I registered us for Ford Field over a week ago, 6k shots a day in a metro of 5M means it’s going to be a while.
[edit] @BakerB it’s the lingering effects of having been shorted at the start. We’re way behind, say, Ohio with their Republican governor.
Line? The default UK approach is to go through the list of people by age, so they know how many people will turn up and when. You are given a time, and you are not supposed to come in more than 5 minutes ahead, to avoid standing in lines. We have inoculated over half the population this way, despite our government.
Looks like I picked the wrong month to stop hoarding toilet paper.
There’s a kickstarter for a plausible nasal mask - one that could be repurposed from general use and worn for dental procedures. But it’s by the CEO of TASER and, seemingly, his 25 year-old daughter, and it’s sold with a completely fake mask over the mouth, where 10x the aerosols come out when talking, so TASER guy and his daughter managed to douche up an otherwise useful idea.
Yet again I’m going to recommend “pale horses pale rider” about the flu pandemic (1919 in most of Europe but 1918 in the US) which is about this as well as the pandemic.
The Redmond campus is open but only for employees that need to be onsite because of hardships or necessity, it’s still not open fully and the idea is that the default state is WFH. MSFT won’t be reopening fully for a while.
You’re unfortunately right about the trend upward though, that sucks. 
One good news is that I think the new vaccination site Microsoft is running is also opening soon? Employees don’t get any priority there, and it’ll be good to speed up the vaccination rate.
At my dentist, they swab our nose with iodine solution and have us swish with it as well, and the dental assistants are masked and shielded up pretty heavily. I feel reasonably safe going there, although I haven’t done any independent analysis of whether the iodine helps. I at least feel pretty safe that they’re taking it seriously and that the dental people there will be safe, which is important.
They also run an air sanitizer? Again, I dunno how much of this is theater and how much is effective, but at the very least it’s clearly something they’re treating seriously.
Meanwhile my new coworker in Florida (and my parents) are both like ‘oh yeah mask mandate’s over’ - the coworker is honestly a little shocked by how seriously WA is taking Covid19 compared to FL, but I think that’s reflected in the case rates.
“War weariness” was alredy a familiar phenomenon in most countries during WWI. It was a large contributor to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. I wonder if seeing one years-long, psychologically exhausting slog actually come to an end on Armistice Day somewhat mitigated the weariness associated with the 1918 influenza pandemic that followed so close behind.
Well the first world war ended in mutinies in Germany and Britain so I think it’s fair to say they were weary.
We have a similar target date in PA. They’ve been increasing the delivery of doses and opening the appointment systems to allow entries set weeks in the future. I’m hoping to get my first dose before the end of the month. 
Our curve in VA is not quite that bad, still shows cases on a plateau, but I suspect that will change.
Not to mention a bit of a political backlash in Russia as well…
Partner got an appointment at a state run facility (in the US) and that was what it was like. I was assigned an appointment at a walmart, where they were very interested in my insurance info, but were otherwise a mess. I waited over an hour, with I don’t know how many other people, without a designated area - we were just standing in the aisles around the pharmacy, where people were also picking up prescriptions and buying allergy medicine, trying to stay close enough to hear when a name got called, while also maintaining as much distance as we could (but nowhere near six feet) from each other.
It was by far the riskiest situation I’ve been in since the first lockdown.
Got my second this morning, 20 minutes including the 15 minute observation time after the jab. Very smooth thanks to the volunteers and the medics doing the vaccinations (and the efficient supply system behind them).
Bit concerned by the results of the slight easing of lockdown.
I’ve read of similar or worse situations in Walgreens. The stores just don’t have the space to safely do socially distanced mass vaccinations. They weren’t built for it. They were built to maximize retail sales. Every bit of space is already spoken for.
Pawning off Covid vaccinations on corporate pharmacies that cheap out and try to do them indoors using their existing infrastructure is a mess.
From what I’ve seen, Microsoft seems to be the same as Apple (and other tech companies). Small groups that can’t work remote, like hardware, were back on site months ago. Many people are working from home indefinitely. I guess this is for the people who previously didn’t have a business reason to work on site?
I keep hearing WA is short on vaccine, but they seem slightly ahead the middle for getting shots into arms. I feel like that’s either old news that’s carrying on or a hint that there’s capacity for distributing more. In mid-April my understanding is that the vaccination rate is expected to double.
The shame and rage I feel that my home state, Minnesota, is one of those blue stronghold surge states is hard to adequately express. I’m so disappointed in us.
My valved n95 is like a CPAP mask with nice silicone interface, and it takes replaceable filters. But the filters are pretty adamant about “This side out,” and so I was concerned with interfering with its rating by taping over the valve and forcing air both directions.
So I wear a surgical mask over it to protect others, and a thin cloth scarf over that to have a more aesthetic covering. Also glad to know it’s not necessary… but I’ll probably keep doing it until I’m vaccinated to improve the protection of others.
There should be a special patch for Randian plague rats. Although I guess MAGA hats pretty much serve the same purpose.
I’m farther east, and even when everything was close people turned a blind eye to it. At least one restaurant I went into for a pickup order and it was full of people eating (no masks). Pissed me off 'cause I wanted the food, but not enough to wait inside with a bunch of unmasked folks.
The county sheriff also made it clear that he wasn’t going to enforce any mask mandates or anything else. Which means he for sure won’t be getting my vote when he comes up for reelection…however I’ll bet he has read his voter’s desires well enough that my “hell no, not that guy” will be out voted.
