Yesterday President Joe Biden had a news conference where he addressed the COVID-19 situation and, especially the issue regarding vaccines.

The bottom line from President Biden is: There were more vaccines ordered by him through Pfizer and Moderna (they currently have the two vaccines which are available in the U.S., though there are a few others which are in the process of being approved) and he anticipates that by May or later in the Summer/Early in Fall the U.S. will reach a point where enough people have had the vaccine -hopefully!- that we will have reached herd immunity.

Or, as ex-President Trump said, “Herd mentality”…

…yeah…

I’m so very glad we’re done with that… uh… individual. At least for the next four years and -hopefully, redux- forever.

In the mere week that Joe Biden has been President, the government and its various offices sure do seem to be operating at a more normal and efficient way. Let’s be clear though: Not everything has been solved nor is the nation suddenly and completely on the right track. It just seems to be operating more… normally now. Without all that craziness.

If it continues this way and the COVID-19 threat is indeed dealt with, perhaps people will come to realize its good to have a government run by serious people and not shoot-from-the-hip would-be stable geniuses who are knee deep into conspiracy theories while cozying up to strong arm leaders of the world instead of our regular allies.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pleased to not having heard the term “fake news” in quite some time.

Anyway, with President Biden giving an estimate for when things could be back to normal, I fully expect there will be plenty of criticism along the way there and especially if his predictions are off.

And he should be criticized if that is the case!

But at least now there does appear to be a bit of competency that was lacking and I’m really hopeful that things might finally improve.

Hard to believe its been nearly a year now that we’ve been living with this Virus. Truly it’s been longer, but things got really serious in March of last year, if memory serves. That was when it was clear the COVID-19 virus was very much in the U.S. and the first closings began.

If indeed it takes through Summer to reach herd immunity, we’re talking nearly a year and a half of living under this strain.

Just incredible.

…Christmas edition…!

Our family usually does our Christmas gift giving on the 24th but this year, over an abundance of caution, we’re not meeting up in too large a group and doing one visit to family yesterday, with today being the other visit.

In both cases we’re talking about 10 people max and we know what we’ve been doing/where we’ve been and we’ve all been very careful whenever going out so while we probably shouldn’t have the get togethers, we’re reasonably sure we’re all clear…

,,,well…

My sister-in-law, who is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients, called to let us know yesterday that she tested positive for COVID-19. She is usually very careful, wearing masks and washing her hands frequently. Because of the nature of her job, she is also frequently tested for the virus. She took three tests in the past two weeks and the first two were negative but the last one, taken two days ago, came back positive.

She’ll test herself again to verify if indeed it is a positive result and not a false negative. However, she says she has felt a sore throat, which indicates she has something, but is otherwise -thankfully!- so far fine.

Nonetheless, that ended our family visit intended for today. We’ll likely not see that side of the family for at least a week or two, depending on what the subsequent test results indicate and until my sister-in-law tests negative.

Over on my side of the family, my father had an appointment with his doctor earlier in the week and he did a blood test and, wouldn’t you know it, he came back positive for COVID-19 anti-bodies.

Which means he had the virus.

I’ve written before how I suspected several people -including myself- in our family business contracted the virus in mid-late January, early-mid February.

At that point in time, COVID-19 was something which was supposedly only in China’s Wuhan province. It wasn’t yet thought to be in the U.S. and it wasn’t until March, nearly a month later, that we began to realize it was indeed with the United States. And it was in March, the second week or so, that many businesses in our area were forced to shut down to contain a possible spread.

It’s incredibly scary to realize that my father’s illness way back then, which lingered some two weeks, was more than likely COVID-19. Thankfully, he recovered fine. He was the one, of the three or four of us who were sick at the same time, who had it the worst and everyone subsequently recovered. I myself had two or so weeks where I was so exhausted at the end of each day, beyond the normal exhaustion of a busy week, and practically collapsed on my bed afterwards.

Yet I too have had blood test, the last one quite recently, and there has been no indication of COVID-19 anti-bodies within me. Having said that I don’t know if I was indeed checked for that.

Regardless, my wife, who works in the care field, has an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine this Saturday. She will be the first person in our family -and extended family- to get it and, unfortunately, neither my daughters nor myself can get it until its available to the general population.

As I’ve noted before, I’ll be getting it as soon as I can, but its a relief that at least one of us will have the first half of the vaccine and therefore, will half the chances of her getting this terrible virus.

I’m hopeful with the incoming administration there will be a stronger push to get the vaccine not only out there, but to have people get it.

If you can, please do so.

Hopefully one day very soon, we’ll return to something of a normal life.

Another weekend nears its end.

Not just any weekend, but the second to the last weekend of the year 2020. Next weekend will be the last one of December and the following weekend will be the first of 2021.

It shouldn’t come as any big surprise that people will very likely, in looking back at this year, call it one of the very worst ever and the reason is obvious.

COVID-19 likely began sometime in 2019, toward the end of the year, and most likely in China. It spread from there, the first cases believed to have made it to the United States sometime in December of 2019 and by March of 2020 it was clear we had a big problem, worldwide, with this virus.

There were worries, certainly, early in the year. There was plenty of downplaying by the Trump administration of the seriousness of the virus and, even today and even after Trump himself -and many, many in his cabinet- contracted the disease, they continue to try to minimize the situation.

Won’t matter all that much in another month as Trump, and the nightmare of his administration, is out on January 20th.

That’s the other big thing that happened this year: The election.

Despite the many protests issued, Trump clearly lost the election and it wasn’t even close.

While I welcome the end of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration and am certain it will restore a sense of normalcy that for many of us is desperately needed, let’s be clear: a change in power won’t suddenly make everything “right”.

Meanwhile, in the past couple of weeks we’ve had two COVID-19 vaccines approved, first the one created by Pfizer and on Friday the one created by Moderna. My understanding is that there’s a third vaccine in the pipeline ready to be considered for approval and, further to that, vaccines have already been administered.

However, in a typical Trump dysfunctional pattern, there is word that Pfizer hasn’t been told where to distribute some of the vaccines.

Sheesh.

Still, I’m hopeful each day that passes we’re going to get more and more people being vaccinated and, in time, we’ll finally move on from those who are “high priority” to get the vaccine to regular folk.

I’ve read that when some 70% of the population gets the vaccine, we’ll have effectively reached the level of “herd immunity” and should return to a more normal time, where we no longer have to keep our distance from people and wear masks and wash our hands.

The estimates are that we could get there by late Spring and/or early Summer.

It’s still a ways away, some six months maybe, but at least we have a target and that’s something we haven’t had for way too long.

I’ve written before that I believe I and several people in my family and employees in my family business had COVID-19 way back in late January and/or early February of 2020.

Even if I did, I will get the vaccine as soon as I can.

If indeed things “go back to normal” by the middle or so of next year, I have a strong suspicion the world, as a whole, will erupt.

In a great way.

I suspect we’ll see the economies of many countries -maybe all!- will have a sudden burst. Hopefully, jobs will quickly return and businesses, those who survive these harsh months, will have an incredible rebound.

I hope so.

2020’s been a hell of a bad year.

Maybe 2021 will be far better.

We deserve that much.

Over at The Wall Street Journal, Betsy McKay offers this intriguing article:

Covid-19 Likely in U.S. in Mid-December 2019, CDC Scientists Report

The bottom line of the article is that examination of blood samples collected from December of 2019 show that the virus was already in the U.S. a few weeks before China identified the disease and about a month before the first “official” case was found in our country.

Way, way back in late March of 2020, when the lockdowns were first starting and everyone was shutting down, I wrote about how I thought maybe I, and several people around me, might have contracted the Coronavirus in early/mid January and into early February. (You can read my entry about that here)

Mind you, there was no thought at that time the Covid-19 was in the U.S., yet as I noted in my post above, our family business was very busy at the time and we were in contact with people from quite literally all over the world. There was also a little thing called the Super Bowl which happened on February 2nd in Miami, and which caused our area to fill up with many people… also from all parts of the world.

So back then, my father and several people we knew around us got quite sick and the illness lasted a long time, some two weeks or more, before they kicked it out of their systems. In later January and into early February I too caught something and I wasn’t sure what. I had my flu shots in October of 2019 and it seemed unlikely I caught the flu.

However, I caught something. I felt incredibly weak/exhausted at the end of workdays and, especially, work weeks. I literally felt I needed to collapse in bed and rest.

Luckily, my wife didn’t catch it and, eventually, whatever I had left my system.

Afterwards, I couldn’t help but think maybe those around me and I caught the Coronavirus in the very early -and for many unknown- days of its spread. Given the Wall Street Journal article, it certainly is possible.

It’s scary to think we may have had a potentially fatal disease at a time when no one thought it was spreading in the U.S. and, had any of us gotten really sick, in those very early days of the virus treatment would have been far from well thought out.

If indeed it was COVID-19 we had, we were lucky and made it through. Happily, everyone who caught whatever it was is back to normal.

Still, the idea the people around me and I could have been exposed to Coronavirus before it became known is a chilling thought indeed.

Another “lost” weekend, I suppose, of doing not all that much and hanging around the house.

We did go out to do some shopping, but that’s quick and done and over with well before noon. As always, we take great precautions, wearing masks and keeping our distance from others though, because of the early hour we go out, we generally don’t see too many others around us.

In the news, “President” Trump seems determined to ignore reality and the fact that he’s lost the election. I wonder -and that’s all I can do- if this might be related to other things, like a fear that once President-elect Biden’s people start looking in on what Trump has left them and/or done (but managed to hide from the public) during his four years might not just bite him, hard.

I wonder if maybe there’s a great effort going on by those in the Trump cabinet to clean up whatever they can, any sort of potentially uncomfortable or incriminating memos or emails, and that may be in part why Trump doesn’t want Biden’s team in.

I could be waaaaay off here, I admit, and the fact that Trump loathes being called a “loser” may have just as much to do with this as anything else.

Regardless, as many have expected, Trump seems determined to mess as much things up as he cans on his way out the door.

Over the weekend a bunch of Trumpistas showed up to march on Washington, stating they would have their own version of the “one million man” march but coming up rather short. Some 11,000 people showed up, no doubt the hardest core of the hardest core, including members of the Proud Boys. If you have no idea what they are, look ’em up and try not to feel sad that such a group feels embolden to march in the open.

There was, though, good news as well: Pfizer announced their vaccine was a little above 90% effective against COVID-19 and, this morning, we had even better news, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is reportedly 94.5% effective (you can read all about it in this article by Elizabeth Cohen and presented on CNN).

The bottom line is that despite the grind of these past months, starting toward the end of March, things are looking up for the future.

There is, according to Dr. Fauci, a real possibility that the vaccines -whether through Pfizer or Moderna or some other companies- will start to be released by December, first to the first responders and elderly, and then next year to the common citizens.

It’s going to be quite a task. It will likely require the military to mobilize and offer the vaccines to poorer neighborhoods without access to the “big” drug stores while others with access to these stores will likely be swamped with people looking for the vaccine.

And, to make matters a little more complicated, it appears the vaccine requires two separate injections, so it will take a bit to get those who want to be vaccinated (yeah, I suppose the “anti-vaxers” will be protesting).

Boy, the problems the spread of misinformation causes nowadays.

Anyway, I’m optimistic nonetheless that at this time next year we may, just may, be looking in the rear-view mirror at the COVID-19 situation.

Dr. Fauci himself noted that by April we might just be back to normal.

Man, I hope so.

So over the weekend and at the behest of the wife, we headed down to the Florida Keys to a place her brother and his family were renting to go for a quick boat ride and have a mini-birthday party as several family members have their birthdays coming up.

We have all been religiously social isolating so there was no danger -at least I hope!- to interact between with their family for the day.

When we got there, they had already for the most part gotten their boat ready. Very soon, we headed out into the waters and our first stop was a sandbar very close to the place they were renting.

My brother-in-law noted the sandbar was pretty empty this early in the morning (10 am) but would get very crowded very quickly so we stopped there and swam.

Nearby -but far enough away, social distance-wise- arrived another boat, making it a whopping two boats in total on the sandbar at that hour.

These boaters had something which, during the course of the day, I’d see quite a bit of: Donald Trump flags. I didn’t take any pictures, but they kinda looked like this image, something I found via a Google search:

We hung out there maybe an hour or so before taking off to another couple of places. For my wife, it was a trip down memory lane, revisiting homes/apartments that back in the 1980’s and as youngsters they visited on weekends.

The area, my wife noted, had changed considerably. There were far more homes and buildings now, something that is sadly predictable, but for me what was head-scratching was seeing all those Trump signs.

Mind you, it was not a universal thing, but it seemed this enclave/area sure does have some very vocal Trump supporters.

Perhaps the most ironic sign I spotted that day was this one, seen on the balcony of one of the homes we passed by (pardon the language):

I mean, what do you say about something like this? We saw what appeared to be a the owners of that property, a kindly looking elderly couple who waved at us as we sailed by and I, being a soft-spoken liberal-type who respects others’ opinions wanted to do nothing more than to shout at the top of my lungs:

Are you fucking kidding me?!?!?! Is there anything that Trump says that ISN’T bullshit?!?!

…breathe deeply…

…breathe…

Ok, so we politely waved back.

I may vehemently disagree with their opinions but, hey, it’s a free country. At least so far.

Anyway, I point this out not to get too political but to show the power of messaging, something I’m going to get to right now.

When the day was done -and throughout the day we very strictly maintained our distance from everyone- and returned back to my brother-in-law’s place, we again passed by that sandbar we started on earlier and the scene had changed considerably.

Again, I didn’t take any pictures, but looking through some random pictures I’ve found via a Google search, the sandbar now looked something like this:

Very full, very crowded, with little social distancing and, again, plenty of Trump flags.

As I said, this, to me, is an example of the power of messaging.

In this case, the wrong messaging.

For months Donald Trump and his administration has been downplaying the danger of Covid-19 and, clearly, there are many folks down there in this part of the Keys who sure do seem to have taken that message to heart.

If I were an evil man, I’d say: The hell with them. If they get sick, its on them.

And yet…

The house my brother-in-law rented has a dock and is on the waterway. A beautiful house across the water from his, he told me, was owned by a 90 year old man who passed away very recently.

Cause of death? Covid-19.

Granted, the man lived a very long, hopefully full life, but the reality is his passing was due to this virus, a virus that many out there on the waterways seem to, based on what we saw them doing that day, simply refuse to believe it is a big deal.

The worst thing about it is that the consequences of these peoples’ actions not only affects them. If even one of boaters on that sandbar on that day had Covid-19 and spreads it to others there, when they leave the sandbars and return to their homes, they eventually will likely be interacting with family, large or small. They may go out shopping, perhaps for groceries, perhaps for other supplies, and they will be near strangers or friends.

Hopefully, when they do go out, they wear masks, but… what if they don’t?

And, further, what happens when they’re in their homes, among their family?

Scary times.

Scary indeed.

Please, please, please… Don’t just think about yourself and your own comfort.

Please think about others.

We’re in some kind of Sisyphus-type nightmare, aren’t we?

Seems like a couple of months ago we locked everything down and it seemed like we were getting a grip on the Covid-19 situation… to a degree.

The infection rate was stabilizing if not dropping and people seemed to be practicing social distancing. Masks, we found out a little later, were considered a great help in lowering the transmission rates and, as of the past couple of months, the wiser businesses have required any clients who step in their stores wear them.

Then things slipped.

The rates of infection are rising through the proverbial roof and the mighty United States, the envy of the civilized world, has shown itself to be far from ready to take on this particular fight.

As with so many things, the fault lies at the top.

I know, I know… its probably getting tiresome hearing me bemoan our “President”, but the reality is that Trump and his bizarre, uneducated, and irresponsible manners has for the past several weeks played down the COVID-19 situation and, sadly, so too have too many state governors.

When the states were “re-opened” there was this sense -incorrect, as it turned out- that perhaps we have turned the corner and could go back to normal.

Restaurants and bars opened in far too many places and without enough safeguards present.

In the end, too many people congregated too close to each other and, today, we keep seeing record numbers of infection rates. What follows, even more sadly, are deaths from this virus.

You can’t blame Trump for everything. I know that. I don’t blame him for this virus but I do blame him for his too blasé -bordering on criminal- attitude toward it.

He thought people wearing masks were dumb… and he even to this day refuses to wear one because, I can only guess, he feels it makes him look weak.

Or something.

This despite statistics and the professional immunologist advice that wearing a mask makes you less likely to contract the COVID-19 virus.

With someone as powerful as the President poo-pooing the notion of wearing masks, it was only nature that we’d see too many people doing the very same.

And they did.

And now we’re here, with the rates going through the proverbial roof with no end in sight.

I genuinely fear what’s coming next.

The economy has been severely hurt and if the rate of infection continues, it can only get worse. Europe is opening up but, given our infection rates, United States citizens aren’t allowed to travel there.

Can you imagine?

Our mighty country so far behind in dealing with this situation that we’re considered a danger for travel?

I don’t know what lies ahead but I genuinely wonder how much long responsible people in government are going to let this go on.

I also wonder how much longer regular citizens will have patience with this.

Are we in for another lockdown?

I have to admit, a part of me hopes this will happen.

But, once we do, will we again let our guard down and again open ourselves up too much and yet again find ourselves with far too many infections as before?

And so it goes…

I mean, please tell me this isn’t true.

Yes, tell me it’s “fake news”. Please!

Written by Bill Hutchinson and presented on abcnews.com…

Alabama students throwing “Covid Parties” to see who gets infected: Officials

The upshot of this article is even more frightening than the headline suggests. Read the whole thing, I urge you.

These are the first three paragraphs of the article:

Students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 have been attending parties in the city and surrounding area as part of a disturbing contest to see who can catch the virus first, a city council member told ABC News on Wednesday.

Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing “COVID parties” as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. She said she recently learned of the behavior and informed the city council of the parties occurring in the city.

She said the organizers of the parties are purposely inviting guests who have COVID-19.

I mean, come on! This has to be a joke, right?

Please…?!

While its tempting to simply blame youthful stupidity, the reality is that stupidity seems to be all too plentiful these days.

“President” Trump refusing to wear a mask and still (still!) saying he feels the pandemic will miraculously “disappear”… even as our rates of infection are back to where they were when everything was first shut down.

The congress -sadly mostly Republicans- keep their mouths shut instead of screaming from the top of their lungs while citizens day after day die from this deadly disease. Many refuse to go to meetings with masks on because… I dunno… I guess its more manly to risk infecting other people?!

Is it so fucking hard for people to get it through their heads that, yes, the disease exists and that, absolutely yes, it can be deadly? And, sometimes when its not deadly, it can leave you with medical issues you may have to deal with for the rest of your life?

Is it so hard to tell people to please, please wear a mask and social distance?

Is common sense in such a limited supply?

I just don’t know anymore.