Monday, November 9th, 2020
Another glorious summery day today, which I of course spend largely indoors working, but the school had the day of as it is the end of the quarter. Hard to believe one quarter of the school year is done.
Beyond that it was an uneventful day. The most exciting thing happening will be the nice couple I met on Halloween coming over for a wine by the firepit. These are the first people I have met in the neighborhood who are actually engaging. I hope it will be fun night – though given my quarantine routine I will make sure to keep my distance, especially since my brilliant friend has texted to say the first test came back negative and he has done his second so he seems to be serious about meeting later in the week. I will do the second test tomorrow; hoping results will not take 4 days to be delivered, which is what I had been advised was the time frame for the test we took on Sunday. This virus has just taken all spontaneity out of life. Like I do for meeting my brilliant friend meticulous preparation is required for festive season gatherings. These involve quarantines and caution mostly.
Sadly, I lost one of my bracelets today. The strangest thing is, it is nowhere to be found. I know for sure it was on my arm this morning and I was at home until I hopped into the car to head to the pool, which is when I noticed it was missing. I was sure it got stuck in the sweater I had been wearing earlier. Well it is not! It is not anywhere in the car or between the front door and the driveway. Not on the couch where I sat all day. I even checked the washer, the dryer and the dishwasher – nada, nothing. It has just disappeared into thin air.
Unlike the Virus, which continues to ravage the US and Europe seemingly unabated. The USA added another 103k new cases, bringing the total to 10.38 million, while the world reports 50.2 million. Health care rationing or triage is imminent in many parts of the USA as hospitals are overcrowded and medical staff may be put in a position where they have to decide who will and who will not receive care. A terrible position to be in.
Despite significant obstruction from the current administration President-elect Biden has lost no time in beginning the fight against COVID and nominated a Corona task force which has met today already. It is dominated by experienced scientists and immunologists. The Orange Cheeto refuses to concede and as long as he does not concede no one in the administration is cooperating with the Biden transition team. This means that the law on transition is not enacted. The incoming administraton will not be given offices, funds or access to current staff.
Good news on the vaccine front: the RNA vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer proves to be 90% effective.
I suspect that means they will now be going for FDA approval next.