Earlier this year there were fierce debates in the country about whether the U.S. should require vaccine passports, where citizens who received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine would have to present their vaccination cards in order to enter facilities, go to events, basically any public space. There are arguments on both sides about this being a public health emergency and needing mandates to contain the outbreak v. those who believe that freedoms are being taken away, but from my brief experience with the vaccine check system in New York City over the weekend, I don't think the system of checking works anyway.
Luckily for the U.S., it appears Covid numbers are trending down, even with so many people still being unvaccinated. MJ and I visited NYC for a wedding this weekend, and it felt like the whole world had gone back to normal. Subways were filled with people (some masked, some not), which struck me as the most dangerous place to get Covid, where there's no checks and very cowded areas full of people coming in and out and exchanging air during a busy weekend. I guess the city just lets the peasants who can only afford the subway (instead of limos and private cars) fend for themselves while high-class restaurants and other establishments must be kept pure and untainted? The restaurants do ask to see vaccine cards upon checking in the restaurant, but they don't ask for accompanying ID, and they allowed me to show a picture of the card, allowing for any kind of digital manipulation of a vaccine card but also, I can just show a picture of Joe Biden's vaccine card (or anyone else in the world) and that would suffice. Seemed like a flimsy system to me, until I realized one fundamental rule about economics and human behavior: people respond to incentives, and the restaurants/ other businesses have no incentive to crack down on would-be customers ready to spend money and turn them away. Much more profitable to loosen the rules and let everybody in. I doubt the governments are sending in undercover vaccine checkers to pose as customers to test each restaurant's system, so why would a restaurant require ID check if it didn't need to? Patriotism? After more than a year of being locked down with different mandates, shut-down rules, mask rules, and vaccine rules, restaurants and businesses are eager to get butts in seats and payments into their accounting ledgers. Hence the problem with vaccine passports: letting the establishments police themselves isn't going to work, and enforcing a strict vaccine mandate is nearly impossible and would incur huge costs.
On a related note, MJ and I walked through Times Square which was as full as it's ever been, but we were saddened to learn that on Friday night a nurse from the Philippines had been killed in that area by a mentally-ill African American man who was stealing her purse. I point out the race of the victim and offender not because their race should matter (I recommend NOT bringing race into the discussion all the time) but because this story got NO national press, I only read about the Filippine government being incensed about it by chance. Whereas the nurse had led a rewarding job being a nurse helping the sick but then had her life ended prematurely by a homeless person, George Floyd was a former criminal how was having an altercation with law enforcement when he died, yet he's one of the biggest heros in America and the face of a movement, whereas the nurse is just a one-line blurb of the metro section in local papers. Because she wasn't the right race at the right time for the country and killed by the right race in the right procession, she doesn't get any attention, even though at least to me her story is much more tragic. MJ and I will likely avoid the Times Square area from now on.
I'll have more blurbs about this I'm sure, but the Metropolitan Museum in New York has to be one of the best museums in the world. Just the sheer size of it allows it to hold so many people from so many different parts of the world and have so many exhibitions ongoing at the same time (except the outdoor rooftop exhibition due to rain) but I learned a great deal about fashion in the "Lexicon of Fashion" special exhibit, one of my weakest Jeopardy categories where I don't know Michael Kors from Marc Jobs and Gianni Versace from Domenico Dolce, even I got interested in all the different lines and nuances. I still won't be tying my own bow ties (even if it's a black-tie formal wedding like the one we went to) though.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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