The Pandemic isn’t over, much as those of us who deny it…or alternately have done our part by wearing masks and getting vaxxed, might all wish it to be. We might be used to it, but it’s still super curious about us.

Recently, I’ve noticed even my science-respecting, Bolsonaro

(so recently accused of, yes, manslaughter, for his part in delaying vaccines, using them as an opportunity for profit, and pushing alternative cures long after they were proven not to work, at all, no one even thought they ever worked in the first place, we’re talking about shots for horses and cows, c’mon, along with mass rallies and encouraging no masking up and all that)

…and Trump-abhoring friends (even the folks who deny this stuff at Fox are, yeah, vaxxed) are starting to go to events, that don’t require vaccination cards, indoors, without adequate ventilation, and with a bunch of folks breathing hard (you know: yoga classes, clubs, cafes).

Now, you all know that our small businesses are suffering, so I get it: you’re boycotting Amazon, and any form of mass retail, and supporting local, while avoiding plastic (CDC many months ago announced that touch is just really not at all a form of transmission of Covid-19, so all that packaging and gloves ain’t helping. Gloves still touch everything. Yeah: wash your hands).

What does help is masking up when indoors. You know something? Covid doesn’t stop transmitting just ’cause you’re sitting down. My favorite cafes are 100% full of humans from 2019, blissfully hanging out maskless even when not eating or drinking. Meanwhile, the folks in line and who work there are masked up. It’s crazy silly.

So yeah: the best outfit, this Halloween, is a mask. Many superheroes and heroines like masks, remember? So go as one of them. Go as a mask. Go as a Coronavirus. Go as a Trump, or a Sinema, a Manchin, a McConnell, a Bolsonaro, or similarly terrifying apparition. Because you know what’s worse that Covid? Losing all those things in that bill. Daycare. Climate crisis-fixing stuff, not a minute too late. Free community college. And a host of other very real and concrete things we need. Now. Yesterday.

Or, dress up as a scientist, which is what your Covid-denying Instagram-and-Youtube researching friends have been playing at for two years, now. Science is scary to those who would deny the truth, and worship at the altar of RFK Jr. or Dr. Mercocacola. It’s scary to those who would use any crisis as a means to power or profit. It’s scary to those who would forget it, and go to big Halloween parties, indoors, because hey, pandemics are tiring, and we’re Capitalists, and we can or should have anything we want, when we want it, or our money back.

And we didn’t ask for this.