Her vaccinated caregiver tested positive two and a half weeks ago. The only reason she tested is because my Mom was supposed to go to a church thing. So, my Mom and her caregiver didn't go.
Enter the COVID Christmas hysteria.
One of my siblings then decided that my mother, who had a runny nose, had to get tested. She tested positive. Then said sibling decided not only that my mom couldn't go to the extended family Christmas even "five days after she was asymptomatic wearing a mask" which is apparently the new bullshit rule. AND, that no one should have direct contact with her. AND, that anyone that did have direct contact with shouldn't go to extended family Christmas either, even if they tested negative. So I was banished, and adult children that flew into to town for Christmas were banished. Not because they were with my Mom. Because they were with me, who was with my mom, who was barely sick, and clearly not sick enough to get me sick.
It was awful and I don't think the rift will be healed anytime soon. I became persona non grata because I decided to take my chances so as not to isolate a little old lady at Christmas. The irony? I (unvaccinated) took some MMS and didn't get sick notwithstanding that I have been with my mom every day since. Prolly because unvaccinated people exposed to a real virus then thave broad based immunity - something everyone in the world used to know.
So, my unvaccinated mom was less sick than the vaccinated and boosted caregiver that got her sick in the first place, and I wasn't sick at all. Yet we are the problem. The good news is my elderly mom will probably never get it again. The bad news is she was heartbroken at Christmas, and she probably does not have a lot of Christmas's left.
C19 has caused so many people to lose their minds and abandon critical thinking; It's genuinely shaken me to see grown adults abandon all of the common sense they've learned over decades all because of a large-scale fear campaign.
One of the worst parts is that the fear campaign has mostly died down, and people should now be taking time to reassess their behavior. But if they are, I'm not seeing it.
People who don't feel well and go rushing out to get a c19 test. They don't stop and think:
Why am I going out into public when I'm sick and potentially exposing other people to whatever I have.
What does it change if I have C19 or some regular cold virus? What would I do differently?
I must confess, the Corona Virus saga radicalized me. And for you glowie fucks who are lurking, no I do not mean radicalized in that I'm going to commit violence. I mean radicalized in that the general response to the C19 fear campaign has radically altered my view of my friends, my family and humanity in general.
I won't put my faith in people that failed this critical test. For the people I cared about before C19 and that failed this test, I think less of them and I'm mildly ashamed to admit, I care for them a bit less.
But the biggest lesson in my C19 "radicalization" is that the spirit this country was founded upon resides in a precious few of us. Perhaps 1 in 3 at best. And that both scares me and depresses me. Because if we win this enormous battle we're fighting right now to reclaim our Republic and usher in a golden age for this planet, we're going to lose the spoils of war very, very quickly if that spirit only resides in 1/3 of us. We must rekindle an identity that revolves around critical thinking, feisty independence and a strong distrust of authority.
/end Christmas rant
OP, I'm sorry about your Xmas but I'm glad you and your mom got to spend some one on one time together.
There are "friends" who we just don't care to talk to anymore. It's their loss, and it's sad, but because I don't speak to them I will never be able to ask them directly, "Do you realize that the reason people treat you differently and avoid you is because they have no respect for you, and do not want to entertain the arguments of an idiot?" Maybe some day they'll see the light and I'll welcome them back into my life. Until then, I don't miss them and I pray for them.