The Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague is one of two on the eastern side of the island. It’s normally open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but now closes at 4 p.m. as the COVID-19 outbreak in the inpatient unit puts additional stress on hospital operations.
The compromise we sort of reached between “never go out again” and “take no precautions” was wearing masks in crowded places, doing at-home tests, getting vaccine boosters from time to time and staying home if you feel unwell. This isn’t really such a bad arrangement, if most people go along with it. But somehow taking precautions has become a politically fraught thing and some people are thinking in black and white, as if the options are either doing nothing or locking everyone in their homes. Living with COVID will have to be a compromise between these extremes.
I really wish masks would become mandatory for food service people. It was really frustrating that literally the day it stopped being mandatory, my local coffee shop had basically none of the baristas wearing masks. One of them coughed while making my coffee and was like “oh don’t worry, it’s not COVID”
“I’m less worried about COVID, and more worried about your lung butter in my drink.”