I stand alone

Of the four staffers who work in our tiny office-within-an-office, I'm the only one who hasn't been officially declared infected. It could be that I've simply been lucky for two years, and my time is coming. Then again, a two-year track record could indicate that I've been doing things right, infection-wise, and maybe that's partly thanks to the fact that, in the late 90s and early 2000s, I worked at an infection-control nonprofit, where I learned a lot about different types of infections and what to do when infected. Where else can you learn about nosocomial (in-hospital) and iatrogenic (from or because of doctors) infection, after all?

I keep going back and forth on the question of whether I've actually been infected over the course of these past two years. With the appearance of the gentle omicron variant, I'd say it's slightly more likely that I have been infected since I've definitely experienced cold-like symptoms at several points since early 2020. If I have, then I have natural immunity. But if I haven't, then there's still a chance for me to get infected, which may actually be a good thing.

Our boss just got over his COVID infection, which struck his kids first. Everyone else in the office is married, and everyone else got COVID through their kids because the answer to infection has been the massively stupid policy of lockdowns. Right when you need air, sunlight, and mobility, the government tells you to stay in place, thereby guaranteeing that the loved ones who are forced to live with you will also get infected. Ah, well. The whole thing is one confused clusterfuck, and it's hard to know what's good or bad, smart or stupid. Maybe forcing your family members to get infected is a good thing: the virus can burn through the population faster. I hear Beijing is about to undergo a massive lockdown after all the nonsense that's been happening in Shanghai. Wow, people are fucking stupid.