My blog

From the perspective of the Konstancin market, where I stocked up on eggs, vegetables and fruit today, as I did every week, the pandemic is gone forever. The crowd is as dense as at the beginning of summer 2019 and no one bothers with a mask, let alone keeping a distance. It looks different in Lidl. They constantly remind people to cover their faces with megaphones, and I was the only person who took the risk of shopping without a mask. This time, however, none of the staff or any of the customers paid me any attention, although it happened to me twice yesterday.

The first time I was waiting for my turn in the crowded Nero café in Saska Kępa, a young saleswoman asked me to put on a mask. I replied that I didn't have one, which was enough to end the conversation. An hour later, in Żabka, the elderly owner of the store wouldn't let me get away with such a simple excuse and threw out that I had to put on a mask. I told her that I don't wear masks, and she firmly said that it was against the regulations, to which I replied that these regulations are illegal in my opinion. Then she gave up, I don't know but whether because of the strength of my arguments or because she thought that it wasn't worth reducing the store's revenue for such a reason.

I will say right away that throughout the pandemic, I bravely endured the discomfort of wearing a mask, and I always looked at all those who protested so strongly against putting it on, claiming that the mask restricted their freedom and threatened democracy, with pity and amusement.

Personally, I think it is very doubtful that masks significantly reduce the spread of the virus, but I wore them anyway, but only for two reasons.

The first reason is very practical – I wanted to avoid paying fines. The PiS police have been behaving idiotically throughout the pandemic. Instead of paying attention and lecturing, they have been restrictively issuing fines based on illegally introduced regulations. Of course, one could not accept the fine and submit to the court procedure, which usually ended in the accused's favor, but the satisfaction resulting from the court dismissing the police's motion to impose a fine would not compensate for the inconvenience of the court proceedings. So to avoid a fine, I always wore a mask, except when running and cycling, which fortunately never ended in trouble, maybe because the police rarely appear in my area.

The second reason I wore a mask was more important and came from respect for others. I don't think masks protect, but people, especially the elderly, do, and it doesn't matter whether it's rational. I've often seen a situation in the subway or a store where an older person wearing a mask asks a younger person without one to cover their face because they feel threatened in his presence. It's hard not to agree with the older person in such a situation, and any explanation seems out of place.

The third wave of the pandemic is behind us, but in my opinion it is not the end of the pandemic. There is no reason why wave number four will not come to us in the fall, because as 2020 has shown, COVID, unlike the flu, which attacks in one large wave in the spring, works in two waves - spring and autumn. Vaccinations will of course make this wave smaller, but it is already known that it is impossible to vaccinate everyone. Today, we are approaching 10 million fully vaccinated Poles - that is, one third of our population. The second third will be a bit more difficult to vaccinate. And the third - with a high probability will not allow themselves to be vaccinated at all. So the virus will have a huge scope for action, although with a lower mortality rate, because the level of vaccination among the oldest Poles, who die in the highest percentage after infection, is the highest. The same problem occurs throughout the European Union - on average, about 2/3 of people want to get vaccinated, which is about the same as in Poland.

Wise minds in Europe and Poland are wondering how to make more people want to take the vaccine.

I recently heard on TV a professor suggest that those who do not get vaccinated should pay for treatment out of their own pockets if they get COVID. This is obviously a stupid solution, because why would the state refuse treatment to someone who pays health insurance contributions, and secondly, the state cannot punish a citizen for any of their decisions that are not against the law.

EU governments are operating under the belief that introducing facilities (for example, in movement) for vaccinated people will increase interest in vaccinations among skeptics. In my opinion, this is an illusion and will not bring any results, apart from pissing off the skeptics, as illustrated by the recent statement issued by the musicians of Kult, who informed that they will not take part in concerts where only the vaccinated will be allowed. They even stated, a bit too much: "We say a firm no to apartheid."
In my opinion, the only way to defeat the pandemic is to vaccinate the entire population, or almost the entire population, and there is only one way to do this - to make vaccinations mandatory.

I am aware of the outcry among skeptics and so-called defenders of freedom that would be raised if such a decision were made. However, let us note that in Poland today many vaccines – for example against measles, diphtheria, or polio – are mandatory vaccinations and no reasonable person protests against them. Secondly, and more importantly, vaccination is not just a personal matter, because whether someone is vaccinated or not has an obvious impact on others. Vaccines do not provide full protection against the virus, but only reduce the likelihood of infection and severe illness. Therefore, even if I am vaccinated, the more vaccinated people around me, the lower the likelihood of contracting this nasty disease.