[xyzcf]

Thank you Milly. My background in Infectious diseases comes in handy sometimes 

[Milly]

xy, it's clear you know what you're talking about AND you know how to explain it to people like me!

[Treasur]

A friend sent me this https://www.kentonline.co.uk/faversham/news/family-go-viral-again-with-vaccine-song-240762/

Just lovely....and a nice reminder of just how marvellous human beings doing simple things can be which is so easy to forget when life feels far from kind or easy....
And a great reminder for those who may feel uncertain about the vaccinations imho.

[marvin4242]

Treasur: that is so wonderful, thank you for sharing!

If only some good singing, sane logic, facts and science could get through to people we would all be so much better off.

[xyzcf]

Watching President Biden sign executive orders to stop the pandemic, to stop the deaths and to move us through to the other side. There is light now. Science will be followed as it always should have been. As President Biden stated, we are going to go into dark times, many more people will die of COVID before the tide turns.

I am so grateful that something is in place, a real plan to get this under control.

[Thunder]

 

[marvin4242]

Another good bit of info, I am sure good news for a lot of parents and good for the well being of a lot of kids. Means with proper planning school reopenings can be done with minimal impact. There is rumblings to put all teachers on "essential worker" lists and get them all vaccinated which would be icing on the cake.

"CDC finds scant spread of coronavirus in schools with precautions in place"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/cdc-school-virus-spread/2021/01/26/bf949222-5fe6-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html?no_nav=true

[FaithWalker]

We have been very thankful to have in person learning.  Our High School's had to go remote for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but other than that we have been doing in-person learning since August 17th, which was just a week late from the scheduled start date of August 10th.

[marvin4242]

More good stuff coming down the pike. FDA has approved a 15 minute rapid at home test. Its a shallow nasal swab so no crying! This should allow a lot of more things to get back to closer to normal while preventing spread. I wonder if it will be used in schools. Cost is around $30. Only catch is they can only make around 100K tests per month for a while.

At-home Covid-19 test to ramp up production with $231.8 million federal contract

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/health/at-home-covid-19-test-ellume-contract-bn/index.html

[readytofixmyselffirst]

Hello,

We did in person instruction until December. We only had three cases and all were traced to infections from attending function outside of the school. There was no spread within the classes. We only stopped after the hospitals filled and ICUs were beyond capacity. Still haven't returned back to in person instruction but will soon. Cases are dropping and in a couple of weeks, we expect ICUs to have adequate space. 

My parents get their first shot this Sunday (Could have gotten it earlier but they received bad info from Kaiser) and my MIL and major Ready supporter got her shot today. I drove her and my wife to the vaccine site and it was really well organized and we were done in less than an hour from the time we arrived (She had to wait 15 minutes after she got the shot so they could observe her for any immediate reactions).

So, they are making progress with vaccines. However, it takes 3 weeks after the first shot to reach 80% and then another two to three weeks after the second shot to reach full capacity. Also it is  not know if vaccinated people can still spread to unvaccinated people. Once again best advice is to continue to wear masks, maintain social distancing, and wash hands often. We are really at a point where we can beat this disease if we can maintain our fight and keep the focus on keeping everyone safe.

For example, Ready's supper bowl bash has 6 guests (Ready, me, myself, I and my two dogs Lily and Coco) By the way, I am having Vietnamese eggrolls and fried rice and I ordered enough for six!

Be careful and be safe,

((((Ready))))