Island Senior: COVID Fatigue, The Third Wave and The Holidays

With Apologies to Norman Rockwell - Graphic Peggy Sue McRae

Island Senior is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae.

How are we doing? Eight months into this pan­dem­ic and we are all tired of it; tired of stay­ing home, tired of wear­ing masks, tired of wash­ing our hands all the time. It is easy to get lulled into feel­ing pret­ty safe here on our pret­ty safe lit­tle island.

I’m sor­ry to say but this is not the time to let our guard down where coro­n­avirus is con­cerned. We have stayed pret­ty safe here because we have been fol­low­ing the rules; wear­ing our masks, main­tain­ing social dis­tance, and wash­ing our hands. Now is not the time to let up on these sim­ple life-sav­ing practices.

Case num­bers are spik­ing across this coun­try and in Europe as we head into the third wave of this pan­dem­ic. Ger­many just closed restau­rants, bars, gyms, and the­atres again. France is reim­pos­ing a nation­al lock­down. In light of surg­ing coro­n­avirus cas­es in the US, Cana­da is keep­ing its bor­der closed to Amer­i­can vis­i­tors for at least anoth­er month.

One of the most dan­ger­ous things we can do at this point is wel­come our friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers from off-island to an inter­gen­er­a­tional indoor gath­er­ing where we sit around a crowd­ed table to eat, talk, and laugh. Yes, I’m talk­ing about a clas­sic Amer­i­can Thanks­giv­ing or as it might be called this year, a coro­n­avirus super spread­er event.

This year con­sid­er reign­ing in your Thanks­giv­ing by keep­ing it small, shar­ing it with your local pod peo­ple, the peo­ple you feel safest with. Keep your group small enough to seat those in it with a max­i­mum amount of space between them. Cut down on kitchen con­gre­gat­ing by prepar­ing as much food ahead of time as pos­si­ble. Send cards, Zoom or Skype with loved ones you are miss­ing and hope that by next year we have weath­ered this storm.

Stay strong my friends and count your bless­ings. We have much to be thank­ful for on our beau­ti­ful… and pret­ty safe… lit­tle island. Wear your mask, keep your dis­tance, wash your hands, and in the spir­it of Thanks­giv­ing, drink a toast to your health!

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