Day 19 - LA County Dept. of Health MANDATES indoor masking

The Lambda Variant…

If Delta wasn’t bad enough, we now have Lambda to worry about. Based on the CDC report that the Whistle blower leaked to the Washington Post, the Delta variant is “as transmissible as the chicken pox.”  What does that mean, exactly? The chicken pox as a point of comparison is confusing in that it has largely been eradicated and there’s a vaccine for it. I contracted it as a child, but when I think back to my 8-year-old self, did I pick it up rather easily?  I don’t recall any of my friends in school getting the chicken pox so where would I have contracted it? What does “as transmissible as the chicken pox” mean?  Couldn’t the CDC have used a more modern-day comparison?

No matter, though, because Lambda is burning a path through South America. Similar to “the artist formerly known as Prince”, Lambda is “known as the Peru variant.”  So much for labeling new variants with Greek letters of the alphabet to avoid stigmatization. And what happened to the Greek letters ‘Epsilon’, ‘Zeta’, and ‘Theta’?  Why did we jump from “D” to “L”?

How soon will Lambda reach America? It was reported in Houston, TX, on 7/21/21.  “Houston, we have a problem.” Of course we do. The US border is like a sieve and we have no contact tracing or testing of any kind at our airports – people continue to fly into our cities from all over the world. Throughout this entire pandemic, America had just one travel-ban, lasting for about 4 weeks, i.e., the Chinese weren’t allowed in. I hate to be all doom and gloom, but I predict American deaths from this variant will be astronomical because, dear readers, Lambda is resistant to vaccine-induced antibodies and more infectious than Delta, which means it’s more infectious than the… chicken pox?  But that’s Delta…if Delta is more infectious than the chicken pox, then Lambda must be more infectious than…what?...measles?...the common cold?...a sinus infection?

The WHO is on it (not) by labeling this variant as a “Variant of Interest” instead of labeling it as a “Variant of Concern”, which is what it should be.  As usual, nothing to see here, folks… Unfortunately, this variant is going to mow us down, en masse, because we have no protection since Lambda is vaccine-resistant. More bad news…boosters don’t work. A Rockefeller University study, waiting on peer review, found that a third dose of mRNA vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna does NOT increase antibodies for new virus variants. Similar to the flu, the vaccine has to match the strain, but Covid-19 is mutating so quickly, by the time Big Pharma Pfizer creates a booster, the variant has mutated again.

Shockingly, in the same study, the researchers found that immunity is better among those who actually contracted Covid-19 and lived to tell about it. Over the course of a year, Covid-19 victims’ antibodies grew stronger and stronger, becoming more potent and better able to resist new variants. In comparison, antibodies formed after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna peter out after five months – they don’t get stronger, they just lay there (sigh).  “Therefore, giving those individuals a third dose of the same vaccine would likely result in higher levels of antibodies that remain less effective against variants.”

You know how we finally stopped wiping down counter tops with bleach or sanitizing our pens? Well, add the ‘booster’ to that list. It was over before it began…the US is still considering whether to administer the booster [which is actually a third dose of the same Pfizer and Moderna vaccine] to our senior citizens and the imuno-compromised. Don’t bother.  It’s like I’ve always said – our only protection consists of masks, proper ventilation, and outdoor activities.

Sadly, this is bearing out in the Sunshine State, where Governor DeSantis doubled down on his “no mask mandate”, at the same time the hospitalization of children with Covid-19 infections is on the rise. I suspected that Delta would hit our children hard because it’s so infectious, and that’s exactly what’s happening. Floridians don’t mask and now their children are being hospitalized. In late July, Florida averaged 1,540 new Covid cases among children per day, but Governor DeSantis told the school districts they can’t ask the students to mask. Florida leads the nation when it comes to children hospitalized with Covid-19. Will anti-masking still remain part of the white, Trumper, MAGA, conservative agenda when our children are felled? There’s a big difference between an 85-year-old woman who dies from Delta in a rest home and a 5-year-old being placed on a ventilator two days after she comes home from kindergarten.

8/4/21. Wednesday

7:00-7:30 - My alarm goes off. I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal.  I think she’s resentful over the early wake-up times these past few days because she pooped in front of the door. This means she got up around 6:00 a.m. to poop in the house, then went back to bed. I point at it and say, “That’s a no-no!”, but she could care less.  She’s not even ashamed.  The dog rolls over on her back and I rub her tummy, business as usual. She jumps off the couch, grabs her toy, and we go outside, where she goes potty right away. Return inside and cheese for her, then I clean up the dog s—t. Coffee for me and I go upstairs.

7:30-8:30 - Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up. I listen to What a Day. A few leaves managed to make their way into the garage, so I sweep everything before the contractors arrive.

8:30-9:00 – I read All You Can Ever Know and have a gourmet cookie with my coffee.

9:00 –The contractors arrive to lay the base for the stain.

9:00-11:30 – I go to work, which means I enter my office downstairs and start working on my syllabus for Specialty Class 1A at College No. 1. In between, I publish the daily content for my Summer session class.  

-At 11:30, “Victor”, the project manager and the person who gave me a bid for the stain job, texts me and asks me to go outside because “Robert” has a question. Once outside, Robert asks me if I want them to “roll the base”, which would result in more of a painted floor look, or do I want him to “spray the base”, which would result in a more organic, stained concrete look.  I know I want him to spray, but this is going to be L.’s art studio, so I quickly run upstairs to ask L. to come down and give her opinion.

L. is not having it. She’s upset that I woke her up and doesn’t want to come downstairs. The fact that I’m doing all of this for her seems lost on L.  Although I’m irritated, my feelings are hurt, too. This project is taking so much time, effort, and money…BUT, I did just wake her up. Maybe I’d be mad, too? I explain that the workers are waiting for her to come downstairs and make a decision – this is going to be the space where she does the majority of her art work.

L. puts on shorts and a T-shirt, stomps downstairs, goes outside, and selects the spray option. She doesn’t want the ‘painted floor look’ either.

12:00 – 2:00 - I have a few pieces of sushi and continue working on the syllabus for Specialty Class 1A.

-At 1:30, L. has a meeting with a counselor from one of the junior colleges she attended. I should note that L. has been trying to schedule this meeting for the past 2 months.  Through no fault of her own, L. has been unable to connect with her counselor as it’s been a series of vacations, re-scheduled appointments, and missed opportunities in general, until today.

-L. receives confirmation that she has completed enough credits for three AA degrees: 1) an AA in Liberal Arts; 2) an AA in Fine Arts; and 3) an AA in Studio Arts! I’m so proud of her! L. has also successfully completed her 2-year transfer requirements for a 4-year college, in just 8 months. It’s very likely she will transfer as a junior, but L. will receive confirmation of that tomorrow, after she talks to her Otis counselor. Otis is where L. will complete the last two years of her 4-year education.

2:00 - I finally finish the syllabus for Specialty Class 1A.  Things should go more quickly from here on out.

The garage contractors leave. They’ll be back tomorrow to put the stain down.

2:00-2:30 – L. and I discuss the meeting with her counselor, then I stand in my bathtub – to avoid a mess – while she trims my hair.

2:30-3:30 – Blog post

3:30-4:30 – I do a 40-minute Insanity - Cardio Power and Resistance workout.

4:30-5:15 – I color my hair.  While the color sets, I clean my bathroom sink, counters, and tub, and straighten my room. I listen to Market Place.

5:15-6:10 – Shower. Lotion. Blow-dry hair. Jeans, button up shirt, and flip-flops. Light make-up. I have a few bites of the potato salad L. bought at Whole Foods and the corn and onion mixture that I used to stuff the sweet potatoes several days ago. I listen to What Next.

6:10- 7:30 – B. arrives and we go to Presto Pasta, where I order a salad and shrimp Piccata combo.  B. gets…something?  The shrimp is terrible, but the salad is great and the Alfredo pasta tastes sooo good. I eat most of it, but am still able to take home extra salad and pasta. I think I gained two pounds – why do I do this to myself? I love pasta!

7:30-10:00 – Home and Cocktail hour!! B. and I watch two episodes of Bosch.

10:00-11:00 – I’m exhausted from waking up early this week. Nighttime routine. Bed. I set my alarm.