- Out-of-Quarantine Day 1
- Days spent in Quarantine: 455
- Livermore cases: 4,345
- Alameda County cases: 85,865; deaths: 1,225*
- * The number of Alameda County deaths is lower than the previous posts. It seems to have been revised downward, but I have no details about that revision.
- U.S. cases: 33,303,000+; deaths: 597,000+
The Alameda County Public Health Department is currently reporting that 59.8% of eligible Livermore residents are fully vaccinated and 72.1% are at least partially vaccinated!
The CDC is currently reporting that 51.4% of the eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated and 61.5% is at least partially vaccinated!
Today California lifts most remaining public-health-related restrictions throughout the state. No more capacity limits or distancing requirements.
Mask requirements are still in effect for all persons in higher-risk locations like healthcare facilities and mass transit. Fully vaccinated persons no longer need to wear masks when indoors (businesses may still enforce their own rules, but may not prohibit wearing masks). Unvaccinated persons are required to continue to wear masks indoors. However, I don’t think it likely we’ll see much adherence to that since just saying, “I’m vaccinated” is enough to meet the state’s enforcement guidelines. Mass gathering events also have some additional restrictions.
Hopefully the rates of vaccination and immunity acquired via prior infection are enough to keep things under control so life can go back to normal.
Normal, for those of us that made it through unscathed. Our family is healthy. Our extended family is healthy. 582,000-720,000 people died in the past 16 months in excess of the expected number of deaths during that time frame (according to the CDC data). The Imperial College London’s paper from March 2020 warning that without mitigation measures the U.S. could lose 2.2 million people doesn’t seem impossible.
We still have a disturbingly large swath of the country insisting none of this is real. The virus isn’t real, but if it is it’s just like the flu so it doesn’t matter; the vaccine is a secret conspiracy to inject them with microchips; being asked to wear masks is just like the holocaust, the whole thing is a liberal plot to destroy democracy (somehow, there’s not logic involved). None of those statements are exaggeration on my part. There are people making those claims on a regular basis. Some guy in Georgia shot and killed a cashier at a grocery store yesterday because he was asked to wear a mask. It’s so messed up.
In other news, in contrast to the stock market collapsing back at the beginning, the stock market has been just constantly climbing since March 2020. It’s up 79% since then, which is ridiculous.
I’m still working from my closet. The Lab is formulating a plan for returning on site. Last I heard they’ll be phasing people in throughout the summer. The blanket telecommuting agreement has been extended through September.
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I’ve just been taken some time to read through my early blog posts in this series. Man that’s a wild ride. I think I’ll get those printed into a little book.