The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 233 (733)

Yesterday, I drove to Richmond and back to retrieve my now-working-wonderfully sewing machine. I stopped at rest areas while going and again while returning. I wore a mask on both stops as well as when I went into the store to retrieve my machine. In all three cases, I was the only person around who was wearing a mask. In the case of the store, an indoor establishment, no one seemed to notice or care that I was wearing a mask. At the rest stops, I got some pretty strange looks. Besides walking near people I didn't know, I was going into a small place that could well have several more people in it. Why take chances?

China is looking into slowly ending its zero-tolerance approach toward covid, as some there suggest coexisting with the virus. There may be problems with this. Besides the lower efficacy of the Chinese vaccines, the zero-covid approach has left most people with no natural immunity acquired from having been infected. Hong Kong is facing a similar snag as it passes the one million mark in cases since the pandemic began. Besides the million cases, there have been over 5,000 deaths. Besides the lack of natural immunity, Hong Kong is hampered by its dense population and a very low vaccination rate for the elderly.

Speaking of zero-covid, Samoa just recorded its first locally transmitted case. The other cases have all had a known path of transmission; the new case does not. They are going into a two-day national lockdown, banning public gatherings, and closing their borders. Islands do have their advantages. Just look at Nauru and Tuvalu, two South Pacific islands that have had no cases of covid.

Government types in Washington, DC have to be a little spooked given the number of covid cases identified there this week. The list includes the Irish prime minister, who may have been in town for St. Patrick's Day; former POTUS Obama; current "second gentleman" Douglas Emhoff; and at least nine Democratic representatives who had been at a party conference together. If POTUS and VPOTUS (is that what the Vice President is called?) weren't being tested daily, they probably are now.

All through the pandemic, we've seen a split between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, on the danger of covid and how it should be mitigated. It turns out the there are some distinct differences of opinion within those liberal and conservative groups. For example, 47 percent of the people who consider themselves "very liberal" say that the coronavirus still poses a great risk both to adults and children. Of people who consider themselves "slightly liberal," only 18 percent see covid as still a danger to adults while only 15 percent see it as a danger to children. Since I do still believe the coronavirus is a great risk, I guess I should think about just how liberal I might be. 

Finally, for the fifth year in a row, Finland has been named the world's happiest country followed by Denmark and Iceland. There's just something about Nordic countries. Maybe it helps to be happy when facing the polar night through the winter.