The Wildfire that is Covid

I took this photo just before sunset last night.

Those nearby mountains are usually crisp and clear but smoke from fires near and far are tanking air quality here in the west. Our eyes are burning, we break out into random campfire songs, and s’mores seem like an excellent dinner plan…

But life on the edges of the fires pales in comparison to those near and in the fires (human and animals), and to those fighting those fires. I am officially ready for a good snow storm.

The Covid pandemic is surging among the unvaccinated, who are not only getting sick and dying but also serving as incubators for mutations of the virus, putting all of us at risk.

I am teaching my Death, Dying, and Grief class this summer and tonight we have a Zoom session to discuss this question: When those who choose to be unvaccinated get Covid, do they then have a right to access (finite) health care resources?

The answer, in my opinion, has to be yes but the conversation helps us consider the social costs of individual choices.

At the very micro level, I can tell you that deaths viewed as preventable (vaccination = prevention) and/or caused by an external force (i.e.,unvaccinated Covid spreader) and/or that are what we call “off-time” (e.g. 56-year-old Clark dying of Covid) are much, much, much more difficult for the heart-shattered bereaved left behind.