INSIGHT

Covid rates are rising and we are back to the masks again

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – So, we’re back to wearing masks again –or at least some of us are. Is there a mask mandate in effect? I happen to know there is in Boulder County, but it’s hard to keep track. Mandates come and go; expire and get extended and although the press dutifully reports on them, they do it lackadaisically, understanding that no one is really paying attention anymore.

Most of us simply go by the signs displayed on the doors of the businesses we patronize: “masks suggested,” “masks required for the unvaccinated,” “masks required,” period. But half the people inside – customers and employees both – aren’t wearing masks and no one ever says anything for fear of getting punched or shot because that’s where we are now.

When I went fishing with friends in Montana in late May, I hardly saw a mask once I left the airport in Bozeman, soon went native myself and when it was time to fly home I didn’t even know where my mask was and had to paw through my duffle to find it.

But things have changed since May. Back then it looked like we had this thing beat. An effective vaccine had been developed in the space of a year (it took 30 years for the polio vaccine) and the Trump administration’s shamefully botched rollout had been taken over by Biden. It still wasn’t perfect. People were lining up if they could find a line, while others were calling hospitals, getting on waiting lists and sometimes driving to other states to try and get their shots. I was in one of the early categories – over 65 and supposedly at risk –but I ended up scrapping like a stray dog to get my shots. I finally slipped in by calling in a favor from a former doctor. The second shot knocked me on my ass for a day, but supposedly that only meant it was working, and after sleeping for the better part of 24 hours, I felt invincible.

It didn’t last long, but at first that sense that we were about to get back to normal was invigorating. Case numbers dropped, the number of vaccinations climbed daily and mask mandates, where they existed, were rescinded. Some businesses reopened, unemployment numbers dropped, so did Covid cases and you could think about traveling again, or going to a café to have lunch with friends.

The public service announcements saying “We’re all in this together” began to taper off, which was just as well because they were never true. What actually happened was that upper- and middle-income people were more or less safely locked down, while lower income folks supplied us with what we needed and got sick and died at higher rates, leaving us to wonder if the politicians and celebrities chanting that we were all in this together were actually lying or just deluded.

But then vaccinations dropped off short of the numbers needed to achieve so-called herd immunity, giving the virus room and time to mutate into more virulent strains –the Delta variant and others – that are more infectious and capable of breaking through the immunity of people who are vaccinated. The good news is that if you do get a breakthrough infection, there’s a good chance it’ll be mild or even asymptomatic. The bad news is that even if you get a case so mild you don’t even know you have it, you can still spread it to others.

So naturally case numbers began climbing again and the fourth wave became a pandemic of the unvaccinated, while vaccines themselves go begging for arms to be

injected in and every new person that gets sick becomes a laboratory in which the virus looks for new ways to infect more people. The more sick people, the more laboratories and the more successful experiments. As I write this, there are 40 million cases in the U.S. and it’s in the nature of pandemics that by the time you read it, there will be more. A recent poll showed that a large perGierach centage of vaccinated Americans are “annoyed” at those who won’t get vaccinated, but annoyed it the wrong word. How about “angry,” “livid,” or “pissed-off?” So, the smart ones among us are back to wearing masks, regardless of what the sign on the door says, while the willfully unvaccinated walk around with their contagious faces hanging out, too dumb to help themselves and too selfish to think about the welfare of the people they might make sick or kill. If they were just risking their own lives, I wouldn’t care – the world would benefit if we thinned out our population of idiots – but they’re not only hurting themselves. Look what they’re doing to the economy and the healthcare system. If you break your arm or have a heart attack now, you might not be able to get treated in some states because the hospital wards and emergency rooms are overcrowded with the willfully ignorant. We’re supposed to claim that maskwearing is a matter of public health, not a political statement, and I believed that in the beginning, but no more. I still wear a mask in an attempt to protect myself and possibly you, too, but in addition I now think of it as a message to the unvaccinated and unmasked. The message depends on my mood, so some days it’s a heartfelt, “Please, let go of your insurrectionist politics and paranoid delusions long enough to protect yourselves and the people around you,” while other days it’s a simpler, but equally heartfelt, to say F*** off.

Housing Our Communities

By U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse Redstone Review

LYONS – Growth across Boulder County and Northern Colorado in recent years has created a unique and challenging set of circumstances when it comes to affordable housing. As our communities expand and flourish, growing populations put stress on infrastructure and transportation, and lead many individuals and families to be priced out of our city limits and forced to live farther and farther away from where they work.

As hardworking families throughout our community encounter salary stagnation, many simply cannot afford to invest in a home of their own.

This is a challenge we are experiencing in Boulder County and throughout our district, but also nationwide. Millions of American families pay more than half their income on rent, and home energy costs are a significant concern for renters across the country. Countless Americans are struggling to purchase their first home. For individuals facing homelessness and food insecurity, the Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these challenges and brought into stark light the need for federal investments.

We are at an inflection point for the affordable housing crisis. Our families, our workers, and our communities are looking to policy makers in Washington D.C. and the administration for creative solutions to meet these challenges.

Earlier this summer, I took a road trip across our district, traveling to Lyons, Granby, Breckenridge, Dillon, Nederland and many places in between. Everywhere we visited, as we spoke with county commissioners, mayors, childcare providers, teachers, firefighters and many others, affordable housing was one of the most pressing issues that our communities spoke about.

We know we need solutions; we need a change, and substantial federal investments to provide opportunity and access for our communities and support for our homeless populations, through services and food security.

That’s why we’ve unveiled the Housing Our Communities Plan to ensure fair, equitable policies on affordable housing contracts. This is a legislative package that will cut red tape and remove barriers for federal affordable housing opportunities. These are common-sense fixes that will ensure that properties set aside for affordable housing use are being used for that purpose and ensure that it is easier for new properties to be acquired, by cutting red tape, so that more families and more individuals can find an affordable place to live.

For communities, for families, for workers, and for Colorado, we must find creative solutions to address these challenges. The Housing Our Communities Plan is a good first step.

Additionally, we were proud to help secure significant investments in food security and support for our homeless populations in the American Rescue Plan, and to provide urgently needed support for renters, homeowners and hungry Coloradans. Senator Bennet and I secured a 15-percent increase in the SNAP program in that bill, and we were able to secure immediate relief for Americans facing homelessness, for Americans unable to pay their utility bills, and for renters and homeowners unable to make monthly payments.

As we look ahead, the work continues. We are working in close partnership with the Biden Administration and the relevant committees in Congress to ensure that investments in affordable housing are a top priority as we craft the Build Back Better Plan.

When we speak about upgrading our nation’s infrastruc-

ture, affordable housing must be part of the conversation. I was grateful to speak with President Biden about the affordable housing crisis when I met with him in the Oval Office earlier this year, and to advocate for the needs of our Colorado communities on this issue. Fortunately, he has listened, and the work being undertaken in Congress now understands the deep importance of funding federal investments in affordable housing. The Build Back Better Plan will use tax credits and government financing to bolster affordable and resilient housNeguse ing, supporting the construction or rehabilitation of more than two million homes nationwide. It is essential that Congress work together in a bipartisan way to fund federal housing programs that Coloradans rely on. With the Build Back Better Plan we have a historic opportunity to do just that. Given the scale of this issue, the complexity of these challenges and the urgency of addressing them, we have to work together to problem-solve, to listen and to invest in our communities where they need it most. If you’re interested in learning more about our work on this issue, or sharing your experience, join us on September 16 for our Affordable Housing Summit. We’ll be hosting two public listening sessions to look both at affordable housing and homelessness, to learn more and to RSVP visit NeguseEvents.com.

Congressman Joe Neguse represents Colorado’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to his first term in November, 2018, becoming Colorado’s first African-American member of Congress in history. He serves as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

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