Gentle Yoga Today! Feedback on future zoom?

We have class at Balanced You at 5:30 today, as usual!

I’ve had a few people who have reported being hesitant to come to class until Omicron settles down. I am amenable to swapping back to Zoom for a bit, if that’s what y’all prefer. Let me know.

Here’s the way I see the situation:

• Community spread: Omicron is spreading faster than any other variant we’ve ever had, except in the very early days of the original when no one knew what was happening. It’s doubling every few days instead of over 12 days.

• Surge duration: we expect Omicron’s surge to peak quickly and then fall quickly. So any change to Zoom would probably just be until the end of February.

• Masks: Anything short of N95 masks are probably not going to stop us giving it to one another during the brief period we’re in the room together. Here’s a graphic:

  Seung Min Kim @seungminkim

  This graphic from the @WSJ is incredibly helpful

  

  January 5th 2022

  5,391 Retweets11,528 Likes

Normally, I feel quite safe in the room with even just the cloth and surgical masks because:

1. There’s a very small chance one of us few have it

2. Because we’re vaccinated, we’re not contagious for as long, so the chance of us being contagious on a Tuesday or Thursday is reduced.

3. Because we’re vaccinated, we’re unlikely to even have severe disease.

#2 and #3 are still true, but #1 suddenly isn’t. Knox County doesn’t report number every day anymore, but on 1/3, we had 4k active cases. Now, that could have doubled twice to 16k, which means 1 in 30 people have COVID right now. Next week, worst case, it might double twice more to 1 in 8 people.

TN DOH state-level reports are compiled weekly and released on Wednesdays now. National numbers look absolutely insane because every state is surging at once instead of it travelling across the country in waves over months.

I personally have very little exposure because I don’t go out except to teach yoga and a grocery trip every couple of weeks. But I know some of you have day jobs and don’t get to stay home.

So let me know how you feel about a temporary return to Zoom. I know it feels like taking steps backward, but at least this surge is promising to be brief.

judson