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shadowkatI looked at articles on get pocket and realized I'm burned out on information. It's official - I've reached information Burn-Out. Also burned out on all the "advice" articles - telling me what to do, buy, how to write, watch, nap, sleep, eat, what to eat, etc. Yes, we've hit information overload. Finally.
Took a walk today - but nothing was pretty enough to photograph - it was just around my block. Or south of me. Lots of construction south of me.
They are also remodeling the interior of one of the houses behind me, and throwing all the bricks, insulation, plaster, etc into the yard. I will have to leave the windows closed. Some dust got through though - even though its not that close - because of wind, etc. Also possibly tree pollan got through, so I turned on the A/C which is doing a marvelous job of cleaning the air in the apartment - I can breath! (It's 70 outside, but like I said, filled with allergens.)
Flowers were delivered to niece with no issues. According to mother, my brother said it was a lovely bouquet, but the chocolates are for him.
He snagged the book I sent her last year.
Currently watching S4 of The Great Pottery Showdown - on HBO Max. It's the Pottery version of Great British Bake-Off, produced by the same organization, but I like it better - the judges are nicer, the host is nicer, and so are the potters. Also it doesn't make me crave things that I can't eat. Plus, I've done ceramics - and know more about it than baking.
I'm not really a baker, but I did enjoy pottery.
The US has two problems in regards to COVID. The J&J appears to have the same serious side-effect issue that the AstraZenaca - although in rare cases. (6 people out of 15 million.)
Federal health agencies called for a pause in the vaccine’s use after six reports of blood clots in women age 18 to 48. One has died, and a second is hospitalized and in critical condition. As of Monday, nearly seven million people in the U.S. have received Johnson & Johnson shots.
Experts have yet to determine to what extent, if any, the vaccine is responsible for the clots, and say the benefits of the vaccine still far outweigh the risks. But the investigation follows actions by European regulators who have concluded that a vaccine made by AstraZeneca may also be the cause of a similar, extremely rare clotting disorder. Johnson & Johnson also said it would pause the rollout of its vaccine in Europe.
***
It’s not clear how much the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is involved in these cases — if at all. The reason that the federal agencies are recommending a pause is that all six of these people got a particular kind of blood clot, and that’s unusual. But you have to bear in mind that every day, thousands of people get blood clots for lots of different reasons. So they have to do more research to figure out if the vaccines are actually causing these very rare blood clots. And if so, why is it that only six people that we know of out of almost seven million people got it?
In the world of vaccines, are figures like that — six out of seven million — unusual?
It’s just too soon to say that this vaccine raises your risk, even slightly, of blood clots. If there is a risk, it’s so incredibly small it’s almost impossible for us to imagine. To give you a little context, the risk of getting struck by lightning in a given year is one in 500,000. So people should be careful about getting hit by lightning, but we don’t go outside thinking, “Today is the day I’m going to die of lightning strikes.”
How should we understand the pause?
The Food and Drug Administration explained today that they are pausing this vaccine out of an abundance of caution so that they can spend some time understanding what is going on. And they foresee that it won’t take more than a few days to finish the investigation.
That said, people don’t normally pay really, really close attention to vaccine trials and vaccine rollout. But right now the whole world is paying very close attention to these vaccines. So the idea of a pause might seem alarming and unprecedented, but in fact, pauses happen all the time, both in trials and in rollouts of medical products.
What should people who have gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine do?
They should bear in mind that we don’t know yet if the vaccines are associated with this rare clot. If they are associated with the clot, the odds are incredibly small that they will experience it.
And there are things you can do to be careful. Two or three weeks after the vaccine, if you start experiencing severe headaches or leg pains, you should let your doctor know right away. Or go to the E.R. if you’re really feeling terrible and let them know that you’ve gotten the shot. But you don’t need to worry about having a headache and flulike symptoms in the first few days after getting the shot. Lots of people get that — it’s really common and it’s completely harmless.
And the other problem? The British variant - there's two, one that is just more contagious, but not necessarily more severe, and one that is highly contagious and twice as severe. Both are making their way through New York City. The highly contagious but not necessarily severe one is prevalent in my area.
A variant first discovered in New York, B.1.526, has spread more widely in the city than all of the others so far. There has also been a significant increase in cases linked to the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first detected in Britain last year and now makes up nearly 30 percent of new cases sequenced in New York City.
The B.1.1.7 variant has driven new surges of sickness from Poland to Michigan. It is estimated to be 60 percent more contagious and two-thirds more deadly than the original form of the virus. This variant is now the main source of new infections across the United States and in Europe.
But not in New York City, where B.1.526 remains the most prevalent variant, comprising about 45 percent of cases sequenced from the fourth week of March.
Want to see the article - and the maps of the infected areas in NYC - go HERE. Note to self - where you do not want to live during the 21st Century? New York City. I kind of knew this in the 90s, I even resisted moving here - but once I came, it worked for me. I kind of wish I could drive and move north, but I can't, so continuing to make the best of the life I've been given for better or worse.
Anyhow, as far as they know the vaccine is resilient against the variants.
I was trying to convince ladies from the GH fanboard that I'm on (who've befriended each other on FB) to get the vaccine - not sure I got very far. One lovely, black woman in her sixties - was refusing to get it, because she's immune compromised and got really sick with the flu shot. She's afraid of it. I get it, I do. But the side-effects of the vaccine are still much better than getting COVID. COVID is dangerous.
At least no one here is telling me they won't get it. I work, as you all know by now, for a major transportation agency which has lost countless people to the virus. Not to mention relatives of countless co-workers. I've lost count of the number of bereavement notices. I get two a week. Over 51,000 New Yorkers have died from the virus that we know of.
Anyhow, I have a feeling we aren't going back to the office any time soon.
Although NY does seem determined to keep moving forward. They've extended the curfew for bars and restaurants from 11 pm to Midnight. And catered events from midnight to 1 Am. (Honestly the curfews never made much sense to me. But whatever.)
They also are opening sports venues. Spectators can now go to horse and auto races at 20 % capacity. Why they couldn't before, I don't know. I mean they were letting spectators in at baseball and football events, also allowing in-church services. Horse races and auto races are outdoors. And it's not that hard to social distance at them.
And they are installing..."astro-turf" at Lincoln Center Plaza to promote the arts? Lincoln Center will soon have a brand-new front lawn—of sorts. "The GREEN," designed by noted set designer Mimi Lien, will transform Lincoln Center's concrete plaza into an expansive artificial lawn as part of an initiative to revive the arts. The installation, which runs from May 10 through September, will host pop-up performances, and will also offer books to borrow from the New York Public Library. (Okaaay. Whatever floats your boat. Personally? The appeal of astro-turf has alwasy been completely lost on me. It's plastic grass. I don't like it. I don't know why it exists. I blame the 1970s.)
I was thinking about my Dad today - who I miss. And how much my mother must miss him. My mother has never been without a roommate. Now for the first time in her life - she's alone. And she can barely visit him because of the pandemic. She can only visit him three times a week - and she's starting to dread the visits. Because she has nothing to really tell him, and it's a struggle to stay cheery.
She is making the best of it though. They both are. My father is very talkative and friendly. They like him at the facility or so she says. And my mother is getting along with her home health care aids. Reaching out to family and to friends.
I suppose that's all one can do, right? Make the best of it. I miss my feral cats - haven't seen them in a while. But my herbs in the areogarden are sprouting. Everything has begun to come up but the curly parsely, which admittedly isn't supposed to for about two-three more days. They aren't coming up as fast as the lettuce did, but more are coming up. With the lettuce - only four plants sprouted, two didn't. This one seems to have just about everyone coming up - so progress. I've mixed feelings about the aerogarden - it's hard to get it to work - and push buttons aren't as sensitive as they purport to be.
Should I leave you with another photo?
As you can see below - the cherry blossoms are in fully bloom at the moment.
I'm grateful that I have a beautiful place to walk around in - even if it is a centuries old Graveyard.
Took a walk today - but nothing was pretty enough to photograph - it was just around my block. Or south of me. Lots of construction south of me.
They are also remodeling the interior of one of the houses behind me, and throwing all the bricks, insulation, plaster, etc into the yard. I will have to leave the windows closed. Some dust got through though - even though its not that close - because of wind, etc. Also possibly tree pollan got through, so I turned on the A/C which is doing a marvelous job of cleaning the air in the apartment - I can breath! (It's 70 outside, but like I said, filled with allergens.)
Flowers were delivered to niece with no issues. According to mother, my brother said it was a lovely bouquet, but the chocolates are for him.
He snagged the book I sent her last year.
Currently watching S4 of The Great Pottery Showdown - on HBO Max. It's the Pottery version of Great British Bake-Off, produced by the same organization, but I like it better - the judges are nicer, the host is nicer, and so are the potters. Also it doesn't make me crave things that I can't eat. Plus, I've done ceramics - and know more about it than baking.
I'm not really a baker, but I did enjoy pottery.
The US has two problems in regards to COVID. The J&J appears to have the same serious side-effect issue that the AstraZenaca - although in rare cases. (6 people out of 15 million.)
Federal health agencies called for a pause in the vaccine’s use after six reports of blood clots in women age 18 to 48. One has died, and a second is hospitalized and in critical condition. As of Monday, nearly seven million people in the U.S. have received Johnson & Johnson shots.
Experts have yet to determine to what extent, if any, the vaccine is responsible for the clots, and say the benefits of the vaccine still far outweigh the risks. But the investigation follows actions by European regulators who have concluded that a vaccine made by AstraZeneca may also be the cause of a similar, extremely rare clotting disorder. Johnson & Johnson also said it would pause the rollout of its vaccine in Europe.
***
It’s not clear how much the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is involved in these cases — if at all. The reason that the federal agencies are recommending a pause is that all six of these people got a particular kind of blood clot, and that’s unusual. But you have to bear in mind that every day, thousands of people get blood clots for lots of different reasons. So they have to do more research to figure out if the vaccines are actually causing these very rare blood clots. And if so, why is it that only six people that we know of out of almost seven million people got it?
In the world of vaccines, are figures like that — six out of seven million — unusual?
It’s just too soon to say that this vaccine raises your risk, even slightly, of blood clots. If there is a risk, it’s so incredibly small it’s almost impossible for us to imagine. To give you a little context, the risk of getting struck by lightning in a given year is one in 500,000. So people should be careful about getting hit by lightning, but we don’t go outside thinking, “Today is the day I’m going to die of lightning strikes.”
How should we understand the pause?
The Food and Drug Administration explained today that they are pausing this vaccine out of an abundance of caution so that they can spend some time understanding what is going on. And they foresee that it won’t take more than a few days to finish the investigation.
That said, people don’t normally pay really, really close attention to vaccine trials and vaccine rollout. But right now the whole world is paying very close attention to these vaccines. So the idea of a pause might seem alarming and unprecedented, but in fact, pauses happen all the time, both in trials and in rollouts of medical products.
What should people who have gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine do?
They should bear in mind that we don’t know yet if the vaccines are associated with this rare clot. If they are associated with the clot, the odds are incredibly small that they will experience it.
And there are things you can do to be careful. Two or three weeks after the vaccine, if you start experiencing severe headaches or leg pains, you should let your doctor know right away. Or go to the E.R. if you’re really feeling terrible and let them know that you’ve gotten the shot. But you don’t need to worry about having a headache and flulike symptoms in the first few days after getting the shot. Lots of people get that — it’s really common and it’s completely harmless.
And the other problem? The British variant - there's two, one that is just more contagious, but not necessarily more severe, and one that is highly contagious and twice as severe. Both are making their way through New York City. The highly contagious but not necessarily severe one is prevalent in my area.
A variant first discovered in New York, B.1.526, has spread more widely in the city than all of the others so far. There has also been a significant increase in cases linked to the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first detected in Britain last year and now makes up nearly 30 percent of new cases sequenced in New York City.
The B.1.1.7 variant has driven new surges of sickness from Poland to Michigan. It is estimated to be 60 percent more contagious and two-thirds more deadly than the original form of the virus. This variant is now the main source of new infections across the United States and in Europe.
But not in New York City, where B.1.526 remains the most prevalent variant, comprising about 45 percent of cases sequenced from the fourth week of March.
Want to see the article - and the maps of the infected areas in NYC - go HERE. Note to self - where you do not want to live during the 21st Century? New York City. I kind of knew this in the 90s, I even resisted moving here - but once I came, it worked for me. I kind of wish I could drive and move north, but I can't, so continuing to make the best of the life I've been given for better or worse.
Anyhow, as far as they know the vaccine is resilient against the variants.
I was trying to convince ladies from the GH fanboard that I'm on (who've befriended each other on FB) to get the vaccine - not sure I got very far. One lovely, black woman in her sixties - was refusing to get it, because she's immune compromised and got really sick with the flu shot. She's afraid of it. I get it, I do. But the side-effects of the vaccine are still much better than getting COVID. COVID is dangerous.
At least no one here is telling me they won't get it. I work, as you all know by now, for a major transportation agency which has lost countless people to the virus. Not to mention relatives of countless co-workers. I've lost count of the number of bereavement notices. I get two a week. Over 51,000 New Yorkers have died from the virus that we know of.
Anyhow, I have a feeling we aren't going back to the office any time soon.
Although NY does seem determined to keep moving forward. They've extended the curfew for bars and restaurants from 11 pm to Midnight. And catered events from midnight to 1 Am. (Honestly the curfews never made much sense to me. But whatever.)
They also are opening sports venues. Spectators can now go to horse and auto races at 20 % capacity. Why they couldn't before, I don't know. I mean they were letting spectators in at baseball and football events, also allowing in-church services. Horse races and auto races are outdoors. And it's not that hard to social distance at them.
And they are installing..."astro-turf" at Lincoln Center Plaza to promote the arts? Lincoln Center will soon have a brand-new front lawn—of sorts. "The GREEN," designed by noted set designer Mimi Lien, will transform Lincoln Center's concrete plaza into an expansive artificial lawn as part of an initiative to revive the arts. The installation, which runs from May 10 through September, will host pop-up performances, and will also offer books to borrow from the New York Public Library. (Okaaay. Whatever floats your boat. Personally? The appeal of astro-turf has alwasy been completely lost on me. It's plastic grass. I don't like it. I don't know why it exists. I blame the 1970s.)
I was thinking about my Dad today - who I miss. And how much my mother must miss him. My mother has never been without a roommate. Now for the first time in her life - she's alone. And she can barely visit him because of the pandemic. She can only visit him three times a week - and she's starting to dread the visits. Because she has nothing to really tell him, and it's a struggle to stay cheery.
She is making the best of it though. They both are. My father is very talkative and friendly. They like him at the facility or so she says. And my mother is getting along with her home health care aids. Reaching out to family and to friends.
I suppose that's all one can do, right? Make the best of it. I miss my feral cats - haven't seen them in a while. But my herbs in the areogarden are sprouting. Everything has begun to come up but the curly parsely, which admittedly isn't supposed to for about two-three more days. They aren't coming up as fast as the lettuce did, but more are coming up. With the lettuce - only four plants sprouted, two didn't. This one seems to have just about everyone coming up - so progress. I've mixed feelings about the aerogarden - it's hard to get it to work - and push buttons aren't as sensitive as they purport to be.
Should I leave you with another photo?
As you can see below - the cherry blossoms are in fully bloom at the moment.
I'm grateful that I have a beautiful place to walk around in - even if it is a centuries old Graveyard.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-16 09:42 pm (UTC)