Four in 10 Americans say that going to a July 4 celebration feels risky this year. Last year, eight in 10 did. That said, people are not totally changing their behavior in light of concern over the Delta variant. Vaccines seem to be acting as scientific and psychological shields. There's some disagreement over how to deal with Delta. WHO says that even fully vaccinated people should keep wearing masks. CDC says that fully vaccinated people are okay without masks. Los Angeles County has started requiring masks indoors regardless of one's vaccination status. South Africa is entering lockdown for at least two weeks. Four of the state capitals in Australia--Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin--are under lockdowns of varying lengths. Bangladesh is imposing its most severe lockdown yet; people can only leave home in emergencies, and soldiers will be patrolling the streets. Ireland has said that when dining indoors is again permitted only those vaccinated or recovered from covid in the previous nine months will be able to do so.
I've read a couple of reviews of Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta. It's pretty damning but also frightening in terms of how close we came to things being done very differently and not in a good way. XPot evidently asked about sending cruise ship passengers who tested positive to Guantanamo Bay and waxed philosophically about his national security adviser John Bolton being "taken out" by covid. As for the coronavirus task force chaired by Mike Pence, XPot referred to it as (I apologize in advance for the profanity) "that fucking council that Mike has."
Bloomberg has ranked countries in terms of their covid resiliency. Metrics include vaccination rates, available airplane seats, and the severity of lockdowns. The most resilient countries, in descending order, are the US, New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, and France. The least resilient, again in descending order, are Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Argentina. I was quite surprised to see the US ranked at the top. Having read a Axios summary of the Bloomberg work, I may have to try to find the original for more detail on how resiliency was calculated.
Are your kids going back to middle or high school in the fall? If school starts early in August and you want your kids vaccinated, you need to get moving. Kids can only receive the Pfizer vaccine which requires three weeks between the two doses and another two weeks for full immunity to be reached. That's five weeks, which pushes into early August.
CNN had an interesting piece on what changes made in response to covid might stay with us even after the pandemic is no more. First is how we greet each other. They think the handshake might come back but not for everybody and suggest people might feel more comfortable keeping with elbow bumps or Namaste signals. I like the Japanese bow myself. Second is thinking twice about travel. I never go on a trip without travel insurance, and I bet a lot of other people will be doing that now. I will also be thinking twice about the country to which I am going in terms of their response to the coronavirus. If they did not handle it adequately, I don't think I want to go there. We may be joining Asians in wearing masks and taking other precautions when we think we might be ill. While the 1918 influenza pandemic drew women into the workforce, the coronavirus has forced more than 2.3 million women to leave the workforce. One in four of these women quit due to a lack of affordable child care. Scientific progress is likely to remain more interdisciplinary, collaborative, and creative. The combination of mRNA technology and rapid genetic sequencing gave us viable vaccines sooner than many expected. Childhood will change significantly. Parents have much more experience now with virtual schooling and homeschooling. Even as children go back to in-person schooling, extracurricular activities such as music lessons may well continue to be virtual, meaning no commuting. Finally, work may look very different in the future. It may become more hybrid, at times at home and at times at an office. Companies have learned better how to keep operations going; sending employees home to work in conditions such as a natural disaster will be easier now that it's been done once.
1 comment:
Nope, nope, not music lessons. They have not been a winner because it's not a solo activity. It might work right at the beginning of learning but after a while you're going to be playing duets with teacher, playing with an accompanist and playing in an ensemble. The lag makes it suck - the only way the lovely group ensembles work is because they are all recorded separately and editted together.
I know of several people who will be working from home now, the boss decided that it worked so well that she (in both cases) said there would be no return and gave notice on the office premises months ago. The friend of my friend then gave notice on her flat and moved 90 miles to where her friends lived. It's difficult to claim that a job can't be done from home when it has been for the last year.
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