Pandemic and the parsing of profit: a personal take on qui bono
My pandemic (so far — it’s an ongoing phenomenon) has been relatively benign. I’ve been vaccinated three times, twice with Pfizer, once with Moderna, and had no ill effects, not so much as a sniffle. I caught COVID once, about six months after the third vaccination, and although I think the majority of my symptoms were associated with a prior sinus infection, it was in the midst of my teaching on a yoga retreat, so required some serious meditation and self care, particularly since that was my first ever five day yoga retreat.
We left Ireland for The Canary Islands in October 2020, the day before the announcement of the second lockdown. We spent the next six months in the Canary Islands, and then went to Portugal. We were outdoors, on our own, walking in the mountains of Tenerife, or out on boats, or swimming in the sea, every day. It was a magical, if eerie, time, with the bars closed and the beaches empty, but we were very, very appreciative of our luck in being there.
Less benign was the effect on my family members in the US, some of whom refused to be vaccinated, and one of whom, with serious underlying health complications, died after catching COVID. I suspect my story is familiar to many. It left much bad feeling, distrust, division and grief in its immediate wake. My mother, who is elderly and was very…
