For all intents and purposes, it appears that the pandemic is over, which is great news indeed. Vaccination rates are high and the vaccinations are proving to be effective. The lights are coming back on in many venues and restaurants are serving seated customers. It feels as though we are all waking up from a year-and-a-half sleep as we rub our eyes and wonder how to navigate through a world of lost time and renewed activity. Of course, nothing is perfect and, while vaccinations are moving steadily, they are not moving fast enough. The Delta variant of the Coronavirus has infected parts of the population, and the most susceptible people to the newest strain are those who have not been vaccinated.
The Personal Choice
I know people who refuse to get vaccinated and I get it. It’s a free country and it’s a personal choice as to whether or not one gets the vaccine or decides against it. I personally refuse to argue about one’s choice in this matter. The reasons I have been given for vaccine denial have been somewhat standard. “It’s a hoax, the virus is no worse than the flu,” “I’ll wait and see what happens rather than be a guinea pig,” “It will change your DNA,” and “I refuse to be chipped by the government.” For me, having known people who died from the virus and some who merely got really sick, I chose to err on the side of safety and received the vaccine.
Of course, erring on the side of safety is a contentious statement, as people who refuse to get vaccinated see nothing safe about it. Like most people during the past year, I was tuned into the television news, I read the Internet reports, I saw posts on social media and I downloaded articles related to Covid and the available vaccines. I also spoke with medical professionals regarding the different vaccines and the efficacy of wearing a face mask, and I realized “You’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?’” Apparently, while staring down the barrel of a loaded Covid-19 virus and amusing myself with Dirty Harry quotes, I weighed my options and made my choice.
Let me be clear; none of my personal “research” makes me an expert or knowledgeable medical practitioner. It has only made me aware enough to form my own belief and path of action. In the end, my choice is influenced by a great need to get back to work and, if possible, to a pre-virus “normal.” Therefore, I have considered the options and in my opinion, the virus is not a hoax. I do understand how others can dispute my view since numerous people who have contracted the virus only have a mild reaction or none at all. For some, this is a good thing, but for others that contract the virus, they suffer tremendously. The final option to be considered (no pun intended) is the chance that, like millions of others who have been infected, one may not recover.
Other things I have considered during my quarantine: Have governments used their own people as guinea pigs in the past? Of course. Am I being used in a sinister experiment? I’m hedging my bets and not waiting to see. Does mRNA change one’s DNA? Best to answer that with a quote from the NIH website. “Messenger RNA is a type of RNA that is necessary for protein production. In cells, mRNA uses the information in genes to create a blueprint for making proteins. Once cells finish making a protein, they quickly break down the mRNA. mRNA from vaccines does not enter the nucleus and does not alter DNA.” Of course, if one doesn’t trust the government, then why listen to the NIH? In terms of being chipped when given the vaccine, I find it highly unlikely based upon my understanding of current chip technology, but am I aware of all new technology? No, so this then goes back to the guinea pig response, which is, “I’m hedging my bets.”
Similar to everyone else, I am weighing my choices and gambling that I’m making the correct decision based upon the information I’m receiving. To quote Vito Corleone, “I have selfish reasons.” I too, have selfish reasons, and after a year and a half of watching movies, I want to get out of the house and back to work on a steady basis. As we are all aware, our gig-oriented industry is and has been the last to return, but now, because of the vaccine, things are beginning to ramp up again with a seeming return to normalcy. Unfortunately, there is the new Delta strain that’s causing a rash of new outbreaks in various states and countries.
Nagging Concerns
Although sports stadiums are filling up and outdoor events are now being declared Covid-safe, there are still some remaining worries. For example, The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment declared Country Jam Colorado (a three-day music festival that drew thousands of music fans) to be a Covid-19 outbreak site. Japan, while still moving forward with its Olympic plans, has declared a state of emergency due to Covid-19 and is banning all spectators from venues in and around Tokyo.
So, depending upon the virulence of the new Delta strain, we may or may not be able to get back to work, but aside from the risk of a slow start due to health issues, there are financial matters at stake as well. It’s being reported that during the quarantine, many people re-thought their lives and are refusing to return to work. Other reports have it that some people are not returning to work because they are making too much money sitting home. Businesses have even begun to offer $1,000 incentives to return to work, and 25 states have cancelled the federal unemployment benefit to add a little more back-to-work incentive.
It’s hard to deny that people will return to work if they need the money, but our business is a bit different than other blue-collar jobs that might be able to offer full time work. Most of our work is gig-oriented, meaning that each job is limited to the time it takes to get it done. For those remaining states that have not cancelled the federal assistance a worker making as much or more than their state unemployment rate will lose the federal assistance. Therefore, to entice someone to come and take a gig, one needs to either offer less than their state unemployment or more than the state and federal combined to make it worthwhile.
The problem with this is that a one-day job may not be worth losing one’s full benefit for the week, or it may be that the same job needs to pay more than the pre-Covid rate. In the case of many technicians, their reticence to take a one-off is not because they are getting more than they made while they were working, but rather it’s because when they were working full time, they were making more than their current benefits allow. Most of us in the world of audio have taken big cuts and for the last year have been living off of a portion of our previous salary and often supplementing the difference with our savings.
A year or more is a long time to ponder one’s life and the many changes that occur over a period of time. While our business may have been in hibernation, most of us were awake and readjusting our lives and schedules to accommodate a pandemic. The vaccination argument may still be raging, but there might be other issues that keep us from getting back to speed. Most of us have been detoured and rerouted from the road we were on and, while some have been patiently waiting for the road to reopen, others have already gone so far down the new path that it may be hard to retrace steps to get back on the old one.
