Having ventured out to visit the Hammer Museum to see its LA2020 exhibit before it closes, being vaccinated and with the pandemic—I thought—easing, I had looked forward to once again enjoying the Southern California cultural scene.
My list was enticing, especially having been in effect quarantined for more than a year. Now beckoning was the Getty with a unique glimpse of art in late medieval Venice and its Villa of more ancient Mesopotamia. So was the Wallis Annenberg Center with a world premier performance of the always delightful Heidi Duckler dance company.
I also was looking forward to going to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Dude conducting. And possibly further, to downtown, to the Broad, MOCA and the Geffen, and in addition the Hauser & Wirth gallery.
But, “No, you can’t go,” says my family, concerned that I am a very high risk medically, and certainly should not venture out when there is a resurgence of the coronavirus, and its Delta variant threatening a wave of new cases.
And this while the hope for herd immunity is being thwarted by the obstinacy and selfishness of the no vaxers, obeying like sheep to slaughter the twisted logic and downright lies of the Republican right wing and its hypocritical spokespersons, most of whom, it seems, already are vaccinated.
I’m afraid there is no polite way of declaring that the no vaxers are clearly ill-informed, steadfastly refusing to recognize sound medical opinion and the widely published fact that nearly all of the current coronavirus cases are persons who have not been vaccinated.
If (cowardly) attacked for that statement, let me add a Pt. Dume Elementary and Malibu High School graduate’s personal observation that, having toiled for the last year tending the stricken at Mass General Hospital in Boston, that dying from coronavirus is intensely agonizing; you suffocate to death, isolated from family. Even if you survive, you can have hellish long term effects.
If you haven’t been vaccinated, think about it.
Sam Hall Kaplan