Yesterday's verdict was guilty on all three charges. Minneapolis remains intact. Mr. Chauvin's bail was revoked, and he was remanded to the custody of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. He is being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He gets one hour a day for exercise, but even that is done without other inmates. I'm guessing they want to keep him alive until sentencing in eight weeks. He was remarkably stoic as the verdicts were read and as he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom. Was he anticipating at least one guilty verdict? Or did he not want to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him react?
On the coronavirus front, vaccine supply in the US may soon outpace demand. Vaccine enthusiasm is slowing with only 26 percent of Americans fully vaccinated and 40 percent, having had a single dose. They've done focus groups with vaccine-hesitant XPot voters to look into how they might be persuaded to get vaccinated. In an earlier group, most people were at least swayed a bit by factual presentations on the virus, the vaccines, and how the two combine. In the latest group, people held firm that they will not get vaccinated. These are the diehards, I guess. Having lasted this long, they're not going to change their minds. Here's the scary thing, though. Most of the people in the second focus group wanted to obtain a fake vaccination card to enable them to attend events and travel. I have a problem with that. Their choice not to get vaccinated should not include license to continue to spread the virus.
Besides pandemic fatigue, there is something called pandemic trauma. Especially as vaccines roll out, some people's anxiety may grow and develop into PTSD. The pandemic has been a time of great uncertainty and unreliability. It has also created planning fatigue from the constraints on meetings, the vaccination status of other people, and masks or no masks. Some people are more comfortable avoiding going out into the world, preferring the emotional safety net of their home and personal pod. Symptoms of all this include flashbacks, nightmares, racing thoughts, and somatic responses such as heightened heart rate, tension headaches, or GI symptoms. Those don't sound as bad as covid symptoms, though.
India's caseloads are now growing by almost 300,000 every day. Yesterday set a record of 295,000 new cases. Japan is about to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and two other regions.The Olympics are like the elephant in the room. Most Japanese oppose holding the Games this summer. But with so much money already spent on the infrastructure not to mention public relations, can the government really cancel the Games? The IOC has said there cannot be another delay. It's now, well, this summer, or never for the 2020/2021 Olympic Games.
Today is Queen Elizabeth's 95th birthday. She had asked that her birthday be downplayed this year, not wanting to detract from Prince Phillip's 100th birthday in early June. The official mourning period ends on Friday; the private one may never end. I struggle to wrap my head around 73 years of marriage. A lot of lives don't last that long, let alone a marriage.
1 comment:
Many people I've talked to have household chores split between them (what my neighbour calls pink jobs and blue jobs), if one of you has always put the bins out the other might not even know when collection day is. I imagine that particular issue of widowhood is easier when one has staff.
Everyone should have the choice to do what is right for them but actiona come with consequences. If you choose not to be vaccinated (pausing briefly to consider how fortunate you are to have a choice) then you are accepting the consequences that come with that. First up is getting sick but if lack of social opportunities comes with that then sorry, you are accepting that too.
We're still on the 45+ age group so a long way from excluding people based on their vaccination status.
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