I was starting to get excited for Christmas. My neighbourhood is all lit up in bright colours and my Christmas tree went up a couple of weeks ago. Presents have been bought from local artisans, supplemented by the delivery man. Plans have been made to bring our little family together. Even with a couple of special girlfriends, we still number fewer than ten. Menus have been planned – no small feat when you consider the vegetarians, vegan and celiac among us. And there’s even been some snow.
Last year the answers were hard to hear, but easy to process. Any time there was a question about whether you could get together the answer as always “no”. This year we’re looking forward to a little more freedom and the first time the whole family has gotten together indoors since the “before times”. We’re all double vaccinated and the grandparents have just had their booster. Everything seemed to be ticking along nicely.
And then Omicron.
The bad news started in Africa and moved its way west. In the last few days, the media has been whipping people up into a frenzy, and perhaps rightly so. Questions are starting to be raised about whether holiday gatherings are a good idea. On Friday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health started asking employers to let their employees continue working from home. Today, the city of Kingston limited indoor gatherings to just five.
It’s enough to make a girl throw her hands up in the air.
For now, Christmas is on. For everyone’s sake, I hope it stays that way.
I’ve just become eligible for my booster. So that brings a whole series of other questions. I’m one of the “mix and matchers”, having got my first jab quickly when we all thought the AstraZenaca vaccine was the best thing to have because it was available. I don’t regret that decision; it allowed me to get my second jab in mid-June and salvage some of the travel I’d hoped to do during my sabbatical (If you’re on Instagram, you can catch up on that adventure at @sabbatical_kath). But what’s the right thing to do now? Get the same mRNA I had for Jab #2? Get the other one? Or does it even matter? As we head into another COVID winter, both the questions and the answers are getting harder again.
