Day 389…
As of yesterday, I am officially vaccinated AF.
It’s now been two full weeks since my second jab so, theoretically, the vaccine is now at its most effective level. There are reports that because I’ve actually had COVID before that I could be up to ten times more resistant to the virus now that I’ve been vaccinated. That remains to be seen, but for now, I am at least as resistant to it as any of us can hope to be. That said, it is not at all a given that I couldn’t transmit the virus even if I don’t actually get sick from it.
I have now gotten a New York State virus passport that is good until the middle of September. The reason for the expiration date is that nobody yet knows what the long-term effects of these vaccines are going to be. All we know now is that their effectiveness is going to last until it wears off. What we won’t actually know until that point is reached is when that will be.
It turns out, however, that there are only minimal advantages to having reached this milestone.
When I travel, I like to get as far as I can, when I can. I won’t usually have a meal outside of security zones in an airport if I can get through security. I prefer to get as close to boarding the plane as possible and only then stop and eat. Anything that I have to go through or fill out or answer questions about, I want to do early so that I can get it over with and relax. I felt the same with the vaccine. I feel a sense of relief in terms of having gone as far as I possibly can at this particular moment along the path of protecting ourselves from this virus.
Having this viral passport still doesn’t mean that we can really go anywhere. It doesn’t make us any more or any less welcome. Whatever obstacles that were in place before are still very much in place now. United States travel advisories have not been updated in anyway. If Michael and I went to Mexico, we would still need to take a COVID test with a negative result in Mexico 72 hours before returning before we would be let in. Our vaccine cards wouldn’t affect that requirement.
Governor DeSantis of Florida just signed an executive order prohibiting the use of such passports in his state.
A senior political analyst named Jay Stanley published an article on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union in which he advocates for a decentralized open system so that all of us can know how our health information is being used. Passports that report back to a governmental agency every time they are accessed, he argues, would potentially be an invasion of privacy issue.
The White House Press Secretary said recently that there are no plans for a federal mandate that would require US citizens to get a vaccine credential. My guess is that without such a coordinated central organizing umbrella, that all of this is going to be moot. There are likely too many people eager to be denied entry to an event or some sort of transportation just so that they can file lawsuits claiming that their rights are being infringed upon.
There is still no definitive data to support the idea that vaccinated people cannot pass on the virus. It seems unlikely that we could, but then so much about this past year has seemed unlikely. Until the science can effectively show that this isn’t happening, we have to assume that it is still a possibility.
We have tended to lag behind Europe by about a month in terms of how we are affected by the pandemic. Europe is very much in the midst of a fourth wave fueled largely by the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant. The particularly alarming thing about this variant is that it is driving up the infection and hospitalization rates of young people.
While the United States is far ahead of Europe in our vaccination rates, we still have not yet opened up eligibility to our younger population. About a fifth of all American adults have now received either both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer shot or their single shot of the Johnson and Johnson one. While some of the country is seeing a decrease in cases, there are many places, Michigan in particular, that are seeing their cases rise at an alarming rate. Overall, our cases are at best plateauing. That B.1.1.7 variant is here, and it is spreading.
Yesterday, Michael and I joined five friends at a restaurant for brunch. The seven of us ate indoors and then two of our group left early to prepare for a show. The remaining five of us then finished up and went downtown to watch them perform inside a small cabaret theatre.
This was the first weekend that indoor theatres have been allowed to open in New York City so the show was completely sold out. It was, however, sold out at just 33% capacity. We all had our temperatures taken when we checked in. The five of us sat at one table which was separated by a comfortable amount of space from the surrounding tables. Everybody, except for the performers, wore masks inside during the concert. The show lasted just over an hour. I actually lost track of the time so I can’t really vouch for that. Afterwards, we left, and we went out into the much larger lobby to greet our friends.
It was glorious to be back inside a restaurant and also to be back inside a theatre. Both places felt large enough and ventilated enough that we were comfortable. There have been plenty of places that I haven’t gone into in recent days because my newly developed sense of COVID claustrophobia kicked in and drove me out.
Was it safe? Were we safe? The safest option, of course, would have been for all of us to stay at home. If we chose to do that, then what would be the marker that we would use to decide to go back outside?
We are going to make mistakes as everything starts to reopen. It is inevitable. I feel like I have been paying enough attention to what has been going on to be able to somewhat balance wishful thinking with unsubstantiated dread.
Yesterday, we did not throw off our masks and pretend that there wasn’t still a problem. We asked every single person who waited on us whether they wanted us to put our masks on when they were there or if we could leave them off. Every single time one of us got up from our table, we put our masks back on to move through the restaurant. We were a fully vaccinated group except for one couple. There was more of a risk for them than there probably was for the rest of us.
All throughout the day, we all mostly followed the recommended guidelines. Mostly. Yes, there were times, when we didn’t or couldn’t, but we all remained as vigilant as we could.
Before this past year, we never really worried about catching things from each other. How many times did we end up in an elevator or a train or a plane with somebody near us who was clearly ill with something like the flu? Trapped on a subway next to somebody who was coughing and sneezing, was annoying, but I certainly never got off the train because of it. If I got sick, myself, a couple of days later, I would never have connected it back to that person. I wouldn’t have even remembered them.
We are just in the initial stages of starting to try and creep back into some of our old routines. Mistakes will be made. The alternative to not creeping forward is to just stay in place where we are. I don’t really see that as an option. I want to be able to get as far as we can, when we can. Doing that in an as informed and responsible manner as possible is the best than any of us can hope to do.
Major League Baseball, and other corporations are pushing back against the new restrictive voting laws that were just passed in Georgia. The annual All-Star baseball game that was scheduled to be played in Atlanta has been moved elsewhere. Delta Airlines and Coca Cola, both based in Georgia, have issue strongly worded condemnations of the laws. Dell Technologies and American Airlines joined them. Civil liberties groups have filed several lawsuits against the state.
The pressure is on and I think that it might work. I think that because when all is said and done, it all comes down to money. Hitting Georgia financially will force them to change what they are doing. The far right, including the former President are calling for boycotts of these companies. Nobody’s going to boycott Baseball or Coca Cola, or at the beginning of summer when everyone has been cooped up for a year, the airlines. The Governor is clearly worried because this morning he’s giving a speech condemning them. These companies provide the state with one of its biggest revenue streams.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit regarding the former President being thrown off of twitter. Given that the man is no longer President, the suit has no actual bearing anymore.
The lawsuits and legal problems against the former President are increasing almost on a daily basis. The former President has a huge reserve fund of money that flooded into his campaign during and after the election. It seems, however, that when his supporters went online to donate, unless they noticed and unticked a small box on the site, that they unwittingly agreed to make their donations ongoing on either a monthly or even a weekly basis. Many people were reportedly alarmed when their credit card bills arrived with all of these multiple charges and filed fraud complaints against them.
Fully 3% of all credit card fraud claims in the United States of America last year can be traced back to the former President’s campaign. People have requested $122.7 million in refunds. So far, the campaign has had to pay back $64.3 million. As a comparison, President Biden’s campaign has been faced with less than 10% of that number of refund requests.
I take a certain amount of comfort from the fact that the fallout from many of the events of this past year is starting to move us forward.
The new voter suppression laws passed in Georgia as well as those being considered in 24 other Republican states are a last desperate grab for survival by a political party that has completely lost sight of what its mandate is. Nothing that Republican lawmakers are doing across the nation is in the best interest of their constituents. They aren’t proposing any kind of constructive legislation at all. What they are proposing is merely designed to ensure that they, themselves, remain in power. If we are lucky this will be like the last scream out of the Wicked Witch of the West as she finally melted away. We probably won’t be that lucky, but it’s worth dreaming about.
Like the people who continued to support Richard Nixon until the end of his criminal Presidency and beyond, no matter what comes to light about the former President, support for him is unlikely to completely go away. He can, though, be neutralized to an extent by all of the legal issues that he is up against.
There are plenty of people waiting to rise up and occupy his fetid space. Given the current mood of the country and its support of President Biden, the only way that that will happen is if Georgia and the other states are successful in disenfranchising voters who would oppose them. The fight to prevent that is on.
The trial of Officer Derek Chauvin continues to unfold while all of this is going on. The testimony is very difficult to watch. Given all of it, it seems as if there is no question as to Chauvin’s guilt in the death of George Floyd, but it only takes a single juror who thinks that there is a reasonable doubt to derail the verdict. However this trial ends, there will be a reckoning. If it ends with his acquittal, that reckoning will likely be violent.
We are moving forward. It isn’t always easy or quick, but we are beginning to address the wrongs of the past and we are actually moving forward. Our fights are not over by a long shot, but our troops are at the ready.
For the stimulus bill that was recently passed to be considered a success, our economy will need to return to a firm footing. It was designed to jumpstart our country. To keep it going, we all need to get behind the wheel and drive now.
Will the car run properly? Will we break down again further down the road? Who knows, but for now, though, we should try and drive. The best way to recharge its battery is to keep the car moving.
We need tourists to return here. Other places need us to be able to go to them and be tourists there, ourselves. We may have a long way to go before we are all sitting together in a theatre laughing and crying together without our mouths and noses being covered by masks, but we have to start along the road to getting there. The first step towards that is to take some tentative baby steps.
Yesterday, Michael and I took our first couple of steps. It felt great - a bit nerve-wracking at times maybe, but still great.
Today, I am just going to take a walk by myself, but tomorrow…?
We’ll see.
💞💞Went to the THEATER?!!!!
💞💞💞💞💞
FYI- I read I think in the Times when the NYS passport was released all the reasons it was wasn’t secure
I decided not to use it.