Reflecting on my experience of the pandemic thus far

I haven't been terribly diligent lately about posting on Fridays. For those who read what I write, you'll grasp why this is the case recently. My period of isolation is over. I had a bit of a vaccine dilemma this week, which worked out. I now have my booster shot, which was a full dose of the Moderna vaccine. While I experienced only the symptom of losing my sense of smell, the day after my booster was rough.

When I think back to how scared I was of the virus, I marvel at myself. I have now been infected twice: in March 2020 and October 2021. So, I've experienced both variants. Again, my second infection was not bad at all. It sucks not to be able to smell and to have my taste impacted by this. I have little doubt that being fully vaccinated was the key factor in not experiencing worse symptoms. In any case, I no longer personally fear the virus. My main concern is not to infect others. But that is a tricky business.

I am not sure how I feel about all the mandates being issued. In many ways, these seem to exacerbate the problems we're experiencing. After the past few weeks, I have a slightly different perspective on some of these questions. I have few doubts about the safety of the vaccines. The efficacy of the vaccines isn't great for keeping one from being infected with sars-cov-2 but I think it greatly lessens the impact of the virus on those who are vaccinated. I am glad I am vaccinated and boosted. I encourage others to do so as well.

Will this pandemic end? What constitutes the criteria for ending a pandemic? I am sure the criteria are in place. Life will remain greatly altered by the pandemic for quite a while.

I had been looking forward to October being less stressful than September. But this month has proven to be the worst month, thus far, of a not-so-great year. In many ways, 2020 was a better year for me than 2021 has been so far. I get that time is kind of arbitrary. There is nothing magical or supernatural about a year. Nonetheless, it is how we mark time. I certainly pray that 2022 will be an improvement over this year. Specifically, I pray during 2022 the pandemic will end.

What about a traditio? Since for Roman Catholics, Fridays are traditionally penitential days and since I really love Greg LaFollette's album Songs of Common Prayer, our traditio for this final Friday of October is "Most Merciful God." LaFollette's album is based on the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. So, today's traditio is not so much ecumenical as it is truly Catholic.

Given the subject I address above combined with my choice of traditio for today, it's probably important to explicitly note that I do not think the pandemic is a divine punishment for real or imagined offense(s) against God or whatever. As the late theologian James P. Mackey noted: "the [only] punishment for sin is a self-inflicted punishment by humanity on humanity" (Christianity and Creation, 115).