We’re still only at the end of February but I find myself wondering where we’ll be with the Covid pandemic at the end of 2021. The numbers have dropped significantly since the holiday surge (though at this point they’re still at about the same level as they were back in July, when it was bad.) But with the vaccine rollout you can sense that life may just get back to something kinda like what it used to be. For many the feeling is already that this thing is over!
At the same time I have the kind of personality that’s always thinking, “What could go wrong?” If you’re shooting bondage pictures that’s not a bad trait to have, what with the risk of a bondagette starting to become panicky or stressed, which does happen from time to time. But I also know my caution can make me seem like a total Debbie Downer. I find myself thinking, what are we not seeing that will screw up the pandemic and cause it to drag out for another year or two? Or will the virus simply trick us and mutate around our best defenses? It’s not inconceivable.
Last week I learned an uncle in Indiana died from Covid. It was a typical case: in the hospital for three weeks, difficulty breathing, never on a ventilator but close to it, and finally reaching a crisis point and dying a few days later. I hadn’t seen this uncle in over forty years, so while the news was sad it didn’t hit me the way it did my mother, his younger sister. She took the news as well as she could but I know it shook her up bad, of course. There was a nice zoom memorial service but I couldn’t stop wondering about his time in the hospital – how aware was he, how badly did he suffer, and what was his mental state at the end?
Many of us at this point have lost family members or friends, or have known people who have gotten very sick (I was emailing with one possible model on the east coast who said it took her three months to fully recover – Yikes!) One risk that some experts worry about is the possibility of another surge being brought on by the Covid variants. Apparently the UK variant (B.117) is spreading the fastest of any of them, doubling in number of cases every ten days. And the other day I was reminded that there’s also a California variant that may have been involved in the big surge we just came through over the holidays.
None of this is meant to be political, of course (and it’s still so crazy that this pandemic has become a political issue), but just some thoughts on my mind. I do find myself thinking of a time in the future when the models and I no longer get Covid tests before meeting up for a photoshoot – maybe at the end of the summer? Whenever that happens I’ll know it’s basically over. Of course then I’ll be going out dressed every weekend for the next three months – and probably half of you reading this will do the same! I still wonder though about the future and about any possible surprises that may, or may not, lie in wait for us. But let’s hope that all the Debbie Downers like me are completely wrong. Doing the TEASE Party again or hanging out at Hamburger Mary’s and hugging friends as we meet for dinner would be sweet indeed. Handshakes, though? No, I’ll never do that again.
