Cheap Seats 2021

Bring Out Your Dead! - 01/19

By Rich Trzupek
  As we glide through the halfway point of what our beloved Commander In Cheat, or his voice recognition program, has declared to be our “winter of death,” I am pleased to report that I appear to have survived. To the best of my knowledge I have not actually died of COVID-19 although I have been reliably informed that I had contracted it.
  The day after Christmas I awoke feverish, achy, congested and deprived of the sense of smell. We had been scheduled to host a Christmas party for my bride’s family, but given that her parents are in their eighties, that did not seem like a wise idea given my symptoms. We called off the festivities and I proceeded to find a place that could provide a COVID test. No easy task of course, not even in the paradise that is Nebraska (proposed state motto: We don’t do car-jackings).
  Turns out I was COVID positive. Most likely the delta version, since my wife – who is much more on top of things than I – tells me that the delta version affects the olfactory sense, but the omicron does not. Whatever version, it was a mildly annoying experience overall, ranking a bit above a mild hangover in the list of uncomfortable experiences I have experienced, but far below getting called a baby-killer by environmental zealots.
  Yes, I know – hopefully we all know at this point – that everyone’s COVID experience is different. The fact that mine was inconsequential doesn’t mean your’s will be or has been. The fact that my nephew’s exposure came within a hair’s breadth of killing him doesn’t place anyone in the same risk category either.
  As a society, we are as pitifully poor at analyzing risk versus reward proposition. Scientifically speaking, the science is pretty much immaterial when it comes to discussing COVID.
  Hate vaccines? You’ll have no problem finding hundreds of studies that “prove” that COVID vaccines are unduly dangerous. Find comfort in vaccine mandates and mask requirements? You’ll be able to point to scores of experts who are totally in tune with your position.
  Percentage of Americans who personally understand the science or who personally understand and can value the credentials of the people who claim to be in tune enough so as to accurately report unbiased science? Just about nil.
  I’m not claiming to be a COVID expert. Nor am I claiming to be in tune enough to evaluate supposed COVID experts, whatever their flavor. That said, here’s a few observations.
  If you choose not to get vaccinated, you are making – IMHO – a stupid choice. That’s OK though. America welcomes stupid choices, as the continued existence of the Democrat party, CNN and MSNBC clearly demonstrates.
  Are their risks associated with getting vaccinated? Of course. Do those risks outweigh the risk of not getting vaccinated? I doubt it. I am fully vaccinated. That’s the right choice for me.
  Any sort of vaccine is essentially a red-alert issued to one’s immune system. The vaccine is – ideally – a non-lethal doppelganger of a more deadly cousin. It serves to tell our immune system that it needs to gear up to fight a really dangerous SOB who looks very much like it.
  Sometimes – rarely – the doppelganger does actual harm. Sometimes – rarely – the doppelganger over-stimulates the immune system, triggering an overdrive response that does more damage than would have otherwise occurred. Viruses are clever, weird forms of semi-existence. There is no 100 percent effective way of battling them. It’s always a choice involving percentages and, from my point of view, the percentages being vaccinated are more favorable than the percentages not.
  If you choose to get vaccinated and want to force everyone else to get vaccinated, you’re a bully and a coward. Go home, hide under a blanky and the rest of us who understand that eventually dying is an inevitable part of living will get back to you when your personal risk is reduced to absolute zero.
  The “Winter of Death” has about another six weeks to go, at least according to my calculations. After that, we fortunate survivors will look to the Pretendisent to explain, or at least attempt to coherently explain, the newest grave danger that he and his unifying administration intends to tackle. Upside: No mean Tweets are expected.
  Email: richtrzupek@gmail.com