The View from the Hermitage, Day 409

I'm trying to figure out when I shall write my daily post on the days I am working early voting from 1:00 to 5:30 pm. Normally, I write, as now, late afternoon before I make dinner, time that falls in the last hours of early voting. That leaves morning or early evening. Except for one week in which I work Monday through Friday, my days are scattered between now and June 5, the last day (the "on-time" election is June 8). I'll see tomorrow morning if it works to write then. If it doesn't, I can try evening on the next early voting day.

Speaking of voting, over 360 bills with voting restrictions have been introduced by Republicans, mostly at the state level, since POTUS was inaugurated on January 20. This infuriates as well as saddens me. We should be making it easier for people on the margins--low-income, unemployed, etc.--to be able to vote. After all, casting that vote is one way they can help build a future that moves them in more.

I've been curious about covid testing after covid vaccinations. The local university told The Professor that he no longer had to get a weekly covid test since he was fully vaccinated. The guidance I found for the fully vaccinated was to get tested if you developed covid symptoms, or if required for travel or entry somewhere. Simply being exposed to someone with covid does not require testing unless, as noted previously, symptoms develop.

India is, well, India. In the 24 hours ending Wednesday morning, 360,960 new cases were reported, along with 3,293 deaths. The total death toll is now over 200,000. Crematoriums and cemeteries cannot keep up with the number of bodies. Outside some crematoriums, bodies lie on the pavement, covered with sheets and flowers. It is safe to say that cases and deaths continue to be under-counted. In Delhi, 2,127 people officially died of covid over the past week, but 3,472 covid-protocol funerals took place. The Pan American Health Organization is warning that on a global level, the pandemic not only is not over but also is accelerating. 

Australia has vaccinated only about seven percent of its population so far. The announcement that Australia's Olympic athletes and support staff will be fast-tracked for vaccination is making a lot of people very unhappy. I do not see it ending well if all the athletes and staff are fully vaccinated and the Games are cancelled. 

Here at home in Virginia, some measures of the pandemic such as the case count, number of hospitalizations, and number of deaths have leveled out. This is most definitely not a good sign. With an increasing number of vaccinations, those numbers should still be decreasing. Older adults, the age group with the highest vaccination rate, are experiencing fewer cases, while variants appear to be attacking 20- to 29-year-olds the hardest. Public health officials warn that the areas with low vaccination rates could provide "pockets" in which the virus can incubate for future transmission. The governor has been relaxing restrictions and says that with the exception of the mask requirement, all restrictions could be gone by June. Unfortunately, the local university's Biocomplexity Institute says that all its scenarios show cases could rise by June, and their worst-case scenario shows weekly caseloads in June topping those seen in January. 

Surges are also being reported in Oregon. Cases are up 54 percent in the past two weeks, while hospitalizations are up 39 percent. The governor there is reimposing some restrictions in 15 counties. Evidently, the state health folks had set thresholds for when restrictions would be imposed or reimposed. Public health experts cite a combination of factors driving the surge: more coronavirus variants, increased travel for spring break, and loosening restrictions before vaccination numbers had risen sufficiently.   

Air travel is rising, though business travel remains virtually nonexistent. I wonder if the utility of Zoom, Skype, or other communication apps will permanently decrease such travel. The airlines are redoing routes to account for more VFR or visiting friends and relatives. There are lots of hurdles: maintenance on planes that may not have flown in months, retraining flight crews, and, perhaps most important, re-certifying pilots. Fares are up from last year but still cheaper than pre-pandemic. And people who banked frequent flyer points from using affinity credit cards more often while staying home will be able to do lots of upgrading flights.

I mentioned celebrating my fully vaccinated day by getting my hair cut. Here are the before and after shots. The after hair reflects how the stylist styled it. Straight from the shower today, it's actually a bit curly.