great days for literature

The novel is in the mail.

breakthrough covid breaks into this blog

"Breakthough covid" is typically a mild case that one can get after being fully vaccinated. Masha Gessen wrote about getting such a case for The New Yorker, and others have described it as well. It sounds like vaccination is not at all perfect immunity although it seems to be a reason that cases and deaths have declined in the United States and United Kingdom. In better news, vaccines are also showing an ability to improve the lives of those with "long covid"—enduring symptoms that have been known to stretch the illness out over months.

let us pause for this message from the paper of our virus

"Joelle Herr, owner of The Bookshop in East Nashville, which closed more than two weeks ago, wrote on Facebook about her 'fury, despair and helplessness' at watching other businesses carry on as if nothing had changed. 'It’s frustrating when you feel like you’re one of only a few doing the right thing (and at a great cost to my small business!) and those doing the wrong thing are the ones with the greater impact — an impact that is going to be devastating.'"

we interrupt this gulag with a message from our virus

"In contrast to hand-washing and other personal measures, social distancing measures are not about individuals, they are about societies working in unison. These measures also take a long time to see the results. It is hard (even for me) to conceptualize how ‘one quick little get together’ can undermine the entire framework of a public health intervention, but it does. I promise you it does. I promise. I promise. I promise. You can’t cheat it. People are already itching to cheat on the social distancing precautions just a 'little'- a playdate, a haircut, or picking up a needless item at the store, etc. From a transmission dynamics standpoint, this very quickly recreates a highly connected social network that undermines all of the work the community has done so far."

a pause in our programming for this message from our virus

"Even if there is virus in the inanimate environment, it's not going to jump off the seat and bite you in the ankle," says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in Vanderbilt University's division of infectious diseases.

"You've got to touch it, and then touch your nose or your mouth. So it's those hands we have that are the important intermediary. And that's where I would put the emphasis," he said.

Or turn to Johns Hopkins for the latest statistics on Global Cases. . .