Y2/D246 - This week is dragging...
Nov. 17th, 2021 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDo I want to regale you with co-workers stories? Or just meander...about other things? I don't know.
I'm tired. Not been sleeping well - I go to bed around 10:30-11, and manage to wake up four times each night. Last night? I woke up at 12:49, 2 Am, and 4:45 AM, and had to get up at 5:45 AM. You do the math.
My project manager for the latest group of projects I've been assigned courtesy of ex-cubical mate, apparently got COVID twice, her husband almost died of it, and her father did die of it. (She's POC. Notably all the co-workers that I know of that contracted COVID are POC. But I've also had family members get it.)
Project Manager: Did you get it? Or were you one of the lucky ones who got to avoid it?
Me: You mean COVID? I didn't get it. (Well except for a weird thing I got in November 2019 that lasted until March 2020, but was completely gone one week before we all locked down for COVID. I still don't know if that was COVID or not, and I never will - because by the time they could test for it - it would have been gone.) Did you?
Project Manager: I got it twice - horrible both times. Not quite as bad the second time. I almost lost my eye-sight the first round. The second time it was just flu-like symptoms. But the first go around, my face swelled up so badly, my eyes wouldn't open.
ME: Did you go to the hospital?
Project Manager: No, and my husband almost died of it - and he refused to go too. See, my father got it at the hospital - he's since passed.
Me: Oh, I'm so sorry.
See, this is why I'm afraid of COVID. 1) I don't want what I got in November 2019 again, and 2) I've heard all the horror stories.
It would help greatly if people would wear masks on public transportation. For the most part they do. It's a federal mandate by the way. But difficult to enforce. Which is why it is so amazing that 90% of New Yorkers do wear masks everywhere. Out of over 50 people on the subway, only five didn't wear masks. They are more crowded now.
I don't understand why they threw us back into the office. My colleagues don't either. We work on computers and phones. There's really no need for us to be in the office - unless we can't work on computers and phones at home and most of us can. Those who had to come into the office - actually preferred it - when we weren't there.
It's not as bad as I expected. People are social distancing for the most part and wearing masks everywhere. It's taken some adjustment to wear a mask every day, eight hours a day, except in my cubical. But the hybrid schedule did help us all adjust or get used to the routine.
Mother: Your brother thinks you'd have made a great librarian.
ME: No, I wouldn't.
Mother: That's what I told him. He apparently loved working with the librarians at the Brooklyn Library - where he designed the network interface. He spent a lot of time interviewing them and working with them and found them to be the best people to work with - he thinks you should have pursued that path.
Me: He's wrong.
Mother: Yeah, that's what I told him - that I didn't see you as a librarian.
Me: I worked in a library reference publishing company - that was enough for me.
I don't know why people think I'd be a great librarian, considering I've not stepped foot in a library in about fifteen years, hate organizing things, and despise research. Okay, that's not completely true - I did step foot in one two-three years ago. I think they make the assumption that if a person loves books or loves to read and write books they'd naturally want to be a librarian or book seller. Uhm, no.
Gabe: you should become a librarian or teacher -
ME: No. I actually went to law school to avoid both.
Blank look
ME: English Lit Major and Cultural Anthropology Major
Gabe:Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Me: That and to save the world.
In short, I didn't want to do it and hunted another route. I was a library aid in school, and worked at the HW Wilson Company, took a library research course in Law School, and attended the American Library Association Conferences. I even considered it - researched it. It's not for me. I don't like indexing, researching, inventoring, shelving, tracking, archiving, or organizing - which are kind of required for librarians. They are professional organizers of information.
I don't know why people feel the need to give others career advice.
***
What is guaranteed to give me writer's block is thinking about publishing or attempting to get a work published, or anyone reading it. I'm better off not worrying about all of that until after I've written the work and revised it a few times.
This comes to you courtesy of perusing a Twitter thread on how to submit a piece of writing to an editor or publisher. It was an exhausting albeit realistic thread.
***
Work is hectic, but I'm getting next to nothing accomplished - I blame the brain fog that seems to be plaguing me at the moment. I can't focus. And I feel oddly strung out. Could be lack of sleep?
Alec Baldwin is getting sued for misfiring the gun that killed a co-worker because apparently the script didn't call for him to fire it at all. Saw that coming from a mile away. My guess is it is the first of many. Also the incident has increased gun safety regs on film and television sets, with many sets doing away with fire arms and guns that fire blanks altogether.
I think the lawsuits may do the most to change the industry.
**
COVID
Time for the Governor's weekly email..
UPDATES IN OUR FIGHT AGAINST COVID
BOOSTER DOSES. If you feel that you are at risk for COVID and are already fully vaccinated, get the booster. And if you are unsure about the booster shots, please talk with your health care provider. Visit ny.gov/boosters to learn more about the COVID boosters and see if you're eligible.
YOUTH VACCINATIONS AT MASS VAX SITES. Ten of New York's mass vaccination sites are now administering the COVID-19 vaccine to newly eligible 5- to 11- year-olds. Parents and guardians can make appointments at a state-run vaccine site for their child at ny.gov/vaccine.
REMEMBER TO ENTER OUR VAX BADGE STICKER CONTEST. We launched a contest so kids can proudly share that they're vaccinated. Parents and guardians can enter their child's designs by submitting an image of your design to me (govkathyhochul) via social media, say where you're from and use the hashtag #NYVaxForKids. Lucky winners from across the state will be selected to be featured on our "I'm Vaccinated" stickers!
THE LATEST ON THE NUMBERS
THIS WEEK'S COVID TRENDS. As of November 16, 2021, there are 2,102 New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID-19. Our 7-day percentage positivity average was 3.47%, which is up from 2.78% last week.
Per the CDC as of November 17, 2021, 89.3% of adult New Yorkers have at least one vaccine dose. So far, 28,627,601 total vaccine doses have been administered, and 95,434 doses were administered over the past 24 hours.
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS
Every week, we’re answering some commonly asked questions about COVID-19 and vaccinations. You can submit a question for a chance to get your question answered in next week’s newsletter. Submit your question here.
QUESTION: Will my Excelsior Pass be updated now that I've received the booster shot (third Pfizer dose)? (Pat, Westchester County)
ANSWER: At this time, an Excelsior Vaccination Pass only includes an individual’s initial vaccine series. It does not include a boosters and/or additional doses. However, as of November 8, New Yorkers who received a booster or additional dose can retrieve their Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus which includes all COVID-19 doses received to date. If you retrieved your Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus before this update, visit epass.ny.gov to retrieve a new Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus at any time. Following the November 8 update, New Yorkers can expect their booster or additional doses to be available 3-4 days after receiving their shot.
We've made great progress in getting vaccinated, with more than 89% adult New Yorkers with at least one dose, and now that they're eligible, our kids are stepping up to the plate and getting the vaccine. Thank you to all the young New Yorkers (and their parents) who are keeping themselves and their loved ones.
Workplace is offering free booster shots now. And vaccines are readily available just about everywhere. A new urgent care facility just popped up next door to Wallgreens and the subway stop. I'd feel better about it - if it had not put an "e" on the end of "flu" shot, so it states "flue shots" available. It's called SWIFT.
Apparently I'm right about pesky Eastern Europeans and COVID...
In certain pockets of Europe, unvaccinated people are driving the latest surge in infections, filling strained hospital wards and sending governments scrambling to head off a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Some Western European governments, like France, Spain and Italy, have resorted to both carrots and sticks to drive up their vaccination rates. But my colleague Katrin Bennhold, The Times’s Berlin bureau chief, reports that in Central and Eastern Europe — and in the German-speaking countries and regions bordering them — the problem is more stubborn.
Germany, Austria and the German-speaking region of Switzerland have the largest shares of unvaccinated populations in all of Western Europe. About one in four people over 12 is unvaccinated, compared with about one in 10 in France and Italy, and almost none in Portugal.
In the northern Italian province of Bolzano — which borders Austria and Switzerland, and where 70 percent of the population is German-speaking — the vaccination rate is the lowest in the country. Experts have linked a sharp increase in infections there to frequent exchanges with Austria, but also to a cultural inclination among the population toward homeopathy and natural cures.
Sociologists say that the vaccine resistance in some of these areas is also being fueled by a strong tradition of decentralized government that tends to feed distrust of rules imposed from the capital — and by a far-right ecosystem that knows how to exploit both. In some ways, vaccine resistance is the long tail of the populist nationalist movements that shook up European politics for a decade.
As a result, in parts of Europe, “whether you’re vaccinated or not has become almost a political identifier like in the United States,” said Pia Lamberty of CeMAS, a Berlin-based research organization focused on disinformation and conspiracy theories.
In Annaberg-Buchholz, a onetime medieval metal-mining town near the Czech border, the split is visceral. Every Monday, hard-line opponents of vaccines hold a small but noisy rally in the town center. This week, there were some 50 protesters raging against the government in Berlin, which they say is a dictatorship like Communism, “only worse.”
Rolf Schmidt, the mayor, said that the restrictions the government imposed on unvaccinated people — like requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter social venues and shops — was sowing division. He is lobbying to allow the town’s celebrated Christmas market to go ahead, with a testing mandate for all but no restrictions on the unvaccinated.
Half the booths in the market are already up, set to open on Nov. 26, but Mr. Schmidt worries that it will be banned by the state government.
“That would be the last straw,” he said. “For our region, this is more than a Christmas fair; it’s who we are as a town and as a region. It’s a feeling, it’s an identity. Big cities don’t understand it.”
From my quick skim of the above - it appears that they are having the same issues that the US is for the same reasons. I also think it is cultural - I've noticed that the Eastern European mind-set is whatever is coming out of the government or politicians is fake, and they'll only believe populist leaders who are outsiders, often to their own and other detriment. In short the flaw in their logic most likely will over time obliterate them from the population. Or not. They could just build up a tolerance over time, and continue on.
Other soundbites...
* The White House estimated that nearly 10 percent of 5- to 11-year olds have gotten a first shot.
* The W.H.O. said deaths in Europe jumped 5 percent in the last week, making it the only region in the world where fatalities from the virus are increasing.
* Ireland added new restrictions, including early pub closings.
* A standoff over vaccines for troops has intensified between Oklahoma’s governor and the Pentagon. [You'd think the Pentagone would have jurisdiction, but maybe because they are in Oklahoma - Oklahmoa does.]
* Cities around the world are trying to tackle the mountains of waste caused by personal protective gear. [face masks...they aren't recyclable. Nor are gloves. It's become a problem in NY.]
* Disney Cruise Line will require all passengers 5 and older to be fully vaccinated. [ I'd found this out today from a co-worker - who'd recently been to Disney World - he said it was packed, so not that pleasant. He'd missed the window. But all the employees were vaccinated and Disney was a stickler on the whole mask thing. You had to wear it at all times in their parks. Disney isn't fooling around. Expect to see various film and televisions stars leave shows and films due to their refusal to be vaccinated. 9-1-1 lost an actor (Angela Bassett's ex-husband). Emilio Estevez got fired from The Mighty Ducks. And a couple of General Hospital Actors got the boot.]
* The F.B.I. said that a couple convicted of stealing Covid funds is on the run.
* Europe’s Covid culture war pits the vaccinated against the unvaccinated.
To persuade those who are deeply skeptical of vaccines, some European governments are resorting to thinly veiled coercion with mandates, inducements and punishments. In many countries, like France and Italy, it is working.
But regional resistance to vaccines remains, which sociologists say is influenced by a preference for alternative medicine, and by a tradition of distrust in rules imposed from the capital and by a far-right ecosystem that knows how to exploit it. Germany, Austria and the German-speaking region of Switzerland have the largest shares of unvaccinated populations in all of Western Europe. [It's basically the same problem that we have, a preference for alternative/holistic medicine combined with a distrust in rules imposed from a government with an ecosystem that knows how to exploit it. The anti-vax movement came up through the holistic health care movement. It's not just the far right, but also the far left.]
***
In other less depressing news..
* Las Diablillas, or the Little Devils, a women’s softball team from a small community in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, have become a national sensation.
Yawn...random photo of the night..
I'm tired. Not been sleeping well - I go to bed around 10:30-11, and manage to wake up four times each night. Last night? I woke up at 12:49, 2 Am, and 4:45 AM, and had to get up at 5:45 AM. You do the math.
My project manager for the latest group of projects I've been assigned courtesy of ex-cubical mate, apparently got COVID twice, her husband almost died of it, and her father did die of it. (She's POC. Notably all the co-workers that I know of that contracted COVID are POC. But I've also had family members get it.)
Project Manager: Did you get it? Or were you one of the lucky ones who got to avoid it?
Me: You mean COVID? I didn't get it. (Well except for a weird thing I got in November 2019 that lasted until March 2020, but was completely gone one week before we all locked down for COVID. I still don't know if that was COVID or not, and I never will - because by the time they could test for it - it would have been gone.) Did you?
Project Manager: I got it twice - horrible both times. Not quite as bad the second time. I almost lost my eye-sight the first round. The second time it was just flu-like symptoms. But the first go around, my face swelled up so badly, my eyes wouldn't open.
ME: Did you go to the hospital?
Project Manager: No, and my husband almost died of it - and he refused to go too. See, my father got it at the hospital - he's since passed.
Me: Oh, I'm so sorry.
See, this is why I'm afraid of COVID. 1) I don't want what I got in November 2019 again, and 2) I've heard all the horror stories.
It would help greatly if people would wear masks on public transportation. For the most part they do. It's a federal mandate by the way. But difficult to enforce. Which is why it is so amazing that 90% of New Yorkers do wear masks everywhere. Out of over 50 people on the subway, only five didn't wear masks. They are more crowded now.
I don't understand why they threw us back into the office. My colleagues don't either. We work on computers and phones. There's really no need for us to be in the office - unless we can't work on computers and phones at home and most of us can. Those who had to come into the office - actually preferred it - when we weren't there.
It's not as bad as I expected. People are social distancing for the most part and wearing masks everywhere. It's taken some adjustment to wear a mask every day, eight hours a day, except in my cubical. But the hybrid schedule did help us all adjust or get used to the routine.
Mother: Your brother thinks you'd have made a great librarian.
ME: No, I wouldn't.
Mother: That's what I told him. He apparently loved working with the librarians at the Brooklyn Library - where he designed the network interface. He spent a lot of time interviewing them and working with them and found them to be the best people to work with - he thinks you should have pursued that path.
Me: He's wrong.
Mother: Yeah, that's what I told him - that I didn't see you as a librarian.
Me: I worked in a library reference publishing company - that was enough for me.
I don't know why people think I'd be a great librarian, considering I've not stepped foot in a library in about fifteen years, hate organizing things, and despise research. Okay, that's not completely true - I did step foot in one two-three years ago. I think they make the assumption that if a person loves books or loves to read and write books they'd naturally want to be a librarian or book seller. Uhm, no.
Gabe: you should become a librarian or teacher -
ME: No. I actually went to law school to avoid both.
Blank look
ME: English Lit Major and Cultural Anthropology Major
Gabe:Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Me: That and to save the world.
In short, I didn't want to do it and hunted another route. I was a library aid in school, and worked at the HW Wilson Company, took a library research course in Law School, and attended the American Library Association Conferences. I even considered it - researched it. It's not for me. I don't like indexing, researching, inventoring, shelving, tracking, archiving, or organizing - which are kind of required for librarians. They are professional organizers of information.
I don't know why people feel the need to give others career advice.
***
What is guaranteed to give me writer's block is thinking about publishing or attempting to get a work published, or anyone reading it. I'm better off not worrying about all of that until after I've written the work and revised it a few times.
This comes to you courtesy of perusing a Twitter thread on how to submit a piece of writing to an editor or publisher. It was an exhausting albeit realistic thread.
***
Work is hectic, but I'm getting next to nothing accomplished - I blame the brain fog that seems to be plaguing me at the moment. I can't focus. And I feel oddly strung out. Could be lack of sleep?
Alec Baldwin is getting sued for misfiring the gun that killed a co-worker because apparently the script didn't call for him to fire it at all. Saw that coming from a mile away. My guess is it is the first of many. Also the incident has increased gun safety regs on film and television sets, with many sets doing away with fire arms and guns that fire blanks altogether.
I think the lawsuits may do the most to change the industry.
**
COVID
Time for the Governor's weekly email..
UPDATES IN OUR FIGHT AGAINST COVID
BOOSTER DOSES. If you feel that you are at risk for COVID and are already fully vaccinated, get the booster. And if you are unsure about the booster shots, please talk with your health care provider. Visit ny.gov/boosters to learn more about the COVID boosters and see if you're eligible.
YOUTH VACCINATIONS AT MASS VAX SITES. Ten of New York's mass vaccination sites are now administering the COVID-19 vaccine to newly eligible 5- to 11- year-olds. Parents and guardians can make appointments at a state-run vaccine site for their child at ny.gov/vaccine.
REMEMBER TO ENTER OUR VAX BADGE STICKER CONTEST. We launched a contest so kids can proudly share that they're vaccinated. Parents and guardians can enter their child's designs by submitting an image of your design to me (
govkathyhochul) via social media, say where you're from and use the hashtag #NYVaxForKids. Lucky winners from across the state will be selected to be featured on our "I'm Vaccinated" stickers!THE LATEST ON THE NUMBERS
THIS WEEK'S COVID TRENDS. As of November 16, 2021, there are 2,102 New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID-19. Our 7-day percentage positivity average was 3.47%, which is up from 2.78% last week.
Per the CDC as of November 17, 2021, 89.3% of adult New Yorkers have at least one vaccine dose. So far, 28,627,601 total vaccine doses have been administered, and 95,434 doses were administered over the past 24 hours.
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS
Every week, we’re answering some commonly asked questions about COVID-19 and vaccinations. You can submit a question for a chance to get your question answered in next week’s newsletter. Submit your question here.
QUESTION: Will my Excelsior Pass be updated now that I've received the booster shot (third Pfizer dose)? (Pat, Westchester County)
ANSWER: At this time, an Excelsior Vaccination Pass only includes an individual’s initial vaccine series. It does not include a boosters and/or additional doses. However, as of November 8, New Yorkers who received a booster or additional dose can retrieve their Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus which includes all COVID-19 doses received to date. If you retrieved your Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus before this update, visit epass.ny.gov to retrieve a new Excelsior Vaccination Pass Plus at any time. Following the November 8 update, New Yorkers can expect their booster or additional doses to be available 3-4 days after receiving their shot.
We've made great progress in getting vaccinated, with more than 89% adult New Yorkers with at least one dose, and now that they're eligible, our kids are stepping up to the plate and getting the vaccine. Thank you to all the young New Yorkers (and their parents) who are keeping themselves and their loved ones.
Workplace is offering free booster shots now. And vaccines are readily available just about everywhere. A new urgent care facility just popped up next door to Wallgreens and the subway stop. I'd feel better about it - if it had not put an "e" on the end of "flu" shot, so it states "flue shots" available. It's called SWIFT.
Apparently I'm right about pesky Eastern Europeans and COVID...
In certain pockets of Europe, unvaccinated people are driving the latest surge in infections, filling strained hospital wards and sending governments scrambling to head off a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Some Western European governments, like France, Spain and Italy, have resorted to both carrots and sticks to drive up their vaccination rates. But my colleague Katrin Bennhold, The Times’s Berlin bureau chief, reports that in Central and Eastern Europe — and in the German-speaking countries and regions bordering them — the problem is more stubborn.
Germany, Austria and the German-speaking region of Switzerland have the largest shares of unvaccinated populations in all of Western Europe. About one in four people over 12 is unvaccinated, compared with about one in 10 in France and Italy, and almost none in Portugal.
In the northern Italian province of Bolzano — which borders Austria and Switzerland, and where 70 percent of the population is German-speaking — the vaccination rate is the lowest in the country. Experts have linked a sharp increase in infections there to frequent exchanges with Austria, but also to a cultural inclination among the population toward homeopathy and natural cures.
Sociologists say that the vaccine resistance in some of these areas is also being fueled by a strong tradition of decentralized government that tends to feed distrust of rules imposed from the capital — and by a far-right ecosystem that knows how to exploit both. In some ways, vaccine resistance is the long tail of the populist nationalist movements that shook up European politics for a decade.
As a result, in parts of Europe, “whether you’re vaccinated or not has become almost a political identifier like in the United States,” said Pia Lamberty of CeMAS, a Berlin-based research organization focused on disinformation and conspiracy theories.
In Annaberg-Buchholz, a onetime medieval metal-mining town near the Czech border, the split is visceral. Every Monday, hard-line opponents of vaccines hold a small but noisy rally in the town center. This week, there were some 50 protesters raging against the government in Berlin, which they say is a dictatorship like Communism, “only worse.”
Rolf Schmidt, the mayor, said that the restrictions the government imposed on unvaccinated people — like requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter social venues and shops — was sowing division. He is lobbying to allow the town’s celebrated Christmas market to go ahead, with a testing mandate for all but no restrictions on the unvaccinated.
Half the booths in the market are already up, set to open on Nov. 26, but Mr. Schmidt worries that it will be banned by the state government.
“That would be the last straw,” he said. “For our region, this is more than a Christmas fair; it’s who we are as a town and as a region. It’s a feeling, it’s an identity. Big cities don’t understand it.”
From my quick skim of the above - it appears that they are having the same issues that the US is for the same reasons. I also think it is cultural - I've noticed that the Eastern European mind-set is whatever is coming out of the government or politicians is fake, and they'll only believe populist leaders who are outsiders, often to their own and other detriment. In short the flaw in their logic most likely will over time obliterate them from the population. Or not. They could just build up a tolerance over time, and continue on.
Other soundbites...
* The White House estimated that nearly 10 percent of 5- to 11-year olds have gotten a first shot.
* The W.H.O. said deaths in Europe jumped 5 percent in the last week, making it the only region in the world where fatalities from the virus are increasing.
* Ireland added new restrictions, including early pub closings.
* A standoff over vaccines for troops has intensified between Oklahoma’s governor and the Pentagon. [You'd think the Pentagone would have jurisdiction, but maybe because they are in Oklahoma - Oklahmoa does.]
* Cities around the world are trying to tackle the mountains of waste caused by personal protective gear. [face masks...they aren't recyclable. Nor are gloves. It's become a problem in NY.]
* Disney Cruise Line will require all passengers 5 and older to be fully vaccinated. [ I'd found this out today from a co-worker - who'd recently been to Disney World - he said it was packed, so not that pleasant. He'd missed the window. But all the employees were vaccinated and Disney was a stickler on the whole mask thing. You had to wear it at all times in their parks. Disney isn't fooling around. Expect to see various film and televisions stars leave shows and films due to their refusal to be vaccinated. 9-1-1 lost an actor (Angela Bassett's ex-husband). Emilio Estevez got fired from The Mighty Ducks. And a couple of General Hospital Actors got the boot.]
* The F.B.I. said that a couple convicted of stealing Covid funds is on the run.
* Europe’s Covid culture war pits the vaccinated against the unvaccinated.
To persuade those who are deeply skeptical of vaccines, some European governments are resorting to thinly veiled coercion with mandates, inducements and punishments. In many countries, like France and Italy, it is working.
But regional resistance to vaccines remains, which sociologists say is influenced by a preference for alternative medicine, and by a tradition of distrust in rules imposed from the capital and by a far-right ecosystem that knows how to exploit it. Germany, Austria and the German-speaking region of Switzerland have the largest shares of unvaccinated populations in all of Western Europe. [It's basically the same problem that we have, a preference for alternative/holistic medicine combined with a distrust in rules imposed from a government with an ecosystem that knows how to exploit it. The anti-vax movement came up through the holistic health care movement. It's not just the far right, but also the far left.]
***
In other less depressing news..
* Las Diablillas, or the Little Devils, a women’s softball team from a small community in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, have become a national sensation.
Yawn...random photo of the night..
no subject
Date: 2021-11-18 04:31 pm (UTC)