In Alaska, I've only associated with a few people, all vaccinated and careful, and while there was a Summer stint without masks, the onset of the Delta variant along with a substantial unvaccinated population in the State and a consequent loss of spare beds in the local hospitals has led to renewed mask self-mandate, the 'self' part of it being that Anchorage has elected a Mayor who is not into the whole 'action' response to the pandemic. Likewise the Governor is no better. They both owe their electinos to the right wing pro-business people (who are not the same thing, but if you campaign carefully you can get a majority).

And the folks I assoiate with now have other associates who have been marked by Covid infections. This has lowered the degrees of separation we have experienced from the disease.

Meanwhile due to some youtube presenting with other folks, all of whom were declared vaccinated, I'd been exposed to some people I know but haven't socialized with for over a year. Anyhow, about twelve days after starting the project I awoke with a sore throat and a slight temperature. My regualar friends suggested I get a Covid test and I agreed, although I suspected I was fighting off a non-Covid virus. I was able to look up among the various test options in town and register over my cellphone. Then I took a fifteen minute drive to a church parking lot where there was a line of cars. As I have found in Alaska, things were run very efficiently. There were two health aides at once taking samples from cars, and things moved faster than I expected. They promised to post results within 48 hours and it was more like 30 hours. And it was negative as I expected.

looking both around the world and back in history, it seems that the level of variation in response and experience is not that exceptional. There are many photos you can find of people wearing masks during the Great flu pandemic, but many not so garbed. The medical establishment then was far more primitive than that of today. And if you look at the Israeli situation, it seemed to start out so progressively and has deteriorated sharply with many vaccine deniers and breakthrough infections, and I believe that most other countries have their version of non-vaccinated at various levels of fantasy and mistrust.

Wishing everyone well and coming back to the standby slogan: "Keep Calm, Vaccinate, Mask-on".