Corona Log- Dec. 21,2020

Corona Log- Monday, December 21, 2020

        It is a balmy 70 degrees here in SW Florida. It had rained heavily overnight and the grass still glistened with emerald dew. We were up and around early, stopping at Quest Diagnostics for a blood test and at Lee Health center to arrange some rehabilitation services.

         Then, we made our “cookie run.” Mary had been baking Christmas cookies for several days. The maintenance shop, the bagboy’s shop, the golf shop and the main office all received trays of some of the tastiest cookies available. Smiles accompanied their acceptance. It is a nice ritual that we have evolved over the last several years, to enhance the Christmas spirit.

       In the world around us, the news is still pretty grim. We are nearing a total of 320,000 dead, from Covid-19, here in the United States, with about 18 million Americans infected with the Corona Virus. On Thursday, the FDA gave emergency approval of another Covid-19 vaccine, this one manufactured by Moderna. It is similar in structure to the Pfizer vaccine, but it doesn’t have to be stored in super cooled temperatures and is thus more readily usable in remote and hard to reach locations. That adds another several million doses of vaccine to our medical arsenal.

        This week, administration of the vaccine is still focusing on front-line medical personnel in hospitals. Senior citizens,  in nursing homes, are next on the priority list. Then, emergency services personnel and senior over the age of 75 will be addressed. Even optimistic expectations plan that the entire U.S. population won’t be vaccinated until sometime in the late summer or early Fall of 2021.The notion of losing over 3,000 people dead, from Corona infections every day, is almost over whelming. We expect to lose 100,000 additional souls during the next month. Even during a major armed conflict, we don’t lose that many people so quickly.

      The virus is wreaking a terrible toll all around the world. In London, a mutation of the virus has struck with deadly intent. The British are locking down public businesses and trying to get a handle on the new strain. European and Canadian travel, to and from Britain, has been suspended indefinitely.

       In Canada, authorities have locked down southern Ontario to help check the virus spread there. I don’t think the Canadian border  with the U.S. will open any time soon, if at all,  into late 2021.

      In France, French President Macron has announced that he is Covid-19 positive and will seek treatment. Several other European countries are also struggling with spikes of the virus. It is a global war with this pestilence, similar to that of the 1918 Spanish Flu, and just as deadly.

       In the U.S. California is particularly hard hit with this spike of the virus. They have zero capacity in their hospital, ICU wards for Corona patients. Many other states are almost as hard pressed. The Thanksgiving congregations are bearing an awful fruit. The coming Christmas and New Year’s holidays, with huge family gatherings and mass celebration s, will further add to the strain. The virus is implacable. It is a race right now, Public inoculations versus new infections.

      The financial markets are unsteady right now, dropping several hundred points on news of the English viral mutation. On a brighter front, both houses of Congress have announced tentative agreement for a new stimulus package, in the 900-Billion-dollar area. It would provide and extra $300 a week for the unemployed , a six-hundred-dollar award to most U.S taxpayers and money for schools and the distribution of the Corona vaccine coasts. Notably  missing is any relief for local states and cities. State officials say that this will trigger lay-offs of police, fire and other essential services from budgets that cannot afford to keep them. The Republicans sacrificed a clause that would indemnify all business enterprises from awards to employees for Corona illnesses. Both houses are expected to sign the compromise today. Then, the package  has to go to the White House for Presidential approval, before it becomes law. No one has any idea what will happen when it falls down that rabbit hole.

      As a backdrop to events, former National Security advisor Michael Flynn, a former U.S. Army General, has called for martial law in the United States. With it would include an overturning of the elections in four states. He and Trump didn’t like the results and this would allow them to rerun those elections. Even Trump’s own staff pushed back on this lunacy. Not since the “Dr. Strangelove” movie has anything this bizarre surfaced in the U.S. The Trump forces also filed their sixtieth law suit today. This one is yet another appeal to the Supreme Court to disavow results from the four states in question. The results will be the same as the previous 59 suits. Even the media is starting to claim this whole peculiar behavior as a cynical  “grift.” a scam used too milk money from Trump supporters. They have already raised $250 million since the election.

         We are now four days short of Christmas. People’s minds are turned towards families and religious celebrations. Let us hope that the dawning of the coming new year 2021 will bring better tidings to us all.

                                     -30-

                           Joseph Xavier Martin