Shutdown Diary
A number of my observations are anecdotal It certainly isn't representative, but I find them interesting I have fortunately not personally lost one of my loved ones or friends to the horrible coronavirus, but I know my younger sister-in-law's brother and niece had nasty struggles.
One of the things I learned from my younger siblings and their families is that they weren't waiting for their local government's distribution like I had been but some pharmacies/drugstores/supermarkets have been given some supplies. Now, to be honest, I had heard Giant and Walmart, two of the larger grocers/pharmacies in my Maryland area, would be doing vaccinations, but I had been led to believe the distribution would be centrally handled through them. So if my local Walmart has been independently booking appointments, I've never known about it. I know they've handled flu shots and the like. I haven't seen my personal physician since the beginning of the pandemic, and I had a visit with a hospital specialist, not affiliated with Johns Hopkins, so if they had supplies, they haven't been in contact. (And Hopkins warned their supplies were very limited.)
So among my 6 younger siblings, my first sister had her "one and done" J&J a week ago Monday. My two younger brothers and their spouses have had their first, and my youngest brother and spouse have the final dose Thursday. My three youngest sisters haven't had one yet, but two of their spouses have. One is on a waiting list, another is waiting for Texas to open up her age group, and sister 2 lives in an east Texas town with limited supply. The latter has probably the worst health issues of the family. Her mother-in-law contracted COVID-19, they think, while at the emergency room at a nearby hospital. My oldest nephew and his family got COVID (I mentioned in an earlier post) they think from one of their daughter probably infected during a school trip. It turns out my oldest niece (same mom) who lives in Florida also contracted COVID, probably from her husband, who got it at work. Ironically, the same nephew and niece (and spouses) have gotten their shots, I think from drugstore appointments. (I gather they didn't want to gamble on acquired immunity from their own exposure.)
Then one of my closest friends (I'll call him RR) is an economic casualty of the COVID-19 economy. We bonded at my favorite post-academic job, a small Chicago area private market research company later acquired by Equifax. (A classic example of how acquisitions often don't work. The bureaucracy was ridiculous; it was like we had to order pencils through Atlanta. They took a company growing 30% per year to flat revenues year over year. They pissed me off by saying I could expect no more than a 2% raise because in their pay structure I was at the upper end of what they paid DBA's, never mind I was making about 15% below market. Almost all of the core talent responsible for growth, including myself and another dozen or two people, were gone within 2 years. RR is a fusion of an architect/developer and project manager, one of the most talented and brightest people I know. We worked together on site in Sao Paulo, Brazil in the late spring/summer of 1995. There was large percentage of Japanese-Brazilians (I think emigration from imperial Japan before WWII); RR's counterpart from a Citibank subsidiary was like this stereotype-busting 6'4"solidly-built Japanese-Brazilian. I didn't care for Japanese cuisine (squid was like flavorless chewing gum, and to me sake tastes like something filtered through an old Army boot); RR could eat sushi 7 days a week (he used to plead with me, promising to find a place that cooked fish). RR and I complemented each other's knowledge and skills very well. I have unconditional trust in RR's judgment and skills.
I went through a consulting phase, including Coopers & Lybrand (later merging with Price Waterhouse) and Oracle Consulting. The Chicago consulting business got crushed in the Internet bust, and I migrated to the DC area, working on (mostly) federal government agency contracts. RR migrated to the Los Angeles area, bought a house and has worked for some major businesses in the area, including a world-class major biotech company. Which leads us to the present. He lost his job during the pandemic, one of the most talented guys I know. Don't feel too bad for him, though; he tells me he has made more money day trading this year than I've earned in salary (he doesn't know that) (I'm a little worried about this market euphoria; I think we're closer to the top than to a bottom.)
The latest statistics from Washpo. Let's point out the trend is particularly good in that most of the highest-risk population seems to have been vaccinated This doesn't mean younger people can't get very sick, even die from exposure; but they are better able to stave off serious infection than older people or others with serious health conditions. On the WP website the cumulative case curve is leveling off to where it was about 5 months ago; it's definitely not the case that facemasking is finally working, etc. As I've mentioned before, there are some seasonality factors related to, e.g., the flu: weather conditions (e.g., temperature; humidity), not to mention people tend to stay indoors in cold weather where bioaerosols can saturate the unfiltered air. In the week since my first COVID-19 shot, no real aftereffects, so I still have another 2+ weeks until my second dose early next month. This does not mean I'll relax my regimen of masking, social distancing, and hygiene. For one thing, it takes 2-3 weeks for the body to build antibodies from vaccination.
