Day 689 of the Pandemic

Here we are just 41 days shy of the two year mark. Someone posted on Facebook the other day we should all get on with our lives it has been two years. Well, I am afraid this is life and for the most part people are getting on with what they can. I personally am still dealing with the death of my father. The thought that he won't return is still a mixed bag of feelings. I have been told that by not seeing him sick or not seeing him after his death is a difficult thing to absorb. I know he isn't living in the wilds of Alaska but some days it would just be easier to believe that he is. I look to the sky and I see the moon and I still think somewhere out there we are still seeing the same moon and stars so he is and always will be with me.

A few weeks ago I heard a new word and now I guess it is the talk. Endemic, a constant presence or usual prevalence of a disease in a population within a certain geographic location. A pandemic such as Covid-19 spreads world wide quickly. Each new variant means a change in the way the vaccine works against the virus so there will need to be booster shots and each variant will continue to be an epidemic disease spreading across the world and not contained to a particular geographic area. 

Each variant named for letters of the Greek alphabet instead of where they were first found it is a nice way of not saying this is the Chinese disease or the India variant. Since where it starts doesn't matter. Each new variant will make its way to where ever you are. We have had many variants of the virus over the last couple years. After the initial Covid-19 outbreak it wasn't until September of 2020 when they discovered the Alpha variant in the United Kingdom then by the end of 2020 we had the Delta variant found first in India spreading especially through the summer of 2021 across the United States. And we are now into the Omnicron variant that was first discovered in South Africa and has now as well spread world wide. Where the Delta variant (most likely what my father had) caused more hospitalizations but didn't spread as quickly as the Omnicron variant which at this time seems to make most infected less sick than the Delta and some have shown to have symptoms like not being able to taste or smell and having trouble breathing but when they have their noses swabbed as normal testing procedure they may test negative. This variant seems to be more in a person's throat than in their sinuses but at this time testing remains the same. The information on the variants I found between the webpages of the World Health Organization and Yale Medicines website. 

As this virus seems to do through out the fall we had a steady decline in cases so of course people feeling pretty safe ventured out for Thanksgiving and in Pinellas County there were no new cases that week. Starting November 30 over 300 new cases and it just went up from there through December. At my work it wasn't til Christmas Eve one of my friends didn't come into work and she had all the symptoms but tested negative but 3 or 4 other people in the same room as me at work tested positive. I sit towards the back of the room and only have one person that sits near me and some days there is no one within a few rows of desks to me. By the end of December the county was showing over 900 new cases and by mid January the average new cases were over 2,000 in Pinellas County. Now the beginning of February and the numbers show a total of 192 thousand cases in Pinellas County with 2,900 deaths. In the U.S. over 5.5 million cases and almost 66,000 deaths. A comparison in the 2017-2018 Flu season the worst in the last 10 years saw over 700,000 hospitalizations and over 50,000 deaths. 

A person who goes looking for statistics and facts on Covid can go crazy looking at numbers and charts. It isn't as though you can go to one source and know it is for sure what you need to know since the information changes quickly and is based off the data they have received to date. That is about as accurate a statement as any I read and also just about as vague. 

At work after the holidays we would have liked to have been sent back home to protect those of us that haven't and were not sick but instead I felt like I was 10 and my neighbors mom just called my mom and said hey Joey has chicken pox has your kids had them yet. Bring them over for a sleep over then they will have all had it. Well doesn't seem to work so well with Covid. I know a few people at work have had it multiple times. Some are vaccinated or so they say. Some were out for 2 weeks and others if they stopped showing symptoms were asked to come back to work sooner. So do you believe the government or the company you work for. Does anyone actually have my best interest in their decisions they make. 

I haven't really spoke about booster shots but before the holidays the power's that be were recommending for those 65 and older to get a booster shot. Now the CDC recommends to anyone over 18 should get the booster shot at least 5 months after the initial vaccination. I have heard if you have the Pfizer vaccine to get the Moderna booster shot to have better coverage. Johnson & Johnson that was the one shot company the CDC now recommends that you get the Pfizer or Moderna booster as well. 

My final thought Pfizer's revenue is up 134% since December of 2020 and net income has increased from $594 million to $8.15 billion by September of 2021 and Moderna net income from -$272 million in December of 2020 to $3.3 billion by September of 2021. Just for comparison sake  Apple's net income in March of 2021 $23.6 billion and ended December of 2021 $34.6 billion. Not nearly the increase as the drug companies which it has been said are making profits of $65,000 per minute as I found in an article on reliefweb.int and another on Yahoo that stated they will make as much from the vaccine revenue in 2021 as the total company revenue for 2020.

All very interesting. And like a said earlier a statistical nightmare to try to keep up with. 

Stay safe out there and Dawn of the Pandemic the book is coming very soon.

Day 577 of the Pandemic

 Time flies so fast. I don't know how it got to be October when it feels like my father just passed away. In reality it has been two and a half months since he did, and a month since we laid him to rest in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet that feels like it was last week and I still expect him to get back from his trip anytime. Reality is just not real anymore. It is no more real than anything else I read on the internet or see on T.V. 

The Covid talk at work drives me crazy. There are numerous people that have had it and they must have earned a PHD in Covid while they were home for the two weeks. They all seem to be experts. At times now I have to walk away. I will not say what I know. You are not safe no one is. I don't believe the vaccine or anything else other than good hygiene and keeping my distance from large groups of people will keep me safe. And then part of me believes after being exposed to so many people that have had it how could I have not built up some immunity? 

I have found a new anxiety trigger in Covid. Like I needed another. But as little as a sneeze and I am going to die. Just like my dad. I know this seems extreme but if you don't know anxiety, it is a quick and slippery slope that gets me to a bad place. And it can take hours to get back to normalcy. 

My father wouldn't want me to be scared. At the beginning of Covid he didn't let anyone in his house. We would have to leave things on the porch. He didn't want to even talk across the yard. But after a few months of isolation he decided that is no way to live either. If you only have a short time it should be enjoyed. Thank God he did. He enjoyed his time he had left. He fished and gardened. He read books and continued to learn things. 

It was his birthday when we laid him to rest. All his children, grandchildren and many friends came out. Plans changed at the last minute due to the weather but an artificial reef made of his ashes was placed in the Gulf. Afterwards we did what dad would want to do if he was 10 miles out in the Gulf. We went fishing. We caught fish, we ate and played music and talked about previous fishing trips with dad. He would have loved it. His great granddaughter caught her first fish out on the boat and all his grandchildren caught fish. I hope it becomes a regular family event. Afterwards we all went to eat and had the fish cooked up and told more stories of days gone by. 

For my Covid Update. Booster shots are now a thing. The drug companies are all saying another shot for those more susceptible or in close contact with those that have been exposed should get another shot. Even Johnson & Johnson the whole one and done, well not so much. The big thing since school started is that the Florida Governor doesn't want to mandate mask wearing but some school districts do. This has caused a raucous over funding of the schools. The President would like companies with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccination. See how different peoples opinions are, and those people are mandating what the rest of us do. 

Here in Pinellas County we are getting back to where people feel safe. Cases are dropping we are down to 153 cases and only 1,053 new cases last week. Total of 133 thousand cases and just over 2,500 deaths.  

I just don't know what to do with all this information. It comes at you from every direction and from every source imaginable. As I keep telling people that are convinced of one or the other I am not sure and know what I have been doing for the last year and a half has worked so far. I don't want to prove I have been vaccinated weather I have been or not. So here I stand riding the rail of the Covid fence just trying to get through this difficult time. Just like everyone else.

Day 521 of the Pandemic

 I ended the last post believing dad would get better and that he would come home. Well, life isn't always what you believe.  Dad had complications and without getting into details I don't want to share he did end up on the ventilator and we were still holding on to hope but it wasn't meant to be. On August 3, 2021 my father passed away not from Covid but complications due to having Covid. I have been working on the Dawn of the Pandemic since last year. I thought the story would end when I went back to work and things went back to normal. I don't want to ever use the words new normal to define how things are to my family today. 

I am so thankful dad got his trip of a lifetime to Alaska. I am very sad that I will never get to hear him tell the stories. I will not get to learn from him how far they drove to get to the pipeline where his picture was taken. I will not be able to hear him tell how cold it was out on the water in Homer while they fished. How amazing it was to experience being inside the Artic Circle. Dad would have told the whole thing like an adventure. Talk about some seedy bar that he will make you want to hang out in. But that is just not to be.

On Saturday August 21 we had a funeral service for my dad (William H. Basore) better known as "Bill". The church was full of family and friends. The church would not allow a reception to follow due to Covid spikes. They also announced the day before his service that they would stop having church services in person after dad's service. We are thankful that we got what we did for him. 

It is a shame that people don't always tell those that mean so much how important they are. Dad was loved by his family and by people that worked with him at AAmco and on the fishing boats he has worked on in retirement. 

His ashes will be placed to rest on his birthday in the Gulf of Mexico. There will always be a spot in the Gulf to go fishing with dad.

Covid-19 stats of July 2021 show that in Pinellas County the numbers were starting to increase. The same as they did last year. Hospitals have waits that are hours longer than normal. Some are again at capacity. I know dad waited a good portion of a day in the emergency room in Anchorage to get a bed in the hospital. He was there from July 27th - August 3rd. He will be missed more than he could have ever known. RIP Dad!

Day 497 of the Pandemic

 On Day 488 I had to return to work. Pack your computer in your car but don't bring it in. There is a new one set up at your station. You just need to walk around and find where your new desk is. They didn't have everyone come back on the same day. There were 3 or 4 of us that came back that day. One was one of my friends that I talked to in the morning before work. The other had been back to work for a while at the office. Never really understood the reason for the people to be kept at work or the ones sent home. 

Day one back to work was like I never left from a job I had never been to before. Some things were just as they had always been and others were different. Mask wearing, health checks are part of the new process. The job still the same and after day 3 we find out that one of the girls that had come back has Covid. Well wonderful. Why are we back. What is the reason. Things seem to be getting worse in the world of Covid and yet here we are back sitting about 6 feet apart but in a room that has about 30 desks only about half are back after the second week. Well day 7 we learned of the second case in a room that only has about 15 people in it. A person that sits half way closer than the first. Why are we back. While home we would randomly get an email saying that someone that works in the building had tested positive and it said what day they were last at work. We have yet to be told the first person went home sick was tested positive for Covid now we have two and no word. No special cleaning nothing that made me feel like my health was the most important thing. 

After work last Thursday I got a call I didn't expect my father and his wife have been traveling in Alaska since June 22 and he and his wife have Covid. They have postponed their flight home and are quarantined in the hotel. Dad has a horrible cough but whenever he gets sick he gets a horrible cough. Worse since his bypass surgery about 5 or 6 years ago. This is a concern especially since he is so far from home and not the best patient. Friday we got a call that he was taken to the hospital and his oxygen level was very low and so they kept him. His wife couldn't stay with him, she went back to the hotel. A daily call from her is our update. Saturday we got the call that he was on a ventilator and in intensive care. I know people say it can happen to anyone at anytime. There is a chance for a loss. But my father is not the one to lose not while in Alaska not without a fight. Not my dad. As the information was shared between my brother and sisters. The tears were real and burned the memories of the past and thoughts of the future. But I told my sisters, If this is the case with dad he isn't worrying he is thinking about staying in Denali, fishing for flounder and seeing the pipeline. A trip he planned for two years. This couldn't be how this story ends.

Two of us that same evening decided we needed to figure out what hospital he was at and get the news from the source. One of my sisters made the call and we found out that we were misinformed about his dire situation and not that he was out of the woods but he had not been on a ventilator but he has been on oxygen the whole time and that he was sitting up and eating and drinking. He did also have pneumonia. He is hungry and as the nurse said he is struggling with the cannula in his nose. My sister said so he is fighting that. That sounds like dad. Which somehow dad fighting about anything made us feel better and made us smile. We are Basore's and for better or worse we have a double dose of stubborn in our DNA.  

One sister now in Alaska helping our dad's wife get situated knowing that dad may be another week in the hospital before he will be released but the nurses didn't realize that he wasn't a Alaskan that he was a Floridian and home wasn't around the block but a 10 hour flight away. The story will continue. 

As for the current state of affairs in Pinellas County back in June we were at a low down to less than 50 new cases per day, then this new variant. Now we are back up to over 1,300 new cases a day and that is where we were in January while people were still working from home. So the prospects for going to work is troubling. 

Along with going back to work I have stopped my daily walking in the morning before work but that may have to change as well. I might have to just start getting up earlier.

Stay safe.

Day 452 of the Pandemic

 It has been 5 months since the last time I wrote here about the Pandemic. I have been writing daily as I walk  each morning before work about the sunrise or the phase of the moon and placement of the stars and the animals and very few people I come across. I have not avoided the Covid 15 which is the average weight that most people have gained during this time of lockdown. Mine is more like Covid 23. Which is why the walking each morning is so important. I have been trying to add at least a 15 minute walk in the evening. I can feel the weight and more than that I hate going to the doctor and getting on the scale to hear the number out loud. 

But my weight was not what I sat down to write about today. It is that early morning time which my brain seems to fire on all cylinders and since yesterday I have been thinking about the last month and on May 19 Governor DeSantis of Florida suspended all remaining health restrictions for the state of Florida. At that time Florida had the third most cases of Covid-19 at 2.2 million and fourth highest death toll at 35,000.  The CDC shows as of today a total of  over 33 million cases in the US and that the cases per day and death tolls are dropping. 64% of Americans have at least one dose of the vaccine. 

My confusion lies in the restrictions and regulations. When everyone was following the CDC guidelines it was easy because you knew you needed a mask to go inside just about anywhere. Now the state says if you are vaccinated you don't need to where a mask that it to show they have confidence in the vaccine but any privately owned business can still have their own mask restrictions. They can still require employees to wear a mask and/or require their customers to vaccinated or not. The Governor of Florida has said there will be no vaccine passport in Florida. But again your place of employment can ask if you have been vaccinated and make requirements separate based on weather you are or not. So everyone basically has to carry a mask because you don't know until you walk up to the door of a business if they are going to require you to wear one or not. For girls not so bad I have about 4 in my purse at anytime but for guys that is different. My brother last night was out and I said do you no longer need a mask as we were leaving and he said no but at 1:30am he was told by the Uber driver that came to pick him up that he did. Which in turn meant that I received a phone call for a ride home. My sister answered first so she took him. I don't care that my brother called I don't care if I have to pick him up. It is the fact that the rules are so vague and hit or miss that you don't know what is right or wrong.

There are still restrictions in some states so you should check before travelling. Brian and I are heading to a wedding in a few weeks in Pennsylvania so we will keep an eye on there.

The vaccines can't be advertised on TV because they aren't fully approved by the FDA. So instead of the adds we see on TV daily for all sorts of other medicines there are advertisements in general asking us to all do our part but no Covid vaccine companies can advertise directly because they are only approved for Emergency Use Authorization since December. It normally takes about a year for a drug to become fully FDA approved. So here is the double edge sword for the FDA do they approve a vaccine fully that they only have 6 months of statistical data on or do they wait? If they wait that isn't showing a profound confidence and those that are skeptical to begin with may hesitate more in getting their vaccination. Or does the FDA fully approve a vaccine that they aren't 100% confident with but knowing the data they have shows it to be safe to date. 

Notice I have not mentioned weather I have been vaccinated. I don't feel it is anyone's business. If my work asks I will tell the truth but none of your business would be my choice. My work has not yet figured out how to get everyone back to the office due to some issues with one of the buildings at work. So they are trying to make room in one building for everyone. I have only been by the office twice in over a year. As I have said many times I only miss some of the people. I don't miss the noise but I miss the camaraderie. Sometimes it is nice to have others to complain about the day with but I have adjusted to working from home and I enjoy the benefits of not having to wear shoes and being able to wash the dishes or do a load of laundry on break. But when necessary I will do what I have to do.   Which is I guess the moral of the story. We have to continue to do what we need to do. But as I will tell anyone it is also your right to choose not to go somewhere based on their restrictions.  I will continue to update when relevant. I am working on compiling all of the things I have written since the beginning and it will be called the Dawn of the Pandemic. Hopefully completed by later this year.

Day 304 of the Pandemic

Now over nine months into the Covid-19 Pandemic and we are all wondering will this ever end. Back in March it was once the temperature warms up things will get better. The spread of the virus will slow. Instead it seems to increased. Is it due to more people getting out and ignoring the social distancing requests. In August Florida had over 526,000 cases and Pinellas County was at almost 18,000. Daily positive cases peaked at 869 in the county just after Christmas. Yet the county deaths by week peaked in July with 89. Today, January 15, 2021 in Pinellas County had 51,000 cases with 1,500 deaths. The state of Florida has had 1.5 million cases and 23,000 deaths. In comparison in 2019 the state of Florida had 2,703 deaths from the flu. 

Brian and I are still doing our same thing. Mostly staying home. We do go out and see some family and we may go out to eat once a week. Other than going to the Historical Society I am home. It is boring and at first I would find small projects or even work a puzzle. Now the puzzle just sits on the dining room table and it is read or watch TV.  I am still working from home with no mention of going back. I have adjusted more. I walk every morning before work about a half a mile. This time of year it is still dark at 6:20 so I have a street that is well lit near the house that I walk and I feel safe. I have started carrying my phone because I have had a few times where I was startled by someone's approach. For the most part most days are quiet and I see no one. Brian works retail and heads out everyday mask in hand. He wears his mask all day and comes home hopefully only carrying the smells of the dogs that visit his store and not a virus. Neither of us have been sick. We of course know people that have but none we have been in recent contact with.

Testing is a funny thing. Some people want to know they have it and others don't. I see both sides. Why know? Knowing certainly will not make you get better and taking care of yourself is really all you can do either way and limit your contact with others. It is the people that are sick weather or not tested and still continue to go out and live as though they are well. They just perpetuate the spread. 

As for restrictions I could only find in the US California and Ohio have nightly curfews but in Europe that is different some countries like Norway and Sweden have no curfew or lockdown but in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all have restrictions and can only leave the house for essentials like grocery's and medical visits. Poland has closed shopping malls and hotels but you can still get your hair cut but restaurants can only do take out. And some countries like Austria are on their 3rd lockdown. Just for comparison Austria has a population of 8.8 million people with a total case rate of 389,000 to date and 6,300 deaths. Where Florida's population is 21 million and 23,000 deaths. I am sure statistical data people are busy bees with all the data and percentages of these people have got it and these have died. They don't really share recovery statistics. I am not really sure why.

Now we have just started vaccinating people for the virus. There are again two sides to the coin. Should I be vaccinated with this vaccine that hasn't had proper testing. Down the road is it going to cause other troubles. Do I not get the vaccine like the Flu vaccine I never have gotten? Just leaves me with more questions.

So amongst all this Pandemic talk the country had an election. Joe Biden the President elect and Donald Trump until the riot action at the Capitol building in Washington DC was still insisting there was cheating and he won. He has now conceded. I have so many thoughts on all of this but will leave them for another time. People are so polarized it makes me at times put down my phone and stop looking at social media and I hardly ever watch TV news before all of this it is less now.

Like I said earlier I walk every morning. When I get home I write for a few minutes about what I see on my walk. Some mornings in the summer I would describe the sunrise or now I describe the temperature and the stars that are visible and the position and phases of the moon. I am just doing what I can to keep active in this time when the rules want everyone to sit still and wait this thing out. Just not sure that will help us in the end either.

Day 129 Pandemic 2020

Now more than three months into working from home due to Covid-19 I look at things different than I did at the beginning. I miss the people I work with. I chat with them using instant messenger but haven't seen but two people from work in four months. I don't miss everything. I don't miss wearing work clothes to work. I enjoy wearing shorts and being barefoot. Since May I walk everyday before work then come home and post on Facebook about my walk, the sunrise and what I see and hear along the way. I don't ask when we will be going back to work at the office. Not sure I want to. The company sends an email to everyone if someone from the office tests positive but I haven't been there in so long I don't have to worry. I do worry about the people that are still working at the office. When you see someone has called out it is concerning. 

When I wrote in May I sat in a room with people from the Historical Society I belong to and no one in that room knew anyone directly that had the virus. Today that is different. Not only does one of the people from the Historical Society spouse have it and has been hospitalized and returned home. I now know three people in the same family that have it and one friend has had a relative that died. One of the people I know has recovered except can't smell or taste and the another only recently tested positive and has a cough. As you can see there are different severity of this disease. There are different symptoms and much different recovery times. Yes this is now much closer than at the beginning where I couldn't name a name or even a person that knew a person. So as time changes my situation has changed my actions. 

Back at the end of June it became mandatory if you are in a public place you need to wear a mask or some sort of face covering. Still this doesn't seem to be full proof because one person gets the virus and brings it home. Then you get a house of people with the virus but if they don't know they have it now they are sharing it. I now have multiple masks and wear one when I am inside a public place. I am still lax around family which probably isn't the smartest thing. If you go to a restaurant you have to wear the mask until you are seated at a table then you can remove it. When you are ready to get up from the table you must put your mask back on to leave the table. A few months ago I wouldn't have done this but I wouldn't eat inside either. It is now too hot to always choose to eat outside if we want to go out and yes we still want to venture out I am going to wear a mask when in close proximity to others.

Now that we are almost to August the question of when kids should go back to school and how should they attend school is a hot button. My feel is if the people making this decision aren't meeting in person then how can they expect to send teachers and students back to the classroom together. Kids will be kids and yes after a period of time some are going to learn to understand you can't take a drink out of Sally's juice box and you can't share a piece of chewing gum with your boyfriend but that is going to take time. Probably more than the two extra weeks that they are talking about delaying the start of school. Counties have given parents choices on how they want their kids to attend school. Do they want them back in a classroom or to learn at home. Some kids are not going to do as well at home and others are going to be fearful for going back to school. I don't know which way I would lean. I feel that the interaction with other kids is very important but how do you decide.  

The State of Florida now has over 400,000 cases compared to at the beginning of May it was only 40,000 and Pinellas County over 14,600 and in May was 828. Here is the thing with the statistics other than the fact that we have found out over the last month that some testing facilities are only reporting their positive cases and some people that have gone to be tested and left before the test was completed but had filled out the paperwork were reported as positive cases. All of this information not only skews the statistics but it also makes a person wonder. If these are the things that we know what do we still not know? And as I think about the numbers over 1,200 people have been hospitalized for Covid-19 but how many were only there for a day or two and got better? Since in Pinellas County if only 367 people have died from it does it mean the other 14,300 have gotten better? How long is the recovery time for those that do get better? So, I just end up with more questions the more I look into the facts. 

I don't know where all this is leading. I suppose in a few more weeks I will be writing again about more craziness. I wonder if during the Spanish Flu the people of that time did they know what it was and how to not get it or was it just all of a sudden people started getting really sick and dying? Just more questions. Be safe out there. The world is continuously changing and not much for the better.