The first live performance attended since the beginning of the pandemic – Face masks for singers – A shortage of nurses, but an over-supply of nurse practitioners – Cyril Ramaphosa – Another anti-vaxxer succumbs – The case of the missing enzyme – Evening statistics
On March 6, 2020, I attended a concert of the King’s Singers at George Mason University. Even then, the effects of the pandemic were beginning to be felt. Ordinarily a concert from such a well-known group would have been sold out; on this occasion there quite a number of empty seats. And from that day I have not felt able to attend a single live performance until this afternoon. Today, some twenty-one months later, I attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria. I was invited by CC, who is a member of the choir. It was not a performance of the complete Messiah, which is well over 2½ hours, but it covered the first part plus the Hallelujah Chorus. The procedure for entering the church was rather like that which I experienced in the New York restaurants; that is, each person provided proof of vaccination before being admitted and everyone wore a face mask.
This precaution extended to the choir members as well; they used face masks specially constructed for singers, which allow sufficient space around the mouth to sing comfortably while still managing to contain droplets. It still requires considerable effort to use them, of course. CC, whom I saw before the concert began, explained that the singers had to practice using exaggerated emphasis of consonants to ensure that the words could be heard properly. Even so, the soloists did not use them while they were singing their parts. The chorus had evidently practiced to some purpose. At first they sounded slightly muffled, but they quickly got into stride and for the remainder of the concert their volume and enunciation was at normal levels. The performance was played on period instruments and with an orchestra on a much smaller scale than is ordinarily heard in modern performances, thereby providing an experience closer to what the original audience must have heard than the majority of contemporary performances do.
It was admirably done. Choir singers, soloists, and instrumentalists all performed with a verve that is sometimes lacking in larger-scale performances. I have attended other performances of the Messiah, usually with a full-scale orchestra, but this performance had an intimacy I have not experienced with this work before – without, however, any sacrifice of precision or tonality. It was, to use Jane Austen’s phrase, “perfect, in being much too short.” And it was a strange sensation, almost like relief, to be assured that the practice of live singing and music-playing has not entirely died out. That sounds like an exaggeration, but one considers that it has been nearly two years since I have heard anything of the sort, it will not be wondered that I began to doubt whether I would ever have an opportunity of seeing or hearing a live performance again.
Afterwards we gathered at CC’s lovely new house for a dinner party. There were ten of us in all. Gatherings of this kind are becoming less worrisome now, at any rate when one is vaccinated and can be reasonably well-assured that the others are vaccinated as well. At least, that is the situation to date. We may have to revert to self-imposed isolation again, depending upon the rate of increase of the number of COVID cases during the upcoming winter season.
Since some of the guests were or have been medical professionals, the conversation at one point turned on how the profession is faring now. I was surprised to learn that, although there is a shortage of nurses, there is something of a glut of nurse practitioners. Being an ICU nurse at this point is not an attractive prospect, with hospitals being filled to overflowing and with numerous patients becoming abusive upon learning that their own obstinacy has led to the downfall of their health. So several nurses, naturally, are trying to switch over to private practice, which has the advantages of less stress and better pay.
Another national leader has been affected by the virus. Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, has tested positive for COVID. He is fully vaccinated and his symptoms are mild, but he is undergoing self-isolation nonetheless. His case fits in with the pattern of the omicron variant overcoming the protection provided by the vaccines, but happily the variant still appears to be less severe than other strains of the disease.
Another case has had a less happy outcome. John Eyers of Southport, Merseyside, aged 42, was a rock-climber and body-builder – the fittest, healthiest person I know,” according to his sister – and also, alas, a determined anti-vaxxer who thought that if he happened to contract the disease it would be a mild case on account of his excellent physical condition. Indeed, he had been wild camping and climbing mountains just a few days before he was diagnosed with COVID. His assumption was not entirely false. The COVID mortality rate of all people in their 40s in the UK has been about 1 in 1500, but for those with no underlying physical conditions the rate has been less than 1 in 28,000. But in this case Eyers paid a heavy price for his refusal to accept a measure that would have reduced his chances of succumbing to COVID by a factor of 32. He was diagnosed with COVID on June 29th, hospitalized on July 3rd, placed on a ventilator on July 11th, and died on July 27th. Just a day or so before he died he was saying, “Why didn’t I get vaccinated? Why didn’t I do it? Why didn’t I listen?”
It is not clear why someone with such a high level of health and strength succumbed so swiftly when others in much worse physical condition have escaped with few or no symptoms. Researchers have isolated a certain enzyme, OAS1, that triggers the immune system in responding to infections. The majority of the COVID patients who have developed severe or fatal reactions do not have this enzyme. But why some people are born with the enzyme and some are born without it is still a mystery.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 270,426,226; # of deaths worldwide: 5,321,864; # of cases U.S.: 50,801,455; # of deaths; U.S.: 817,956.