I am deeply saddened by all the no-masks-and-everything-is-open in Russia. I resolved a long time ago not to argue with my compatriots about mask-wearing and do not comment on their posts about gathering with friends, visiting older relatives, attending theater performances, and such.
I hardly know anybody in Russia who did not have COVID. And I know way too many older and immuno-compromised people who didn’t survive. My mom lost lots of her friends, or her friends lost their husbands. And I do not buy these arguments that “they were old anyway.” I just do not understand how it proves anything.
On Saturday, Boris told me that professor Romanovsky passed away. He was the Operations Research Lab leader in our university, Boris’s boss at some point. I attended a number of his classes. Yes, he was the same age as my mom, so what? My mom is alive.
When I talked to Anna about that, she commented that the country reached herd immunity by sacrificing the older and immunocompromised population, and I have nothing to add.
Yesterday, I read a blog post of my friend from a small town in the Ural mountains. Her older son has severe cerebral palsy, and for almost a year, she is holding the fort. She wrote about a delivery driver who walked into her apartment instead of staying outside. I asked her: was he wearing a mask? For which she replied: of course, not.
It’s absurd. It’s worse than in Georgia.
Hettie's Reflections 
Ugh, this sounds even worse than Bulgaria – and we are now having a third wave while the government is reopening everything (as an informal part of their election campaign, I guess, because we are having parliamentary elections on 4 April), but at least there is some control over mask wearing in big supermarkets (small grocery stores or public transport are hopeless causes).
I’m staying in as much isolation as possible and I managed to get my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 23 February, but I’m surrounded with people who don’t take the virus seriously, so I only feel safe outside when it’s dark and cold and there are hardly any people in the streets – the irony!
LikeLike
Hi Dari! The problem in Russia is that it is not the government, but the people, and that’s the most frustrating part. Even in cases when the government does the right things, like not allowing in-person teaching for the faculty 65+, people are screaming that this is age-based discrimination :(. The majority of people in Russia whom I know saying that the world is crazy, and all the governments are crazy, and people have to live normal lives. Adult children are visiting their older parents like nothing is happening, and I know several cases just among my friends when they would get COVID from their adult children. It’s exactly what I said – the lives of those who are not young and not healthy do not have any value 😦
I am really glad you got your first shot!
LikeLike
It’s BOTH the government and the people here, although it’s not exactly the same dynamic. *sigh*
Conspiracy theories abound and too many people just don’t believe that the coronavirus is really dangerous, including those same older people whom the most conscientious among us are trying to protect by giving up our social lives. It’s especially interesting when those same people who aren’t afraid of the virus are terrified of the vaccines against it and refuse to get vaccinated. *sigh*
And then there are those younger and healthy people for whom the lives of those who are not young and not healthy do not have any value indeed because “they are going to die soon anyway” and are therefore considered expendable.
LikeLike
😦
LikeLike