Honestly, I don’t have the bandwidth for all the crap this week. So let me just start with the numbers, and then bullet-point my way through the mess this week. Screw trying to condense and make this more readable. Whatever. We’re 77 f-ing weeks into this crap now and nearly half the people in this country still won’t take it seriously, Delta+ is starting to enter our community, and I’m just not feeling it this week.

• Cases: 287,411 (+9,635)
• Deaths: 3,936 (+119 !!!)
• Seven-day rolling average: 1,278 (+152/day)
• Positivity rate: 10.6% (-3%)
• Cases per 100k: 61 (-8)
• Hospitalizations: 1,268 patients including 361 in ICU – admissions remain around 200 per day
• Vaccinations: 1,435,702 first dose (85.8% of eligible population, 71.7% total pop); 1,162,982 fully vaxxed (69.5% of eligible pop, 58% total pop)
• Our school: unknown, but at least two students

Okay. So news for this week:

1) The DOE launched investigation into some states that ban mask mandates. Texas is not included because the TEA has said the mandate won’t be enforced, even though school districts are complying or saying they can’t enforce a mandate (like ours!).

2) Our school district is now saying that masks are “strongly recommended” but that means nothing at all. They also say they won’t be sending out covid numbers from the school like they have for the last year, and we’ll only receive a notice if there’s a positive case in our kids’ class. I’m not sure how that works in a high school setting where you have multiple classes with multiple kids, not to mention crowded hallways. And then we got two letters this week anyway, each saying a kid tested positive, and we’re not sure if this means these kids were in one of Laurence’s classes or not. Not that any of it matters, because I met a teacher from our district this week and she said those notices are BS because they’re only counting the barest minimum of what they can get away with, and the actual numbers are much, much higher.

3) Our school district now has so many kids out that they’ve opened their own covid testing center to help families avoid the huge waiting lists to get a test.

(for fun, bc the rest of the photos that follow are WHYYYYYY???)

4) Not to mention about 3000 kids in our district alone just didn’t come to school at all this year. People would rather remove their kids from school altogether than risk covid because our state and are district refuse to be reasonable about a simple little thing like face coverings.

5) Two nearby school districts (Medina and Leakey) closed schools down for a week or two re: covid, and another (Floresville) is extending the Labor Day holiday weekend from 3 to 5 days. Another nearby district (Hondo) is canceling football games. If you know anything about Texas (think Friday Night Lights), football is practically a religion here, and high school football is the highest form of church. Hondo is a small town, so this is REALLY big news.

6) Speaking of church, the Catholic archdiocese here in SA refuses to give out religious exemption paperwork for Catholics, saying that there’s nothing about the covid vaccine that is morally wrong and that people should get the damn shot.

7) Instead, people continue to argue that horse dewormer is the answer. I mean, I can’t figure out the logic behind using a parasite medication for a viral treatment, but hey, just go ahead and die on this hill. Though I wish we could just say that if people take horse dewormer, they get denied a hospital bed because all the rest of us that are sane ought to have that priority. I’m beyond sympathy at this point.

(a real comment on TikTok)

8) Like for this guy, Caleb Wallace, from San Angelo. This man actively fought against masks, vaccines, and any other covid protections. Then he got covid, refused to get tested, took vitamins and horse dewormer (which, surprise surprise, didn’t work!), ended up in the ER, spent a month unconscious, taking a hospital bed from someone else who needed it to get treated for a disease he claimed was a hoax, and then he died, leaving his wife, three kids, and a fourth unborn baby on the way. Way to go, Caleb. I feel sorry for his family, but I won’t contribute to their gofundme, which is supposed to help pay for Caleb’s medical and funeral bills that should never have been necessary in the first place. This is the type of BS that I refuse to deal with. Why should ANYONE fund those medical bills? Caleb should’ve worn a mask and gotten a shot and hey guess what he wouldn’t be dead. Idiot.

9) He’s not the first, nor will he be the last. Recent polls show 45% of the population say they won’t take the vaccine no matter what. UUUUUGH.

(HOW IS THIS REAL?????)

10) People aged 30-49 are being hospitalized at nearly double the rate as in January (29% in TX, up from 15%). Because Delta.

11) Abbott, ever the idiot, tweeted out about the “improvements” Texas has made. His tweet, below, came out on Sunday, a day when numbers are always down because of reporting delays over the weekend. “Lowest level since Aug 22” aka “lowest level in a week!” “More than 56% are vaccinated” aka “nearly half the population refuses to get vaccinated and vaccine doses are expiring and going to waste.” This was the most pathetic attempt to sound positive that I’ve ever heard. Not to mention, the true statistics say that last week, there were nearly 14k hospitalizations across the state, barely under the peak of the January surge. I’m seriously having 1984-Orwell flashbacks.

12) San Antonio has canceled jury duty again. Jason was called up for some time in September, and it just got canceled. They aren’t even doing online versions right now.

13) One of my friends in town asked where we got our otc covid test last week for Laurence. She has two kids, one old enough to be vaccinated, and one only a year or two under the age line. Unfortunately, that kid took the covid test and has come back positive. The whole family went into quarantine protocols and got pcr-tested, and while the daughter remains negative for now, my friend has been feeling sicker and sicker, and her pcr test came back positive yesterday. Ugh! It makes me all the more angry at the people who refuse to help by wearing a mask and getting vaccinated!!

14) The Witte Museum, recognizing that covid will be a big part of the city’s history, has begun collecting testimonies and artifacts related to the pandemic from our community.

15) And to cap off the week, let’s go with the most ridiculous story I’ve heard. This one takes the cake. Last year, when covid was spreading like wildfire and there were so little options in what to do, San Antonio partnered with some local hotels. They set aside several hundred rooms where people who tested positive could go to quarantine if they didn’t have a place where they could quarantine safely at home. This was mostly used for homeless folks, people who lived with severely immunocompromised folks, etc. It was a really kind thing that allowed people a safe space for no cost. In the year-plus since, things have grown so politicized that this week, rumors began to spread. Actual quote from the woman who started this on social media: “Anybody else have a friend or family member, forced, quarantined at a quarantine detention center in SA after being tested for covid? This is not a joke, I couldn’t believe it myself. How is this legal?” That’s right, folks. This free, optional service provided by the city is now rumored to be a forced, mandatory “quarantine detention center.” And people have run with the rumor, because it fulfills everything they believe about the Scary Government Covid Conspiracy. UGH.

And so I sign off for the week. I’m so done, readers. I’m so done.