Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

Vaccine availability is going to be a big story soon, and it will be a problem for a bit.

Right now it's "oh crap we're giving out vaccines so slowly why don't we have better infrastructure?!" And we should. But we're catching up fast and are administering them faster than we are receiving them now. Johnson and Johnson should help a little, but they just admitted they are a couple of months behind in getting production ramped up.

 

Another covid scare at work this week. Emails from HR letting us know what resources were available, followed up with meetings for those that don't have email, I presume. Missed the first, since someone needed to man the register, right? So checked in with the manager before lunch. She told me not to worry and said "[HanSen], if you had been exposed, we wouldn't even have let you in the building." Also found out break/locker room would be limited to one person at a time, so guess I'm eating lunch in my car.

Asked about the status of our vaccines (we're in group 1B) and she said the pharmacy staff was trained to give the shots, but they were just waiting for the vaccine.

Fuck Trump and everyone else holding up this shit. Like Biden's been saying, get shots in arms.

 

Yesterday was a gigantic clusterfuck at Kaiser. They were letting some people from 1B make appointments, but not everyone. But there was a window where my step-BIL and my sister could sign up, but I got denied after calling something like 45 minutes after my BIL. Tried calling a couple of times and argued for a little bit, but Kaiser's systems locked it down. I have no clue now the other two got appointments if I couldn't (same profession, same general state of health even if I'm a little less healthy than them technically and I'm older by about a year than them). My doctor called me today while I was in class and couldn't answer and am hoping they call me back. I'm not really complaining. The other night when my sister said she was given permission to make an appointment, I really wondered how it was possible and if they would let her because the announcement made it clear teachers weren't on the list yet. But here we are. I have a feeling I will get my vaccine if not by the end of this month by early February. It was just a headache to wait on hold for two and a half hours.

The advice nurse who I got transferred to after arguing with the first guy was so nice and really tried, but I was locked out. The fact I got a call from my doctor makes me feel better too. It really should be this hard right now.

But on the plus side, by 68-year-old dad and my step mom both got appointments. My MIL just got her first vaccine. My step-sister-in-law who is a doctor just got her first shot. I imagine my step-sister will be getting hers here soon (she's a nurse). I really am hoping there will be a huge family gathering by my sister's birthday in March if things keep on the current track. Just need to see if I can get my wife to jump the line.

 

SHUT IT DOWN!!!!!! because of the virus

OPEN IT UP!!!!!! because of the virus

 

Hospitalizations down again week-over-week for the third day in a row after going up for over 100 consecutive days.

Hopefully this is the January tipping point I’ve been predicting for months. I don’t even think this is vaccinations yet, we are just seeing the results of incredibly high fall and winter infection totals.

Ideally, and vaccinations come on line in our most vulnerable and winter begins to recede, the pace of the improvement can begin to quicken.

 

Wall Street Journal story:

The Covid-19 Death Toll Is Even Worse Than It Looks

 

Yeah, a lot of that is probably going to come down to state governments. Minnesota has been rather conservative on that front, but it probably won't matter until the weather turns.

Our city holds a big marathon in June that kind of marks the beginning of summer (up here, it has developed an unusual knack for being the first weekend with actual summer weather). They've announced they're holding registrations at half capacity, though given the size (probably about 10,000 runners between the full, half and Friday night 5K), we probably won't be able to tell the difference.

And his sportswriter superantibodies give anyone who receives them extra Marriott points and a proclivity for Springsteen.

 

I ran Grandma's one year. Beautiful. And the post-race at Club Saratoga wasn't half-bad either.

 

yeah, the big question for me is not when does Covid go away, but when does it get down to a point state governments can live with. At what point do they declare victory?

I expect us to see rapid improvement over the situation over the next few months. Population immunity gets higher every day, the most vulnerable are vaccinated, the worst of the seasonal effects are behind us.

Over those next couple months, I expect cases to drop to about a quarter of where they are now and hospitalizations even more. After that, the pace of improvement will slow down as we try to vaccinate the less at-risk bulk of the population. The low-hanging fruit of prevention will be gone, so to speak.

Some states are ready to go YOLO and open everything fully at the slightest hint of improvement. Some are probably going to be more resistant and want to wait until it’s gone for good. That will be the big fight of the late spring and summer.

 

A bunch of us from work were talking yesterday, and some were guessing that we won’t all be in the office together until 2022. I think that’s a little far out, then again I figured I’d be working from my house for a week and not a year.

 

I think state governments may want to wait for it to be gone for good, or at least very damn close, but even with hospitalizations putting some California regions on the brink of collapse, there are those trying to recall the Governor for his handling of Covid (mainly that they can’t get haircuts or chicken wings). When new cases plummet, there will be pressure to reopen. We saw it this summer when we probably needed to wait an extra month but didn’t.

And it’s going to be a long fucking time for California to get back to normal. The vaccine rollout has been a disaster. Yesterday people were waiting 10 hours on hold to try to make an appointment and we’re learning some counties (like mine) don’t have enough for those eligible now. Knock on wood that the Biden administration can get manufacturing and distribution beefed up because at this rate, we’re looking well into 22 before we’re back to normal.