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Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Heather Benjamin is considering buying a button that says "High Risk, please keep your distance."
Benjamin, 40, was diagnosed with lupus — an inflammatory autoimmune disease — in 2013. With her immunocompromised status in mind, she, her partner, and their 6-year-old son moved from Brooklyn to Burlington, VT, at the beginning of the COVID-19 boom, seeking an area that isn't as crowded.
Vermont has had historically low coronavirus case numbers, and more than 80% of its residents are fully vaccinated. Yet, just in the last week, the state — like Michigan Connecticut, and others — has seen a rise in positive test rates and new cases, a month after the state relaxed its masking and isolation recommendations.
To protect their health, Benjamin and her family have exercised extreme caution throughout the pandemic, foregoing indoor gatherings, traveling on airplanes, and indoor dining during COVID-19 surges and plateaus.
"When my kid's school changed their mask policy, my risk raised exponentially even though we hadn't changed a single thing about our own behaviors, and COVID certainly hadn't changed," Benjamin says, as she and her family isolated at home after a student at her son's school tested positive.
