Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
After almost four weeks today was my first day back at work. A productive day and tonight it feels as if I have never been away. It is strange how this works. Whenever I go somewhere, I leave everything behind and fall into the live there. It is as if nothing else exists. When we arrive in Cape Town, I move straight into life here, as if I had never been away. When I get to my country of residence everything else just ceases to exist. Likewise, when I arrive in Germany, I immediately settle into the routine there and everything else becomes but a distant memory. Even when I am with friends, say in Bali, I ffall into their rythm of life. Now I am back and after an interim day, it is as if there is no other place out there in the whole wide world. I have settled back into my DC habits; this includes lighting a fire every night. It also includes me from time to time grabbing a log and adjusting how it sits. Sometimes, like tonight, it results in painfully burned fingers. Does this happen to other people also I wonder?
I spoke to mum tonight, like almost every day. She is so proud that she has been vaccinated! Sadly, she was blinded by the sun while driving and smashed the car into some obstructions the city has build into the middle of the road to better regulate traffic. I am now trying to help her buy a new car, which is a bit of a challenge given I am some 7.000 km away. I did a quick search on the web and found cute Smart for Four which seems to be good value for money. I think I will ask my cousin for help. At least he is in the same city. Other than that, nothing exciting happened today.
The news is still dominate by last weeks riots. Hundreds are being arrested and the FBI is overwhelmed with online tips. However, Corona news is back in the press. This is partially due to the departing administration continuing to sow confusion in vaccination efforts, even if well intended the latest guidance to expand eligibility to 65-yearolds and anyone with preexisting conditions is not helpful; especially given the definition of preexisting conditions, such as obesity, which captures roughly 40% of the population. This of course comes at the expense of essential workers such as grocery employees, who now move to the end of the line.
There were concerns that the terrorist attack on the Capitol might have been a superspreader event as almost none of the rioters were wearing masks. No one expected the risk to be legislators refusing to wear masks. It appears that sheltering with GOP lawmakers is a high risk affair as three democratic legislators have already tested positive after sheltering with mask refusing Republicans. These are three of 222k new infections reported over the past 24 hours bringing the US total to 23.3 million reported cases out of 91.4 million worldwide.
Given the WH has been the source of at least three Covid outbreaks I have a lot of sympathy for Biden’s request to have the entire place sanitized. Frankly, I would have the place desinfected one way or the other.
Anyone who thought life would be back to how we knew it the minute they had a shot is in for a surprise. It will not. Not unless herd immunity is achieved globally and that is unlikely to be achieved in 2021. Also it is unclear if the vaccine only prevents infections or also transmission as is the case for example with measle vaccines. Until 80% of the population have been vaccinated mask wearing will stay with us. On that note, there are number of common mistakes made when wearing masks. These include reusing disposable masks, mask sharing, not washing reusable masks and not washing hands before and after taking of the mask. Finally, one I did not know about: it appears advisable to wash one’s face after taking of the mask.