Pandemic question

After a year of masks and social distancing and lockdowns, the pandemic seems to be raging up over and over again with apparently more and more contagious mutations appearing. Could it be possible that what we’re really seeing is a consequence of a weakening in general of everybody’s immune system due to mask wearing? If we’re not exposed on a continual basis to pathogens our immune system lets down its guard so to speak.

Evening rumination

Monday, October 5, 2020

Common sense should tell you that cities are breeding grounds for pandemics. You can’t even walk to the store without repeatedly coming within six feet of other people. A certain percentage of them are bound to be shedding viral particles. Obviously there is a higher concentration of viral particles in the air at all times in a city than there would be in the open, sparcely populated countryside, not to mention the millions of doors, guardrails, handles, etc.

Pandemic 2020

Day N of the pandemic. I don’t know what N is but it’s less than 90 and greater than 30, I would guess. I’m walking down Union Road on my morning walk. I’ve just passed the bridge over the Lockatong Creek and I’m starting to go up the hill. I have never heard it so quiet on a Monday morning in New Jersey in my life.

Monday, March 23, 2020

It’s a rainy, gloomy, chilling, dreary day. The Covid 19 pandemic is just getting into worldwide full swing. I have been staying at home constantly, except for morning walks and bicycle rides and an occasional trip to the market. I hope I can avoid this virus, since I am in a high risk group for severe illness and further lung damage due to a lifelong smoking habit that I finally left behind ten years ago. Of course, it depends I guess on innumerable factors including my own previous exposure to viruses of every which shape and form throughout my life. Who knows? What I do know is that nothing is given and we have to make plans and go ahead anyway as if they were.