Monday, March 1st, 2021
A new month in the year.
Like the previous two months days flow into days, rather indistinguishable. Most mornings I need to think about which day of the week I am on. One day just flows into another. What a waste this indistinct life is. No plans for nothing, just plowing through work, swim, eat, drink and the occasional practice in the park.
I am so done with this routine! Yes, I cook nice meals for lunch and yes, I go for a swim every day, and yes, I am fortunate enough to have work which keeps me distracted and which I enjoy. But I need a more active life. The lack of planning fun travels, the lack of socializing, the lack of dating is just getting to me. The lack of pretty much everything beyond the bare minimum.
I feel EM is in the same space, in addition to being stressed about finishing high school. I think she is also scared of what is next as I am driving home the message that it will be just me and the cat in a few months. That we will no longer live together as we have been for the past eighteen years; her and I in a symbiotic relationship. I have as hard a time fathoming our new life as she. For now, I believe, she is keeping sane by ignoring upcoming changes. It is I who keeps driving the issue.
As a result, we are moving closer to each other again, with a walk through the neighborhood today, affording us an opportunity to talk. She is also spending more time in my proximity as she realizes, this will soon come to an end.
At the same time, I have made my peace on a lot of fronts. I no longer stress about work for instance. I know I am good at what I do, but if t is not appreciated, no sweat, I will walk. I have a plan. I am fortunate to have options. I know my thoughts and ideas are cutting edge.
I have also given up my search for a partner. It is too hard, too time consuming. The idea of just the cat and me is no longer frightening. And yet there is light at the end of the COVID tunnel. A sliver of hope that we may get our life back.
As a global nomad travel has defined me, defined my life. And we may just get that back with the vaccines. There was a lot of good news on vaccination today. Doses to vaccinate 130 million Americans will be available by the end of the month. "Both Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to make a combined total of 220 million doses available for shipment by the end March." And Johnson & Johnson has pledged to make 20 million doses available in the same time frame.
“Together, that means the U.S. will have enough doses on hand by the end of this month to vaccinate about 130 million Americans, or roughly half of all eligible adults, and 40 percent of the total population. Of course, persuading that many people to actually take the vaccines, and administering them at sites across the country, is its own challenge. To handle the increase, states and cities are rushing to open mass vaccination sites where they can administer thousands of shots a day”
JNJ expects to ship 100 million doses of its vaccine around the USA by June, with the first 4 million doses being shipped within the next 24 or so hours. Things are certainly brightening up, despite an uptick in cases.
Over the past twenty-four hours 52k new infections have been reported, to bring the total 29.3 million.19.7 million have been reported as recovered and sadly 526k Americans have died to date.
The JNJ vaccine is a game changer as only a single shot is required. Apparently many people fail to show up for their second shot. “While there maybe concerns about the lesser efficacy, in many ways, that’s looking at the wrong number. The vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing people from getting sick with symptoms is arguably much less important than the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization and death. And there is the promising news: In trials, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine brings both of those down to zero. It squashes the biggest thing that made Covid-19 so threatening to people: its ability to kill. Given the ongoing supply constraints and high demand, experts say people should get whichever vaccine is first available to them — that’s how we’ll beat Covid-19 as quickly as possible.”
Not just in Germany or the USA are people vaccine vary. The Philippines is also on the list. While I have no time for Duterte, I do get his point about Western nations limiting access to vaccines for poorer nations.
Several studies conclude that the Corona virus came from nature and not a lab. scientists are busy studying the origins to also understand how future pandemics can be avoided.
In my humble opinion we have to stop encroaching on nature. Climate change and pandemics are closely related.