Consistently Inconsistent
That was one of the ways people would describe me. You just couldn’t tell from day to day how I would react or respond. Maddingly frustrating would be another term. I like to use enigmatic. It served me well on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. My peers just couldn’t predict how I would respond in any given situation. It separated me from vast majority of brokers who went about their business exactly the same way every day. It is fairly easy to predict how someone will respond when they always respond the same way. It’s what separates the men from the boys in poker as well. That was my specialty. Confusion and no set pattern while taking advantage of others’ set patterns. It worked for a long time until technology reduced those finite skills and created an environment where your skills were less in demand while new sets of skills become more prevalent. The World changes so must the individual.
I bring this sad tale up because it is becoming apparent once again that we are in a World where information and direction are becoming more and more inconsistent. The latest edict from the CDC is a case in point. They have now reversed course again “suggesting” that people (vaccinated and unvaccinated) should start wearing masks again in enclosed spaces in hotspots around the country. This reverses the last edict where vaccinated people were free to move about the country with no masks required and only suggested that the unvaccinated wear masks.
Ok. I get the abundance of caution due to the Delta strain of the Covid 19 virus but it seems half assed. The mask mandate (call it what you will, it will soon be a mandate) is not consistent. You should wear masks inside in areas that are considered hotspots and then they allow the individual states to determine the requirements as well. The hotspots are not stationary and never have been. One day, Rochester is a hotspot and then the next day Flagstaff. The confusion of the guidelines and the moving target of this virus are once again going to rearrange our society in a fashion we haven’t got a grip on yet.
You know I like things simple and honestly, this pandemic and the course of actions taken around the country and around the World are anything but simple. Restrictions have mostly been lifted across the country and thats a good thing. People are getting vaccinated, maybe not at the speed the “experts” suggest but they are. Hotspots are still popping up. People are still getting sick and some people are dying. It isn’t going away anytime soon. The Delta variant is just another version with more versions to follow.
Since this is such a complex issue with thousands of facets that people are trying to deal with, I think the most important thing is consistent messaging from the ones we trust and I think people should stop painting that messaging with political brushstrokes. That stems from the President on down. A clear, concise plan to lower the numbers and get Covid 19 to the point where it will be treated like any other flu and let’s move past this.
I do not have the answer to this and I probably will never understand all of the ways Covid has changed life on this planet but I do know that having a consistent message and plan is the only way we will make it through this. It is not about personal freedoms and all of that, it is about the whole of society being responsible to each other and following a consistent path to conclusion of this pandemic.