Traveling during COVID19

If someone were to tell you that they will be traveling, how would you feel? As for me, I have mixed feelings toward those that travel when COVID19 is still very much in the air and has yet to be eradicated.

Not long ago, a colleague shared with me that she has plans to travel out of the country. As much as I “supported” her plan, all I could think was, “Are you serious?” I understood that she needed to get away from her family for the sake of her mental well being. I also understood that she had probably thought about this for some time. But I couldn’t and will not get over the fact that she will be risking exposure to herself and others.

Her plan disgusted me. I found it selfish, careless and inconsiderate. If it’s a matter of wanting to get away from family and having time to yourself, can’t you just go on a solo road trip and camp in the wilderness? (By the way, this colleague is the same colleague that came into my office where she removed her mask to eat a snack and talk to me at the same time. *cringe*)

COVID19 is real and if you’re lucky to not have gotten it or simply be asymptomatic from it, be grateful!

My colleague aside, a travel vlogger I watch from time to time has finally turned me off. Sure, I don’t know her personally but it irked me to see her traveling during COVID19.

I’d see her with her mask off while her team members are filming less than 6 feet away from her. I’d see her visit small towns far from her home, which means, if she got exposed to COVID19 en route to these towns, she’d expose people living in these towns when these people may not have easy access to medical care, let alone the means to afford medical care.

A part of me understood that she may consider it essential since her job revolves around traveling (and eating) but I found it distasteful. If you’re a professional travel vlogger with a gazillion subscribers, do you really not have extra videos lying around somewhere in your sd card that you can use to make new videos from? Do you really need to go out there for extremely new content just to satisfy your subscribers? What is it all about? I guess I won’t ever understand unless I were to one day become a famous travel vlogger that relies solely on travel for income.

I hope I’m not coming off as a harsh critic in any way. All those people that were traveling when COVID19 first hit? I don’t blame them. It was out of their control. All those people that wanted to get back home when countries started to learn about COVID19 but couldn’t? I don’t blame them. Some people (yours truly included) didn’t have a choice but to stick it through simply because airlines were being rigid with refunds/exchanges and normal people, in general do not have the means to shell out extra money for a flight change.

COVID19 has been around for a good amount of time. With the holidays approaching, people are losing their patience with COVID19. They want to go back to how life was like pre-COVID19. While it’s out of my control to tell people what to do and what not to do, I want people to really think things through before doing something that can potentially cause you, a loved one or a random stranger to get COVID19.