Tuesday, May 18th, 2021
Yet another beautiful sunny and warm day. I did spend some time working outside to enjoy the beautiful weather before Brood X emerges in force and makes outside activities rather unpleasant – or so I am told seeing I was not around in 2004 when they last emerged. While I see some of the creature’s husk and some of the Cicadas hanging around the garden, it is inconceivable that it is soon impossible to step outside without stepping on them. What a time we live in!
The big news today though is the reopening of the DMV. DC has done away with mask mandates outside and indoors it is limited to public transport and the like. Virginia and Maryland did so on April 15th, but allowed counties to retain restrictions. Today Montgomery county followed suit:
Mask Guidance
The Montgomery County Council approved a new Board of Health today (Tuesday, May 18) lifting the outdoor mask requirement for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. In addition, persons who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear masks indoors, unless required by the establishment for all customers. Masks are still required in health care settings, schools and on public transportation. Until May 28, residents must wear a mask in indoor public spaces. See County face coverings guidance.
Expanded Reopening
The County recently reached a significant milestone in its reopening metrics when 60% of residents received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. As result, the Council, sitting as the Board of Health, voted to allow businesses, restaurants, houses of worship and other venues to operate at 75% capacity and to eliminate all outdoor capacity limits. Indoor capacity limits increased to 250 people, including camps and sports venues. Convention and banquet facilities can operate at 50%. This means as of May 28th the pandemic is basically declared over and normal life resumes.
The Dojo has taken a first step today by adding an extra class on Thursdays. Today already had all of us vaccinated people practicing maskless in the park together. Seeing my fellow Aikidoka's faces after over a year was weird. The pool has announced it will allow splitting lanes as of Monday. I am assuming all restrictions on pool use will disappear on May 28th. This means no more pre-booking of lap lanes a week ahead. Rather one can just show up. I am so glad I joined the community pool this year. I will get a lot of use out of it, I think.
May 28th will also be the final post to this blog as our COVID life will hopefully end that day. We shall celebrate the end of EM’s school career and the end of the pandemic combined with our California trip!
25k new cases have been reported nationwide over the past twenty-four hours to bring the total to 33.77 million. I expect we will continue to see between 10-20k new infections every day for months to come as those not yet inoculated are unlikely to change much. Once the BioNTech vaccine is approved for children as young as 2 the inoculation rate will go up a little further, though I doubt this country will ever get to 70% or more of all residents having had a shot. Outbreaks of COVID – 19 are likely to continue especially in States with low vaccination rates, all of which happen to be controlled by Republicans.
Spain has conducted a trial mixing AstraZeneca and BioNTech vaccines, administering first one and then the other. Results indicate this to be highly effective and safe, which is good news given persisting supply shortages.
Sanofi and GSK have joined forces to produce yet another vaccine, which has triggered a strong immune response in phase 2 trials. Phase 3 trials are expected to commence shortly. Like Novavax and others this is not expected to be licensed before the end of the year. Still it is another step towards getting the world vaccinated.
Scientists are already preparing for the next pandemic by developing vaccines which work against a variety of Corona viruses. I do hope we will not be needing them anytime soon, ideally not in my life time!