The Sane Person’s Winter COVID Survival Guide

We are never going to make it through Covid Winter without friendship, intimacy, and the humor that can only be shared between loved ones.

I’m going to tell you how to party this winter, how to be close with your friends, and navigate the great scary indoors. Ready?

You need a few practical items, and a mental adjustment. Let’s start with the mental part.

Many of us are worried about being too cautious (thereby going insane) — or too lax (thereby getting sick and a toe tag). — Right?

You are going to have to be flexible about two things:

1) our fast-changing knowledge about COVID transmission; and,

2) your community transmission rate. (This is EVERYTHING).

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE

No one needs feel shame that they’re still washing their groceries or avoiding the beach — when this started, we had no idea what was going on. Now we know, for example, that fomites are low risk, and so are open breezy places, so we adapt. Adapt and overcome.

Pick a reliable public health source and read what they’re saying, once a week.

Why am I a decent source? Well, it’s my disposition to give a damn. I was among a cadre of sex educators during the 80s AIDS pandemic, who learned how to be junior epidemiologists. I learned about infection and harm reduction then, and they’re very helpful habits now.

VIRUS SCIENCE YOU CAN USE

Avoiding “clusters” and super-spreader events, is by *far* the biggest thing you can do to avoid infection.

What are dangerous clusters?

They are places with:

a) sizable groups of people, without social distance, in
b) unventilated indoor places,
c) who are stuck with each other for a significant period of time.

All these variables work together. An infected person with COVID can’t infect you easily from one breath across the room. Think of it more like marination.

You don’t want to be the marinated meatball.