Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Here's how we're going to end today for our last 15 minutes. We're all at different stages right now, I think, in our personal relationships with the pandemic, interpreting data differently, or just in different situations based on our life's needs and our immunity status. For many, it's hard to know what exactly is right to do right now, how vigilant we should be.

Let's try something. We're going to end the show today by taking an informal survey of the calculations that you are making when it comes to taking COVID precautions. How about this? Let us know what this past weekend look like for you. We can take a little snapshot, 212-433-WNYC. Just when Saturday or Sunday, did you go out? Did you gather with friends indoors, at a bar-restaurant, or a dinner party at someone's home, or did you gather outdoors despite the cold?

I passed what appeared to be a child's birthday party walking yesterday in a park near me, though, is very, very cold outside. I don't think they would have had that party outside under weather circumstances.

We're thinking this calling can be kind of a January 24th snapshot in time for Brian Lehrer Show listeners on where you are in your level of vigilance about COVID, 212-433-WNYC, and what sort of a hard part is because some of these decisions are not black and white? 212-433-9692. Of course, we know Omicron is way more infectious than other variants by way of background, and more people are being hospitalized over the last couple of months, but we also know that for most fully vaccinated people, especially boosted people, Omicron is typically much milder than any COVID that might have come before for you.

Still, the COVID surge, which appears now to be dwindling a little bit in New York at least, has put lots of things on pause again. Even when you look at the entertainment sector, different things are making different decisions, lots of Broadway shows recently canceled. Some of that is just due to staff shortages. Sundance, the film festival went virtual but Saturday Night Live conversely returned with a live audience the weekend before last and again last night. This past weekend, how did you navigate that tension? 212-433-WNYC. We'll take your calls right after this.

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. To your snapshots of what you did this weekend, taking COVID precautions into account at various levels because people are all over the place right now, depending on your life situations and state of immunity. Louise in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Louise.

Louise: Hi, Brian. Good morning. Thank you. I just told your screener that I declined going to a party on Friday night mostly not because I'm fearful, because we're fully vaccinated, and I knew that everyone there would be vaccinated, but we choose right now not to attend our church because there is no mask requirement and we are maybe two of four people that show up with a mask on.

For me, it's more of an emotional struggle. I feel like I don't want to be a hypocrite. If I can go to a party, I can go to church, but I am not comfortable in church because I don't know who's vaccinated and who isn't. It's much more of a mental struggle because I'm not afraid. I don't go to public things. I go to the store. I go for walks. I'm in good health, but I don't go into movie theaters or concerts or anything like that. Thats my shot.

Brian Lehrer: Louise, thank you very much. I hear that struggle in those lines you're trying to walk. She mentioned her church and the various behaviors that she's seen exhibited there. I think Sharon in Teaneck is going to bring up her synagogue. Hi, Sharon, you're on WNYC.

Sharon: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for taking my call. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, we got you.

Sharon: Okay, great. I work at a synagogue actually in Manhattan. I live in New Jersey, and I run their religious school for students who are from kindergarten through 12th grade. We closed our school down for the first weekend back after the winter break but decided that it was time to reopen. We had school yesterday in person with all of our students wearing masks, everyone is required to be vaccinated in order to come into our synagogue, and we're K95 or KN94 Mask in order to be in the building, but we're able to be together.

That being together is so, so much better for us. For the kids and for the teachers, and for everything that we're doing, it gives us energy and hope. I just think it's so important. What we keep thinking is that we have to ride the waves and right now the wave looks like it's trending downward, and we're hoping that it continues to, and because we're at school in New York City, we don't have any outdoor spaces. We just want to be able to live with this pandemic, and live in it, and find ways to hopefully create moments of meaning and purpose for our kids, and for each other, and especially the teachers who really find it much more difficult to teach on Zoom. It's just so much better when we're together. We take precautions so that we can live in it.

Brian Lehrer: I'm curious if on top of that, all of that, though, this is not a COVID question, if the folks in your synagogue talked about taking any new precautions, and in the past because of the Texas synagogue hostage situation, which I think has people in synagogues all over the place talking about that again?

Sharon: No doubt, it's been a part of our conversations a lot. Our synagogue, as I say, often is a fortress. It's really hard to get inside the building. You have to go through security, and there are security guards at all times when there are people in our building, and we have cameras everywhere. I can't imagine that we could really even do much more security-wise.

Brian Lehrer: In your place.

Sharon: But it's definitely in our hearts. It's been in our hearts and we are aware about it and think about it a lot.

Brian Lehrer: Sharon, thank you so much for your call. Dan in Matawan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hi, Brian. How are you doing?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Are you in quarantine?

Dan: I am. Yes. My kid being under two years old is unvaccinated, and he goes to daycare with a bunch of unvaccinated kids and he was exposed last week, so we're just being extra cautious here.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, nobody is sick?

Dan: Nobody is sick. No, thanks for asking. He's doing great. As a matter of fact, he loves being home with his parents, and we love being with him, but we just really want to be careful. We're not seeing his grandparents. We're not seeing anybody.

Brian Lehrer: How do you navigate the decision about whether to send him to daycare as an unvaccinated two-year-old and with the going around kids so much?

Dan: It's a great question. Honestly, we took the week before the holidays. We kept him home the week during the holidays, they were closed for the break, and then a week after holidays, we weren't really sure how or when to reintroduce him. We don't, honestly, have a great consistent answer, but we figure it out day-by-day and week by week, but it's a balance of us needing to live our own lives and get out of the house.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. That's the bottom line. That's the premise of this whole conversation, right? A lot of people don't have a bottom line answer, we're making decisions day-by-day.

Dan: That's right.

Brian Lehrer: Dan, thank you very much. Hayden in Inwood, you're on WNYC. Hi, Hayden.

Hayden: Oh, hi. Last weekend, not this weekend, but last weekend, I went to my first large event since the pandemic began. There was a fewer good people inside. They promised to have good ventilation, but they definitely didn't. For me, it becomes a risk assessment. I'm not in contact with any vulnerable people. I wore N95 afterwards until I had enough time to be tested and tested myself and came back negative.

To me, the big lesson that I've learned is that you need to really do a risk analysis and say, "What is my potential for spreading this to people who could really be harmed by it?" If it's low enough, then perhaps it's time to be able to do some things.

Brian Lehrer: You did go to an indoor event with hundreds of people?

Hayden: Yes, I did, and did not get the virus from it.

Brian Lehrer: Hayden, thank you very much. James in Brooklyn with a different kind of decision to make. Hi, James.

James: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. Yes, I think like your previous caller mentioned, I had an almost-three-year-old but also an expecting wife maybe as soon as next week. For the past two to three years, we really haven't done much of anything. My daughter is enrolled in daycare but other than that, we go to the store and we watch a lot of Netflix. That's pretty much it, especially because the information around pregnancy and how that all works out really hasn't been that great. I guess we've been overprotective as you might imagine.

Brian Lehrer: Well, good luck with the new baby with the birth coming. James, thanks for checking in. Deborah in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Deborah.

Debra: Hi. Am I on?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Debra: This is Deb from Brooklyn. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, Debra. I'm sorry. I had it as Deborah. You're on. Hi, Debra.

Debra: No, that's fine. That's fine. Yes, I traveled this weekend on bus subway Amtrak to Philadelphia to be with my daughter as family. My oldest grandson was turning 13 and they weren't planning a party because of COVID, but I wanted to share this event with-- share this auspicious birthday with him and he really appreciated it. I observed the protocols. I'm over 70, but I don't feel that much at risk. I'm always masked when I'm in public and not in the street.

Brian Lehrer: Follow the protocols where you're done hiding out.

Debra: I haven't been hiding out for-- initially, yes, but I went to Broadway show during the week. I just feel like, for my mental stability, I need to be doing things.

Brian Lehrer: That is going to be the last word. Debra, thank you so much. Well, I think that snapshot that we took of all your weekends showed what we thought it might, people are all over the place making different decisions. Thanks for your calls.

Copyright © 2022 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.