The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 79 (579)

Back to the teeny-weeny keyboard. The new laptop, a Chromebook I will use for any and most if not all web things, arrives on Monday. In the meantime, I'll try not to swear loudly enough for you to hear me.

I got a cortisone injection in my arthritic right thumb this morning. I got there early, so there was time for a bit of a chat with my hand doc. (Doesn't everyone have a hand dog they've seen countless times over the last almost-20 years?) She told me of the troubles they had had with fully vaccinated staff members--nurses, therapists, etc.--being out with breakthrough infections. She got Moderna and said she hoped to be first in line whenever boosters are finally available. I again find it sad that the US only counts breakthrough infections as happening at all unless they result in hospitalization or death. I guess having to isolate oneself and miss work or other obligations isn't worth noting in terms of its impact on the world.

Russia promised to export roughly one billion doses of its Sputnik V vaccine but so far has only distributed about 4.8 percent. According to a Virginia Commonwealth University professor specializing in global heath, Russia was for a while the "only game in town." Now, the window of opportunity "to really stake a claim as the savior" in the pandemic is gone. Complicating matters is that, unlike other vaccines, the first and second shots of Sputnik V are different and not interchangeable. Sputnik V is a viral vector vaccine that uses a harmless virus to carry genetic material that will stimulate the immune system. Working with biological ingredients means there are lots of places in the manufacturing process at which things could go wrong. WHO and the European Medicines Agency have yet to approve Sputnik V.

The FDA advisory panel is recommending a second shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months after the first shot. Consideration may also be given to allowing the use of Pfizer or Moderna as a booster. A University of Pennsylvania immunologist holds that "At the end of the day, folks having the Johnson & Johnson should probably get an mRNA booster." No other country has yet recommended a Johnson & Johnson booster.

Italy is setting a high bar on vaccine mandates. Workers will have to show proof of vaccination, a negative rapid swab test, or recent recovery from covid before returning to offices, schools, hospitals, or anywhere else. Workers unable to produce any of these will be placed on unpaid leave and could face fines of up to $1,760. Italy was the first democracy to quarantine towns and apply national lockdowns; it is also the first to do something this drastic. Over 80 percent of people over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated. The government says that the measure is already helping. Over 500,000 previously unvaccinated people have gotten vaccinated since the policy was announced, more than had been expected. 

Chicago's largest police union issued a directive for officers to ignore the city-wide mandate to report their vaccination status. The city is treating it as an illegal strike; the governor has offered to send in the National Guard if too many police stop working. The city's mandate requires city employees who remain unvaccinated and refuse semiweekly testing to be placed on unpaid leave unless they have been granted medical or religious exemptions.

New Zealand is using some interesting strategies to try to get the last 20 percent of its eligible population vaccinated. People getting vaccinated can enter an Air New Zealand jumbo jet through the first class door and get vaccinated in the arm of their choosing. They then move to economy class for snacks and in-flight entertainment if desired and pass the 30-minute post-vaccine observation period. The plane stays on the ground. Papatoetoe supermarket is giving one hot roast chicken per shot. KFC is offering a family-sized bucket of KFC or a boxful of "popcorn chicken" nuggets. Finally, vaccination buses are waiting outside some McDonald's drive-through lanes.

Finally, a bit of positive news. Enrollment in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs in nursing in the US increased 5.6 percent in 2020 while nurses retire or leave citing burnout as the cause. The University of Michigan got about 1,800 applications for 150 slots compared with about 1,200 the year before. Young people are seeing the global emergency as both a challenge and an opportunity.