- Quarantine Day 290
- Livermore cases: 2,680
- Alameda County cases: 49,736; deaths: 645
- U.S. cases: 19,663,000+; deaths: 341,000+
California is being hit really hard right now. I don't know why, I guess people just aren't following the public health orders at all. They're tired of caring and so they've stopped caring. And no one is enforcing the orders. Especially when people see that there is zero enforcement and their friends and neighbors are out doing whatever they feel like, many begin to feel like they should get to do that too. We're doing worst in the nation for new-cases-in-past-7-days-per-100k people.
I walked the girls down to the park this afternoon to fly the mini quadcopters they got for Christmas (just cheap ~$20 things about the size of an adult hand). It was too windy to keep control of them so after a little while we went to take a look at the playground. There were probably about 15 kids running around and 8 adults. 2 adults were wearing masks and 1 kid. A group of ~8 teenage boys were playing basketball, no masks.
I told the girls we could play for a little bit, but they had to stay away from the other kids. So they swung on the swings for about twenty minutes and then we went home. Heather had a bit of an emotion vent while walking home about how fed up she is about not being able to do the things she wants to do. So we had another discussion about how we're all tired of it, but being tired of it doesn't make the problem go away. The entire medical system is strained well past its limits right now, so we'll keep doing our best to stay safe and healthy until the vaccines can roll out, but sadly that's still going to be months away.
It is tiring and trying. Especially with such failed leadership at the federal level. There's no reason it had to be this hard on the country except failure to act.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the updated lock-down orders were to go into effect when regional ICU availability dropped below 15% capacity. The SF Bay Area enacted the lock-down early before hitting 15% and hit 15% not much later. Every region in the state fell below 15% in the following days and many of the regions have been reporting 0% availability for several days at this point. I fear that we will only see it worsen as additional spread occurs due to Christmas gatherings and then New Year's Eve gatherings.
Some hospitals in southern California are prepping to enact care-rationing plans because they're just completely overrun.
A new strain that was first identified in the U.K. has been detected in California, other states, and throughout the world. This is notable because the new strain appears to be even more contagious than what's been spreading all year already.
While the Pfizer vaccine has begun being administered there's not nearly enough of it. The goal was 20 million people inoculated by Jan 1. That number looks more like 1 million. The Moderna vaccine was also approved and I presume has begun being administered, but I haven't heard much about it. A third vaccine was approved in the U.K. this week. I believe the most recent information is to expect that it will be until at least June until enough doses are available for the general population to be covered in the U.S.
Dr. Fauci gave a joint, virtual, press conference with the CA governor earlier this week. Fauci's quoted saying something to the effect of "we should be able to administer enough vaccines that schools will be something like normal next fall." [sigh] That feels like a long way away.
Oh, and for some insane reason, a pharmacist in Milwaukee intentionally spoiled 550+ doses of the vaccine intending for the spoiled doses to be used on victims. Just, WHAT?! This person went through effort to try to sneakily leave vials out of cold storage on two occasions knowing and intending for them to spoil, then returned them to cold storage, from which they'd be used. They were caught when another employee found the vials left out and triggered an investigation. I can't even begin to understand what this person could have been thinking. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/31/952536531/pharmacist-arrested-accused-of-destroying-more-than-500-moderna-vaccine-doses
Farewell 2020. Here's hoping for a brighter 2021.