A comedian I once heard told the story of his dad changing outlets in the house without turning off the circuit breakers. After a couple of shocks, his dad makes the point that he’s almost done. The comedian makes the counter-point to his dad that electricity doesn’t care about the job. I think that’s a relevant analogy in our times. COVID-19 doesn’t care about anything — your age, beliefs, values, political stance, business, children, friends, etc.
Sifting through the media “noise” — from everyone — there is one relevant fact to attend to and give much more weight to than others. Note, if that doesn’t sound “fair” to consider some facts more than others, remember: COVID doesn’t care.
The viral load of people infected with the delta variant is anywhere from 300-1,000 times more than the initial COVID virus, impacting the:
• Delta variant’s higher contagion rate, approximately two times more
• Infection of young children being more severe during this surge
• Breakthrough infections for vaccinated people, with less severe symptoms overall
At this point, it’s a logic problem that doesn’t pay attention to anything except the, er, logic. If we have 300 or 1,000 times more of something — even white blood cells to fight infection — it’s usually going to be pretty bad for us. Period. Mask up and social distance.
— Chris Sturm
Anchorage
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