Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus Diaries 25

So today a Federal Judge struck down mask mandates for travelers…

CDC Mask Mandate For Travelers Struck Down By Federal Judge

Not a terribly big shock the Florida Federal judge who issued this ruling was appointed by Donald Trump in 2020.

Here’s the thing, though: The CDC extended the mask mandate to May 3rd, a grand total of two weeks and one day from today.

Did this judge really need to wade into something that, for all we know, may be a moot point in a very short period of time?

From the article:

A Biden administration official familiar with the White House’s decision previously told CNN the goal of the extension was to gather more information and understanding of the BA.2 variant of the coronavirus. Covid-19 cases in the US are on the rise, leading universities and the City of Philadelphia to reimplement indoor mask mandates.

COVID is most dangerous, data would suggest, to those who aren’t vaccinated. Many of those who aren’t vaccinated appear to have bought into the -let me try to be diplomatic here- hot air about lost freedoms and governmental overreach and no doubt will cheer this decision, even though they might become the ones most vulnerable to the ill effects of it.

When I used to live in a very cold climate and in winter, I -and many people around me- wore scarves over their mouths to protect them from the cold.

To my mind, wearing a mask in this time of the pandemic is the same. Only instead of protecting yourself/others from the cold, you’re doing this to protect them/yourself from transmission.

Is that really such a bad thing?

The question, alas, is rhetorical at this point.

Will the Biden administration appeal the decision? I suspect they will.

What if another even worse pandemic should rear its head? Will the CDC be completely powerless to advise travelers to wear some kind of protective masks?

Stay tuned kids…

Coronavirus Diary 24

You know, for a while there I was feeling like maybe we were done with this.

The number of COVID cases and hospitalizations had gone down quite a bit, almost to a near negligible level. Treatments have been developed so even those knuckleheads who still refuse to get vaccinated have a better chance of surviving, provided they get to a Doctor or hospital, than those who contracted it before.

…however…

As good as most recent news is, Dr. Fauci is warning we aren’t completely done with COVID quite yet and he worries there might be a surge in cases in the next few weeks and possibly another surge come fall…

U.S. Likely To See A Surge In COVID-19 In The Fall, Dr. Fauci Says

It really sucks to read something like this because, as I said above, things seemed to be settling/slowing down regarding the virus and I was hopeful that maybe, just maybe, we were finally entering the end stages of this dreadful pandemic.

Of course, Dr. Fauci’s worries are, at the moment, just that and perhaps things won’t play out quite like he worries it might.

On the other hand, he is an incredibly experienced virologist and, despite how hard the right tries to put his opinions down, has proven time and again to have a great grasp of how this pandemic has progressed. Has he always been on target? No. But when he states an opinion he’s very clear it is just that and in this case… well… I feel like one should take his words and prognostications seriously.

Hopefully things don’t pass as he worries it might.

Yet there’s no harm, in my opinion, in being careful a little longer.

What a way to start the year…

Saw this meme way back when 2020 was coming to an end…

Was I a good year | New Year's Day | Know Your Meme

2020 wasn’t much fun but neither was 2021. For the family and I in particular, it was downright awful.

So we said goodbye to 2021 and we aren’t even done with the first month of 2022 and already its been this avalanche of bad news coming through.

I suppose the biggest bits of news are the celebrity deaths. While it happened on the very last day of 2021 (December 31st), you had the beloved Betty White, longtime star of television and movies, passing away just shy of her 100th birthday…

Betty White dead at 99: Best moments and quotes

Yesterday/today came the news of the passing of two celebrities, Meat Loaf, aka Michael Lee Aday, mostly known as a terrific singer but also actor…

And, finally (for now, I suppose), comedian Louie Anderson…

Not My Job: We Quiz Comedian Louie Anderson On The Song 'Louie Louie' : NPR

Betty White had supposedly had a stroke a few days before her passing and it was likely the cause of her death. I read articles which stated Louie Anderson was being treated for cancer and this was the cause of his death.

As for Meat Loaf, the reports indicate he had contracted COVID and this was the cause of his death.

While the information is still very fresh and not entirely sourced, there have been those who have noted the singer had stated in previous interviews he was against vaccine mandates. There was evidence to suggest he had a conservative viewpoint.

Obviously, I can only go by those reports as I didn’t know the man myself.

However…

While it feels unseemly to speculate, I can’t help myself.

I can’t help but wonder if he was one of those people who refused to get vaccinated for COVID.

Understand: There is no joy in this speculation. I don’t have any feelings but sadness at his passing.

But I’d be lying if it doesn’t cause me to contemplate the weird times we’re living in.

We live in a time where the politization of things seems to have gone waaaaaaay too far.

In the past, vaccinations weren’t something I thought about all that much but when I did, I tended to view them positively.

After all, you vaccinate yourself against Polio. Chicken Pox. Measles. Mumps. Shingles. The flu.

I can’t recall anyone stating these vaccines were some liberal plot and/or a threat to one’s freedoms and yet this seems to be exactly what’s happened with too many people when it comes to COVID vaccines.

It hurts to realize this weird thinking has taken over too many people, especially when I have very close family members on my side as well as my wife’s side who have fallen into this bullshit crap as well.

Which begs the question: What is it going to take to convince people reluctant to get vaccinated to do so?

How many more people have to pass away before then?

I just don’t know anymore.

It’s a hell of a way to begin the new year, though.

My thoughts are with the families of those who passed, regardless.

POSTSCRIPT: Just goes to show how much has happened and how many celebrities have passed. I forgot to mention two:

Yvette Mimieux. Perhaps not as well known today, but an absolutely stunning actress, perhaps best known for the original The Time Machine and Where The Boys Are. She was 80.

And, shockingly, Bob Saget, amiable comedian and star of the popular Full House. He was 65.

Coronavirus Diary 23

Over on CNN.com comes this article by Radina Gigova…

Czech anti-coronavirus vaccine folk singer dies after deliberately getting infected with Covid-19, son says

The headline pretty much explains it all, but a few details: Czech folk singer Hana Horká, 57, whose son and husband were sick with COVID but were, unlike her, vaccinated, deliberately got herself infected and, well… she didn’t make it.

This line found in the article and from her son, is particularly poignant:

“My mom wanted to get sick so she gets the Covid pass,” Rek said. “She said to me and even publicly she wants to get infected so she is done with Covid.”

“Done with Covid”.

I suppose one could make a very dark joke about that. Yeah, she’s done with COVID alright.

Grim shit, certainly.

Her son went on to state that his mother was getting incorrect information from her “social circle”, which I suspect means she was one of those people who looked around the internet for the supposed “truth” about vaccines and the virus… most of which is complete and utter bullshit.

I said it before and I’ll say it again: I really, really thought we’d be in much better shape by now. Between the availability of various vaccines and the voluminous testing and knowledge about how to not transmit the virus (wearing masks, cleaning your hands) I genuinely would have thought that by today we’d be mostly past the COVID pandemic.

How wrong I was.

There was no way to predict, I suppose, people’s gullibility or need to find these alternative means -or, to put it bluntly, bullshit- online.

Yeah, I’m feeling real salty here.

It’s because of people like the late Mrs. Horká that we’re still struggling with this damn disease.

Get vaccinated, people.

At the very least if you do get COVID, the odds are it won’t hit you like it did her.

Booster Shot Blues…

So this past Saturday I got my COVID booster shot, ie the 3rd shot, of Pfizer, to “boost” the vaccine’s waning efficacy.

Given the number of people I’m exposed to, its a necessity to make sure I’m as protected from COVID as possible.

It’s interesting how things shake out with these shots, though.

When I got the first shot way back when, I had absolutely no reaction to it.

I was fine, other than perhaps a mild pain in the injection site, to that first injection.

When I went in for the second one, I had a slightly bigger reaction in that the next day I felt fatigued. However, by the third day I was fine, so the reaction overall and to say the least wasn’t anything terribly grave.

The booster shot, however…

Ho boy.

First off, the site of the injection hurt quite a bit shortly after getting the shot. Not incredibly painful, mind you, but more so than the previous two. I figured what happened is that in these days where supplies are tight, the pharmacist might have used a slightly bigger needle than was necessary (of note, the very kind lady who gave me the shot had problems putting on her gloves and stated that because of supply chain issues, they weren’t getting the proper sized gloves that they ordered!).

Anyway, that was early in the morning and other than the pain in the shoulder, I felt fine.

Things changed at nightfall.

Or rather, around 1 AM in the morning.

I awoke to pretty bad chills, as if I was feverish, and my teeth were chattering. I made my way to the bathroom and bundled up, putting on a shirt, light sweatpants, and socks and made my way to bed again.

I had a terrible night’s sleep.

Despite bundling up much more than I usually do when sleeping, I woke up several times through the night to these chills and, when morning arrived, I felt completely zonked out.

Worse, I had things to do which couldn’t be put off and genuinely wondered if I was going to make it through the day.

Luckily, I started feeling better as the hours progressed. Whatever temperatures I was experiencing dissipated and my head got clearer.

It felt like I was done!

Alas…

Sunday night I crashed hard but, once again at around 1-2 AM, I awoke to chills.

I bundled up again and, come Monday morning, awoke to a sweat filled shirt.

This time, I felt pretty good and, as it would turn out, the effects of the shot were over and as I write this on Tuesday evening, I’m feeling a little fatigued from the bad nights’ sleep but otherwise fine.

Weird how that works.

I wonder why the first shot was perfectly good, the second a little bit worse -but nothing outrageous- while the third shot, the booster, affected me so.

Marc Bernier…

The above name is unfamiliar to you?

Mr Bernier has the dubious distinction of being the third conservative anti-vaccination radio host to die from COVID-19.

You can read about him -and the other two hosts- who passed away in this article by Daniel Politi and presented on Slate.com:

Marc Bernier becomes the third Anti-Vax radio host to die from COVID 19

His death follows the deaths of Phil Valentine of Nashville and Dick Farrel of Florida, both of whom when they were hospitalized with COVID-19 decided that maybe the virus was indeed serious and urged their friends to vaccinate. For both of them, alas, it was too late and the virus took their lives.

However, for Mr. Bernier, it appears his final tweets suggested he remained an Anti-Vaxer even to his death.

I really don’t get it.

You hear about people being so anti-vaccine and anti-mask yet they fall for bullshit “treatments” like hydroxychloroquine and, more recently, ivermectin, a horse de-wormer (!!!!), instead of, you know, getting the free vaccine that has been proven to help against COVID-19.

It’s almost like they know, deep in their souls, that COVID-19 is serious but have so convinced themselves that the liberal media, Fauci, and the CDC, are somehow trying to bamboozle them with the approved vaccines and therefore IF they try anything, damned if they’ll do whatever Fauci or the CDC of FDA recommend… and therefore they go to dubious bullshit artists and stock up on their bullshit drugs and recommendations.

whew

Truly makes me wonder when a chunk of society collectively lost their damn minds and are so intensely sure their negative feelings toward such figures is justified they will go the extra mile to somehow “prove” their ideas/notions are right.

Even when it might mean they do so at the risk of their very own lives.

Coronavirus Diaries 39 & Other Things…

So I just checked my blog entries and was shocked to find its been two weeks since I last posted.

Where the hell has the time gone?

First though: Sorry for the dearth of posts. Given the situation regarding the passing of my parents at Champlain Towers, I’ve spent so much time dealing with the family business while going to lawyers and banks to deal with what my parents left behind.

Truthfully it feels like I’ve not had a chance to properly grieve yet, given how each day is filled to the brim, it seems with things we need to take care of… and what’s to still come.

On top of all this, I’ve tried to find time to keep writing, and hopefully I’ll soon make it through the 2nd draft read through of my new novel.

Concerning COVID, I’ve noticed that more people are taking the virus, and the need to vaccinate, seriously. I suppose the news of the Delta variant has finally made at least some of those who foolishly felt the vaccine was unnecessary or that the virus’ potency was overblown into finally realizing that, yes, you can die from it, regardless of your obnoxiously strongly held political beliefs.

Over the weekend we had another somewhat prominent conservative, this one a radio host, by the name of Phil Valentine, died at the age of 61 and after a month of dealing with COVID. Once he realized how serious the situation was, he reportedly changed his views on the vaccine.

Too late for him, it turned out.

But if you think everyone who has a close brush with death suddenly turns, you’d be wrong.

Newsweek had the story of Maine GOP Representative Chris Johansen attending an anti-vaccination rally days after his wife died from COVID.

Un-freaking-believable.

Even worse, it appears he had COVID -though he seems to now deny it- and may well have given the virus to his late wife.

Anyway, the good news is that vaccination numbers are up, so at least there’s that. We have reached the point where we want as many people as possible vaccinated so that we can head off any new variant of COVID which could potentially render the vaccines irrelevant.

If that should happen, we would quite literally be back to square one.

Needless to say, this would be the absolute worst possible scenario.

Get vaccinated, people. Let’s move forward instead of back.

Coronavirus Diaries 38

Honestly, I thought things would be much better now.

What with vaccines becoming common place and anyone can get one here in the United States, I really would have thought people would be flocking to get vaccinated for COVID 19 and surely the rates of the disease would be dropping by now…

Right?

Alas…

So it turns out that far too many people remain deniers of the virus. I suspect many of these people are the same ones who lose their shit at the idea of wearing -gasp!- a mask… as if that’s some kind of major infringement on their personal liberty.

Give me a fucking break.

Sorry if I’m sounding sour, but I’m getting really sick of this.

You don’t want to deal with Coronavirus anymore? Guess what, there’s a real easy solution:

Get vaccinated.

If you’re one of the brainwashed fools who think vaccines are some kind of liberal plot and that masks don’t really do anything let me offer two bits of advice.

First: Get your head out of your ass (ie, all those idiotic Right Wing bullshit articles out there).

Second, perhaps you should read this article about Dick Farrel, a Right Wing radio host who, like too many of these Right Wing types, had nothing but disdain for Dr. Fauci and felt vaccines and masks were stupid.

You can probably guess what happens next. The following article, presented on theguardian.com, tells us about how…

Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer Dick Farrel dies of COVID

Read the article if you want to, but the bottom line is as tragic as it is expected.

The 65 year old Dick Farrel, who had a plethora of wonderfully wrongheaded -and just plain wrong- opinions about COVID, vaccines, and Dr. Fauci, contracted the virus and, once in the hospital, realized his mistake…

…and it was too late.

From the article

(Dick Farrel) reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!”

Get vaccinated, people.

Please.

Vaccines vs… freedom…?

Over on CNN.com Jacob Lev and Ray Sanchez write about…

Buffalo Bills’ Cole Beasley says he’d rather retire than get Covid-19 vaccine

For those who aren’t into sports, the Buffalo Bills are a professional football team and Cole Beasley, one of their players, has expressed open defiance over the thought that anyone will force him to get vaccinated for COVID.

Now, I’m a HUGE proponent of vaccines. I got my Pfizer shots as soon as I was able. I’m close to some people in the medical fields and have unfortunately heard too many horror stories of people who have contracted the Coronavirus. One such story, resulting in the gentleman’s eventual death, is the type of stuff of horror films.

Having said all that and at the risk of sounding contradictory…

I do not begrudge Mr. Beasley refusing to get a vaccine.

It is ultimately a person’s choice if they want to be uninformed or, to put it bluntly, stupid about what the vaccines are and how they can protect you from this virus. While its true that many will only have mild to moderate symptoms, there is always the possibility you will get it worse, far worse, and might even die from it.

But if you don’t want to get the vaccine, that’s on you.

On the other hand, the NFL, in my opinion, doesn’t have to tolerate this sort of attitude if they don’t want to. If this gentleman doesn’t want to get vaccinated, that’s fine. While he has the right to do so, he doesn’t have the right to be in the locker room or on the field in extremely close proximity to other players who are more responsible than he is.

In other words, the NFL should ban him or force him to retire as he’s threatened to do.

I know I’m coming off as sounding extremist, but if you’re playing football, unlike other human activities, you’re in other peoples’ spaces. Really close spaces. Your sweat, your breath, your spit… it gets all over the place.

If you haven’t been vaccinated and I’m a football player that has, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near me.

To be clear, I feel the same and struggle to understand how anyone in the medical field can feel similar thoughts regarding vaccines… yet I know there are people who do.

Unlike a football player, if you are in the medical field, even if you’re a psychologist or social worker or physical therapist or whatever, you must have come into some contact with or heard some stories of the horrors of getting a serious case of COVID 19. Further, you have to know and see that as the rates of vaccines are going up, the rate of infection from COVID 19 is very obviously going down. I recall reading one study that found that in some city/county it was found of those hospitalized for the virus, not a single one of them had the vaccine.

You must, one would think, therefore know the benefits of getting vaccinated versus not.

Seriously: What more proof does one need to the efficacy of the vaccines?

Still, as far as Mr. Beasley is concerned, I don’t begrudge him not wanting to get the vaccine for whatever stupid reason he feels he shouldn’t. I don’t begrudge others feeling the same.

But if you do choose to go that route, perhaps take a moment to read this article written by Nick Visser and presented on Huffingtonpost.com…

Former FDA Chief Says COVID-19 Variant May Cause Surge In States With Low Vaccination

The article notes that former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb was on Face the Nation this past Sunday and made these concerns known.

It’s getting easy to see, in my opinion: If you get the vaccine -as many have to date- you’re obviously protected from COVID 19. The proof is in the drop of numbers.

If these states that show great reluctance to get vaccinated start showing the higher rates of infection, it has to prove the vaccine works, no?

So why not get it?

We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.

Coronavirus Diaries 37

It seems we’re getting closer than ever to an end of the pandemic.

Monday New York City reported no Coronavirus deaths and across the country, cases and deaths are plunging.

Memorial Day just passed and, ’round these parts, the vacationing crowds were pretty thick. I’m hoping the infection rates don’t show a big increase come two weeks from now, but if things keep going as well as they have been, we might be in for a very pleasant surprise.

Fingers crossed!

If things work out well, I wonder if it has anything to do with the vaccinations?

I write this sarcastically.

Why? Because as I’ve noted before I’m incredibly frustrated with people who are “anti-vaccers” or who deny the seriousness of the pandemic.

Come on, people, the evidence is right before your eyes: While the pandemic isn’t gone -and let’s hope there never appears a variant of the COVID-19 virus that is resistant to the vaccines- it has been beaten down considerably in the months since vaccines were so prominent.

There is no other way to look at this. There is no other way to account for the changes.

We’ve had a tremendous number of people vaccinated and, thus, we have a concurrent drop in infections, hospitalization, and -yes- deaths.

It’s as easy as that.

Get vaccinated.

Please!