Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Saturday, December 26th, 2020

The Second Day of Christmas

The second day of Christmas is the final day of the three-day celebration in Germany.

Under normal circumstances this is a day spend with extended family or friends to jointly celebrate. This year we just stayed at home.The afternoon was spend playing Monopoly, which unsurprisingly I won. Everyone had a little bit of down time reading, running or like mum and I, going for an extended walk on the shores of the river Elbe after breakfast.

It is cold with temperatures close to zero and a freezing wind. Sadly, none of the stalls usually selling mulled wine has any on offer as the public sale and consumption has been prohibited. The idea of course being to stop people from congregating to contain the spread.

This strategy seems to be working as reported new infections in Germany have significantly dropped from24k to 13k; though like in the USA this may due to reduced testing over the holidays. Germany today saw the first person vaccinated, a 101 year old woman, while I sympathize with protecting the elderly, I am not sure if the better strategy may not be to inoculate all of the staff and care takers in elderly facilities, all medical staff and then those economically active. Surely we should be able to protect our elderly for a couple of more months if we ensure all those taking care of them are healthy. Even with vaccines being administered it will in all likelihood take a while before things return to normal and we are all safe. For the time being people need to continue the mantra: mask, social distance, hand washing.

The USA today reports 225k new infections, bringing the US total to 19.4 million with 339k dead reported. Globally reported infections surpass 80 million. The new virus strain appears to 55% more contagious leading to higher infections and therefore more hospitalizations and deaths in the new year. So far scientists believe it will not elude the vaccines. Scientist are working at breakneck speed to try and understand the implications of the new mutation.While little is yet known, it is clearly serious. Hoping that the vaccines will continue to be effective also against the new strain.