Sunday, June 26, 2022

Juan Signs Off

 Well, that was a long, interesting Spring.  But everything's done:

  • Three months working for a local school district as a school psychologist; theirs went off to have a baby.  I just finished the last report Friday.
  • Over two months in rehearsal, learning lines, and performance of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for Bigger Dreams Productions, in Oneonta, performing in Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center.  The last two of our eight performances had to be cancelled because a cast member tested positive for COVID-19.  I played Otto Frank, Anne's father; it was a really gut-wrenching emotional experience to relive the Holocaust every night.
  • Manage the installation of windows in the Cape Cod house - five huge picture-and-casement combos, and two normal sized windows.  We had to move all the furniture in all but two rooms to the center, and then it stayed there for over a month because of delays on the part of the company that assembled and installed the windows.  Also required us to sand, wipe, pre-stain, sand, wipe, stain, sand, wipe and polyurethane (2 coats) 40 pieces of trim and casing...
  • ...all while trying to get the house ready for renters in mid-June.  We made it by the skin of our teeth, because we worked day and night right up to the deadline.

Back home in NY, working occasionally as a tour guide at Hyde Hall.  But I finally have time to think about, and write, the final New World post.

The most recent post hiatus was certainly the result of the sudden activity that, among other things, took up most of every day.  But it was also the result of... something more fundamental.

The New World is, first and foremost, a writing exercise for me.  I like to write, but I need some structure to keep me at it on a regular basis.  Many years ago I had a weekly column in a local newspaper.  More recently, I've written blogs on a variety of topics.  This was just the latest exercise designed to sharpen my skills and to do something I enjoyed.

But two years is enough.  When this post is done, I'll be three shy of 250 posts.  Enough.

But mostly I'm giving up because I'm giving up.  There is no New World.  Look up at the top, at Peter Baker's optimistic take on "disasters and emergencies."  I wanted to live in the "possibility of other worlds."  I wanted the massive pandemic's disruption to wake us all up and move us forward into a new set of possibilities, where we were more able to see each other, treat each other kindly and fairly, help each other, and all benefit from "working together for the common good."  I had hoped we would come out the other side of the pandemic and say, "Wow!  We don't want to go through that again!  Let's see how we can use the world's massive resources to make life safer and more enriching for everyone."

Or something like that.  But it didn't happen, not even something vaguely like that.  Oh, things changed all right.  We're now more divided and bitter, entrenched and intractable, and as a society, we're less likely to work for the common good than we were two and a half years ago.  You've been there.  You've watched it happen.  You know it's true.

So there is, I guess, a new world.  It's a world in which those who were able to benefit and profit by the "disasters and emergencies" have consolidated those gains and become even wealthier, while those who have felt the power of those calamities are left in ruins, or, at best, left without a single lesson learned.

In America, the pandemic is not over, but it might as well be.  We have learned nothing, and are in the process of setting our clocks back 50 years.  Living in America continues to mean tolerating child murder, living without adequate healthcare, aiding and abetting historic income inequality, and elevating those who live by hypocrisy.  Here's the new world:  An America where over one million Americans died, and nothing changed.

So, welcome to the new world, same as the old world, but worse.  

This is Juan Quintero, third mate of the Pinta, adrift in some ocean, somewhere, signing off.

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Data (Sigh...)

As we have seen, there is disagreement regarding whether the pandemic is over, or whether it matters whether it is over or not (open at all costs!).  I thought that, since everyone seems to be weighing in on this, that you and I should be able to, as well.

So - here's a CDC site that will provide you with the actual data (if that's how you roll), and you can use it to conclude anything you want.  The site is a little buggy, but it provides granular detail regarding testing, positivity, cases, deaths, etc.  Now you can be an expert, as well!

Here's Barnstable County, MA (Cape Cod), where we own a rental house in Cape's most rural town.  We've been hiding out from COVID here in the pines for as much time as possible (click to embiggen):

Interestingly, here's the data for Otsego County, where we actually live:

Lots wrong with this one.  In August/September of 2020, the students returned to the two colleges in our small city (SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College) and, since SUNY O didn't require student testing, there were over 700 cases within two weeks.  There's a little blip on the screen for that time, but not 700+.  Also, according to the NY Times COVID tracker, there have been 88 COVID deaths in Otsego County; according to the county Health Department, there have been 111 "COVID-related deaths."  None show up on the CDC tracker.

Anyway, in both cases, we're practically at zero.  It' over!  But wait - it's trending upward.  Oh no, a surge!

So - how do we know when the pandemic is over if we can't rely on anyone's data, or what it means?  Frustrating, to say the least.  The answer, I suppose, is to use the data you like the best, depending on what you want it to mean.  That's what everyone else is doing!

Friday, April 1, 2022

Blacks and Long COVID

It seems that in some states,  COVID   is   over, even though it  clearly  is   not.  The new world has yet to appear, although we're beginning to see some outlines.  Here's one piece of the puzzle:

It has long been clear that Black Americans have experienced high rates of coronavirus infection, hospitalization and death throughout the pandemic.

But those factors are now leading experts to sound the alarm about what will most likely be the next crisis: a prevalence of long COVID-19 in the Black community and a lack of access to treatment.

Note that this statement has two parts:  Blacks have a disproportionately higher rate of infection, and therefore long COVID, and Blacks have disproportionately fewer options and resources when it comes to necessary healthcare.  Just the way we set it up; no surprise here.  When we "go back to normal," that's what it will look like.

It's worth the time to read the whole article, for a little clearer view of what the new world will look like.  It'll look like this:

“We expect there are going to be greater barriers to access the resources and services available for long COVID,” said one of the authors, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of Yale University’s health equity office and former chair of President Joe Biden’s health equity task force.

“The pandemic isn’t over, it isn’t over for anyone,” Nunez-Smith said. “But the reality is, it’s certainly not over in Black America.”

Saturday, March 12, 2022

And So We Wait

Of course, as soon as I wrapped up the previous post, I came upon more interesting stuff about the medical conditions that persist after recovering from COVID-19.

I'm focusing on this article because it describes, first of all, a really good reason not to get it, and secondly, it is a little scary and sound like a big deal.  And, thirdly, it makes it clear that, as I noted in that previous post, we need more time to really know for sure.

It's not a surprise that people who recover from COVID have been shown to suffer from blood clots and strokes at a greater rate than those who never had COVID.  It is the great prevalence of those conditions that is new and disturbing.  In an op-ed piece for CNN, Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, a physician and infection disease expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, notes 

The results are clear and very significant: Compared with similar people who had not been infected with SARS-CoV-2, those who recovered from infection had many more blood clots, heart problems and strokes. The extent of the differences across the 20 different cardiovascular conditions is among the greatest of any clinical study I have read. It is jaw-dropping.*

So there's that.  Whether this is included in the concept "long COVID," or in the wider category the CDC calls "Post COVID Conditions," it is, apparently, real, and frightening.  

But is is permanent?  How long will it persist? What else don't we know about the parameters of these findings?

The study has important limitations. It involves people infected in 2020 who are at least a year post-infection; these people likely had the initial "wild" strain of SARS-CoV-2 or perhaps the Alpha variant, which dominated in late 2020. Not enough time has passed to know if similar long-term dysfunctions of the blood vessels and heart also will occur among survivors of Delta or Omicron variant infections. And the study cannot predict the health impact of Covid-19 two and three and 10 years after recovery.

"Not enough time has passed."  And so we wait. 


 * - A more detailed look at the study results can be found here and here.