Solitary Bike Rides

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Two weeks ago, it looked as though next summer we could be out of the pandemic. This weekend, it looks as though the pandemic will never end. Every single time Europe looks as if it has a chance of ending the pandemic, it breaks for either Christmas or the Summer holiday. Every single time Switzerland stands an excellent chance of stopping community transmission, it reopens things.

To add insult to injury tonight 65,000 people are going to watch a football match in a stadium, and retail unions are requesting that masks are dropped as a requirement in shops. My entire reason for going exclusively to food shops is that we’re in a pandemic and I don’t trust people to behave appropriately during a pandemic.

Months ago while trying new walking shoes I had an individual and a child standing right beside me. I still tested the shoes, but it was months before I attempted to go to that shop again. The issue with shops is that a) people don’t respect COVID rules so we have to actively keep ourselves safe and b) this requires going as soon as the shops open, rather than at a time that would be more comfortable.

Now back to the topic of solitary bike ride. For as long as people do not understand pandemic dynamics, we are going to be in an endless loop of self-isolation and lockdowns. The sooner people understand that this is a socially transmitted disease the sooner we will be back in an open, rather than closed society.

The sooner the pandemic ends the sooner we can go on group hikes, group climbing and group via ferrata activities. For as long as the pandemic continues in the current loop, the more single people living alone, will have to be happy to go on solitary bike rides.

“oh but you don’t need to do things alone”. In Holland the number of infected went from 1000 to 10,000 new cases in one week. The delta variant spreads extremely fast.

And now for a little humour, people are queuing from three to four hours to get tested for COVID-19 because they are not vaccinated yet, when they could go and get vaccinated, without waiting. Going to get tested if you feel sick is excellent, but if you’re going to get tested, to clear your conscience, before taking a risk, like travelling for holidays to a place where you will be surrounded by crowds, or to be in a nightclub without proper ventilation, then you are clearing your conscience before taking a risk. The data from Holland, England and Israel encourages me, to personally keep self-isolating. If my interpreting of current affairs is correct, then Switzerland is heading into another wave within days, not weeks.

At the end of the day, what does another two years of pandemic solitude change? As long as we are not reminded of the standard model, it changes nothing. With the current behaviour we are in for another two or more years of pandemic where the vulnerable get a booster every six months.