Sunday, December 20th, 2020
It is so lovely to be home with mum and we are settling into a sort of daily routine, though every day feels like Sunday. A latish breakfast followed by mooching around the house and doing stuff, like reading the news and my social media feeds, while EM works on school related things.
School combined with college applications has led to yet another meltdown. EM is just overwhelmed with assignments due and college deadlines. So, this morning I focused on helping her do the write ups for the various supplemental information requests. Every Uni of course has different requirements. She is fussing about assignments due and just not having time to do all the things which need to be done.
Two assignments are due tomorrow night and there is no way she can complete the psychology and the art assignment by midnight on Monday. Art ishas become a main concern as her head is so full that she lacks inspiration and time to think about what she could tackle. It is not because she is not working hard or procrastinating.
The main issue is understanding what it is she needs to do. She emails her teachers to find out but like with the English oral the responses mostly do not help to clarify. This entire virtual learning experience is just so sub-optima there are no words to describe it. As a result I have now spend a couple of hours with her to try and understand her assignment. We may have figured it out – or so I hope. She now has a reasonable draft to work of in the morning.
Also, one more college application has been submitted and four are ready to go as soon as the school sends through her predicted scores; hopefully that will happen tomorrow. Next up is the outline for the history IA due on Wednesday and the art project due tomorrow, but probably only to be submitted on Wednesday.
EM is a diligent student and has always done well in her assignments. Art has been her passion. She is now at a stage where she is so overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, that she even hates art. She no longer takes pride in her work, but submits, just for the purpose of doing so.
When things got really bad I grabbed her and mum and made them all go for a walk just to clear the head. This has enabled EM to come up with an idea for the project due Monday. As she wants to do well, she will ask for an extension until Wednesday. The project will pick up on her current mind set between happiness and depression. Nothing like a walk in the fresh air to clear the mind and help to refocus.
While in the park we felt yet again irritated by other people. We cannot help but notice how differently people behave here. No one crosses to the other side of the pathway or road to ensure there is enough space. No one wears masks outside. This is shocking to us and makes us feel unsafe. Numbers are of course rising in Germany as well as in the USA.
Germany is pretty much in lock down mode, and still people do not seem to be as worried as in the USA, which registered 251k new infections over the past twenty-four hours bringing the total to 18 million with 321k dead. Reported infections are at 76.4 million globally. All bets are on vaccination.
The FDA has now approved Moderna’s vaccine for emergency use. The US will get 200 million doses, which will immunize 100 million people. Shipment to about ten times as many locations as the BioNTech/ Pfizer vaccine has already begun. If AstraZeneca/Oxford now also comes through there is hope for life to return to how it used to be. That is if mutations do not throw a spanner into the wheels. Yet more mutations of the virus have been discovered. This time in Southern England, while a thousand or so mutations are know, the number of mutations this string features seem to be particularly noteworthy. Of course, no one has a clue what, if any, the impact is, especially with regard to the effectiveness of a vaccine. The same applies to a mutation discovered in South Africa. What is known though is that both of these mutations are far more infectious.
This also means countries must continue to manage the pandemic and here data is critical. So it is good news that new data sets on the virus are now made available in the USA. “The newly disclosed data reveal that nearly 900 out of 938 metropolitan areas and more than 2,000 out of 3,270 counties qualify as "sustained hotspots," meaning they have "potentially higher risk for experiencing healthcare resource limitations." It also showed that more than a dozen metro areas and nearly 50 counties saw a 500% or greater increase in deaths from the previous week.” This data illustrates how the virus is entrenched in the USA. But it is also welcome data by health professionals as it allows a better understanding and hence management of the pandemic.
Managing the virus is only one of many construction sites the outgoing administration is leaving for Biden to fix.