The Road goes ever on and on ...Day 104 (604)

Life in the time of covid isn't like life in the time before covid. Sunday night I began to feel as if I were coming down with a cold. Yesterday morning, that feeling became reality, a cold that is kicking my butt much quicker than colds usually do. [Let me say as an aside here that my temperature has been its usual 97F, and I can still smell and taste just fine. Should anything develop that might suggest I have covid rather than a cold, I shall get myself to a testing center ASAP.] Today, I was supposed to have coffee and blueberry muffins with my oldest friend here after which I was supposed to go to a hair appointment. I texted my friend yesterday and told her I did not want to expose her even to a common cold and was bailing on our get-together. This morning, I texted my hairdresser and ended up with today's appointment moved to the end of next week. In pre-covid time, while I would probably still have postponed coffee with someone who is 85 years old, I probably would have kept the hair appointment. Covid brings with it a new set of factors to take into account in terms of things we used to do without thinking.

Americans living in rural areas are now twice as likely to die from covid compared with Americans living in urban areas. Besides the fact that rural areas lag about 10 percent behind urban areas in vaccination, rural populations tend to be older, sicker, and poorer than their urban counterparts. The report I read about this did not detail the rural-urban distinction. I live four miles from the edge of a small city. Is that rural or urban?

A recent survey found that most Americans including two-thirds of Republicans gave their local schools high marks on their handling of covid. Fewer than one in 10 parents said that schools had done a "very poor job." Unfortunately, most Americans feel that the danger from the Delta variant is over, and that sort of thing could come back to bite us. 

Global cases now number over 250 million; together, the US, India, and Brazil account for 40 percent of the reported cases. Globally, four billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 3.1 billion people are fully vaccinated. Starting in early December, Singapore will no longer pay for covid testing for people who are unvaccinated by choice. The government will only cover the costs of tests for children and people who cannot be vaccinated. I guess that's one strategy to try to persuade people to get vaccinated. While the US's vaccine mandate for all businesses with over 100 employees has been put on hold, other countries are pressing ahead. All National Health Service workers in the UK must be vaccinated by spring. Italy and France are also requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated. New Zealand has added teachers to health and disability workers in terms of mandatory vaccination. Finally, in Canada all workers in federal public service and federally regulated transport sectors must be vaccinated. 

Vermont is recording record numbers of covid cases as colder weather makes people move inside. New cases are up 51 percent over two weeks ago; hospitalizations are also up. One caveat is that Vermont tests for covid more often than most states. St. Michael's College, a Vermont liberal-arts school with about 1,700 students, is seeing its own surge. After recording only 11 cases between August 17 and October 22, the school saw 77 students test positive this week and last week. Halloween parties are suspected of being the source of the outbreak. 

Finally, a couple of sports notes. National Basketball Association champions Milwaukee Bucks visited the White House yesterday. No NBA champion team visited during XPot's term. The team gave POTUS a team jersey bearing the number 46. The New York Times ran an online (and possibly print) story with the headline "Scientists Fight a New Source of Vaccine Misinformation: Aaron Rodgers." Rodgers lost an endorsement deal with a health firm but so far is keeping his endorsement contract with State Farm Insurance. They're somewhat downplaying it, though. On Sunday, only 1.5 percent of their televised ads included Rodgers compared with 25 percent the two preceding Sundays.