The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 296 (796)

I do not want this to become a blog on a monkeypox pan- or epi-demic, but it actually is easier right now to find news about it than covid. The CDC is calling monkeypox "an emerging issue." There are now around 75 cases in 11 countries, including Australia. To make this short, a UCLA epidemiologist notes, "This is the most important outbreak in the history of monkeypox in the Western Hemisphere." When I reported the computer simulations that had monkeypox at the top of possible new pandemics, little did I know...

Around 190,000 new cases of covid were confirmed yesterday, meaning that there were actually around one million new cases. Cases are rising in almost every state. Hospitalizations are rising in all but five states and territories; they are still below peak levels, though. One-third of all Americans now live in areas of medium to high levels of virus transmission. Have any been told to wear masks? Not that I know of, but masks have been recommended by some civic leaders.

The CDC has given its approval to vaccine boosters for children aged five through 11. I do wonder what percent of children will get them. Since parents will determine which children get boosters, I wonder if the children of vaccinated-but-not-boosted parents will also be vaccinated-but-not-boosted.

An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reports that one in nine hospitalized covid patients dies or get readmitted within 30 days of going home. These outcomes, though, are consistent with admissions for other medical diagnoses such as influenza, diabetes, or pneumonia. Deaths following covid are higher among men, older people, people with comorbidities, and people with a history of prior hospitalization stays. Almost half of covid patients returning to hospital are returning due to lung problems. 

I had lunch--outdoors--downtown with a friend and her father today. Walking from parking to the diner, I noticed very few people wearing masks. (I was wearing one.) It made me wonder about the motivation of those still masked. Are they protecting themselves, others, or both? Early on in the pandemic I would have said I was trying to protect both, but I admit that now it is to protect myself. Those not wearing masks aren't interested in protecting me or themselves for that matter. If my wearing a mask helps them, I'll feel good about it. Beyond that, they're on their own.   

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 267 (767)

A long day, but I've done all but one of the things I've been putting off not to mention physical therapy (the knee pain is apparently a nerve issue from one hip being higher than the other) and lunch with our financial advisor. I'm starting this later than I usually do, but lunch was more than I usually eat, so dinner may not be needed.

The CDC has asked the Justice Department to appeal the ruling striking down the mask mandate for public transportation. The appeals court has a conservative bent as does the Supreme Court. One concern is that should the case go all the way to the Supreme Court, a ruling against the mandate there could weaken the CDC's authority in future public health matters. A poll conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research over five days just before the ruling showed 56 percent of Americans as favoring masks on public transportation. It should not be surprising that there was a partisan divide in those results. Eighty percent of Democratic respondents favored requiring masks on public transit while only 33 percent of Republicans did.

Regional officials at WHO have encouraged everyone to continue to wear masks in public, saying, "Our general advice is that the general public should wear a non-medical mask indoors, or in outdoor settings where physical distancing of at least one meter cannot be maintained."

Growing out of the pandemic, routine childhood vaccinations are way down. This may be due to skipped checkups or unease over the covid vaccine raising unease over vaccines in general. On the school front, chronic absences have skyrocketed now that full, non-virtual instruction is back in force. In one Connecticut district, over 40 percent of students are chronically absent this year. While absentee rates for high-income students are leveling off, rates for low-income students are worsening. Some schools are offering attendance incentives such as gift cards for groceries or gas and adding night classes for students who are working during the day. At one school, the staff member in charge of attendance eats an insect monthly, but only students with perfect attendance can see her do it. One month, the insect was chocolate-covered; in another, it was salted. Neither sounds particularly appetizing to me. 

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 266 (766)

The gremlins decided to release their control of my Chromebook when The Professor attempted to get it working last night. He did nothing that I had not already tried but since it got me my Chromebook back, I'm not going to complain.

Remember the "if we stop testing, we'll have fewer cases" days? China must; they're doing something similar with the number of deaths. Shanghai has had over 400,000 cases (the population is 25 or 26 million after all) and, wait for it, 17 deaths. Yes, 17, or about four per 100,000 cases. They count cases very narrowly in China. If someone who has a chronic medical condition becomes infected with covid and then dies, the person did not die of covid. They died of the underlying chronic condition. In other words, if there's another remotely possible cause of death, that is the cause of death.

The federal government says that it will appeal the court ruling ending the public transportation mask mandate if the CDC advises that masks are a public health necessity. Because any mandate has now become the responsibility of a business or civic entity, a patchwork of rules is emerging (I cannot take credit for the "patchwork" reference; it was how a traveler quoted in one article described it). For example, a person will not be required to wear a mask on an Amtrak train going into Chicago or New York City, but will need one to board the public commuter rail service in Chicago or the subway in New York City. I wonder how many of the people who dropped their masks into garbage bags held by flight attendants deplaned only to discover they needed that mask for the next leg of their journey. I always carry a couple extras in my purse, but then I would not have removed my mask on the airplane in the first place.

The White House is still recommending masking on transit, but based on what has happened in other countries, going from "compulsory" to "recommended" is heard by most people as "don't bother."

People who have yet to get their children between the ages of five and 11 vaccinated might be interested to know that unvaccinated children in that age range were hospitalized at twice the rate of vaccinated children during the winter Omicron surge. Three fourths of the children hospitalized were admitted primarily for covid. Omicron was on the mild side, though, so children were far less likely to become seriously ill than was the case with earlier variants.   

I learned last night that one of the regular readers of this blog passed away recently. She was a fellow quilter in the group I call my internet quilt guild. I never met her, but she still sent me Martha, the ceramic goose that sits outside my front door with clothes for every month of the year. I forget what remark I made about such geese in a conversation not at all about quilting, but soon thereafter, Martha flew in courtesy of the US Postal Service. Glenda never commented on the blog but told me in email how much she looked forward to it. I'm gonna miss you, Glenda!

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 265 (765)

It's not my day computer-wise. First, my ChromeBook died. Twiggy, the laptop I bought in 2018 will not keep a connection to the router, so I moved back to Hal, my 2013 laptop. I made the mistake of agreeing to the Windows updates it wanted to install. Some 15 minutes later, it was still restarting from those. I then dug out Hiram, the cheap burner laptop I got to take to Peru in 2017. It's working so far, but the keyboard is teeny (it was a good size for travel but tedious for daily work) meaning I am backspacing to correct almost as much as I'm typing characters forward. 

The court ruling striking down the transportation mask mandate does not mean that a company has to lift any mandate they have put in place. Alas, it appears no US airline wants to keep their mandates. In fact, some announced mid-flight that passengers could remove their masks. Some airlines did say later that masks may still be required on flights to destinations that have mask mandates in place. As of this morning, the airlines that have ended their mask mandates are Delta, American, United, Southwest, Alaska, Jet Blue, Spirit, and Frontier. I'm trying to think of a US airline not on that list and drawing a blank.

Health experts, meanwhile, were not pleased. A pediatrician at Harvard Medical School noted, "I think it's extreme shortsighted and, if I were impolite, would say kind of stupid." Booster rates for seniors and other vulnerable groups remain low, and many members of those groups rely on public transit, meaning the ruling hurts rather than helps them. One physician noted that the ruling limits the government's power to issue mandates during any public health crises, saying, "If this becomes a precedent, that a judge can overrule government and CDC experts, that puts us in a problematic place for the next surge, the next pandemic, bioterrorism, or who knows." He continued, "Should you wear a mask when you're in an aluminum tube shoulder to shoulder with people for six hours? I think you should and I will."

Official covid case counts are up 43 percent nationwide, but hospitalizations are not. Experts are citing three possible causes. First, vaccines and boosters are effective and keep breakthrough infections mild. Second, it is getting easier to get treatments such as Pfizer's Paxlovid. Finally, people may have had covid but not known and afterwards have some extra immunity from the prior infection. The prevalence of home testing also complicates things. As a result, several sources have said that they will concentrate their reporting on hospitalization rather than case counts.

Moderna announced preliminary results for the vaccine they are developing to handle various variants. They hope to have a vaccine candidate with even better results by late May or early June. I wonder if that will be around when the next new, totally unexpected variant appears. A vaccine that can handle Omicron and its subvariants is made and then there's a brand new variant. It could happen.

It seems that in the first year of the pandemic, four Americans were infected with a version of the coronavirus that is found mostly in minks. Two of those people worked at a mink farm; the other two were a taxidermist and his wife. This would be the first known instance of possible animal-to-human transmission, though that cannot be conclusively proved. Mink-to-human transmission has also been reported in Denmark and the Netherlands.

And now the not-so-fun job of proofreading and hoping at least one slightly larger laptop is working for me tomorrow.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 258 (758)

Ready for a new variant or two, something to follow Omicron XE aka BA.2.2? It seems that new Omicron subvariants so far known as BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and the UK. The good news is that so far there have been no major spikes in cases, hospitalizations, or deaths in South Africa, where these subvariants have been the longest.

The situation in Shanghai gets a bit dicier. The US has told all nonessential staff members to gather their families and leave Shanghai "due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak." Last week they were told they could leave; now they are being told they must leave. One concern is that China separates parents and children when a positive case is found within a family.

On the home front, things could be getting dicier as well. Philadelphia is the first major city to reinstate an indoor mask mandate in response to a sharp increase in cases. Cases rose almost 70 percent in 10 days; the threshold for reinstating the mask mandate is 50 percent. One concern is that if they don't act now, as cases continue to rise so will hospitalizations and deaths. The mask mandate ended on March 2; the city will start enforcing the new mandate on April 18. New York City is averaging three times as many cases daily as they were in early March when restrictions were eased.

Some universities are reinstating mask mandates. American University will require masks in all campus buildings; professors may remove masks in order to teach. Columbia University will require non-cloth masks in classrooms for the rest of the semester. At Georgetown University, masks are required in any campus building until further notice. Johns Hopkins is going big-time. Masks are required indoors, and students will be tested twice each week. Almost 100 students have tested positive there since April 1. Rice University will require masks in classrooms regardless of vaccination status; unvaccinated people must wear masks in all indoor areas.

It is not clear how long the surge happening in the Northeast will continue and how high the peak might get. A Harvard epidemiologist describes it: "There's definitely something coming but depending on all the moving parts, it might be a ripple relative to previous waves." The new White House covid response coordinator says that he doesn't think we have to be "excessively concerned." Another writer suggests that this surge could be our first "so what" wave, "a surge it cares to neither measure nor respond to." The next couple of weeks will be interesting ones. We should remember, though, that "may you live in interesting times" is actually a curse.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 239 (739)

As of this morning the unofficial number of covid cases in the US was 79,954,199. The unofficial number of covid deaths was 978,111. Both numbers are surely higher, possibly significantly higher. I sometimes have trouble wrapping my head around such huge numbers. I often fall back on the thought that when I was in elementary school, New York City was the largest city in the country, and its population was seven million. So at the very least 11 of my childhood New York Cities have had covid. As the number of deaths approaches one million, I remember that, again, in my childhood, being a millionaire was huge; few people attained that level of wealth. One million was a lot bigger then than it seems now. 

Ten large US airlines have asked POTUS to let the mask mandate for airports and on planes expire next month. The flight attendants' union agrees. (They're the ones who have to enforce it on a plane.) I found the list of airlines interesting: Alaska Airlines, American, Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta, FedEx Express, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, United, and UPS. As long as they don't mind if I keep wearing a mask, though I'm not at all sure when I'd think flying somewhere was worth the risk. 

Also on the mask front, schools with mandatory masking during the Delta surge had less in-school covid transmission than schools with optional or partial masking policies. With mandatory masking, there were 7.3 school cases for every 100 community-acquired cases. With optional or partial masking, there were 26.4 school cases for every 100 community-acquired cases. The study ended about the time Omicron started its surge.

Despite the abysmal vaccination rate, Africa's death toll from covid is so much lower than the death tolls in other parts of the world. Africa has certainly had its own covid spread. Two-thirds of the population in most sub-Saharan countries have antibodies. Since only 14 percent of the population is at all vaccinated, those antibodies can't be from vaccination. They have to be from infection. Reasons for the low death rate given that so many people seem to have had covid? The median age is 19. In sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of the people are under the age of 25, and only three percent are 65 or older. Older people may not have lived long enough to develop the underlying health conditions that can complicate covid. The overall climate is warm, and many activities take place outside. These last two factors did not, however, matter when it came to covid in India. Two possible explanations: Testing is relatively nonexistent in many places in Africa, and people are more likely to die at home with the cause of death never being reported.

The WHO says that the BA.2 form of covid is now the dominant version in the entire world. It seems that 86 percent of the cases reported to WHO between February 16 and March 17 were BA.2 rather than BA.1. Given what I just typed about testing being rare in many parts of Africa, I wonder from whence those reported cases came. Possibly not Africa.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 225 (725)

California is somewhat formally moving from pandemicity to endemicity as state mandates are lifted or loosened. A legislative movement is underway to add covid to the list of vaccines required for children to enter school.  Coupled with this is a movement to close the personal belief exemption for covid vaccination. It sounds as if it would stay in place for other vaccinations such as measles.

In terms of California's move, covid does appear to be slowing its onslaught. Cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks rose in only two states, Washington and Connecticut, and the largest rise, in Washington, was only five. The biggest decline was Kentucky's forty. West Virginia, Maine, and New Hampshire also saw significant drops. Probably more telling, daily deaths fell by 24 percent in the past two weeks. Death is even more of a lagging measurement than hospitalization, so a drop in deaths is possibly one of the truest signs the Omicron surge is ending. I'm trying not to think about the BA.2 variant as I type that. 

The TSA is extending the mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation through April 18. The mandate applies both to public transportation and to public transportation hubs such as airports or bus stations. The CDC is consulting with other federal agencies about how long to keep this mask mandate in effect. Meanwhile, Ontario is dropping its universal mask mandate as of March 21, though authorities emphasize that this does not mean the risk is gone. 

Omicron is still peaking in parts of East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong has the highest fatality rate in the world right now. Lots of countries are loosening their entrance requirements and seeking to welcome the tourists they have not seen for two years.

I did not emerge into the real, peopled world last night, passing on the quilting guild chapter meeting The Professor thought I should attend. Not having slept well the night before, I ended up sleeping all the way home from sewing-machine-dropoff and lunch in Richmond and still felt too tired to venture out. I have never liked driving at night--my eyeglasses don't fix my double vision as well in the dark as they do in the daylight--and did not want to drive in the dark while exhausted. As for venturing out, I did to work with early voting for two elections and two election days, so those should count for something. 

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 192 (692)

Yesterday, I mentioned that the US had recorded at least 900,000 covid deaths. Imagine if Indianapolis, San Francisco, or Charlotte (North Carolina) became empty overnight. That's what losing 900,000 people in one fell swoop would resemble. I wondered how long it would take to hit the one million mark. The dean of the Brown University School of Public Health explains, "We got the medical science right. We failed on the social science. We failed on how to help people get vaccinated, to combat disinformation, to not politicize this. Those are the places where we have failed as America." Never underestimate the what? Stupidity? Gullibility? Nonchalance? of the American people. I would invoke my brother-in-law's "Half the population has an IQ under 100," but I don't believe that all vaccine-hesitant or vaccine-resistant people are idiots. Some are, but not all. That said, we may never move far beyond our current 64 percent full vaccination rate.

A new push is on to protect immunocompromised people from covid. The CDC has shortened the waiting period between the third and fourth doses of Pfizer or Moderna from five months to three. Someone who originally got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should now get two additional doses rather than one. This follows seeing a large number of breakthrough infections in immunocompromised people. The CDC also gave doctors permission to give immunocompromised patients the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine outside the recommended schedule "where the benefits of vaccination are deemed to outweigh the potential and unknown risk."

CDC data suggest that boosters are most beneficial to older people. The booster does not seem to add much benefit to younger Americans; their first shots greatly decrease the risk of hospitalization and death. The caveat is that the data only go through the end of December and so miss most of the Omicron surge. Boosters aside, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York explains, "The real problem is the carnage among the unvaccinated." I do like the use of the word "carnage" there. 

A recent study used self-reporting but found that people reporting that they always wore face masks or respirators such as N95 masks in public indoor settings were significantly less likely to test positive later. In other words, "...wearing a mask, wearing it consistently, will reduce your risk and the higher quality mask that you wear, the better protection that you have." 

Several members of Congress are pushing for a "high-level independent" commission to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and the response to it from both the previous and current administrations. It would be similar to the commission that investigated the events of September 11, 2001. It will likely take a while for the proposal to be formally put forward, but so far it does have bipartisan support. It may be the only thing that has bipartisan support, at least that I know of.

Olympic update: Around 71,000 covid tests were conducted at the Olympics on Thursday. There were 21 positive tests. To the extent that the closed loop is working, the number of cases within it should fall as time goes by. 

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 116 (616)

I visited my mom this morning, and the entry questions at her assisted living facility once again include a series on vaccination. The first question asks if you are fully vaccinated. The second question asks whether you have received all but the booster shot. The times, they are a'changing.

Protests continue in Europe even as it continues to be the pandemic's epicenter. The national lockdown in Austria starts tomorrow. Rather than hit the grocery store to stock up on munchies, some 40,000 people (a police estimate) protested in Vienna. There were also protests in Italy against the health pass. Attendance there was nowhere near what it was in Austria. With the health pass required for entry to clubs and bars, 84 percent of Italians ages 19 through 29 are vaccinated. There may be new or tightened restrictions in Germany where case numbers have soared, largely among children, teens, and unvaccinated adults. Portugal has one of Europe's highest vaccination rates but is still adding some restrictions. Finally, the president of Slovakia has raised the prospect of a nationwide vaccine mandate.

The state legislature in Florida passed and the governor signed a bill blocking covid vaccine mandates. The governor said that he wants to protect workers who could lose their jobs for not getting vaccinated. The law prohibits employers from enforcing strict vaccine mandates; Disney, for example, has put its staff vaccination mandate on hold. Weekly covid testing can be required but must be at the expense of the employer not the employee. Fines could cost  $10,000 per day per employee for businesses with fewer than 99 employees or $50,000 for larger businesses. The mandate ban also applies to government entities and school districts. 

A fully vaccinated but also immuno-compromised Canadian senator died from covid just days after getting home from the hospital. In a statement released after her death, she urged people to get vaccinated noting how different her fight would have been had she not been vaccinated. 

As holidays and winter loom, Americans are desperate for normalcy even as covid cases climb. Boosters have been approved for all adults, though are only urged for people over 50 or with underlying medical conditions. Pfizer has asked the FDA to authorize its antiviral Paxlovid. Paxlovid is geared toward older people and those with underlying conditions. It is meant to be dispensed by pharmacies and taken at home. 

How long will masks be with us? When might we be able to stop wearing them?  The CDC recommends masks for everyone where community transmission is "substantial or high." Right now, 85 percent of US counties meet this criterion of 50 new cases weekly per 100,000 residents. That suggests masks aren't going anywhere anytime soon. From an infectious disease modeler at the University of Cambridge: "I think mask-wearing is, in many ways, one of the interventions you probably want to relax last. Mask-wearing is very, very low cost in comparison to most other interventions." Many experts say that it will be easier to ease mask requirements in 2022. They also note that some people may wear masks indefinitely (raising my hand here and saying, "Me! Me!"), especially in cold and flu seasons. 

Vaccine mandates. Boosters. Masks. All are just details. I have to agree with a UCLA epidemiologist: "Cases are starting to rise again, and we have not yet conquered this virus. We may be tired of Covid and Covid restrictions and public health measures, but this virus is certainly not done with us yet."

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 57 (557)

Feel-good story for today is right here. It at least put a big smile on my face. It also helps that last night's computer woes were likely weather-related, because it's so good so far this morning. Of course, I'm saving this draft to finish later and who knows what the tech gremlins may be up to then. Note: Tech gremlins appear to be taking the day off.

How has per-capita covid changed in the last two weeks? Cases in Alaska, Montana, and Wisconsin are up more than 20 percent; Montana is up 36 percent. Cases in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are down over 20 percent; Tennessee is down 39 percent. New infections relative to population are worse in 27 states and better in 23. Like quirky things? Covid has followed something of a two-month cycle: Cases stay up for two weeks and then start to decline. Delta started in July, just over two months ago, and is now going down in places. 

As Florida seems to be declining in their number of cases, the governor has named a new surgeon general who is opposed to both mask and vaccine mandates. In fact, his take on vaccines is that "There is nothing special about them compared to any other preventive measure." He was trained at Harvard of all places. How does he think Florida should deal with the pandemic? "Florida will completely reject fear. Fear is done." Dare I note that last week, one in every 400 Florida residents alive in March 2020 has died from covid. Only cancer and heart disease claimed more lives. 

If you shook your head and said, "Huh?" at the comment about rejecting fear, I have another eye-raising covid comment coming up. England is revising its travel rules. Travelers fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, or Janssen vaccines in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, or an EU country will be exempt from quarantine as long as they arrive from a a green- or amber-list country. (Amber is the middle level in the green-amber-red hierarchy of countries England uses to denote riskiness.) People fully vaccinated with the same vaccines in Africa, Latin America, or other countries including India will have to quarantine for 10 days. Only after that will they be considered fully vaccinated. Critics of this plan say that it will promote vaccine hesitancy by suggesting that something is wrong with the vaccine and that is why where you get it is important. Here's what a government spokesperson had to say: "Our top priority remains protecting public health, and reopening travel in a safe and sustainable way, which is why vaccine certification from all countries must meet the minimum criteria taking into account public health and wider considerations." I don't know about you, but my written comment to that was "HUH??"

I did not know and actually find it strange that New Zealand has one of the highest per-capita distributions of KFC and McDonald's outlets in the world. The government is currently in talks with representatives of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell about giving vaccinations to customers as they wait in line. Instead of fries, it will be, "Would you like Pfizer with that order?"

African leaders are speaking to the UN General Assembly today, with Vaccine inequality predicted to be a major topic. I like a comment made by Norway's prime minister in her remarks to the Assembly: "Some countries have vaccinated their populations, and are the path to recovery. For others, the lack of vaccines and weak health systems pose a serious problem. In Africa, fewer than one in twenty people are fully vaccinated. In Europe, one in two are fully vaccinated. This inequity is clearly unfair." As a numerical example, in Congo, one in 1,000 people have gotten at least one shot. Think about that. One in two fully vaccinated in Europe, while one in 1,000 are partially vaccinated in Congo.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee has said that athletes and team members who want to use USOPC training facilities must be fully vaccinated by November 1, while athletes vying to represent the US in the Winter Olympics or Paralympics must show proof of vaccination. The International Olympic Committee has yet to  announce any international vaccine requirement. The status of spectators is also still undecided. 

Finally, a word or two about masks. The amount of protection they give depends on the quality of the mask and its fit. In one study, communities with mask mandates were found to have lower hospitalization rates than areas not requiring masks. Of course, masks could be all in the eye of the beholder. At a gas station in southwestern Germany, a cashier insisted that a customer put on a mask. They have been required in shops since right after the pandemic started. The man left the store and returned in an hour with a gun (illegal in Germany). The cashier again asked the man to put on a mask. The man then shot the cashier in the head. He later told police that he saw the cashier as "responsible for the situation because he was enforcing the rules."

 Maybe we should all break a rule in memory of that German cashier. I guess we could always enforce a rule, too. Personally, though, I kinda want to break one about now.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 23 (523)

I'll try not to pad this post too much, but my pandemic notes are scant. I spent a good two-plus hours this morning with my oldest friend here. I used to feel funny about calling her my "oldest" friend, at least until I realized that she is the person here that I have known for the longest time and, at 86, she really is the oldest non-family person I consider a friend. I spent time this afternoon with an even-older woman who happens to be my mom. We watched golf and chatted about the state of the golf, the world, and the two flocks of Canada geese that live around her facility and who do not seem to get along at all. I got home and found The Professor getting ready to take a walk, so I went along. 

Three more senators have tested positive for covid. All were fully vaccinated, and all have minor symptoms. This brings the Congressional covid count to 11 senators and over 50 representatives. I have not seen a similar count for governors, but Virginia's governor had it as does Texas's.

Philosophical and potentially legal question: Does a primary care physician have the right to refuse to see a patient who is unvaccinated? In other words, if I were not vaccinated, could my family doc refuse to see me for my annual physical? What I read suggested that legally it might be okay, but ethically?

Baptist Health hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida currently have over 500 covid patients. This is more than twice the number they had at the peak of the July 2020 covid surge. A church in that area with 6,000 members, primarily African American, had six members die in a 10-day span. None had been vaccinated. Now, the church has medical experts available after services not to give vaccinations, but to answer questions about the vaccines. The church has also hosted two vaccination drives at which over 1,000 shots were given.

Over one million doses of vaccine were administered yesterday. This was the first time since early July that vaccinations topped one million in a single day. The overall rate of vaccinations is over 70 percent higher than one month ago. The Culver City Unified School District, a small district in Los Angeles, will require students over the age of 12 to be vaccinated. This is the first such requirement in California and possibly in the nation as a whole. Proof of vaccination is due on November 19.

The Texas Education Agency has suspended enforcement of the ban on mask mandates, and the Texas State Supreme Court said that school districts may require masks after all. Both decisions are temporary. A Florida district that does not require masks had to quarantine 440 students two days into the school year.

Finally, a few tidbits on the non-covid side. Rattlesnakes change the frequency of their rattle the closer humans get to them. The frequency changes from 40 Hertz to 60 to 100 Hertz. The higher frequency made people in a simulation study believe that the snake was closer to them than it really was. The frequency change may be a survival technique for the rattlesnake. My question is whose survival? The snake's or ours?

And in the at-least-we-don't-have-that-disease-here-too category, Ivory Coast has Ebola cases, Guinea has cases of Marburg (Marburg's first appearance in West Africa), and Uganda has polio cases. In other words, we may have it easier here than we thought.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 428

Another take on the fully-vaccinated-then-no-mask deal at the family level. If all members of the family or household are fully vaccinated, you "can comfortably resume pre-pandemic activities." There are certain situations, however, in which you should still wear a mask. Almost vaccinated means that there is at least one person who is not yet fully vaccinated. In this case, masks should be worn indoors or in close conversation. Discretionary trips to indoor spaces should be avoided. For families with children young enough not to be eligible yet, it's a risk assessment situation. If you feel you have had no exposure that could be transmitted to the unvaccinated, a mask may not be needed. Finally, the great unwashed, er, unvaccinated can be divided into the 15 percent who say they need more info before being vaccinated, the 6 percent who say they will get vaccinated only if required to do so by a job or other entity, and the 13 percent who say they will never get vaccinated no way no how. Those people make up 34 percent of the 40 percent currently unvaccinated. 

It appears that people who wish to remain masked are becoming targets of public ire similar to the negative reception that some unmasked people got during the past year. Some mask-wearers plan to continue wearing masks for the next year or even longer. They've come to be called perma-maskers, and many say that having had covid or seen a family member or friend with covid makes them feel vulnerable when un-masked. Apart from infection, some women say they enjoy not having to wear makeup that would be hidden by a mask, praising how masks have simplified their lives.  

All but one of the 36 Indian states have imposed coronavirus restrictions. Experts advise a 10- to 15-day "pause" in activities, something the central government is resisting. There is actually some question about the whereabouts of the Indian central government, though. The General Secretary of India's national student union has filed a missing person's complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In line with this, Outlook magazine's cover announces "Missing. Name: Government of India. Age: 7 Years."

National surges in Southeast Asia continue. Taiwan has begun limiting the size of gatherings in Taipei. In 2020, with a national population of 24 million people, Taiwan reported under 1,000 cases, zero leaks from quarantine, and a death toll of 12. They passed 253 days without one single local case. Now is a different story. Local case numbers for the last four days went from 29 on Friday to 180 on Saturday to 206 on Sunday to 333 on Monday. Part of the surge came about due to flight crews from China Airlines staying in an airport hotel offering both quarantining and Taiwanese flight enthusiasts there as part of a promotion. Three recent mass travel events also contributed to the surge: Mother's Day, a weekend of high school entrance exams, and university students moving home when remote learning replaced in-person learning. Malaysia just reported its highest daily death toll, 45. They have the third highest number of infections in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and the Philippines. Finally, Singapore is cancelling the "bubble" they were about to make with Hong Kong as of May 26. The bubble was originally set to begin in November 2020 but was suspended then due to a surge in Hong Kong. 

POTUS has announced that the US will send 20 million doses of vaccine to "countries struggling against the pandemic." These doses of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson will be in addition to the 60 million doses of AstraZeneca that will be donated once that vaccine is cleared by the FDA. In a throwback to the America First XPot days, POTUS said that the 80 million doses from the US would be the most from any country, by five times. America First lives on!

In terms of the racial disparities in covid identification and treatment, Dr, Fauci, speaking virtually at Emory University's graduation, noted that "Covid-19 has shone a bright light on our society's failings." He continued, "...the undeniable effects of racism" have worsened the pandemic for minorities. Correcting these societal wrongs will not come easy but will likely take decades.

And going back to Asia, the percentage of Japanese opposed to hosting the Olympics is up to 80, less than 10 weeks before the Games are scheduled to start. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that the Japanese government really wants the Games to go on. 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 426

The split screen of the coronavirus continues. Some countries are doing just fine and possibly dandy while others are going down the tubes. The CDC tells us that masks are no longer needed by those fully vaccinated against covid-19, with case, hospitalization, and even death numbers going in the right direction. Canada is planning its own gradual reopening. Restrictions are being lifted in the UK. On May 25, Russia will restart air travel with Iceland, Malta, Mexico, Portugal, and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the conditions in India and Brazil are no better. India is fueling covid spread in South Asia, while Brazil is fueling covid spread in Latin America. Vietnam has seen a steady rise in cases since April. Japan is broadening the area under a state of emergency.  

The CDC's latest advice on mask-wearing--that fully vaccinated people don't need to--is causing its own split screen. Some states are modifying their mask mandates to match the CDC's suggestions, while localities within those states may want to continue to require masks. At the level of individual businesses, Walmart and Sam's Club, Costco, Publix, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, Hershey Park, Universal Studios, and some sites in the Disney universe will no longer require masks. Target and CVS lead the way in saying that they will continue to require patrons to wear masks. Personally, I plan to continue to wear a mask when out in public. If someone wants to assume I have not been vaccinated, that's on them. If someone challenges my mask-wearing even though I have been vaccinated, I will point out that my wearing a mask protects them more than it protects me. 

Before the CDC updated its mask guidance, there was a survey of 723 epidemiologists on when and how they think the US can return to some sense of normality. There was general agreement that the pandemic will not be over until children as well as adults can be vaccinated. When asked when they think we will be very or somewhat likely to be able to do certain things, 85 percent thought we will be able to gather outdoors on July 4. In terms of the fall, 86 percent think schools will reopen fully.  And 90 percent think we will be able to gather indoors for the winter holidays. They spoke to the importance of vaccinations when asked which measurement they feel in most important in helping determine the resumption of pre-pandemic activities. Fifty-nine percent cited vaccination rates compared to the 24 percent citing the number of new cases per day. Seven percent cited the number of hospitalizations, while only one percent cited the number of deaths per day. "Something else" was the choice of nine percent. 

The epidemiologists were also asked which one thing they most feared could stall progress in ending the pandemic. Again, vaccinations jumped to the front with 38 percent citing vaccine hesitancy as the factor that could most delay exiting the pandemic. New variants was the factor cited by 24 percent, while 22 percent cited the politicization of public health. Eleven percent cited returning to pre-pandemic behaviors too soon, while four percent chose "something else." Over 80 percent of the epidemiologists said that people should continue to wear masks when indoors with strangers or outdoors with crowds for and least another year. And there are pre-pandemic behaviors we should never return to. University of Nevada, Las Vegas epidemiologist Brian Labus noted, "I cannot believe that we used to celebrate birthdays by eating a cake that someone has blown all over."

Only 0.3 percent of vaccine doses given globally have been to the 29 poorest countries, home to nine percent of the world's population. While 11 billions shots will be needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the world's population, only 1.7 billion have been manufactured so far. There are examples of vaccine goodwill, though. Lithuania is sharing the vaccines it has with its Eastern European neighbors including Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. As might be expected given the size of the respective outbreaks, neither India nor Brazil is vaccinating quickly enough. A population health and geography professor at Harvard noted that "every even in India is a super-spreader event." That's hard to argue with. 

On the Mt. Everest front, China has cancelled Everest climbs from Tibet, citing the danger of covid brought to the summit by climbers from Nepal. Some companies, though, are cancelling their climbs from Nepal. An Austrian company is pulling out saying that some teams had been partying together at base camp, ignoring basic precautions. Nepal's tourism department said the situation at base camp was not that severe, but what else would you expect a tourism department to say?

I found two four-leaf clovers this morning, only the second time I have found any. Now to see if I'm twice as lucky.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 421

Yesterday, I mentioned the pandemic around the world being like something watched on a split screen. The vaccination picture here in the US is starting to seem like that, too. I read in one source that over half of US adults have gotten at least one dose of vaccine, and this is good. In another source I read that only 34 percent of the US population is fully vaccinated, and this is not good. It's not clear to me if we're winning or losing. The seven-day average number of new cases in the US has decreased by about 80 percent since the January 2021 peak, and that definitely is good. 

More and more experts are saying it is unlikely the US will ever achieve the herd immunity once touted as the end-all and be-all. We could end up with regional herd immunity, during which communities or states could impose short-term restrictions accordingly. I do not see that ending well. Someone doesn't want to wear a mask in a restaurant, so they do a quick road trip 40 or 50 miles to another city that does not have such a mask mandate. Right now, the vaccination rollout is in a race against the covid variants. Can enough people be vaccinated that variants have fewer opportunities to develop? If not, the covid rate could go back up again. In the immediate future, summer may contribute to a situational herd immunity because of increased ultraviolet light, but we all know from Game of Thrones that winter is coming. 

The situation in India remains much the same, not at all good. The WHO has classified the Indian B.1.617 variant a "variant of global concern." Dozens of bodies are now washing up on the banks of the Ganges River. They are believed to be bodies of covid victims for whom there was no crematory space. US physicians and healthcare workers have created a Doctors in Diaspora group to connect with healthcare providers and patients in India. More and more Indian medical experts are condemning the Indian government's response and calling for nationwide restrictions. Some estimates point to India's suffering more than one million deaths by August; the current death toll is approaching 250,000. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has a model that suggests the real death toll is currently at 642,000. And frequent talking head Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health says it is likely that between two and five million people are infected every day and that the "true" daily death toll is closer to 25,000. He says these calculations are based on the number of cremations taking place. 

The situation in India continues to spill over to its neighbors. Cases in Nepal are up by 1,200 percent over the past several weeks, and the percent positivity remains at 47. The shortage of oxygen has reached critical levels. Oxygen manufacturers claim they told the government a month ago that shortages were imminent if a second covid wave started, but the government took no action. China, meanwhile, is setting up a "separation line" on the summit of Mt. Everest to prevent or at least slow the spread of infection from climbers summiting from Nepal. 

Coronavirus continues to surge in Japan. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says that it is up to the International Olympic Committee whether to hold or cancel the Tokyo Games in July. In Romania, vaccinations are being offered at Bran Castle, said to be the inspiration for Count Dracula. Along with a vaccination comes a free trip to the "torture chamber." One young woman in Tuscany got more vaccinated than she bargained for and was mistakenly immunized with a whole vial of the Pfizer vaccine, that is, six regular doses. She was kept under medical supervision for 24 hours and will be followed up regularly. She reported a headache and fatigue but noted that she was "still alive."

Continuing the to mask or not to mask debate, Dr. Fauci suggests that people used to wearing masks now may opt to wear them during seasonal spikes in viruses such as influenza. The flu count has been well under normal this year, in large part due to the mitigation measures imposed due to covid. Masks do get a lot of support in some settings, though. Retail workers say they no longer have to keep a neutral face when dealing with unfriendly customers. Masks are also great for people with social anxiety. A Los Angeles screenwriter says a mask gives "emotional freedom" and that "it's almost like taking away the male gaze. There's freedom in taking that power back."

The US Social Security Administration has released its 2020 list of the most popular baby names. There isn't much change from 2019. The top 10 male names, in descending order, are Liam, Noah, Oliver, Elijah, William, James, Benjamin, Lucas, Henry, and Alexander. For females, the top 10 are Olivia, Emma, Ava, Charlotte, Sophia, Amelia, Isabella, Mia, Evelyn, and Harper. You can see the popularity of your or anyone else's name at https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/. The Professor, The Sons, and my DiL= all have names that rated to some extent in the last 20 years. My name? "Jean is not in the top 1,000 names for any year of birth beginning with 2000." I can take that in two ways, and for now choose the way that makes me more of a unique individual.

Fallout from the work-from-home nature of the coronavirus has revealed some interesting migration changes for software and IT workers. The following areas are gaining such workers: Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Denver. The following areas are losing them: Chicago; Austin; Washington, DC-Baltimore; Boston; Seattle; New York City; and the San Francisco Bay Area. Being able to work remotely does have the benefit of meaning one can work from wherever one wants to live.  

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 408

Global covid cases have now been rising for nine consecutive weeks. The situation in India continues to be dire, a "perfect storm" of mass gatherings, low vaccination rates, and more contagious variants. The positivity rate in Delhi is over 35 percent, which is better than the almost 50 percent found in Kolkata. So far, India has reported 17.6 million cases; however, the real number could be 30 times higher. The director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi says that the estimate last year was that only one in about 30 infections was being captured and counted. National surveys using serology tests estimate that the number of cases was 20 to 30 times higher, meaning that there could be 529 million cases in India. Even in normal times in India, some 14 percent of deaths go unreported, and only 22 percent of the reported deaths have an official cause. As of Tuesday, there had been almost 198,000 covid deaths reported, and that number could be under-reported by a factor between two and five. In other words, the real death toll could be close to 990,000. Right now, experts say that the death toll could peak at 13,000 per day, over four times the current daily number. 

The CDC now says that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks outdoors except in crowded situations. I think I'll keep mine on for now. Dr. Fauci was asked recently about going to sporting events. He said that he would go to an outdoor event but would wear a mask. He recommended checking attendance guidance on the venue's website, taking hand sanitizer and extra masks, eating before you go to minimize having to remove your mask, and avoiding lines such as at restrooms at halftime. 

Almost 150 faith leaders from around the world are calling for an end to vaccine nationalism. They say there is a "moral obligation" to distribute enough vaccines to immunize the entire global population, that mass immunization is "a global common good."

At the same time, some 1,250 clergy from Christian denominations across the UK have released a statement that says the "introduction of vaccine passports would constitute an unethical form of coercion and violation of the principle of informed consent." Covid status certificates would be "divisive, discriminatory, and destructive." Further, "This scheme has the potential to bring about the end of liberal democracy as we know it and to create a surveillance state in which the government uses technology to control certain aspects of citizens' lives. As such, this constitutes one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever to be made in the history of British politics." They also considered a situation in which a passport would be required for entry into churches, saying, "For the church of Jesus Christ to shut out those deemed by the state to be social undesirables would be anathema to us and a denial of the truth of the gospel." There's a lot there worth thinking about, but I still have a question: How the heck did they get 1,250 people to agree on the statement? I've done group writing, and even a small group can be too many authors. I'm just askin'.

The free speech war being seen on social media is moving to print media. Several book publishers have been presented with petitions asking that they not publish books written by associates of XPot. While social media has an obligation to host anyone's speech, print publishers are free to choose some authors over others. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

Somewhat related is what is happening to the "Op-Ed" page in The New York Times. Things published there will now be called "Guest Essays." If you were like me (and you probably don't want to be), you've always thought "Op-Ed" referred to "Opinions-Editorials." Well, it doesn't or didn't. The term refers to outside contributions running on the page "opposite" the official newspaper "editorial." 

Finally, a German bomb squad was called in when a jogger found a bag containing what appeared to be a grenade. This evidently happens a lot given the amount of un-exploded ordinance there. The bomb squad first determined that the grenade was a rubber grenade replica. The fact that the bag also contained condoms and lubricants led to an Internet search that revealed the rubber grenade was a sex toy.

No, I did not make any of this up.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 357

Only one week to the one-year mark. I don't know why, a year ago, I thought things would be finished or at least under control by now. I clearly was not thinking at all clearly about just what a pandemic is. I just checked dictionary.com, though, and the definition of pandemic has nothing to do with how long a disease outbreak lasts, just how widespread it is geographically. The definition of "pandemic" as a noun is given as "disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world." I guess that if a disease is that widely prevalent, it's not going to go away on its own any time soon. 

Masks appear to be one topic of the day. There was a mask burning in front of the Idaho state capitol, led by supporters of XPot. At least a hundred people including kids took part. Interestingly, Idaho has no state mask mandate, though seven counties and 11 cities have local ones. Because of this, a Republican state legislator has introduced a measure that would ban local mandates. Also on the subject of masks, I will bluntly say that not all Southern Republican governors are idiots. Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, says that the Alabama mask mandate will stay in effect until April 9 at the earliest. "Folks. we are not there yet," she said, "but goodness knows we're getting closer."

The non-mask mitigation measure being loosened earlier than it should be is eating establishment occupancy. People can't wear masks while eating, and typically folks eating together sit close to each other for conversational purposes, increasing the probability of viral transfer should one person be already infected. Occupancy limits are being loosened or even ended in Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan. Louisiana, Texas, Arizona (gym occupancy limits are being loosened as well), West Virginia, and South Carolina. California is loosening restrictions on theme parks.

The New Yorker had an article on the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus that I found fascinating. Genetic sequencing work started in New York City in the pandemic's earliest days, March 2020. I had already read that most cases in New York City came from Europe rather than China. The NY strain, though, had a mutation, D614G, that made it more contagious than the virus that had circulated through Wuhan. Nerd alert! What are those mutations all about? I found out thanks to this article. The British variant's key mutation is called N501Y. This means that the amino acid asparagine (denoted by N) is replaced by tyrosine (the Y) at the 501st position of the spike protein. This affects the part of the spike that allows the virus to bind to cells and makes the variant 50 percent more transmissible than the original. New evidence suggests that people infected with this mutation have higher viral loads and remain infectious longer.

The South Africa and Brazil variants have this same mutation. However, they also have an E484K mutation. This means that glutamate (the E) becomes lysine (the K) at the spike protein's 484th position. This mutation diminishes the ability of both natural and vaccine-generated antibodies to bind to and neutralize the virus. Some of the variants discovered in the US also have this mutation, and some UK cases have acquired it as well.

On the non-coronavirus front, a bird not seen for 170 years was spotted in Borneo. Only one museum specimen of the black-browed babbler exists, and it was taken between 1843 and 1848. One was captured in October 2020, photographed, and released. It took a bit of time to officially identify it as a black-browed babbler since some guidebooks listed the babbler as probably extinct. If you know anything about birding (I don't), you can guess that birdwatchers are now primed to travel to Borneo to achieve a sighting and be able to add this rare bird to the lifetime list of birds they've seen. 

Have trouble writing thank you notes? How about gratitude letters? These are slightly longer and generally more meaningful than thanks you notes. Gratitude letters say thanks for something done or said rather than for a thing. Writing gratitude letters appears to be good for a writer's mental health. A study--yes, it was a small one--of 293 subjects divided them into three groups. One group got psychotherapy only. The second group got psychotherapy while also engaging in expressive writing. he third group wrote gratitude letters. Subjects in the third group reported significantly better mental health than subjects in the other two groups even three months after the trial had ended. I may have to give this a try; I can think of a couple people who have said or done something that had a real positive effect on me. 

Yesterday, I mentioned looking for an Instant Pot recipe to try in March. We're having honey teriyaki drumsticks tonight along with leftover rice and a salad. Dessert for The Professor (who has not had a good week on the teaching virtually front) will be a Cadbury fruit and nut bar if the ones I ordered from Amazon for delivery today arrive in time.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 264

The Professor and I are sharing the house but separately. There is no way around sharing the air, though, so we wear masks inside at all times except when eating or drinking. If I'm going to wear a mask all day, it has to be one that does not fog up my glasses with every exhalation. The solution is a bit intimidating, but it works great.

Pay no attention to the wet, stringy hair. I'd just washed it. Not really realizing that it would still hang down and get in my eyes, I had not put on a headband. I did that after taking this photo. Fortunately, there's no one around to see that state of my hair whenever I take the mask off to ingest sustenance. I will not wear the mask while sleeping. The master bedroom is on the second floor and is where I'm sleeping. The Professor is sleeping in the guest room which is in the basement. I think there's enough air between us especially given that the door to the basement will be closed. 

The Professor's test kit will arrive tomorrow. He'll do the test on Monday. If it's negative, he'll need to continue the quarantining. If the test is positive, I pack as quickly as I can and move to Son #1's house or Son #2's cabin. The house here in town would be preferable, but I would just need not to be in the house with The Professor. 

It's tiring, mentally, to manage staying apart, coordinating schedules so that I'm outside when he moseys from his upstairs office to the downstairs guest room, or be in the master bedroom while he picks up his dinner from the kitchen. I'm sure that a portion of the fatigue is rooted in worry over the what if hanging over our heads.

All the numbers--local, state, national, not sure about world--seem are headed in the wrong direction. What concerns me most right now is the the seven-day rolling average of the percent of those tested who test positive is 9.5 percent. Way back when (or so it seems) when reopening the lockdown was first proposed, nothing could happen until that percent positivity was under 10 percent for two weeks. What does it say that it's on its way back up to 10 percent? And we need to stay tuned, because the post-Thanksgiving surges could easily start this weekend. Will those keep people from traveling at Christmas? Not bloody likely.

Away with numbers and serious stuff! The two Christmas decor photos I could not put up yesterday made it to the laptop today. Here's my two Christmas touches so far.

Also of note is that I finished re-making the wreath I did several years ago of doll heads and body parts. I also made a new wreath with doll heads as holly berries. The local quilt guild has a "show and tell" page on which members can post things they are working on or have finished. I put up the two photos below, and only one person has clicked for any response. I think they've always wondered about me, and this may have them wondering even more. Here are the wreaths in question.

I'd have liked to have formatted them a bit better, but that was vexing me, and I'm tired. So here they are, up close (to each other) and personal, not centered nicely as the decor photos above are. 

It's funny to be missing someone who is just upstairs.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 239

The in-house computer problems have, I hope, been resolved. That doesn't mean I could figure out how to do what I wanted to do with my quilt guild's website, though. There really should be a Weebly for Dummies book out there. I am not paying $50 for the closest thing I could find. The Help FAQ yielded nothing, so I now await an email response from the help folks. When that might arrive is anyone's best guess.

Virginia's covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, with the seven-day rolling average number of cases hitting a new high of 1,437. These are the highest the Virginia numbers have ever been, and they're showing no sign of slowing down. Dr. Fauci says if most or all folks would wear masks, the number of cases could be brought down without an economic lockdown. How many more people have to die before the powers that be try this, or must we just sit and wait until January 20? 

We may have a second covid-19 superspreader White House event in the works. HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, MD, has tested positive for covid-19 along with another person who was, like Carson, in a crowd of people at the White House on election night. It's not clear that anyone there was wearing a mask. Will these people never understand how little it takes to be safe?

I have heard that Uncle Joe does not want to be sworn in while wearing a mask. I figure Dr. Biden (I guess if he is Uncle Joe, she should be Aunt Jill) can be up close and personal holding the Bible, while the Chief Justice handling the swearing-in can be a safe distance away. What I don't know is what the plan, if there is one, might be for the inauguration ceremony crowds, parade, and parties. If there is no parade, Uncle Joe could get sworn in then go back to the White House to get right to work on the various executive orders he has planned to start undoing what The Foolius has done. I do not expect that The Foolius and First Lady will welcome Uncle Joe and Aunt Jill to the White House and then go with them to the ceremony as has been done for the last I don't know how many inaugurations. I can't see The Foolius doing a 180-degree turn and being polite for once.

The Orange Foolius is not conceding quickly. On that front, I saw a meme of Obama asking The Foolius how his concession speech was coming along and noting that he (Obama) had never had to give one. The head of the General Services Administration has to sign off on funds and space for the transition team of the president-elect, and Trump's appointee to that position is refusing to do so because it's not clear that Uncle Joe won. It's not clear if she's waiting for the Electoral College to vote or for Congress to formally accept that vote. They're not going to make this easy for Uncle Joe.

The Professor's covid-19 test was negative, resulting in a huge exhalation of relief. It seems that my mom is still in isolation. The facility admin said that just to be safe, they're keeping residents who test positive isolated for 20 days rather than the 14 that the CDC and state health department recommend. I can't say I blame them. Three residents there have now died. They keep saying that they do not know if the deaths were related to the people's having covid-19. I say that in people of a certain age, covid-19 can get you in any number of ways by contributing to preexisting conditions. I can't say for sure if "old age" counts as a preexisting condition, but it probably should.

I'm feeling a lack of levity lately. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 206

The unpacking and organizing continues. While I have not yet found my kindle, I did find two souvenirs from Viet Nam that might come in handy now. Walking around a downtown, virtually every Vietnamese woman you see will be wearing a mask. Some masks cover more than others. On our second trip there, we inquired as to the reasoning. We were actually thinking it might have something to do with air pollution, though that did not explain why we saw no men wearing masks. Remember the days when people here, especially women, basked in the sun or visited a salon to get their skin tan? We were told that in Vietnam, women want to keep their skin as untanned as possible. Hence, they wear masks when out in the sun. We purchased a couple, which I found this afternoon. As I said, some masks

cover more than others.

I of course had to see how these might work as the pandemic masks we wear today. I was told that one test of a mask's permeability is can you blow a match out exhaling through the mask. With the lower, smaller mask, the match flame flickered, but I could not extinguish it. With the upper, larger mask, I could not even get the flame to flicker. I guess I now have two more masks to put in the basket I keep near the door.

HWSNBN on steroids scares me even more than HWSNBN not on steroids. It worries me that there is not "real" discussion of invoking the 25th amendment. The man has the nuclear codes, and while I doubt he would try to start something against his good buddy Vlad, might he start something against China. Repay China for the coronavirus with a nuke perhaps? He might also order his friend Bill at Justice to arrest Hunter and Joe Biden on a trumped-up treason charge. He might do almost anything. 

The Washington Post ran an article this morning comparing Boris Johnson and HWSNBN in terms of their respective bouts with covid-19. The headline "Johnson, Trump: A study in contrasts" pretty much sums up the gist of the article. It seems that Johnson ("call me Boris") was treated as a regular patient despite having a large medical team tending to him. He had two intensive care doctors named Nick and paid tribute to them by giving his newborn son the middle name Nicholas. He specifically praised two nurses who stayed by his bed the two days he received supplemental oxygen. I would guess that HWSNBN couldn't tell you the name of anyone other than, possibly, his principal doctor. Johnson also spent some time convalescing after leaving the hospital; he did not go back to work the day he left, or even the day after that. Different strokes for different folks.

Dr. Fauci now says that it may well be the end of 2021 before enough doses to vaccine have been given to help us return to something resembling the old normal. And the US death total may very well double to 400,000 before then. The University of Washington says that deaths could total 300,000 by December 1, 2020. I wonder how long my hair will be in 14 more months. At least the growing-out bangs will be out of my eyes well before then. And I will be even more spoiled by then in terms of having someone else (older son) obtain groceries for me. For one, he selects much healthier food than I would left to my own devices. And he picks out wine the same way I do--how expensive is it, and what is on the label? I've given a couple of labels back to him and was unable to get a few off the bottles, but I should make a collage of all the ones I've been able to remove and keep. I daresay it would be interesting. 

Note to self: Think about in whatever other boxes your kindle could be hiding.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 146

Is Virginia starting to surge? The number of new cases yesterday was large enough to yield the highest seven-day rolling average number of cases yet. Granted, that average (1,198) was highest by only a wee bit (3) over the previous highest (1,195). That was on May 31. And the numbers being reported now supposedly do not yet include the 140 cases and 20 deaths at a local senior care facility. Things just keep getting more and more interesting. 

There are some people in my subdivision who have been working from home. There are others who have been going somewhere to work. Some people were working from home but now are going back to an office. As older son and I were walking the family dog one morning, one of the neighbors came out her front door and got into her car to, I presume, go to work. She was dressed in what you might call "business casual," khaki slacks and a short-sleeved maroon top. My immediate thought was that I had not a single idea any more about what to wear to work. I guess two-plus decades of working from home had its side effects. On the rare occasions I had to attend a retreat or a staff meeting (these are now called "team meetings"), I was the most casually dressed person there and I was dressing up as much as I could without putting on a skirt and--gasp!--panty hose or tights. 

There has been a discussion of late in an online quilt guild to which I belong of being invited to a social function at which masks were optional or, in the case of a wedding, prohibited. Fortunately, I do not get invited to many (at times that would be more like any) social functions, meaning I have not faced this issue. It's easier just to say that I am not going anywhere until there is a reliable vaccine and treatment and, if someone asks why not, noting my underlying medical conditions. Masks do not figure into the equation at all for me. 

That discussion began with news that a bride who worked in a health care setting and a groom who was a first-responder did not want masks worn at their wedding. Masks would not fit into their idea of a "perfect" wedding. One member of the online group noted that she knew someone who was doing custom masks that fit a wedding theme or the colors of the bridesmaids' dresses. What a great idea! Personally, I think the masks would make the wedding more memorable. I'm betting that I'd remember a masked wedding 35 years ago a bit better than I remember my own, maskless wedding after the same amount of time. 

Today's Washington Post had an article reporting on the supportive lawn signs appearing on the yards of houses in Dr. Fauci's neighborhood. "Honk for Fauci" "Thank you, Dr. Fauci" A neighbor started the trend after getting tired of hearing about detractors of the doctor. Some of those detractors, though, have threatened the doc and his family; I wonder if such public displays of admiration will stoke their anger.

Thought for the coming week: To how many people will the 250,000 bikers gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota, transmit the novel coronavirus? While pondering that, be thankful that the attendance pales in comparison to last year's 500,000.