Westminster is trying not to sound too alarmed about this variant, but the consequences of letting it become rampant are ugly to contemplate. Instead of translating jargon myself, in this post I point you to someone else’s excellent work.
We see opportunity for 2021, growth instead of the hammering of 2020. But to accomplish that growth, we need to convert temporary make-do measures into methods of operation that are sustainable for the long term.
You don’t need an exotic plan. But with so much socializing at Christmas, it would be good to have a basic plan. Making it will cause you to review what you have on hand and fill in any gaps. Perhaps most importantly, it will simply help you feel prepared. Having a plan is amazingly reassuring.
This doesn’t look more lethal, but it may indeed be more contagious. So what we need to do is the same as before. We need to take the precautions we know we should take. Especially through the holiday break.
If ever there has been a year for 2020 vision, this is it, and those who understand the virus best are speaking in unison. Denying that virus access to you and your loved ones is the single best gift you can give this holiday season.
It looks like maybe we are lucky again and even this new variant doesn’t change the spike protein too much. But if you are tempted to ease up for the holidays, you might want to reconsider.
Within the bounds imposed by certain places having specialized capabilities, we should seek a balance about how and where we make things that is less brittle than the way we’ve been going about it.
The more freely the virus can spread, the more chances it has to develop mutations, and the more likely it is for a new mutation to make it worse.
We just need to constrain our behavior a while longer until vaccination is available and can be spread around the world. We don’t have to spend eons this way. We only need to hold on and look forward to getting vaccinated. When it’s my turn, I’ll be there. I hope you will be too.
Emotional presence and physical presence are not entwined. Let’s show people we love how much we love them by celebrating, this year, safely distant.
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