Three hundred ninety-nine days, or 57 weeks if that's how I should count it. Five days out from my second dose of Pfizer, or does that mean I get to start counting down to when I can safely re-emerge if I so desire? If so, it's RED (Re-Emergence Day) minus nine.
This morning's Washington Post Travel section had a column on the decision to travel again (or not) as the pandemic wanes (or not). Those who wish not to travel now (or ever) may be suffering from what a Miami psychiatrist has termed "cave syndrome." He defines it as "loving isolation to the point that you become dysfunctional." He has patients who have become reluctant to leave home as a result of the pandemic. Some people are taking a temporary break from travel in the flesh but may travel virtually. Some other people have a more permanent view and say they don't think they can ever feel comfortable traveling again. I'm not really sure where I fall along that continuum. I have grown to love the sense of isolation I've cultivated, but I'm not sure it's to the point of being dysfunctional. It is, I have decided, to the point of being picky about when and why I might leave the family cave. Overnight travel, especially in the form of traveling internationally, will require some personal reflection and intention. I may well be more inclined to do an organized tour than before in that a tour should have some safeguards built in. I'm not yet at that point of thinking, so I'll see how things shake out over the next months and into the next year.
The president of the International Olympic Committee will visit Japan but not until May 17. The Japanese prime minister is on a state visit to the US right now. He's been able to obtain extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the only vaccine approved for use in Japan. He's gotten enough to guarantee that all people over 16 can be inoculated by the end of September. What that means for the Olympics in July is anybody's guess. I'm still in favor of cancelling them much as that will hurt all the athletes who have trained for years for these Games.
Canada has pulled ahead of the US in new daily cases per capita, and officials are saying that the worse may be yet to come. By Friday, hospitalizations were up 22 percent, ICU admissions were up 34 percent, and deaths were up 38 percent (to 41 per day) from the previous week. Children's hospitals in Ottawa and Toronto have opened ICU beds to adults. Ontario has relaxed some of the restrictions I wrote about yesterday. Police will not be stopping people at random but will only be able to question people they believe are "participating in an organized public event or social gathering." Playgrounds will remain open, though tennis courts, basketball courts, and other outdoor recreational grounds will be closed.
It doesn't help things that Moderna has begun shipping less vaccine to Canada. Pfizer will be sending an additional eight million doses, though. Unlike the US, Canada has been concentrating on giving as many first doses of vaccine as possible before proceeding to second doses. As a result, only two percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated compared with 25 percent of Americans, and 19 percent of Canadians have gotten one dose compared with 39 percent of Americans. Canada should catch up over the next few weeks despite the reduced number of Moderna doses.
I've avoided the possible surge(s) here in the US, but I'll try to write more about that tomorrow. Denial is a great defense mechanism.
I made notes relating to the bar shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin that left three people dead and two people injured. Now, there has been a shooting in Austin, Texas that has left three people dead in Austin, Texas. Shootings are happening faster than they can be reported. It has come out that the gunman who killed eight at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana was known to the local police. His mother had informed police that he might commit suicide by cop. The police took a gun away from him a year ago, and he was still able to buy another. When will we ever learn? Oh, when will we ever learn?
On a lighter note, POTUS played golf yesterday for the first time in his term. Interestingly, he did not own the golf club at which he played.
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