Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

Cases back down week over week as the holiday/snowstorm catchup comes to an end. Hospitalizations still dropping steadily.

Johnson and Johnson starts going into arms in a few days. Pfizer and Moderna started shipping a lot more doses this week.

This thing is almost over.

 

Anecdotal but the second Pfizer shot seems to kick your ass more than the second Moderna shot.

 

Memorial Day sounds about right as the sliding scales of vaccinations go up and infection rates go down, and temperatures go up in the observant states. People won't want to be hot and sweaty behind masks for another summer if the overall numbers are trending in the right directions.

I don't think masks will be *gone* by Memorial Day, but maybe down to 50-50. People will still carry masks and wear them in crowded situations. If the trends continue through the summer, we may be approaching "normal" by fall and winter.

But I think masks will probably make seasonal comebacks every winter during the flu season.

 

My folks got their first shots today. Forgot to ask what kind.

It was nice levity on a day full of heavy emotions -- a cousin I mentioned around Christmas because I was scared I might have exposed him (I was just having an allergy day) died of muscular dystrophy today. I'm glad he's not suffering anymore, but I feel terrible for his father, my uncle, who is the first-born and patriarch of the family, who poured everything into caring for him. His reward for being an incredible example of a leader, a father and a man is that he's one false move away from having to bury his wife (similar disease, 2 1/2 years ago), his son and his mother (who's alive but 95 and slowing down) in a span of less than four years.

We're losing a good, if feisty, staff member; I heard from a good friend in a bittersweet way; we had a 20-hour long armed standoff where the guy shot a K-9 dead before the police went in and shot him; and I was in the middle of all of it and yet nowhere near any of it. Quite a day. I realize none of this is particularly germane to this thread, but I don't get to have a lot of conversations these days, so I guess I just wanted to report.

 

I'm sorry, @UPChip.

 

My husband has less reaction to the second Moderna shot than the first.

 

My condolences.

 

My parents got their second shot earlier this week with Modena. Dad just had a sore arm for a day. Mom took some Tylenol, felt fine with just a sore arm, then, before going to bed on the first night, started feeling warm, so she took more Tylenol. They’re both feeling fine right now.

 

Governor relaxed restrictions yesterday. Restaurants were packed at 100-percent capacity with some reporting 90-minute waits for a table.

 

And because of crap like that, expect numbers to shoot right back up, after which the loons will start declaring the vaccines ineffective.