Friday, November 20th, 2020

Preparation Part One

As our travel to Germany is nearing I am beginning preparations beyond the testing strategy. I have found a house where we can quarantine. My friend has a second home about an hours’ drive from my mother’s house which is mostly empty and which she has kindly offered to us.

Unfortunately, the house does not have an internet connection. So, I conducted research into mobile internet options and seem to have found a solution which allows me to contract 200GB for a one months’ period. Strangely they do not sell you a monthly package. Rather it is a two-year contract which can be terminated at no cost after one months. This makes me a little uncomfortable as they require an account number to deduct the payment from.

Given that EM has 4 hours of Zoom calls for school every day and I spend a significant amount of time on MS Teams we will need plenty of data. The 200GB should be enough for ten days, which is the worst-case scenario for quarantining. Ideally we can go home after five days. What a production this all is.!

I happened upon an article on masks which not only discusses which masks to wear when, but also how to select high quality reusable masks and how to wear them properly. I think we shall get some N95 masks for our trip and double these up with surgical masks while in the Uber and the terminal.

Latest research conducted by the NHS concludes that most people who have had COVID-19 are unlikely to get reinfected, it seems that reinfections are outliers.  Immunity appears to last for at least six months at least.

At the same time Dr Fauci is fed up with virus deniers or people claiming COVID-19 is just like the flu. It is not he says. Not with over 255k Americans dead and in excess of 70k currently hospitalized. Today the USA reports a total of 12.2 million cases out of the global tally of 55.6 million.

What is most striking is that people still believe this to all be fake news! Even people hospitalized and treated for the virus claim it is fake and they have some other illness. I cannot wrap my mind around it. What is wrong with people?