The undergrads are surprisingly keen to get vaccinated. I think they're very tired of pandemic and (sensibly) would like to stop getting quarantined in their rooms. My vaccinated colleagues range from "everything's fine now" to "we must stay indoors for another year because variants". Never before has a single thing caused me to lose so much respect for so many people....
I should be grading right now. I cannot muster up the energy to grade five (5) whole lab reports, UGH.
I think the pandemic has eaten my will to... everything. Like depression, but maybe not depression? Just pandemic? I don't know.
My kid and his roommates are all getting vaccinated this weekend. It's such a relief.
ReplyDeleteI too am finding it hard to keep teaching due to Pandemic fatigue. Please no more rona.
UGH SO TIRED OF EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE
DeleteDon't tell anybody, but my "because variants" is really just "I'm not ready to wear pants and have to TALK to people again." Though to be fair I am legit worried about my 14 year old. He doesn't get sick very often (probably because his tonsils/adenoids are ginormous), but when he does get sick he gets extremely sick.
ReplyDeleteFair enough! I, too, get really sick when I get respiratory viruses and having the plague was no fun. But like most people under 60 I was fine!
DeleteIt’s definitely a new kind of depression.
ReplyDeleteThe Pandemic Blahs? The Plague Year Ennui? Claustrophobia? I don't even know.
DeleteWhere I am "because variants" seems really scary--our cases are skyrocketing and our hospitals are getting full again. I realize this is irrational, but I'm almost more scared now than I was earlier in the year, even though spouse and I have both had our first shot, because no one seems to be able to satisfactorily explain why things are so bad here (and not other places) and all those articles about effects on kids have successfully scared me. I'm so tired of it all.
ReplyDeleteI'll be afraid of variants when fully vaccinated people are getting hospitalized and dying of them.
DeleteI think the randomness in kids (and adults!) scared people but children, as in under 18, are roughly 0.05% of the total deaths. Every death is a tragedy, but I personally can't get that worried about something representing 0.5% of the total peds deaths over that time period.
The pandemic has eaten my brain and will, too.
ReplyDeleteMy "because VARIANTS" is half because my immune system is absolutely nil and every tiny minor virus knocks me on my butt for 3+ weeks, and the other half is because I REALLY don't want to get sucked back into the frenetic overcompensation of socializing that I can sense on the horizon. Please, no.
Fair! and too much socializing makes me exhausted. But 'endemic' does mean it's gonna basically circulate forever.... which certain of my (otherwise healthy and low risk) colleagues seem to be failing to understand.
DeleteWhen it's endemic, I will be a LOT less stressed about it, true! But I didn't think we were there yet, are we?
DeleteNot quite, but it's more like, the integral over time of your chances of catching a strain for which all vaccines are less effective - approaches 1. These people seem to think they can avoid it forever if they just wait until adults are all vaccinated, which is seriously not how any of this works. I suppose what I mean is really 'endemic with seasonal outbreaks... just like influenza.'
DeletePandemic-induced apathy is definitely happening here. Me, husband, colleagues, friends. Just a whole wall of can't-be-arsed occurring. Who really needs a clean house? Or a tidy garden? Or broken things mending? Meh.
ReplyDeleteMy brain vacillates between "everything is fine" and "MUST stay inside forever!" So that's super helpful. I try to steer a course towards "things are better but I should still take precautions." I'm waiting for the FDA to approve Pfizer for ages 12+, so I can get C1 a vaccine. C2 will have to wait for his birthday in November. I also fully expect to get regular coronavirus vaccines like I do the flu. NBD.
ReplyDeleteMotivation has been... problematic. Sometimes I throw myself into a project to distract from the avalanche of BAD, other times I waste a day feeling sad and tired. I chalk it up to a smidgen of my dad's manic-depression. Those manic days are GREAT for being productive.