Family gatherings

We're starting to act like the pandemic is at an ebb. Yesterday we had a large family gathering (idk, 12 people? That seems large these days to me.) some indoors, some outdoors. Everyone except the kids was vaccinated and we were eating, so we did without masks, and it seemed to be ok. It was great to see a lot of relatives who I haven't seen since the beginning of the COVID-era, and nice to have a chance to pretend that things were back to some semblance of normal.

Today my wife's parents came to visit for a week. It's the first time we've had houseguests since the kerfuffle began, and it's a pretty strange feeling. They had their vaccine before we did so we are trying to act as if this is a typical visit. We'll see how it goes.

Massachusetts let its state of emergency expire a few weeks ago, and most of the mask orders and other precautions have gone by the wayside in its wake. I'm still wearing my mask in public, and many others are too, but it isn't at all uncommon to see people in public without masks. Hopefully they are vaccinated, but there's no way of knowing.

I'm getting concerned about the Delta variant though. Apparently it is starting to infect vaccinated people in Israel and elsewhere. The WHO is recommending that mask orders be reinstated. Personally I'd like to see the CDC follow suit.

Pfizer says that they expect their pediatric version of the vaccine to be ready in September. That will help a lot with back-to-school, but we've got the whole summer to get through in the meantime. It's going to be tough.