Monday, February 15th, 2021
Except for Independence Day, which is always celebrated on July 4th, and Christmas as well as New Year’s Day, US public holidays are typically the whatever (2nd, 3rd, 1st) Monday of the month conveniently resulting in long weekends. President’s Day is to commemorate the first President of the United States, George Washington and not all Presidents ever nor the current President.
So, Mr. Washington has afforded us a long weekend and I am finding I could get used to a four-day working week; though I did finish up some work today which I had not gotten around to completing on Friday, courtesy of my IT challenges. We had a relaxed day. I made progress with the Obama book, though unlike a novella it is slow reading, but very well written. I cooked a more elaborate meal which we consumed watching Episode four of season four of the Crown. I very much like the series. A shame that this is presumably the last season. I had similar sentiments about Downton Abbey, but then all things must come to an end.
After two days without a swim slot I rather enjoyed my 37 minutes in the pool today. Given it is rather miserable outside, I am happily curling up in front of the fire for the rest of the day. This ice rain and now drizzle is getting a bit much and I look forward to sunny and cold weather returning.
My scan of the media did not turn up much Corona news; at least nothing we do not already know. There is a lot of speculation around the mutants and their effect. Israel is furthest along with vaccinating its population and in a real life setting the vaccine proves to be very effective in reducing the spread also. The key take away: it is critical to get the world vaccinated as quickly as possible. In making this happen India now has a leading role.
India is set to become the world’s second largest producer of vaccines, likely supplying much of the developing world with COVId-19 vaccines. Once most of the world population eventually vaccinated, the virus could become much like the flu, an annoyance that will never go away. The vaccines greatly reduce the severity of infections. This combined with improved treatments may make it possible for humanity to just exist alongside COVID-19.
The USA today reports 65k new infections over the past twenty-four hours and a grand total of 28.29 million. It is not clear if there is under reporting due to less testing as resources are now focused on the vaccine roll out.