Filling My Own Cart Once Again

Sometimes, I don’t know if we’re coming or going with this pandemic.

Our premier, Doug Ford, is beginning to loosen restrictions. Among others changes, on March 01, restaurants will no longer be required to check health passes. But I have already written this as well as the fact that it was hardly an imposition to have to reveal mine the other day.

The thing is, that this blight ain’t necessarily over. BA.2, a subvariant of Omicron (snippets and link at the end from a CNN article), is coming next. Who knows what impact it will have. Rumblings are that it could be worse than Omicron.

I guess we’ll just have to take care of ourselves. Restaurants will likely have to do without my custom while we wait to see what happens next.

I did make a recent breakthrough of sorts, however.

For the first time in 2 months or more, I did the grocery shopping in person. 

Although Sue can’t stand shopping, I don’t mind it in the least and was happy enough to ramble around the store, choosing what I wanted. I must admit though, that pickup worked pretty well when called upon, and it has become a pretty big aspect of the grocery shopping economy these days. 

Everyone was masked,  and I double-masked. I also went early when the crowds weren’t … um …  actual crowds. I am glad that masking is the one thing that won’t change right away. When it does, I and probably many others will continue the habit, at least for a time. Beyond Covid protection, so many people are reporting that they haven't had a cold in two years. We'll have to see how people react in the long term.

Whatever the case, it was good to get out. We sure didn’t get out yesterday, except to shovel snow, as an overnight snow storm caused school buses to be cancelled. At one time, that would have meant a day of babysitting for us, and we might very well have taken the kids to the hill to do a bit of sledding. Sue and I would probably have gone down too — at least once. I think we last did that 3 years ago, or maybe 4. I do know that we went down at least once in our 70s. Yay us!

I kindalike miss those days, but I did like getting out to the grocery store again.

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New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.

And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.

BA.2 is about 30% to 50% more contagious than Omicron. It has been detected in 74 countries and 47 US states. 

Even though BA.2 seems more contagious and pathogenic than Omicron, it may not wind up causing a more devastating wave of Covid-19 infections.

"Before this thing came out, we were about 10 feet away from the finish line," she said. "Taking off the masks now is not a good idea. It's just going to extend it. Let's get to the finish line."

CNN: As BA.2 subvariant of Omicron rises, lab studies point to signs of severity