Bizarre
Administrative Encounters Of The Pandemic Kind
Staring at the back of a computer while I wait, here comes the judge and masked love
Nothing exciting but it made me laugh today at the local office of Austrian National Health Care. Here, there’s a 2G protocol as it’s called — means you have to be vaccinated or recovered (geimpft oder genesen) and wear an N95 mask.
Not done yet! On top of that, you’ve got to disinfect your hands before sitting down with your consultant. The person you hand your application to for cost reimbursement sits behind plexiglass. There’s a small letterbox where you place the papers. My consultant appeared briefly from behind her desktop computer, took my paper, and disappeared again behind her computer to do whatever it is she does.
There I sat, behind my mask, staring at the backside of her computer. I just found it bizarre. We are truly living in strange times. Never mind the Olympics. As an athlete or a part of the team, arriving in Beijing, greeted by a mash-up scenario between Contagion and Squid Game — it was must be… disturbing. Back when I went to China for work, in 1998, the worst thing that happened was everybody lit up the second they deplaned.
