Surprising bit of good news re Plague

Remember way back on April 7 when Wisconsin insisted on holding in-person elections and everybody expected a big spike in COVID infections a few weeks later? Well, it didn't happen. There were a handful of (possible) infections reported among poll workers and voters, but nothing that could remotely be called a spike in the overall numbers. If anything, I think the rate of confirmed infections in Wisconsin declined slightly during that period.

While it might have been morally and politically satisfying to see such a spike (since predictably the whole thing turned into a completely partisan political battle) the outcome is very good news. And not just because we all hate to see an increase in human suffering (although of course we do, right?). The thing is, voting is a lot like grocery shopping these days. You stand in lines outside the store for an extended period of time, then wander around a fairly large enclosed space for several minutes having passing encounters and short interactions with other random patrons and workers. It has been my considered opinion that this sort of activity creates non-zero but extremely minimal risk of infection. If a ton of people had gotten sick from voting, I would have had to rethink that and start worrying more about my infrequent forays to the store. Now I don't have to. Yay.