After a year and a half, for the first time I actually posted a day late. It seems that going off the grid wreaked havoc with my WordPress app, so apologies for the lateness and any lack of visual media.

As I return to the NYC area, time will tell whether my gamble of traveling to a Covid hotspot will pay off by avoiding the virus. Since I have been “off the grid” for much of the past week, I wanted to share my experience of some of the remote and rural places on how they are handling Covid as well as the necessary precautions for travel.

My hope is that by taking the right precautions, others can start to go about their lives a bit more normal and avoid the fear of the virus paralyzing any activity.

Preliminary Research

My 2 week residency in Las Vegas, Southern Utah and Arizona was researched and contrasted with my own experience in New York before confirming my travel plans. The virus has flipped initial fears on its head in the sense that those already infected or those from highly infected areas already are aware of habits that either got them sick or helped them avoid the virus in the first place. I happen to live in one of the areas of New York that saw one of the highest rate of infection at the height of the first wave in NYC at the time.

By my back of the envelope calculation, I estimate that in my neighborhood at its peak, between 5% to 15% of all residents were infected or had been infected. This led me to take precautions assuming that every “high touch” surface like an elevator button or door handle had Covid on it. Rather than let this shut me in, I just changed my habits to wash my hands or sanitized my hands whenever I contacted one of these services. I also got into the habit of learning to not touch my face. It was difficult at first but once I adjusted, became second nature.

I had also become quite accustomed to cooking for myself. It was the best way to ensure that I avoided Covid from food prepared by someone else or the person who delivers it. When I would return from grocery shopping, I would wipe down the exterior packaging of the groceries to make sure I didn’t touch it later and assume it was clean.

Obviously wearing a mask is also part of this. Whenever I am in an elevator or anticipate being close to people, I make sure I have it on with my nose and face covered. I avoid public transportation and ride shares for the same reason: to limit my contact with people I don’t know and reduce chances of catching anything.

These habits have helped me to avoid the virus even when I have been in high transmission areas so I looked to continue them when traveling.

Flying

So I had a routine which seemed to minimize my chance of transmission but flying was a new factor I needed to take into account. Luckily I had a few friends who had flown in the last 2 weeks, one to LA and the other to Las Vegas. They made me feel more comfortable about flying in general. They described a situation where there were few people on the plane and they had whole rows to themselves.

This was my situation. On the flight to Las Vegas I did not have anyone around me for at least two rows and had a whole row to myself. Masks were required for the entire duration of the flight and if anyone were to take them off, they were promptly instructed to put them back on.

My flight back was a bit more crowded. I had people in front of me and behind me but again, no people in my row so I was able to lay down at some point when I was tired which was a great perk.

In the Hotspot

Vegas had been labeled a hotspot by New York so I was curious to find out what I would see there in terms of habits. My friend that had recently visited noted that many of the rules were very similar to New York: bars were closed, masks were required indoors and hand sanitizer was on hand pretty much everywhere I went. Despite the media’s depiction, it seemed that the authorities were making every effort to try and prevent the spread of the virus.

I will say however, it became easy to tell who would likely spread or contract the virus. I saw many people shunning masks and riding around the strip on motorized scooters drinking alcohol. In normal times there wouldn’t be anything wrong with this but those folks rarely wore masks and drinking probably lessened their will to comply. I tried to avoid being near any of those people.

I also noted that social habits taking into account the pandemic were not the same as in New York. While trying to watch the fountain at the Bellagio, I took care to try and remain distant from other people. Only to be interrupted as someone plopped down right next to me to watch or take a photo. I had to get up a few times to remain distant from strangers.

Rural Attitudes

It was in a handful of rural areas in Utah and Arizona that I found non compliance and even resistance to basic precautions more prevalent. My travel partner and I regularly encountered stores where either only the staff wore masks or neither the staff nor customers wore masks. However only one store in Fredonia Arizona, gave us vocal resistance to wearing masks. Thankfully they didn’t ask us to remove them but rather questioned their efficacy. To which we promptly disagreed and then left.

In each of these situations we limited our time and exposure to the people who didn’t share the same sense of precaution that we had, which I feel limited our chances of catching anything. We also tended to cool our own food and except for a few cases, avoided prepared food made by workers.

Coming Back

Upon arrival in New York, everyone is required to fill out a form explaining where they were, their contact information and flight information. No information was verified so if I was more unscrupulous I could have filled out false information. Police were stationed at the end of the walkway to ensure everyone complied but we were not forced to take a Covid test and there were no further tracing measures taken. This speaks more to a semblance of control that New York would like us to think they have when in fact, compared to other countries, it is really quite weak.

Conclusion

The real test will be if I manage to avoid any infection which will be confirmed in the coming days. If so, it would speak to the idea that basic precautions and conscious changes in our habits can help us all get back to normal. The sooner more people start to accept this, the sinner we can get back to an almost normal compared to daily life pre Covid.

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