Saturday, July 18th, 2020
The frustrations of two days ago are past and I have picked myself up again, mainly because yesterday and today feel almost normal. Today especially as I left home the same time I would have before the pandemic to head to Aikido in the park. No tumbling and no partner practice of technics, but partner practice with weapons and I find I am beginning to get a feel for the Jo as Plank Sensei not only repeated the moves, so I can actually remember the sequences which allows me to focus more on technic and weight shifts, but also did a lot of basic Jo technics, which so far in weapons class I had missed out on.
From the park I went to pick up EM and we headed to the Bethesda Pool, just to find that there already was a line of people waiting to get in and we were about eight or so of serious lap swimmers (discounting the families here). They allow people to “check-in” about ten minutes before which we went and did as did one other woman. This means we can go in while people who have not done so first need to be ticked of the list. That of course caused a riot with people screaming and shouting at us that there was a line. We did not skip in front at the pool though and let the seven ahead of us get their lanes. Number seven took the slot of number five and the rage turned to us. Not only did that woman skip the line, she also hogged the lane for one hour and forty minutes, despite there being five other people patiently waiting to get their turn. That I find outrageous. Luckily there were some people who were a little more considerate. As a result both EM and I got a lane after about an hour and could get our lap time in.
After our pool time we headed to Trader Joes in DC to pick up some items for today’s and tomorrows Braai, including a case of our favorite Vhino Verde, a slightly bubbly, light summer wine.
Tonight, my American-Indonesian friends are coming over with their daughter and I will be making burgers. Coming home we had a snack and unpacked our groceries, took a shower and started preparing the burgers and condiments to go with it all. The break in between that and the guests arriving I am using to write this. Maybe I will even have time to water the kitchen garden before they arrive – it is really hot, so much so, that the water in the bird bath evaporates and needs to be refilled daily! So, a really normal day in my life which is so refreshing.
And then there is some really good news on the vaccine front with Oxford announcing their vaccine has moved into trial with thousands of people. At the same time they are working with a number producers of pharmaceuticals to ramp up production capacity hoping to be able to start producing their vaccine at scale as of September or October. This is just amazing. Interesting to note that the UK will not produce the vaccine in US for fear of the USA making the vaccine an America First thing.
Ethics versus profit in Pharma has been an ongoing discussion for years. Given governments all over the world have been pouring money into vaccine development of Sanofi/ Pfizer, Oxford, Moderna and so on, any vaccine develop as a result should be a public good as private companies have ultimately not pre-funded any of the research, so cannot claim to be recouping development cost with high prices. Somehow, I have a feeling that Moderna would not adhere to that, so if and Oxford are more likely too. And maybe the EU should make that a key point in any pre-order funded, after all it is governments who are currently taking the commercial risk of the vaccine development.
As infections continue to rise, with 14.1 million confirmed infections, about half of whom have recovered to date, the USA continues to see a scary rise, adding 77k newly infected over the past twenty-four hours. That is more than some countries had in total! China with a population five times that of the US has had 84k infections to date! The recovery rate in the USA is also less, with so far 1.1 million cases reported as recovered. It seems the country is stuck in a time warp. Democrats have been asking for testing, contact tracing and mask wearing since April while GoP Senators were in denial. They all need to go. Please America vote the Trump enablers out of office. Also, I do not have one bit of compassion for this guy for sure! Or anyone else for that matter who refuses to wear a mask and practice social distancing and then gets infected with the virus and dies.