a zoom too many, maybe

"Okay, what have you done?"

Well, during the Zoom that passes for 'coffee hour' after Billy's service, I may have offended two of the older parishioners. They have already received both shots of whichever anti-COVID vaccine and had been trying to plan a trip back to Margaret's home in England. However, they had been told by friends there to not do so...

"Because it would be very dangerous for them to be in a plane for that cross-Atlantic flight..."

Oh, no, no, no, mon frere. Because it would be such a financial hardship on them! Not only would they be out the money for the airfare, but they would be required to quarantine for two weeks - at their own expense - at a special designated hotel for such purposes.

"Well, of course, they would. Had they not included that in their plans?"

No, it had not even occurred to them. I think they mentioned it because they were hoping for a bit of sympathy from others - Preston, Chuck, Carol K, Karen and son Ben - in that chat room. Well, they didn't get it! Especially not after I flat out told them that they were being selfish to travel there, so the authorities were in the right to protect the residents from their self-centered carelessness.

"Oh, my... did you really say that to them?"

To them, and to everyone else in that 'room'. [The photo is from last week, but I included it here because it had the two women involved in this conversation.] Margaret and Janet left shortly after, to go have a long-awaited lunch with a friend "now that they all had been vaccinated". I cautioned them that even though they'd had the vaccine, they could still spread the virus. They looked at me incredulously, as if they believed having the vaccine awarded them carte blanche to do whatever their little hearts desired.

"Well, as you may recall, your amiga Barbara acted in much the same way when y'all were emailing back and forth. She and Sandy have been vaccinated and are ready to go out into the world again, virus be damned!"

Yeah, I recall that just fine. She as a bit put out with me for 'raining on her parade', so to speak. She had been trying to convince me to host movie-watching parties at my house, but I let her know that would most assuredly not be happening. Heck, if she had her way, the theatre troupes would be back to performing live shows, now that she was vaccinated!

"I know. It's like the neighbor who is up at 8 AM on a Saturday, mowing the yard and using the blower because 'if he's us, everyone else is' mentality. I realize we are each the centers of our individual universes, but surely we recognize that our actions affect others, right?"

You would think so, but, no. I have been dismayed at the lack of real information out there. In the next chat 'room', I tried to clear up misconceptions about the purpose of the vaccine. This time I was with Cheri, Randy, Rhonda with Miss Virginia, and Carol K. again. Cheri was asking questions, so I was in full-tilt boogie 'teacher' mode, explaining that the vaccine was to prevent COVID - the infectious disease caused by the coronavirus - from occurring in the person who was vaccinated. The vaccine does not keep the virus away from the inoculated person - no, no, no. The vaccine does not keep the virus from being spread by the inoculated person - no, no, no. The vaccine's purpose is to keep an inoculated person infected by the virus from developing the life-threatening disease. Randy was the only one who understood me, likening it to the measles vaccine.

"Wow. These are all educated people, like all college graduates, aren't they? You would expect they might be more knowledgeable about the difference between the virus and the disease and what 'COVID' refers to."

Well, they are not. Nor do I suspect many of those reporting the news to be aware of what the acronym refers to and what the vaccine will accomplish. Just me explaining that 70% meant 'that 7 out of 10 people, if infected, would not be able to have the disease'. So for the virus to make more of itself and spread, it would have to infect the 3 out of 10 people who were still able to have the virus progress to the disease state. I was about to go into more when we got pulled out of that 'room' and back to the big 'room', with different conversations already going on.

"No one tried to continue the thread y'all had been pursuing?"

No, there really wasn't an opportunity for that. Everyone was getting to the 'off to lunch' stage of the session. The Zoom ended just a few minutes later.

"Well, you keep preaching, dear, even if it is to the same choir. I know you keep hoping for some new faces at these 'coffee hours', but at least you do get to interact with others and have your voice heard. I'm sure the message will get around to others."

I certainly hope so. It's not that I don't enjoy being in the choir... I just wish we could sing new songs."