Sunday, February 07, 2021

Super-Spreader Bowl Sunday


You don't have to be a Kansas City fan to view today's Super Bowl outcome as the worst possible one: the Tampa Bay Bucs became the first team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl in their home stadium.  Consider that the photo above was taken of the partying in the street in Tampa Bay BEFORE the Super Bowl.  Now imagine what it's like tonight.

The Tampa Bay Super Spreader events follow a day in which people all over the country gathered in small spaces, eating, drinking and shouting at the top of their lungs.  Meanwhile, the news featured a new study that claims that the UK variant is already widespread in the US.  While the national numbers of infections and deaths have been going down, the combination of the new variant and yet another heedless holiday endangers all of us with new outbreaks in a couple of weeks.

Here in Humboldt the numbers have not gone down appreciably, and on Friday there were 11 new hospitalizations, representing every age group from the 20s through the 70s.  I can't recall a day of more than 2 new hospitalizations.  This week may tell us if this was just a freakish day, or something worse.

While I understand the psychological pressure everyone is under, and the greater urges for group activities in younger age groups, I can't help viewing these people as my jailers, at best, and threats to my life and the lives of my family.  It's not a super feeling. 

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