Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

 The Guardian, a really good news source, published this great article about the effects of Covid. The wealthy sometimes have access to well-filtered air when living indoors, such as electrostatic filters installed in Parliament. Private schools and airlines also have great air filtering. But public schools and many other places don't, and Covid spreads easily as a result. There is evidence that multiple cases of Covid, even mild ones, leads to permanent damage to vital organs. So, by our not all getting the latest vaccines, by not masking indoors in public, we are helping to spread multiple cases of Covid to people.  Few people are wearing masks, indoors in public, now. The only way to view this is to admit that most of us just don't care if we kill or maim others, if we help create worse new Covid variants, or if we get sick ourselves. Are we that selfish and uncaring, even about our own health? 

  BIG new study concludes that, for older folks, getting the latest bivalent Covid booster provides 84% less risk of hospitalization if you catch Covid (the boosters no longer help you prevent catching Covid, but they do prevent your getting really sick or dying). And yet only 14% of adults and older kids have gotten that booster. Which is free. I'm vaxxed and boosted; I've had Covid and didn't like it. But at least I could be sick alone at home, and I survived without needing to bother the healthcare system, which is overburdened now. I don't like others' doing things that overload the healthcare system, because that's bad for all of us, including h'care workers, who are struggling with overwork now.  And masking clearly helps slow the spread of Covid, but on our recent trip, where we wore our N95 masks everywhere inside unless eating, I would guess only about 5% (sometimes close to 10%) of adults inside were masked. The new Covid variants are highly conta...