New Vaccines and Who Should Get Them First

 So three companies have highly-effective vaccines against the novel coronavirus. There is a worldwide need and the burning question for them and the politicians who guide them is this:

Who gets vaccinated first?

Many writers have written treatises on the topic, so mine will be short. Some have suggested giving the vaccine to the most vulnerable first; the elderly, those with significant health issues, and preexisting conditions have been suggested.

I disagree.

While saving a life--any life--is highly desirable, the already-sick and elderly are not the first group of people that should be given the vaccine first. Why, you ask? Because they are neither likely to spread either the disease nor increase resistance to it.

No, the people who should be given the vaccine first are the social butterflies and those who insist on attending large gatherings where mask-wearing and social distancing are not seen as necessary. Vaccinating them will help spread the resistance and will allow a faster 'herd immunity' than would happen with any other single group.

So find all the authoritarian cultists around the world, young people who think they are not going to "get" the disease, and those who want to crowd into a bar with other non-wearers. Vaccinate gig workers and those "essential" workers who have no choice but to continue working in places with patrons who might not wear a mask or see the value in protecting others lives. Definitely give the vaccine to health care workers and those on the front lines of protecting us.

After they have been vaccinated, they will go out into the world - remember, this a worldwide suggestion, not just for us - and not be part of the super-spreader group they were before. The active virus will not be transferred and fewer people will get sick faster.

Then the vaccine can be given to those people like me who don't go anywhere and who avoid crowded spaces. The economies will improve and life can begin to return to something recognizable as 'normal.' Doing anything else merely slows the process.

Think about it.

Choices and Magical Thinking

Humans are the only species in the Animal Kingdom that can make logical decisions. We were given the ultimate talisman to rule the Kingdom at the top of the food chain. We have thrived and advanced for a very, very long time. So why do we continue to make the decisions we do, hoping that magical thinking, somehow, will result in a different outcome? 

The answer, to me, seems clear: we can also make no decision and we can make a bad decision. Take this observation from an editorial board member at The New York Times:

"We know a lot more [about coronavirus] now...we know that temperature checks won’t prevent outbreaks (at least one-third of people who transmit the virus have no symptoms at all), but that routine surveillance testing can catch outbreaks before they become catastrophes. 

"We don’t know how safe schools are, or how safe they might be made. But we do know that bars and restaurants are hubs of viral transmission.

"And yet, as we enter the third — and potentially worst — coronavirus surge, pandemic fatigue and magical thinking have us acting like all of this is brand-new. Schools are closing while restaurants remain open. State and local leaders are dithering on mask mandates. 

"Too few communities have effective programs in place for contact tracing, quarantine and isolation."

However bad it looks right now, this pandemic won't last forever; they never have. Our goal as a nation should be to protect as many people as possible in the tough months ahead. Magical thinking will not get us through this. Making good choices will help.

From whence the readers? And why must they be that way?

Over the weekend, I read a regular blog by one of my favorite writers, Claire Berlinski, who wrote that she saw an unusually large, sudden increase in her readers. She wondered why, so she did some checking.

It turns out they came from an unusual and unexpected source.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich has been a regular reader of her work for years and mentioned her blog, “Claire’s Invariably Interesting Thoughts,” on Fox News. She now has many readers from that dark side of the spectrum. Well done, Claire. May they stay long enough to read at least one of your blogs, interesting and thought-provoking as they are. I have my doubts, but one never knows.

However, in keeping with the head-in-the-sand approach to the novel coronavirus and its deadly disease, COVID-19, taken by many on the right, plus Speaker Gingrich's and the new readers from Fox News's "lack of concern," she also wrote this telling bit:

"The novel coronavirus is now the leading cause of death in the United States. If you fear that you or one of your loved ones will die from this virus, it is not irrational at all.

"In April, more Americans died from Covid-19 than from accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, cancer, or heart disease. Particularly if you live in New York State or New York City, you would be insane to be unconcerned..."

How hundreds of thousands of infections and almost 80,000 deaths in the USA alone fails to raise concern in even the most isolated, jaundiced individual is beyond me.

If you want to read some of Claire's musings that attracted a former Speaker of the House, point your web browser to: https://claireberlinski.substack.com/

Gratitude for being a grandparent

This is from an article in Medium by an author I read:

• What’s amazing to me is how consistent this struggle is among every parent I talk to. The texts and social media posts bouncing around my circle all echo each other. We feel like we’re failing at both. Our kids don’t just need us — they need more of us. Our kids are acting out, abandoning the routines they already had, dropping naps, sleeping less, doing less — except for jumping on top of their parents, which is happening much more. We’re letting them watch far greater amounts of screen time than we ever thought we’d tolerate. Forget homeschooling success — most of us are struggling to get our kids to do the basics that would have accounted for a Saturday-morning routine before this pandemic.

What amazes me about this is the consistency the author conveys and what I see in my own, much smaller circle made up of people I either knew in high school or Bahá'ís I have known since the 1970s.

Namely, they are older and without at-home children. Often, as in my case, there is no spouse, no other human in the house.

We do not have to worry about homeschooling, keeping pre-teens from going crazy or damaging things (dogs, furniture, walls...themselves), and balancing whatever paid work there is with the necessity to give "enough" time to those children and perhaps a spouse.

A person I know is the parent of three children, all under the teenage years. There is a spouse and both parents have stay-at-home jobs now. The challenges my friend deals with are unlike anything in one's life experience. There are the stresses created by keeping children contained within a relatively small space (house and backyard), of keeping a large breed dog de-stressed by walking as often as possible, and dealing with a spouse's stressful new job, started just about the time the novel coronavirus began to make its presence felt.

There is very little 'downtime' for this new breed of parents. Considering this pandemic involves a novel coronavirus against which not one human on Earth has any immunity, there is no historical basis on which to rely; the decisions are far more frequent than day-to-day. They come minute-to-minute. There is no consistency; what worked an hour ago might fail now. There is no manual, no helpful book by an experienced pediatrician.

There is just the Now.

As I sit here in my own small cave, alone, writing these words, I am reminded that there was a time when I was one of those parents with a houseful of children, all needing attention, direction, guidance, and discipline. The difference, of course, is there was no novel coronavirus waiting to inflict incredible sickness on a body just around the corner.

My heart goes out to all parents with children, the children themselves, and the teachers who will have to deal with a wide variety of homeschooling results when they finally go back to school. The time between now and then will be stressful and chaotic for them.

I am glad I am a grandparent.