TWF 311 - CoVID Vaccine Shortages In Nassau County; lower infection rates (CoVID Update #10)

 Hello, friends,

Hopefully, by now, your back pain from digging out of this week's snowstorm has faded.  Mine...Is still present, but that's nothing new.

Today, I was flummoxed to see this tweet from Nassau County Executive Laura Curran:

I mean, what is there to say that isn't explicit with this tweet?  According to Curran, we are administering all of the vaccine we get, and we're only getting a mere pittance of what we need.  It'd be one thing if we were only inoculating 70% or so, but if you're ever gonna talk about "herd immunity" or "return to normalcy," that's only gonna come any time soon with a maximum-efficiency vaccination drive, and it is not efficient to leave a county which has plenty of spare potential-to-vaccinate without anything to do.

I have family members who are trying to get these shots and are navigating through the already labyrinthine madness that is the NYS vaccination system.  It's a sick joke to make senior citizens have to use computers to do this!  But when they can access the site, they are told there are no appointments available.  And this sounds like it could be the reason, why!  So, I don't know who to call out for this bullshit, but it's bullshit that needs to be called out.

CoVID Positivity Rates Falling!

With that said, I don't want to leave you thinking it's all bad news on the CoVID front.  We reported in late December that the CoVID positivity rate for Nassau County was pressing up against 10%, which was definitely a scary thing.

County Executive Curran reports that we've made significant progress:

Now, in fairness, we reported back in early November that rates were increasing at a potentially problematic rate.  At the time it was only 3.4% positivity, which wasn't too bad, at all, but wasn't good.  Then, of course, came holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the next thing you know we're at 10%.

It's almost like this was predicted at the time.

Stay safe, friends.

TWF 309 - Nassau County Positivity Rate Breaks 10% (CoVID Update #9)

 Greetings, friends,

Unfortunate news, today, brought to us by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran:

With a 10% positivity rate, that means that one out of every ten people who go in to get tested are turning up positive.  Our biggest problem is that, yesterday, this number was only 6.8%

As you can no doubt see, there are significant problems facing Nassau County.  If this is a one-off and we drop back down to something more like a 6.0, then it's not the greatest warning sign in the world.  If, on the other hand, this number stays elevated...

...Well, we have significant problems.

I don't have much to say.  I don't know what there is to say in a situation like this.  All I can do is say that we need to call our representatives, senators, and the rest and demand that help be provided to businesses and individuals who are suffering the economic hardships of this virus, because the fact is that at this rate there there will need to be another shut-down.

Nobody will like it.

Nobody will be happy with it.

But too many people have already died, and are still dying of this virus.  It's absolute madness to allow it to spread out of control, and when one in ten people tested are positive, well, it's out of control.  Last week, I talked about how our area hospitals were nearly at their ICU capacity.  I talked about how, if you either get CoVID or if you just happen to need intensive medical care for any accidental or chronic reason, you might find that care unavailable.

So once again I'm asking you to limit your gatherings to essential meet-ups only.  That's all there is to it.

Also:

I just want to say a final farewell, and extend my deepest condolences to the family of Freeport High School teacher Robert Lordi.  I worked with Mr. Lordi for five years, did some teaching certification observation hours with him, and he passed away on December 27th.  He was a really great guy.

Thank you for reading.  Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York.  He mostly writes Sci-Fi and Fantasy these days, which you can check out at his Amazon Author Page at this link!