Thursday, February 18th, 2021
Another day in the life of COVID, admittedly, I am getting a bit tired of the same old.
I had a super early start getting up at 4:45 to prepare for a webinar starting at 6:00. I wanted to be sure I had had my two Lattes and would not only be appropriately attired, but more importantly, coherent. We had last minute glitches with the decks so a good thing I dialed-in early. Happy to say all went well and we got some great feedback.
When I went to make my first coffee it looked like it was going to snow, which it did for the better part of an hour, before it turned into frozen snowflakes. I know this does not seem to make sense. But whatever came down from the heavens was somewhere between snow and hail. What exactly is that? I am a little fatigued with these none snow storms turned ice rain. Please can we have either snow or dry cold?
The workday was intense, but productive, though I am rather exhausted tonight.
I also messed up my swim slots. I was convinced I had a 45 minute slot at 13:00 so went off to defrost the car, took myself to the Y to just find out upon arrival that my booking was not until 15:30. They let me stay any as due to the weather most people did not show up. They were right only three out of four people came so I had my lane for a full fifty minutes, my ideal swim time.
The final act of the day will be a meeting with the “outdoor graduation celebration” committee. I have very mixed feelings about this. We are trying very hard to figure out how to celebrate our seniors. I have spent hours writing emails and making call to identify a potential venue. Others have done the same. I feel all of our efforts are frustrated by PTSA internal concerns and bureaucracy. I just wish people would express perimeters and I am certain if we know which concerns need to be addressed, we can work it out. Please just tell us beforehand. I for one am not good at dealing with bureaucracy. I am happy to do some of the heavy lifting and find solutions to every hurdle thrown in m way, but please let someone else deal with the red tape. The way things are going, we will never get our act together and there will just be nothing. It could all be so easy, if not for over complicating things. And yes, we are all living amidst a pandemic, but there are ways to work around it and still be safe.
Numbers are encouraging. Maryland is at 0.1% transmission rate. Across the USA 60k new cases have been reported, bringing the US total to 28.5 million. The seven -average has been on a steady decline and there is plenty of good news on vaccines.
Not only do vaccines prevent severe illness, they actually reduce transmission significantly. So, even more reason to get the shot. My main frustration here is that this may take another four or five months, particularly in Maryland, which seems utterly disorganized when it comes to the roll out. In fact, top performing States come as a surprise and I just note MD is not one of them. However not giving up hope as more shots become available, maybe our State can also get its act together.
Cuba is developing four COVID-19 vaccines, the first is now entering trials. Cuba has a long history of cutting edge biotechnology, however it will need additional resources to be able to produce 100 million and more doses. Cuba’s vaccine could also be a solution for many developing markets. I have all the faith in the world in Cuban medicine as it has in the past come to the rescue of many a developing nation.
People who have received the vaccine are experiencing side effects. This actually shows their body is forming an immune response. PEople I know have reported they felt rather under the weather for a day or two. I would take that over a full infection any time of day.
For her Theory of Knowledge class EM had to write a knowledge piece about how different parts of knowledge can lend each other cross support. Her choice was art and science, which I found hard to imagine; until now. Opera singers in the UK are helping long term COVID patients recover by sharing their breathing techniques in a marriage between music and medicine.
While initially I could not fathom her thoughts at all this now makes perfect sense.