Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
Today began early and turned out to be unexpectedly busy, but very productive.
I finally feel alive again workwise, being part of a team that gets things done and a Manager who appreciates my ideas and backs swift action is gratifying. It is such a relief to be able to move things along and I am seeing traction in the countries I have been asked to focus on. Miraculously I also manage to find budgets to get bodies on the ground and into action so to speak. I have some big and interesting markets to develop business in, Sudan and Ethiopia, but also Djibouti, which is completely new territory for me. It is exciting and rather energizing to be empowered and work with a committed team. After 18 difficult months things seem to be falling into place. The “Art Of Not Giving A Fuck” has proven rather helpful.
Life at home is also good. EM and I have settled back into our very comfortable relationship, which I appreciate. I want our last few months in a shared house to be filled with good memories for both of us. In that spirit I should begin work on a new photobook of our life in Washington DC. Possibly even another one capturing our life in different places, a best of so to speak, maybe as a graduation present. It just means sifting through hundreds of images to be preselected. A major hinderance in doing this is the encryption of external drives on my work computer and Apples inability to open encrypted drives. I will need to figure this out somehow. Probably I will need another external drive and a none Apple machine to move files from one drive to another.
Overall virus news continues to be positive, despite the more contagious and evasive variants spreading. If we all manage to be diligent for a few more months, we should be able to build up enough of a common immune response to beat Corona. A thought I very much cherish, which is why I share the sentiment expressed by the new CDC director, especially given vaccine rollout outs are picking up: “do not open up to soon” she warns as numbers plateau at high level. High level being around 50-60k new infections everyday. Just remember: China had 84k during the first three months of the pandemic and almost none subsequently. I predicted we would put our lives on hold for 12-18 months and that is exactly the timeframe we are now looking at now. Our free and open societies are just not as easily controlled as 1.3 billion Chinese.
Until we reach herd immunity with 70-90% of the population either recovered or vaccinated life is likely to remain as it currently is. We will continue to wear masks and maintain our distance unless we know the other person has been vaccinated as well. Herd immunity for the USA, and probably most of Europe, by September becomes ever more likely; especially with agreements like those between Sanofi and BioNTech as well as now JNJ and Merck being reached, where competitors make their facilities available to produce vaccines developed by others when their own development went nowhere.
Producing vaccines, however, is one thing. Getting them into people’s arms is quite another and this is where more needs to be done across the globe. How come there are counties where anyone can walk into a clinic and just get a shot And then there are those, where the State will refuse to provide vaccines to counties if vulnerable communities are preferred over wealthy white communities. This is so obviously racist that the Federal Government should stop shipping to the State, but ship to individual counties or better yet, directly to pharmacies in vulnerable communities.
As the EU stumbles along with its vaccine roll out a number of member states are entertaining the idea of procuring the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. EU bureaucrats are concerned that this may lead to a divide in the union and provide Russia with more influence. I am not so sure, about that; only if the EU allows Russia to divide the Union will it have a negative impact. However if Gamaleya sought emergency use approval with the EU and the EU chose to approve it, the Russian manufactured vaccine would be like every other vaccine.
At the same time, many countries do not have access to the vaccines, which means the virus can continue to spread and mutate around the globe possibly developing variants able to evade immune responses triggered by vaccines. Thsi would negatively impact all of us. I therefore like the idea of the US government using its clout to enable emerging markets to manufacture the Moderna vaccine, which after all was developed by the NIH using US taxpayer money. There is no reason why all the profits should be privatized. Transferring knowledge and technology enabling other countries to manufacture this vaccine is a way of socializing the subsidies for the benefit of the global community. I am certain the almost bankrupt Moderna (before operation warp speed gave it a new lease on life) will still see enough profits for its shareholders.
The sooner Corona is beaten back across the global, the sooner all world citizens are safe more mutants.