A friend of mine was joking about this just last night. She said if you’re a Prime member, the vaccine should arrive in two days. If not, it could take up to two weeks to be delivered. 
The Olympic games is still happening?
Some people in Japan want to cancel the games. But they spent a Lot of money in It.
A real example of what a sport event would look like in pandemic times is the The World Handball Championship that is going on in Egypt. The problem is that some athletes and coaches had tested positive for Covid.
Which is a shame, because handball is such a cool sport and the Egyptians went out of their way to make such a beautiful celebration. Their mascot is awesome!
I really don’t want to piss in anybody’s cornflakes, but please take this with a grain of salt. Here’s why: We have seen a rising tide of cases since late September. Onto this rising tide was superimposed a surge due to Christmas travel and gatherings. We are 3 weeks (more or less) out from that nationwide superspreader event, and so the majority of the cases attributable to it have now shown themselves. We saw the same thing after the Thanksgiving surge. I do certainly hope that the downward trend in cases continues, I do. But I am not comfortable saying we are on the downhill side, when we may have only crested the most recent wave, and still have the rising tide to deal with. Time will tell, but please do not let your guard down. It is way too early.
And this shit isn’t helping. In other weird Covid news, my office has been approved as a Covid vaccine site! Great, but, umm, we are a pediatric office. Moderna vaccine can only be given to folks 18 and up. And we are the only primary care office in the UVA system to get that approval. The family practice offices are not happy, to say the least, and I have no idea what they are thinking.
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/faa-letting-airports-rollout-covid-19-health-screenings
Iowa airport to conduct mandatory COVID-19 screenings for all departing passengers after FAA gives OK
The FAA recently gave the go-ahead for airports to require such screenings
Agreed. With the more contagious strains and continuing selfishness of people like this, I’m not anticipating a miraculous trough to the wave we’re riding. But hope springs eternal.
Please, please tell me they were just saying that, and were not actually stunned or even mildly surprised.
This is not great news
Some COVID-19 mutations may dampen vaccine effectiveness - ABC News (go.com)
"It’s “wishful thinking” to believe that first-generation vaccines will be enough, or that vaccines alone will solve our problems, said Mayo Clinic vaccine expert Dr. Gregory Poland.
“We are shooting ourselves in the foot by allowing unmitigated transmission of this virus” and not doing “common sense” measures such as mandating mask-wearing as some other countries are doing, he said."
Not make it ineffective, but less effective, which is a problem considering how slow off the mark we are going.
ETA: But we need some good news, so:
The persistence of memory in B cells: Hints of stability in COVID immunity | Ars Technica
< Patrick Stewart mild shock .gif >
What is the current state of thinking on N95s? Has the supply caught up to the demand for health care workers such that we should all be using them or not? I’ve seen some articles saying that they are recommending N95 usage in Europe. Does that also apply to the US or should we keep with the cloth ones or regular surgical masks?
Can’t speak for everywhere, but here we were issued 1 (one) N95 and told to use it sparingly, keep it safe in a paper bag and make it last as long as possible. So I would have to say no.
