What’s Lonelier Than Social Distancing?
Social distancing PLUS needing to stay unvaccinated for health reasons.
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I used to work in the polio eradication division of Rotary International. I coordinated meetings that included representatives from Rotary, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We were allied to immunize every child in the world against polio.
I left Rotary in 2014 because of my experience of what felt like poor management, but I stayed committed to the idea that vaccines could make diseases a thing of the past, if only everyone would take them. It infuriated me that not everyone would take them.
In March 2020, my primary health practitioner assured me her treatment fortified my immune system against the coronavirus. Sure enough, both my experiences with COVID included symptoms that didn’t make me miss even one day of work. In December 2020 she told me the careful five-year progress we had made on my health would be jeopardized if I took any of the coronavirus vaccines. So I made the permanent decision not to get vaccinated.
I live in Chicago. I’m a far left-wing hot-head who wanted Dennis Kucinich to be president in 2004. I and all my friends are Democrats who can’t stand Trump. So it has been hard to explain why I can’t be vaccinated.
Many of my friends don’t fully understand my choice, but they’ve been great. I’m an extremely social person and live alone, so the pandemic has been bad for my depression, anxiety and general loneliness. But I’ve managed because in 2020 and 2021 my friends came over regularly to spend time with me. I also used Meetup.com (in the second half of 2021) to make new friends who met in restaurants and bars. When I felt lonely, I took my laptop to a library or cafe for hours at a time.
But my careful social routine ended on January 3, 2022. That was the first day of the Chicago mandate that requires all restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues that serve food and drink to check people for proof of vaccination before letting us sit indoors. Religious and medical exemptions are acceptable only if accompanied by proof of a negative COVID test administered by a medical professional and taken within 72…
