#Paris #Spring #Pandemic: A Rumination on What’s Next
For Those Who Asked
Dateline: Paris. Against the backdrop — and in spite of — COVID, spring has arrived, inspiring thoughts of the future.
I have spent four months — to the day — experiencing the pandemic in Paris. Everyone at home asks, “How is it?”
December 31, 2020, at 11:50 pm, I take a half-block walk with my partner and dog to the Champs de Mars where we watch the Eiffel Tower’s year-end light show. Since then, I have been home every night by six pm-now seven, thanks to daylight savings.
At this writing, only 6.8% of the French are fully vaccinated. In the U.S., it’s 26%; in Israel-the frontrunner-it’s 56%. In the UK, where about half the population has had a first “jab,” some scientists predict that country is “close” to herd immunity. Whatever that means…
The only thing I know for sure is that every day we seem to be moving a little closer to a time we might call “ post-pandemic.” No one knows when or what our “after” might look like, but that doesn’t stop us from speculating.
