If being in SW Virginia for about a week taught me anything, it is that American agnosticism about the ongoing pandemic is alive and (un)well. Signage in storefronts and restaurants amount to: would you pretty please think about wearing a mask if we say 'strongly recommend' in our signage? No? Well, ok. We will force our employees to do it, but forget about the whole 'over nose and mouth' part after some time passes. No big.
A man far older than me working the cash register at a grocery store, sporting one of those infernal plastic shields, which are the protective equivalent of licking a doorknob, working with more than a few other staff members sporting masks that they have pulled down to their chins for one reason or another, and have just left them in place. When an item I had planned to purchase wouldn't scan properly and another poorly masked staff member was asked to go looking for it in the vast expanse, they then came back and asked if I could remember on what aisle I got it (as if I worked there), I said, hey, I don't need it that badly. Thanks anyway.
A school bus driver with whom I was in a laboratory waiting room - as he waited for his random drug test to be performed (and hey, props to whoever is really doing that, because it's what parents want to believe happens), and I waited for my Covid test in order to fly - stated that he was due to schedule his second shot soon. SECOND shot? And you're a BUS DRIVER? Let me guess: you didn't make a move toward vaccination until your employer forced the issue. Routinely subjected to random drug testing (no complaints there), and yet, reluctant to submit to a safe vaccination...and you work every day with children...are you crazy?
Also at home, I learned about an alien thing that no one in Europe has seen in forever: a buffet. Those were eliminated in 2019 and show no signs of returning. And yet, it is alive and well at an Italian restaurant in my American hometown. When the option came up for a family luncheon - buffet or menu? - you know I chose the menu.
I realized way too late that the person who prepared my burger in one of my favorite hometown places to dine was completely maskless. It was when she came to deliver my otherwise missing pickles. And she decided to chat me up at my table, and I just sat there, leaning as far backwards as possible in my booth, horrified. Gosh, she was friendly, and also....freaking me out.
All of the Americans who flew with me from Atlanta to Rome a couple of days ago failed to notice the imposition of signage on the floor at Fiumicino baggage claim, instructing people (in ENGLISH) to stand at dedicated places, a meter apart, while waiting for the bags to roll out on the conveyor belt. I kept having to move away from fellow passengers who just crowded in to look for their bags, standing cheek by jowl.
And as I write from the comfort of my sofa here in Rome, I am seeing posts on social media: one from a recently retired art professor who posted video from their university's holiday gathering, featuring a choir singing in front of its conductor. All maskless, standing within non-social distance proximity to one another on risers.
Another academician posts a picture of the drive through Covid testing line she has been sitting in for one hour, and she is not quite halfway through.
Thanks to my recent visit, here are my fundamental takes on what's wrong with this whole scene:
1. Y'all are WAY late to the party on boosters. The middle-aged guy who handled my father's cremation at the local funeral home indicated that he was scheduled to get his booster the day we spoke in person. Um, what? Your business involves direct dealing with people every doggone day. And you aren't requiring that they be vaccinated before entering your premises, so dontcha think it'd be a good idea to GET AS VACCINATED AS POSSIBLE?
2. Not unlike the U.K., the business of testing is like Wild West capitalism. It is TERRIBLE. Because arrangements for my father and his estate are way more extended than I anticipated (due to Covid, one way or another, believe me), I found that I had no need to change my return flight. There was simply no more that I could do. So I wound up scrambling for a Covid test in order to be, as Delta Airlines put it, 'fly ready.' No appointments were available at select local pharmacies (because not all pharmacies do it....why? WHY?) for the only day I had to do this before boarding a plane. Any of those appointments would have been free. But since they were gobbled up, I had to then look into quick care facilities. Aha, I found one. Drove to it so early that there was still frost on my windshield. Police tape surrounded the building. No one was inside. Turns out that they had a fire several weeks ago and...um, I don't know. No one bothered to, for instance, post any signage on the door to help those looking for a testing center that required no previously booked appointments. I finally wound up at a lab with school bus drivers joking about taking their randomly assigned drug tests. That antigen Covid test cost me $100.
To complete the Wild West picture, here's what happened as I was in transit from my hometown to a major American hub for my airline. Italy changed her entry rules, requiring an antigen test within 24 (instead of 48) hours of arrival. For this purpose, my $100 test had expired. But there was another lab in an international terminal at this airport. Only PCR tests, they said. Fine, I replied, but how much will this cost?
$250
That's approximately $240 more than the test costs to produce.
But see, I was captive. I had no choice. No at-home tests were available in my entire home town. No appointments at pharmacies. No choices that were reasonable and fairly affordable.
This is untenable. One crucial thing for success in this pandemic is to have some degree of accuracy of reporting for the sake of contact tracing. So that means that you must have readily and widely available testing that is affordable and accessible for all. A reduction - if not a complete elimination - of barriers to testing is SO VITAL. (Another barrier, in my opinion, is the ream of paperwork you have to complete before getting the test. This is required because of course everyone is loathe to participate in a nationwide vaccination record system, which would be easily accommodated if we weren't so hung up on ideas about privacy. And I say 'ideas' about privacy because it would be very easy to protect privacy AND maintain a national health network if America wanted it to streamline lives and medical support. Where there is a will, there's a way. But instead, it is easier to imagine the untold horrors and thwart progress)
But barriers to testing are par for the course in America. While I find plenty of things completely infuriating about the place in which I currently reside, a few important differences on the Covid front strike me as, dare I say about anything Italian, imminently sensible.
I can go to any pharmacy with a white pop-up tent that is labeled with bright red letters: COVID. And most pharmacies have one (or two, as you see in this photo below) of those tents. I can call to make an appointment, but I can also walk in. I go into the pharmacy to pay ahead for my antigen test. It costs 22 euros (about $25...and it is 60 euros for a PCR test...this is true everywhere in the country, as far as I know). I take my receipt outside to the tent and get swabbed. I wait 10 minutes. I leave with certified documentation of my results, good enough for travel requirements or entry to a hospital for surgery (I've done both). And get this: the results are even written in English.
While it's entirely possible that some people here can't spare a $25 fee for a test, there is a far greater proportion of the populace that is capable of undertaking this cost vs. something that is 10 times greater.
And the only justification I can come up with for this American (and Anglo, just to be clear that is not only one country) wreck of a situation is that capitalism reigns.
3) As Nick Cho (YourKoreanDad) recently reminded his followers, wearing your cute fabric masks - emblazoned with messages and sports teams' insignias - and thin surgical masks (and Delta Airlines, I'm sorry, but this is what you elected to distribute to all of your customers on the departing flight from Rome...and what on earth are you thinking??) might make you feel cool and comfortable, but neither of them make a difference, particularly against the Omicron variant. It's N95 or...stay home. The bandannas and scarves and plastic shields...and the same mask (with stretched out ear loops and stains) you've been wearing for the last three months...are USELESS. Do yourself a favor and get your hands on something like the NY Times' recent article on how to double mask, in fact. My physician insists that the way to go is to place a surgical mask OVERTOP the N95.
While it seems that the Omicron variant is so very wily and speedy, mask wearing is still advocated. Here, we are back to wearing them outdoors in crowded areas as well as all types of interiors (fun fact: since the inception of mask advocacy a very long time ago, we have never been allowed to go maskless in public access places such as grocery stores, restaurants, shops, transit, etc.) Restaurants check our green passes for proof of vaccination that is not older than 9 months. Police are on buses and trams and trains, doing the same.
As recently as today, I continue to see footage - of both American and English citizens being interviewed by news gatherers, reporters and the like in both interiors and exteriors, with people in their midst, talking about Covid transmissions, case numbers, and the potentiality of refreshed restrictions, and no one...is...wearing...a...mask.
Finally, I'm pretty tired of seeing and hearing about public perception of any of political leader being directly related to the fact that pandemic is far from over. To be blunt, this is ridiculous. None of them started this, and none of them will end it. Some of them may be overreacting in attempts to stop something that has already begun (shutting down borders is pointless now, and amping up specific testing requirements for border entry is clearly becoming a fantastic boondoggle for pharma and its purveyors), and some of them may be under-reacting in attempts to placate the 'Covid fatigued' by withholding from imposing Covid restrictions until after Christmas (looking at you, Boris, and while you can't take credit for starting all of this, you will have credit for helping it perpetuate by choosing paths of least political resistance). But this is science unfolding around and literally in us. Attributing causality to a few people in suits is utterly misplaced.
If we want to end this, we do have to act like it. We know how. We just have to do it.
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