Otero County has a vaccination rate of about 50%, it says, and the hospital is full: no more visitors, no more elective surgery, no more hospital cafeteria, etc. It has to make room for covid patients so it doesn't, like hospitals in Hobbs and Carlsbad, have to send them to Albuquerque. It's kind of a statewide crisis.
So how does it affect us out here in Sixteen Springs? We are nervous because we are retired and vulnerable (though vaccinated, along with our three teens), but we use the roads a lot, and may need that hospital someday, if not tomorrow. We are kind of astounded at the casual attitude various people have - going around, no mask, no vax, having parties, hanging around inside. I will stand in a restaurant or business place sometimes, usually with mask though I'm known to forget, and hope that my vaccination will protect me and mine from what comes down the pike.
It's a long drive from the village and the hill out here, over James Ridge, down into Sixteen Springs Canyon, and way back into our part of it where there is virtually no one coming close to us except the UPS driver who is able to hand us the package without getting close really. The fresh air, the breeze, and the relentless New Mexico sun, even in late fall, makes us feel somewhat safer than most. And I believe that, as conservative as our neighbors are, most of them are vaccinated, actually. If you use 50% as a guideline, you tend to say, some groups are over fifty, some under, and you never quite know, because we definitely don't ask. But you walk into a place like Dave's or the Texaspit and you have whole crowds, unmasked, probably unvaxed too. The folks at Allsup's who are buying Powerball tickets are definitely not the ones playing the best odds, namely, skipping a vax out of fear, but exposing themselves in a place like Allsup's to anyone who might come by. Somebody is gonna get it, and it will probably be them, and it will probably happen sooner, not later.
One local guy I know said it probably won't get the mountain too bad; this was a while ago, and to some degree he's already been proven wrong. But he seemed to feel that we just have a different lifestyle, more isolated, more outdoors, maybe more health-and-survival conscious. I'm not so sure about the health part. I know that in general suspicion of government, distrust of institutions, hostility to collective do-my-part cooperation in the nation's health - these are all big here, and it will be hard to convince people that they should go down the hill and get stabbed for everyone else's good if not theirs. They're not much into everyone else's good, having moved out here pretty much to get away from everyone else. But since it's possible to be out here and stay away from everyone else, as we tend to do, maybe that's our saving grace.
I stop and talk to the neighbors every once in a while. When I do, we're outside, with a breeze and hot New Mexico sun between us. I feel that, vaccinated as I am, I'm probably ok most of the time. They don't seem to be spreading it amongst themselves although I might not even know if they were. Some may be going down the hill or across the state, and participating in communities that I myself would ordinarily avoid. But it's really hard to tell about these things - who is bringing it up here? Who is spreading it? Who should all these unvaxed people be avoiding? I'm not sure the tests are giving us all the answers. All I can say is, stay safe, stay out of the hospitals.
