Saturday, March 13, 2021

Weekend Reading: Better, Not Great Edition

This week was decidedly better than last week. I learned something interesting from my bad week, though. I had been trying to post a daily "good thing" on my Instagram account as a way to remind myself to find things to appreciate each day. That fell by the wayside last week. It turns out, that what I need isn't a reminder to appreciate something each day. That only works on my good and so-so days. I need a repository of good things I can go to for a pick-me-up on my bad days. I scrolled back through my old Instagram pictures a bit, and that helped but it wasn't quite what I wanted/needed and now I am pondering what would be and if I could make it.

I am sure you've seen the new CDC guidance on what fully vaccinated people can do. It was good to hear President Biden say that he's going to direct states to make all adults vaccine eligible on May 1. We will get our vaccinations as soon as we can. Our kids go back to in person school on April 12, and so soon we will not be able to keep our family in its protective little bubble. We will have a few weeks between the end of our protection by isolation and protection by vaccination - and even then, the kids won't be able to be vaccinated until later. 

They are still projecting vaccines for ages 12 and up by fall. Petunia turns 12 in October. This summer - the summer that we are all hoping will be a bit more normal - depends so much on adults taking the vaccine when it is available to them. COVID-19 is usually milder in kids, but some kids do still get sick and some die. Our kids need us to protect them until the vaccines are ready for them. Unfortunately, based on our performance in this pandemic to date, I am not optimistic that arguing that adults should be vaccinated to help protect children will be a useful thing to do. I am glad to see the vaccine promotion campaigns ramping up and I hope they work.

Despite the increase in risk to those of us who are not vaccinated, I am glad in person school is starting. School from home has been OK for us, but it has taken a toll on all of us, especially Petunia. So we filled out our survey to choose the hybrid in person option San Diego Unified will be offering, even though we have no real details on what that will look like. I hope they plan to take advantage of the fact that by mid-April our weather is pretty uniformly nice and use the outdoors a lot. I know they are getting good advice (they have been working with some experts from UCSD) and so far, I think they have navigated through this pandemic reasonably well. So I will wait and see what the plans are and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I decided the kids need better masks. I bought some KF94 masks for us to try out and I like them. They fit me and the kids well (Mr. Snarky hasn't tried them yet) and they offer more protection to the wearer than a cloth mask. Pumpkin and I both find that they don't fog our glasses. Pumpkin, who has a thin face, has to tie a knot in the earloops so that the mask fits, but with that small and easy modification it fits her fine. The advice I read suggested looking for an option made in Korea as a way to help protect against counterfeits. These are the ones I have. I've bought a few packs for the kids to use at school, and I sometimes use one for situations where I need to be inside and/or near people for more than a few minutes. Other times, I double mask, since I still have some procedure masks to use up. I am not sure what I'll do once I use up my current stash of procedure masks. 

Anyway, on to the links. Better doesn't necessarily mean that I had time to read a lot of things... but to be honest my memory for that sort of thing is hazy these days, so I'll just go through the various places where I store things to share with y'all and see what I find.

The Novavax trial readout is encouraging. The world needs more vaccine. 

The news that the latest Ebola outbreak seems to have originated with a survivor of the 2014-2016 outbreak is stunning and worrying.

New archeological finds about the O'odham peoples, who are native to the place I grew up.

Ezra Klein's conversation with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris about toxic stress in children is really good.

And things that made me smile:

This poem, Autobiography of Eve , by Ansel Elkens, which ends with:

Let it be known: I did not fall from grace.

I leapt
to freedom.

I like this sculpture:

I think I need to take a trip somewhere to see mumurations of starlings. I am fascinated by them.


Your rabbits of the week posing for their latest album cover:


Have a good weekend, everyone!

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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5:26 PM

    Thank you.
    Helped me start my week with improved perspective.

    ReplyDelete

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