Had a Zoom gathering with extended family members yesterday. One of my cousins said exactly that. Her church has a history of conducting outreach and charity drives during the holidays. They cover an area from northern DE to Baltimore, but due to minimal online presence attendance continues to decline. People like the convenience that online church services provide, and I can imagine those that aren’t tech-savvy might close. Many older churches like that have congregations of people who aren’t into tech either, which causes them to feel more isolated and disconnected from others.
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When my mom was ill, she watched Catholic mass on teevee.
And the priest came to give her communion at home when she was bedridden. Longtime family friend.
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Life is Precious … except …unless …
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Somewhat related, a lot of libraries in the state have made their regularly in-person programs into Zoom events and it’s been great for their presence. And us. I’ve attended things I never would’ve driven over an hour to get to. I got to hear naturalist Bernd Heinrich talk, from his off-grid cabin.
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I mean if ads like this from hospitals won’t convince people to wear a mask and get vaccinated…
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Wait, what?
Well, depending on your perspective, I guess:
Germany is expected to introduce new measures in the coming days, such as limiting private gatherings to 10 people, according to a draft document seen by DW. These curbs will also be implemented on the December 28.
28th?
IMO to late. May history prove me working
wrong. Please.
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And yet, The Cleveland Clinic and University Health System both declined to have vaccine mandates for staff.
If they’re not willing to take a hard stance, why do they think an ad in the newspaper will help?
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That’s pretty disappointing. I think CCF has some very RWN board members, but what’s UH’s excuse?
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Small twitter thread for part 2 of this
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And if the ventilation is a problem,
Business meeting today… yay… 
I rather insisted, and it was held outside, standing in -2C and a stiff breeze, fairly well away from people, with everyone in attendance wearing a mask. Somehow it still went on for a bit more than an hour, but was fairly focused near the end… 
So, put that in your “how to keep a meeting moving” management notes and smoke it… 
I also always cheerfully offer to forward my “Scientific Bibliography of Terror-Inducing COVID Research” ought anyone doubt the reasons for the chilly proceedings.
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I’ll take the offer. I think I know just someone who I want to forward it to.
ETA, and just ever so slowly slightly related (cough) to my previous post:
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Thought of you when I saw that in the paper earlier!
My fun today is that I got my booster (feeling a bit like I’ve a swollen head) and then I got a contact tracing call!
I’m not meeting anyone in the next week and we can pull the children out of school to be safe anyway so it’s not the worst but it’s a bit of a pain.
Just annoyed they screwed up the booster timing or I’d be less likely. I had the Janssen 7 months ago so I was in serious need of a booster.
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Maybe they won’t read it…
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Here we go!
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That didn’t take long.
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It’s crazy how, even this far into the pandemic, even the experts seem completely flummoxed trying to determine why some countries are faring so much better than others.
Yes, Japan has a relatively high vaccination rate (but nowhere near the highest) and they’re generally good about wearing masks in public, but there’s still some important factors to their recent success that we haven’t figured out yet. As this story notes South Korea has a vaccination rate that’s about 10% higher, they’re also pretty good about masking in public, yet their current infection rate is at an all-time high.
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