I didn’t complete a whole lot of work on this scene Sunday. Pam and I did a major day of house cleaning in preparation of her having some of her family friends over from Iowa. I stayed masked any time I was in the house. The HEPA air filter was on full blast as it always is.
Both of our dogs have been in lockdown since the start of the pandemic so they are not used to having people enter the home. Donkey went ballistic screaming and barking at the guests, so I stayed with the dogs outside until she calmed down. I then brought her inside again and stayed with her in a far room so she could see the guests but not jump on them. In some ways this was good for me as well since it guaranteed I kept social distanced and masked inside.
We put the dining room table outside on the screened back porch and that worked well. It was a perfect day to be outside. All the home windows were open and ceiling fans stayed on indoors and outdoors on the porch. Pam used the Uni pizza oven to bake pizzas for everyone. This was the first dinner party we hosted since the pandemic began.
Donkey calmed down once everyone was seated outside. I am new to the risk assessment game and I decided the mask could come off outside but I would put it back on any time I went inside. My hope is that the ceiling fans outside would circulate any aerosols down and then outside. A couple of times I just held my breath inside as I went in to get guests drinks.
Right now the pandemic is raging. We are now in the second largest wave since the start in 2019. This wave hasn’t peaked yet. It is expected to keep rising through February 2024. Only the Omicron wave was larger. About 2 million people are being infected every day and no one knows exactly what percentage of those people will develop long Covid. By the end of this wave one in three Americans are expected to become infected.
COVID did come up at the dinner party. One guest had COVID twice. COVID had been in our house twice but my layered mitigations managed to keep me from getting infected. Masks, HEPA air purifiers and vaccines do work.
Promoting my COVID Dystopia film will likely be the most risky thing I do in the coming year since it might mean attending crowded film festival screenings in cities around the country and around the world.
When the White House press secretary was asked point blank about the rising cases, she said people are responsible for accessing their own risks. In other words, “You do you.” America has always been, and continues to be, the most infected nation in the world when it comes to COVID. You are free to become infected and encouraged to infect others. It is the American way.