Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

What if COVID-19 is “the virus that falls in the middle”?

 

There is no honor system in America anymore, if there ever was.

 

COVID 19 was probably a picnic compared with the Spanish Flu.

 

Then we've basically made that decision.

But if something comes along in 2028 that kills, say, 130,000 Americans . . .?

 

I mean, it seems made up. I like the word OK but it’s not something because a group of psychologists say so.

It’s basically stubbornness dressed up as a theory to get grant money for researching it.

 

Another Methodist here. First time I've set foot in a church on a Sunday in 14 months. We're not all the way back here, as what I attended was a chance to watch the the weekly pre-recorded and fairly well edited service from YouTube projected in the sanctuary with about three dozen people (in a church that can seat 300). I mostly went to get my body back on routine of having a church service I can't timeshift. The first 'live' service in the sanctuary will be Memorial Day weekend, will be limited to 100 persons and will involve masks and limited singing. However those plans were made before the CDC recommendations and statewide mitigation rules changed last week.

Today was the first time I've worked out at my local Y since the pandemic started. I took it fairly easy, but it all hurt a bit. I need it, though, because I'm probably about 15 pounds above where I was when this started and 50-60 above my goal weight. They've cut hours and there's a lot of 'COVID theater' rules going on. It just so happened that their 'masks at all times' rule has been waived as of today.

 

The world needs help from the Bad Nation.

Covid Live Updates: U.S. Help Is Falling Short in Global Vaccine Drive, Experts Say

And the Bad Nation's gift is not nearly enough.

Activists, too, have joined the cohort of voices calling on the Biden administration to move boldly. “Donating 80 million doses of vaccines without a plan to scale up production worldwide is like putting a Band-Aid on a machete wound,” said Gregg Gonsalves, a longtime AIDS activist.

 

Has your church considered 1 or 2 outdoor services this summer? We did it last summer (masked up) in one of our two parking lots and the attendance was decent for that time in the pandemic.

We've had indoor services (masked up) for awhile - several months. Building seats 450, we get about 150 for each service, socially distanced by open pews, and people are asked (and they comply) to do their chatting outside after the service.

 

Our church started up limited capacity indoor worship about late June-early July last year, once it got too hot for outdoors. At first there were very strict capacity limits, to the point they added several midweek chapel services so they could at least get an extra dozen or so in the door here and there. Gradually they have increased capacity and tightened up the schedule and after the end of this month there is no more advance signup and presumably full capacity.

The reality is though that it isn’t the same. Mother’s Day was my first Sunday back and we were maybe, almost half full for 11:00. This weekend was more like 1/4 full. Pre Covid it would have been closer to 2/3 full for that time slot, which granted does skew older than contemporary worship next door at 8:30.

 

They did a couple on Wednesdays outside last summer. I'm kind of chained to the desk at that point, so it doesn't work great for me.

I think we'll probably be back to 'normal' by mid-summer, though with all the churn we get during tourist season, it's kind of random. Once Easter happened without us being back, there really isn't any Sunday between now and Labor Day that is any better than the others. The leadership kind of committed to this very conservative tack some time ago on the grounds of harm reduction to the old folks and vulnerable communities and I think they're just seeing it out. The Annual Conference still has us in the 'orange' zone, whatever that means.

 

People in a town I once lived in started printing their own counterfeit tags to put on their garbage bags for pick-up.

The tags cost a whopping $1.

The orange ink necessary to print a fake tag was probably in the same ballpark. And their font choices were not in the same ballpark, which made it easy for the city to find them.

Counterfeit vaccine cards require the same amount of idiocy.

 

It's not the same and probably won't be. COVID was the event that probably ended church attendance for 10-20 attendees who had one foot out the door to begin with, and there's still a 15-20% who aren't back, say they'll be back, and you just never know. Summer will tell the tale.