Coronavirus (Covid-19)

[Randall]

Yep, just get 'er done, man.

I'll be in line tomorrow morning for my Pfizer at the drive-through clinic!! My wife and I are very excited.

[James]

Yesterday was my official two-weeks-after-the-second-shot day when the vaccine is supposed to be at full efficacy. So I did something I have not done is LITERALLY a year -- went out to eat in a restaurant! It was both very weird and completely normal at the same time!

My son got his second shot yesterday, and my daughter got the one-shot J&J version last week.

Glad to see so many here are lined up as well!

[EricJ]

And you’ll likely all be getting booster jabs in the fall anyway. Why would anyone wait to get jabba-dabba-dood when they get the chance...!?

Fortunately, my health center, which loves scheduling visits for me, has loaded me down with two or three visits over the next few months, and I think they plan to sneak either a test or a jab in there. The first is next week, I'll find out then.

(And no, it's NOT being afraid of the Jab #2 Flu, but I'm going to have to wait for two or three days off before getting it, just in case.)

Yesterday was my official two-weeks-after-the-second-shot day when the vaccine is supposed to be at full efficacy. So I did something I have not done is LITERALLY a year -- went out to eat in a restaurant! It was both very weird and completely normal at the same time!

Wait...First Ben hasn't been to a store in a year, and now James hasn't been to a restaurant?

Our community had groceries-with-masks and summer outdoor dining (plus some local restaurants with well-spaced indoor tables) since June. Where do you people LIVE??
The sidewalk tables are starting to reappear on Main Street with the coming of warm weather, just like the robins on the lawn.

I remember the days last summer when I finally found a mask for sale (they were a lot harder to find on shelves back then), and had to stand in long lines just to get into the grocery, the Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's. Which I didn't mind, having been to many theme parks in my day.

[Randall]

I haven't dined at a restaurant in over a year, or been inside a store in months. (My wife does our shopping.) Most places are open here, but that doesn't make it a smart thing to go out and mingle with people (until one is fully vaccinated, and even then I will be a bit leery.) Aside from my going to my clinic to work, and wifey doing the shopping, we have been strict homebodies.

[droosan]

Same here; I've been holed-up in my townhouse (in beautiful downtown Burbank) since last February.

I go to a nearby grocery store (right when they open, at 6 AM) once-per-week .. but otherwise, I stay home. With the exception of a couple of take-out pizzas (that my younger brother ordered for special occasions), all of my meals during the past year have been of the 'soup & sandwich' or 'frozen dinner' variety.

I haven't had a haircut since November 2019. My hair is down below my shoulders; the longest it's ever been, in my life.

I was already 'unemployed' when lockdowns began in March 2020 .. and remained so, into November. Fortunately, my own savings -- along with the combined California & Federal UI benefits -- kept my bills paid. I used a lot of that 'off' time to take online art classes, and learn new 3D graphics software.

I've been able to do some freelance 3D model work from home, for the past few months .. but it's been spotty; super busy for two weeks, then nothing for five weeks, then a crash deadline of one week, etc. But -- thankfully -- I still have enough savings to get by for awhile, yet .. which (I fully realize) makes me far more fortunate than most.

My California driver's license expired in the middle of the first major lockdown, last year. I'll be looking into renewing it, a few weeks after I've had my second dose. Even so .. I barely put 200 miles on my car, in all of 2020. Driving to Glendale for my shot yesterday (about 8 miles away) was my longest car trip, in months!

Sure, I've missed being able to go out and do things .. and I do look forward to returning to 'normal'. But I'll continue to be extremely careful for awhile, yet.

[Ben]

Pretty much my experience mirrors James, Rand and Droo's.

Holed up at home since Feb '20, with shopping deliveries every Friday morning bringing what we need to survive and a (younger, non-vulnerable) good friend who used to come to our movie nights picking up any essential extras for us every other weekend or so.

Apart from that, and the daily dog walk around our parts (luckily, we're right on the edge of the countryside, so can walk for miles without bumping into more than two or three people doing the same; go the other way and you’re heading into town and then London), it's just been life at home, tackling the yard out back and watching movies either in the drab winter afternoons on TV in the living room, or down in our cinema in an evening, though that hasn’t really gotten the use you might think as it’s just not that much fun running things without an audience to share it with: our audience is currently a bunch of my plushies and furry friends that take up the seats: fun, and it kind of works, but weird when you turn to laugh with someone and you have the Pink Panther staring at the screen!

I managed to repurpose a TV special I recently worked on, and have been collaborating on a couple of new scripts for when we can make a start without the debilitating Covid restrictions on shoots: yes, things are still being made, but taking twice as long and more expensive, and just a bit creatively crushing, with "Covid Police" on sets keeping people apart, etc. It’s totally right, of course, but more and more productions, as we get towards the end of this, if there is an end to this, are choosing to wait a few months and look at shooting in the fall.

Even now, with jabs, the emergence of variants means it's not actually very sensible to be going out all the time, since more speed means more cases means more mixing means more variants means more chance of a variant that cancels out the vaxes! So don’t do it unless you really have to!

And remember that just one jab (of the two jabbas) does not mean you still can’t catch it and spread it, or catch a variant and still have a bad reaction. The vaxes will only really work if we all get one and stay in until most other people have had one and get those case numbers down so the damn thing can’t mutate any more!!

Now, my wife has been going gaga since the one year anniversary, and as a people person she’s been coping well so far but really needs that company again now. So since we had our first jabs in February we’ve been tentatively going to see friends, who have also had a first jab and are also careful. With the home test kits we can get here now, that’s ramped up a bit to a once a week with family for a takeout, although that’s out in their or our (cold!) yard and after a test. Even then, we don’t "mingle" and keep distanced, because as WHO said yesterday morning, you just don’t want to take risks with this thing, as it’s not worth it and it *will* come back to bite us.

So...yeah...great that everyone is getting jabba-dabba-dood, but that’s not quite yet the golden ticket to freedom, and certainly even with the vaxes doing their jobs we're still not allowed inside to restaurants, theatres and the like: it’s all outside only still at this point, although thankfully the weather is finally warming up a bit.

It’s such a balancing act: we must all still be careful, as third waves are going to be a Thing, but how much of a Thing is down to us and our behavior. That said, it’s good to hear that people are poking their heads out and not afraid to do things (although here the recommendation is at least three weeks after the jab, not two), and I hope the food was good James!

My wife gets jabba number two on Sunday week, and I should be around three weeks behind her, so in a month and a half we're as protected as one can get. But, knowing that we can still pick it up and spread it around, or even still get the South African or new Indian variants that are starting to prove ickie with the vaxes and bring their efficacy down, we are still going to remain super-vigilant and pretty much stick to our hermit life for now. This is not worth messing with!

Be sensible! Be safe!

[James]

Good news on those vaccines so far!

Cases of COVID-19 are extremely rare among people who are fully vaccinated, according to a new data analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among more than 75 million fully vaccinated people in the US, just around 5,800 people reported a “breakthrough” infection, in which they became infected with the pandemic coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated.

The numbers suggest that breakthroughs occur at the teeny rate of less than 0.008 percent of fully vaccinated people—and that over 99.992 percent of those vaccinated have not contracted a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04 ... ata-shows/

[Ben]

Yes, the Pfizer numbers are especially encouraging. I would still not place all my faith fully 100% until most of the population has been vaxed, and the variants have been dealt with or hopefully do not take hold. But it’s all good to great news, as long as we remain careful!

[Randall]

I am optimistic, but yes--- stay careful for a while, everybody!

[Daniel]

A classic moment from "Family Guy" redone to encourage people to get the vaccine:

[ShyViolet]

I like that! .


Just got my second shot today. Big relief. God I’m hoping this spring/summer will be better than last year’s (not very hard).

(Of course I do know that many other countries are not doing well at all to put it mildly….this REALLY upsets me*. Praying things will improve. )

*total understatement

[Daniel]

Yay! Congrats.

[ShyViolet]

Thanks Dan!

[EricJ]

I met some old friends who said "What, you haven't been jabbed yet?", and I protested that
A) my usual health center can't do them for being a Clinic,
B) the local town-sponsored center was always booked up when I checked online,
C) the CVS drugstore was always sold out, and
D) I was about to go back and check the local hospital again.
And was looked on only with pity, shame and puzzlement for my irresponsibility.

So, wearily, I went home and checked B again, and "We have [1] appointment available tomorrow." ....Oh. 'Kay.

(I'm still saving a weekend for #2 Flu, though, which my doctor advised me can be pretty dire.)

[Ben]

I would wait for Covid jab 2 before going near a flu booster. They don’t hand the flu out here in the UK until nearer the fall anyway. Sounds like we will be getting a flu and Covid booster this time (in the fall) here, though it’s advised for after having both jabs of the Covid vax, if it’s a two-jabber that you end up having.

Looks like the gov here has settled on Pfizer as being their go-to: they just ordered another 60m doses for a fall rollout here, so seems we will be back to get a third shot in the fall: news last night here was that the thinking is to get these numbers back down so low that they can "eradicate" it by Christmas.

Eradicate is a big word, but it’s good that they’re thinking along those lines, after one of our chief medical officers said that would pretty much be impossible. Then you have Gates, between divorce proceedings, sadly, saying that we could get rid of this completely worldwide by the end of 2022 and it all looks a whole lot better!