Pandemic in Cloud Cuckoo Land (America): Trader Joe’s will take your word that you are vaccinated.

Trader Joe’s has stopped requiring masks for customers. How will they know you are vaccinated? Because you say so—no proof required.

This, when only 57% of Americans believe the 2020 election was legitimate and accurate (Reuters/Ipsos Poll, May 2, 2021).

I wish we lived in a country where a vast majority acted as if they were based in facts and embraced principles like honesty. We don’t. So if you would like only vaccinated customers to shop in your store without masks, and you ask an unvaccinated customer whether he is vaccinated, there is a good chance he will say, “Yeah, sure, of course.”

If you are someone who believes in the “honor system” for confirming Covid vaccination, then, respectfully, you are no less a fantasist than those who believe the election was stolen or that the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol involved peaceful visitors in orderly lines hugging the police (actual claims).

As we modify our response to the still ongoing pandemic, it is important as ever that we stay real and self-aware, even if it is not always a great look. Ignoring or rejecting reality is how this pandemic got as tragically bad as it did.