Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
Ten days after Jennifer’s departure I have managed to find someone to clean the house and do the laundry. Monica will come twice a week for a couple of hours until Jennifer comes back. Not sure when that will be given the uncertain visa situation and ongoing travel restrictions. EM is enjoying the extra room to migrate to, but it is not the same without Jennifer at home. Things are working okay - I do the kitchen and EM the laundry and the garbage, though I help with the former.
Amid the pandemic I am trying to book flights for us to go to Germany for Christmas, and I find it very complicated. There ar enot many options out there and some of my go to online travel agents have gone bancrupt. I am now working with an outfit specialized on business class flights. I worry about purchasing a ticket and then not being able to go though, So, I am thinking we should do two tests before we go, just in case one of them comes back positive we would have a chance to retest, before taking the step of cancelling flights. It is just such a mess! This is causing me to refocus on the virus and possible cures or vaccines. I am so done wiht this virus and this live. I want to travel again! However, there is no really encouraging news.
Because of an unexplained illness of one of their volunteers, Johnson & Johnson announced the suspension of their ongoing trials today. This is not necessarily bad news, as similar to Astra Zenca’s pause, this indicates a due process.
Likewise, reports on the first reinfection in the USA is good and bad news. The bad news: reinfections are possible so herd immunity, like with the flu or even the common cold, is unlikely to happen. The good news: a vaccine might help immunization so as yet there is no reason to assume our current life will be forever.
The moron in chief has received every available, even experimental, treatment for COVID -19, so his claims that the best treatments can be had and the virus is not so bad is a dream at best for almost every American. It is very doubtful if the antibody concoction will really be a cure and can be licensed as such, seeing clinical trials have not even started. Also, the NYT reports today that a does if available would cost around US$ 15.000 per treatment. This makes it prohibitively expensive for all but the superrich. Many people who have recovered already face exorbitant bills (US$ 50.000 and upwards) for treatments received which their insurance will not cover. Oftentimes they did not even have a say in who treats them, how or where. This is the only highly industrialized nation I know were an illness forces people into bankruptcy and where there is no price control on medical services. In the meantime the world knows of 38 million infect, 8 million of which are attributable to the USA.
And while this pandemic is spreading with little or no interruption in the USA, the administration is fighting mail in voting and dismantling the postal service at the same time. There is a significant lack of confidence in votes being counted. As a result, people have resorted to requesting mail in ballots and take them to designated drop off boxes. It has no been unearthed that the Republicans have been setting up fake drop of boxes in Democratic counties across California. So much for democracy, how low can the GOP go in committing voter fraud? This is stealing the vote in the true sense of the word and utterly outrageous.
On a more positive note the Listserve is proving to be entertaining yet again.It is a little more than weeks until Halloween and people are wondering if Trick & Treat will even happen. The Listserv has started a discussion about the difficult question of how this may work in the age of Corona. Already there are many suggestions about leaving individual packets outside, or bowls for kids to take sweets. And there are more creative suggestions, like building a candy shoot for touch free socially distanced candy dispensation, which the Listserv Manager posted a while ago. I really like that idea and we will build one! Lastly, one helpful soul posted CDC guidelines on the issue.
I expect this discussion to continue for a few days at least. We will definitely be offering treats via a candy shoot and I have started a map project where participating neighbors can enter their location if they will be offering treats