Second Shots

Got Our Second Shots

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel

 

My wife and I received our second Moderna COVID vaccine shots two and a half weeks ago and feel like we’ve emerged from a long hibernation. 

 

COVID turned us into hermits. We stayed home, worked from home, only going out to get groceries, meds and curbside pickups. We stopped visiting with friends and going out to eat. We stopped going to the library and into stores to shop. We stopped traveling to visit family and friends. Amazon became our one stop shopping source. It was terribly isolating, and we are lucky to still like each other’s company. We have a stack of completed1000 piece puzzles to show how we spent our leisure time together. 

 

While we are not immune from catching the virus, we are now less likely to get it and much less likely to get really sick or die from it  if we do. It is such a relief to know that we can now visit our children and grandchildren and give them hugs. We look forward to having dinner with others, similarly vaccinated, and getting our lives back to some degree of normalcy.

 

While we tried to stay safe and uninfected, we watched with dismay at those who went about their usual lives, unmasked and not socially distanced. Each night, we saw the COVID infections and death rates on TV and understood that those who ignored the scientist’s warnings were the main contributors to the thousands who got infected and died.

 

With the change in presidential leadership and control of Congress, hope for relief was rewarded with the recently passed rescue legislation that will put money in bank accounts and vaccine shots in arms faster than we might have imagined before the last election. The new package will help small businesses survive the remaining months of the pandemic, help states, and local governments deal with vaccine administration and pump millions into the economy. 

 

We are not out of danger just yet. COVID variants pose threats to the unvaccinated and Spring Break antics threaten to super spread them into new surges as the breakers return home. 

 

Anti-vaxxers still peddle nonsense that drives down the numbers of folks willing to roll up their sleeves to get the shots. False freedom states like Texas and others are lifting mask mandates and other restrictions meant solely to keep infections down will contribute to new surges, hospitalizations and unnecessary deaths. Why they do that while failing to speed up vaccinations is a mystery to me. 

 

We need to continue to heed the calls from Dr. Faucci and Dr. Walensky, the new Director of the Centers for Disease Control, to get the vaccine shots as soon as they become available, to continue to wear our masks when going out of our homes, and to maintain respectful social distancing. Those simple measures, when coupled with the accelerating distribution of approved vaccines are our only hope to beat the virus beast. 

 

Even with the moderate side effects I had from the second shot, including chills, aches and a day of super low energy, I will gladly take a booster shot if recommended next year to maintain the protections vaccine science has given me. I will continue to wear my masks when going out and will continue to keep respectful distance from others. I expect that to be part of my new normal for the foreseeable future. 

 

Hopefully, more and more of our citizens will see that these measures work to protect them as well as me and adopt them. One side effect we noticed was that, in this normal, neither of us caught our usual cold or mild version of the flu this winter. Flu infection rates and infant deaths from the flu were the lowest in decades. 

 

I am glad to see that the travel industry is stepping up as well. Cruise lines are adopting mandatory vaccination and negative COVID test results before boarding rules. Federal regulations now require masks on all forms of public transportation. I expect airlines may well give preferential treatment to the vaccinated and will continue to require masks.

 

We are close to 25% of the population having received at least one shot of the vaccine. We need to reach 60 to 70 percent of the population having both shots before herd immunity will kick in. With accelerated manufacturing, distribution and administration of the shots, we can get there by the end of the Summer. 

 

Think then of the possibilities. 

Enough Ron Johnson

 Enough Ron Johnson

 

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson continues to embarrass himself and ignore the needs of his constituents. As he keeps tracking further and further to the right, he will no doubt just spin in a circle until he implodes.

 

Johnson was always the former president’s biggest fan and fell all over himself defending and praising the former occupant of the White House. Whatever the administration wanted, Johnson delivered. 

 

Towards the end of the former administration’s hold on power, even after the debate over who won the last election was over, Johnson continued to peddle conspiracy theories of stolen elections, fraudulent voting rules, lost ballots and rigged outcomes. He paid no heed to state election officials, courts, the FBI and the credible investigations that all concluded that the last presidential election was free and fair and without fraudulent interference.

 

Even though he was present and witnessed first-hand the violent insurrection at our Capitol on January 6^th, he continues to maintain that it was not all that bad. It was certainly not an armed insurrection in his judgement, all of the violent acts towards the Capitol Police with poles, bats, fire extinguishers and bear spray caught on video and broadcast live across the nation notwithstanding. He refuses to believe the FBI Director who testified that the insurrectionists were white supremacist supporters of the former president and not members of Antifa or Black Lives Matter. He fails to see the irony in proclaiming that leftist agent provocateurs would storm the Capitol to prevent the certification of an election won by a Democrat.

 

Now that the election debate is finally over and President Biden is clearly recognized as our new President, Johnson cannot bear the thought of actually working with the new administration to address the COVID-19 pandemic that still grips the nation, killing its citizens and crippling the economy. 

 

President Biden put up a COVID relief bill that takes aim at those areas needing the most immediate attention. It will send money to state and local governments to make up for lost revenue. it will spend money to increase vaccine production and speed its distribution. It will provide economic assistance to small and medium sized businesses to help them survive the remainder of the pandemic. It will make direct payments to most Americans to make up for their lost incomes.

 

National polling tells us that a majority of Americans support President Biden’s package. A substantial number of Republicans also are on board, bringing support into the 60% range nationwide.

 

The House of Representatives passed the President’s bill quickly and sent it on to the U.S. Senate where it is poised for passage sending relief to millions of Americans. 

 

Our Ron Johnson went to the air waves this week, proclaiming his intention to resist passage of this bill offering the hypocritical justification that it is just too costly. Johnson conveniently forgets that he rejected just such a claim from Democrats as a GOP controlled Congress passed the largest tax give away to corporations and the wealthy, including Johnson, in our nation’s history. 

 

Making good on his word, Johnson invoked a parliamentary trick to keep the bill from being debated by demanding that the entire 600-700 page bill be read aloud by the Clerk of the Senate before debate could begin. He earned a delay of a whole 10 hours in the process of making a fool of himself on national television once more. 

 

Senate majority leader Charles Schumer actually applauded Johnson’s move which enables any American who wants to know the details of the bill to listen on CSpan as the Clerk reads it into the record. 

 

Wisconsin no longer needs Ron Johnson’s representation in the United States Senate. When he ran, he promised he would only serve two terms. His second term ends in 2022. He has not yet announced if he will run again.

 

If he does go back on his word and does run again, he will have one big backer for sure. The current resident of a country club in Mara Largo, Florida. Given the results of the last statewide election in Wisconsin, that support will not carry the day over whomever emerges from what looks to be an interesting Democratic primary contest. 

 

Ron Johnson’s days in the United States Senate are numbered. We can only hope that he does not embarrass us further with stunts, gimmicks and conspiracies.