Wednesday, December 16th, 2020
The third day of our quarantine was as unexciting as the past two days. Not even lunch was great. There is exactly one single place which will deliver food and it is mediocre at best. The potato souffle I had was made with sauce hollandaise from a can and EM’s pasta in tomato sauce also had the taste of ready-made. I will need to find an alternative. There is a restaurant two houses down which delivers and their website states they serve lunch, but so far, they have not picked up their phone when I tried to call them. Maybe I shall have better luck calling at night.
EM has continued to work on the write up for her oral tomorrow. I just fear she will not have enough time to practice and memorize the text and its main points as she is not allowed to have notes during the oral, but at least it comes together in terms of content.
I have spend most of my day in various MS Teams meeting, amongst others attending a workshop on Afghanistan, as I did yesterday and as I shall do tomorrow.
The virus in the USA has reached 17.17 million cases of which 10 million have recovered, but deaths keep increasing having reached 311k today. Every day brings a record high of new infections and while other countries curb the spread through restrictions, the US is neither issuing nor enforcing restrictions. The major problem is the continued denial of large parts of the population as to the existence of the virus. In this setting the news that the FDA has approved a prescription free rapid test which can be self-administered at home is good news.
Today, after the electoral college vote the majority leader of the Senate found it within himself to congratulate Joe Biden on his election, but not before Putin had done so.