing ad infinitum, no? 

So, once I am fully vaccinated, it does not look like I am really safe. I guess I might be safe for a while (as you may know vaccination efficacy does not necessarily last forever, e.g. I got the measles at age 25 though I had been vaccinated as a child).  But even if I am safe, the other is not safe. It is kind of like driving a car, except there still no one is "SAFE".  And will it be ok if I am walking ALL ALONE in the street not to wear my mask? Right now, any time we are in the public, we have to wear masks. I may be missing something but that does not seem to include when there is no one vaguely within six feet of me. So, really I am not safe from myself when I am alone in the street.

Then today, as I was walking toward my doctor's office, I saw two things. First, on the public parking kiosk touch screen, I was warned to wear a mask. Really is there no place where there is not a sign to remind us of the obligation? Then, there was this banner on a light pole.

"Staying Safe Means Wearing a Face Covering". That phraseology begs to be taken literally, and I have two problems with it. First, we are never safe. I have said this before. Others, with far more fame and clout, have said it before me. We will never be safe. There are a million things that can hurt us. And kill us. One or more of those other things, will hurt and/or kill us. It is a one hundred percent statistical certainty. Talk about encouraging magical thinking. Secondly, safety and wearing a face mask are not synonomous. This, I have actually learned today, is a form of univocal thinking and expression. And I hate to be even more a kill joy, but people who wore their masks got Covid. And though the Dr. Fauci statement has been officially superseded by the science and the CDC, I mean the one he made originally about the uselessness of masks, does the WAY people wear masks, handling them, dropping them, using them again (by the way today I saw several on the ground; I assume that can't be good, no?) still have an impact on whether or not one is exposed to the disease? 

And though we are not really permitted to say so, the wearing of the mask has psychological implications yet to be fully explored in the studies I imagine we will begin to see as the emotional difficulties of the population tied to the obsession with safety emerge. I wear my mask dutifully when I must be out, but if mask remains a requirement as part of that "new normal" that is not normal at all in the history of civilization, I won't be going out much. That might suit a lot of people who know me. But I don't think I will be in a minority. It is not mere inconvenience I am talking about. A few weeks was an inconvenience. A year plus is the restructuring of a society and not for the good. 

And then there is someting I really am not allowed to notice. . . . .how the numbers of Covid cases have magically gone down some 70 t0 90 percent since January. That has nothing, nothing I say, to do with the new and improved Presidency.  

And I am always amused by going into Starbucks or some other trendy locale with my mask, with signs all over about wearing a mask, and distancing, while a person with two dogs that are not service animals trot happily and without interdiction into the store. Now, those who know me know I love animals. I couldn't care less if they are in the store with all their germs and fleas. But I don't know, isn't that a little inconsistent?  It's a lot inconsistent. It is maddeningly inconsistent.

But then pretty much everything in this human morass is inconsistent.