Monthly Archives: December 2020

Ending the year

Holly Doyne Posted on by

2020 has been a challenge for all of us.

It really doesn’t matter if you live in one of those rare areas which has either been not much affected by the spread of SARS-COV2 or had a sensible government which managed to pretty much keep things under control.

There has been much discussion especially in the US about “personal freedom.”

It seems strange to me. I served in the military for 33+ years. The key word there is served. I find it very hard to understand why anyone would choose to risk the health of others just to make a point. I find it on the same level as walking around with a loaded weapon and pointing it at random people….

What each of us does affects those around us. 

I know too many who have buried a family member, dead from COVID-19, this year to take anything lightly. 

Please stay safe and let us get through the next several months with the least loss of life possible so that all may have a future.

 

I took down the calendar

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

You can be so accustomed to having something in a particular place that you just don’t see it anymore. Or, if you “see” it, the significance doesn’t register.

So it was with the 19 month calendar hanging on the wall in our kitchen.

check the date …

 

Traditionally, I have liked having a physical calendar hanging on the wall. This particular location is  in among the car/house/shed/whatever keys for this location and several others. Thus it is in front of everyone’s eyes multiple times a week, if not every day. With this many people living in a household, it forms a “obligation at a glance” for anything that might affect others in the household.

What? Oh, let us say medical appointments, travel, baseball games, or invitations.

And now we come to 2020. The medical appointments have slacken off to the point where just using our phone calendars work for George and I. There aren’t any baseball games or soccer matches. Travel? What is that? A trip down the hill for take-a-away? Invitations are a thing of the past, conferences are on-line. 

All of which explains why this lovely, cheerful calendar is claiming that we are in August. Certainly there is nothing of import noted on the calendar. I took it down. I haven’t purchased a new one for this coming year. By the time I might need one, they all should be on sale…..

All dressed up

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and unable to go anywhere.

garage on Spruce St

In keeping with long standing tradition – the monkey frieze is decorated for the holiday. Otherwise, there isn’t much house decoration, lights, or action along the route from our house to the Package Sending station that is across the street from my local Peet’s. I had two packages to toss in the mail and had no interest in standing inside the official post office in line with rude people for however long it took. Instead, I could grab a coffee and wait outside in pleasant, cooperative, and socially respectful company. When my turn came, it was all of three minutes to handover, verify, and pay for the packages.

Which just left me the trudge back up the hill….

The well dressed dentist

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Since I had to be at the SFVA anyway – I thought I would check to see if the dental clinic might just have an opening. Dental, like the Infusion Center and all the other procedure driven clinics requires a negative COVID test within 3 days. (Not that I enjoy getting a swab jammed up my nose, but it makes sense to maximize the amount of goodness I can get out of that particular bit of uncomfortableness.   My dentist’s afternoon patient hadn’t show up, so she was willing to haul me in for a short exam. 

Which will lead to me returning tomorrow – the only patient for the morning. I scored both a cleaning and a repair to a broken filling. 

The VA is taking good care of its dental staff – they have full protective equipment including PAPR’s (portable air purifying respirators). If you are not familiar with this particular bit of fun, it is a pump worn on the back of the belt. Sucking in room air, it filters it prior to blowing it into the hood. No matter how much aerosol is generated during a dental procedure, it doesn’t wind up in the dentist’s or dental assistant’s breathing zone.

protection +

Not quite space aliens……

or empty heads

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Since most of them are not exactly sweet (the politicians, that is)…

And, as Pat reminds me (oh, it is sooo nice to have friends who are medical librarians…) ..

Except … that original marshmallow study? Was later shown to be flawed, badly. It turns out what it was actually testing was not executive function or self-indulgence, but social determinants/influencers of health. Kids who were raised in scarcity, poverty, with a lack of resources had learned to not trust adults who said they could have more later, and figured a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. 
 
 
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t apply to the situation. I wonder what would have happened if the study had continued on for a year, and the poor kids gradually learned they could trust the researchers, and the rich kids decided they were bored with waiting, their parents will buy all the marshmallows they want at home. 

Or, those with reasonable knowledge in science are able to figure out that ignoring the rules for five days is not going to improve their lives in the long run.

As one of the members of Island Knitters commented last night – “Is getting the family together this year important enough that you are willing to take the risk that some of them will be dead next year?”

It is not rich or poor in the case pretending the virus is also going to go on holiday … wait! The virus is going on holiday, but not as taking a break but happily going along to enjoy new locations, new groups of people, and overwhelming even more city, town, and rural health care systems.

There will be an excellent discussion today from UCSF Medical Grand Rounds at 1200 (PDT) on schools, vaccines distribution – link here. If you read this later, you can find the recording on YouTube under UCSF Grand Rounds.

Yes, we all need to make decisions on our own health and sanity. But also be aware that those decisions have far reaching ramifications on our families, our community, and our society affecting both those we know and individuals that we have never met.

Marshmallows

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Ron reminds me of the following:

A classic experiment showed that kids who can resist immediately eating one marshmallow in order to later get two of them have better life outcomes.  Our fight against Covid-19 is being derailed by a surfeit of one-marshmallow adults.

That is certainly the case in the US White House. What? Stop holiday parties and keep people safe? Oh, wait, we should be fine since we have already risked all the employees here (hundreds of whom have contracted COVID-19). Guests? Being invited gives you immunity….

Or on the arrogant island collective where marshmallow-headed politicians, assuming that all who live in the 4-country semi-cooperative called the UK, have decided to give everyone a 5 day pardon from serious social distancing. Pods of up to three families with traveling allowed to join yours.

Then there is the German State with a current covid-19 infection rate of over 400 new cases per week per 100K, is allowing hotels to open from Christmas to New Years day to facilitate family get togethers with up to 10 adults and an unlimited number of children.

It all leads to a certain amount of fatalism, doesn’t it? Like – “here I have been obeying all the rules since March and now …..”

There have been plenty of wiser heads out there stating clearly that this lifting in restrictions is going to set us all back months. There will be millions more cases and thousands of unnecessary deaths. I will leave out, for the moment my rant about irresponsible religious leaders and faith groups (yes, Catholic Church, Hassidic Jews, Evangelicals – I am talking about you).

But seriously, I will review the bidding on Immunization priorities and realities tomorrow and why, just because there are vaccines on the horizon, it is not safe to drop sensible precautions now.

Of course, ignoring all safety means that there will be a lot fewer individuals to immunize come next year….