Have a happy, HEALTHY New Year!
Get vaccinated if you haven’t already, although I can’t believe that any reader of this blog would not be double vaccinated and boosted by now. Wear an N95 or KN95 mask. (Here is advice from the New York Times about how to buy high-quality N95 masks online.) My friends tell me that this is the N95 mask used by nurses at Mt.Sinai Hospital in New York City.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has boasted that she is unvaccinated, but news came out last week that she owns stock in three of the four major vaccine manufacturers. At least we can be assured that she’s not fighting vaccines for her own financial benefit. Greene has repeatedly defied rules requiring masking when in the House of Representatives, and she’s so far racked up $80,000 in fines deducted from her salary for failing to wear a mask. She says the federal public health rules are “tyrannical,” “communist,” “authoritarian,” and “unconstitutional.”
This is the kind of ideological insanity that’s fueling the longevity of the pandemic. If you know people like her, avoid them until the danger is past.
Be careful.
You can’t be happy unless you are healthy.
Be healthy. Be happy.
I want you all with me in 2022.
Happy New Year!
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Conversation with my neighbor’s father. Scene, Flor-uh-duh:
ME: Are you vaccinated?
FLORIDA MAN: You kidding me? They’re not coming near me with that government who knows what all. I work in a club, and people say to me, “Ain’t you afraid of getting Covid?” I tell you what. When I was a boy, I use to swim in the ponds, and now they say, “Oh, don’t swim in the ponds. It’s gonna kill ya.” Do I look kilt to you? I tell you what. People will believe anything. I got uh immune system.
FLORIDA MAN: People. They don’t thank.*
*think
“When I was a boy, I use to swim in the ponds, and now they say, “Oh, don’t swim in the ponds. It’s gonna kill ya.” Do I look kilt to you?”
Said the man with only one leg, cuz the pond gator bit off the other one.
Exactly what I was thinking when he was saying this. LOL.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
I also hope everyone is able to stay healthy this year. This is from an article on the CNN website:
“Now, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone’s mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.
“This is how you can contract this virus,” Reiner said.
So, we teachers who are in schools with hundreds of people per day with students and staff who refuse to wear their masks – what do we do? Many are unvaccinated – mostly students. And there are no consequences for those who refuse to wear a mask. They are just allowed to run around all day without it. I guess we just wear a good mask, open the windows even though it’s in the 30’s, stay as far away from everyone as possible and don’t go into rooms with no windows. And hope for the best.
I read that it is estimated that only 10% of those 5 to 11 are completely vaccinated. With Omicron spreading like wildfire, adults that work with younger students have a good reason to be concerned. Children will likely get a mild case of Covid, but older adults, even those that have been boosted, should be concerned, particularly if the district does not enforce Covid protocols. You have my sympathy. If adults start getting sick, you might want to consider some type of job action, if you have a functioning union. These are crazy times!
I have a family member who works for Google. They get at home tests provided to them all the time. He was astounded that there isn’t more testing in schools. I had to inform him that he was a very important person working at a very important tech company and teachers and students were the dregs.
Some states have misused the CARES Act funds that were supposed to go to schools to mitigate Covid. They have not used funds appropriately In a couple of cases the federal government is suing some states for both the Cares and Recovery Acts.
Students and teachers should be more than just “a canary in a coal mine.” We shouldn’t have the most cases in the world with our resources. A public pandemic should not be politicized. It is a time for collective responsibility and action.
We used most of our Covid funds for tech – new devices. Teachers purchase their own masks unless you specifically ask for them and then they are given out a few at a time.
Our class size is back up to almost normal – in small spaces. The people making the decisions have their own personal offices and do not need to come in contact with groups for long periods of time.
I keep my windows cracked – even if it feels chilly in my room.
And….
Happy New Year Diane!! And all.
BTW, the ‘NYT’ reports today that the Omicron spike has ended in South Africa without a great number of deaths. I hope this will be true for us as well.
Lots of people in North Florida refuse to wear masks, especially the young and healthy. My family continues to wear only N95 or KN95 masks as we consider it “our personal responsibility” to keep ourselves and others safe.
Under DeSantis Florida has overused the monoclonal antibody treatments due to a refusal to wear a mask by a large number of people. Each monoclonal treatment costs well over $1,000 while the vaccine costs around $25 to $35 dollars per dose. The new Pfizer and Merck pills are expected to cost between $500 and $600 each. Vaccines work, and they are cost effective. https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2021/12/29/florida-opposes-federal-government-over-monoclonal-antibodies-again/?itm_source=parsely-ap
“Lots of people in North Florida refuse to wear masks,”
That’s probably because they figure driving on 95N is good enough protection.
I took N95 last spring all the way from just north of Miami to Georgia, so I figure I’m probably protected for several years.
The rate of infection in Florida is up by 1,000% over the past two weeks, according to a doctor who was interviewed on CNN Sunday
Only 1000%?
DeSantis better get on it. At that rate, he’ll never beat Trump.
A Celebration of Ignorance
We celebrate our ignorance
And venerate the clown
We insulate with insolence
And drink another round
Thank you for this lovely post, Diane. Happy New Year to everyone.
Happy New Year to all. I’m trying as hard as I can not to think “It can’t get any worse, can it?” This helps:
Happy New Year to all. As for the unvaccinated, Trump gets it, thats why he changed his tune IMHO . Trump is losing a 1000 + voters a day . A very effective form of voter suppression.
There is hope for Flor-uh- duh-yet, Bob. Stay safe and stay vaccinated the mask almost as important as the vaccine.
Parents and guardians take care of their kids when school is out – but in the next few days there will be a multi-million kid temperature and “how do you feel?” screening (ok, in the northern states) the test-positives will be out of the roof. Please don’t let us retreat.
… but we start this year with VACCINES! If those skyrocketing numbers have a silver lining hopefully it will motivate vaccines… and for the media to report that hospitalizations of kids (ex Post article on Seattle hospitals) – none of those kids’ parents were vaccinated – nor were they.
Resolutions for the New Year! Write – attend – text – call- email board meetings! Masks, truth in history classes, no banned books, teach kids to think (for themselves).
Diane – keep spreading the inspiration
Happy New Year!
Thanks Diane for this island of sanity in a sea of chaos, confusion and plague. Best wishes to everyone for MMXXII. As for Marjorie Taylor Dunderhead, who in their right mind thought it a good idea to vote for this antediluvian troglodyte? Please, send her back to the Georgia wilds where she can rave against the trees and rocks.
The pity is that she comes from a beautiful pArt of the country.
I wonder if some of this redistricting in GA is being done purposefully to give Greene less of an advantage in the next election. This article says her Rep. colleagues in GA are embarrassed by her. She is gaining social media power from pro-trumpers throughout the country.. not necessarily by the people she directly serves.
I know if my state Rep was running around the country raising funds and doing crazy things on social media…. rather than trying to make things better for their constituents day to day lives….. they would not last long in the house.
https://www.ajc.com/politics/sneak-attack-new-map-pairs-greenes-district-with-outraged-cobb-residents/BDCNTHB5CVBF7B4BJP6XKF2L6E/
That’s a somewhat hopeful article.
Best of all years to all who post here!
No mask mandates allowed in Utah, so I am double masking for the time being. Utah had over 4000 cases just yesterday (out of a population of about 3 million). Going back to school is going to be HARD. Most students and staff at my school don’t wear them, and the K 95 masks the governor promised to send to schools have never materialized. The cases are going to skyrocket. God help us all.
People claim their “freedom”…Well, freedom has limits too.
It’s spelled freedumb in this case.
And freedumb does have limits: death, for example.
I reside in Europe and see the same idiotic, brainless, ridiculous comments about vaccinating against Covid. How much does it take to realize that Covid isn’t something to fool around with or take lightly. I don’t partake in social media but from what I hear, too many negative influences are doing a lot of harm. “Social” media turning into ‘Anti Social’ media and spreading just as widely. We will never gain the upper hand on this one unless ALL of us pull in the same direction.
❤
I was reading some of the New Yorker’s New Years themed articles…. (some are from previous years as is this one). When I read this one I thought of the connection to education the pressure on teachers. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/improving-ourselves-to-death
Here’s to a 2022 that is more supportive of teachers….. while at the same time changing education policies to become more nurturing and responsive to the little humans in our care.
“any reader of this blog”
Off the cuff, I thought of a couple of former regular commenters here that have been blocked from leaving comments that might be anti-vaxxers and maskers.
Lloyd, you are so right. One commenter has been in moderation for months because he kept writing the same two things over and over: college should not be subsidized, and vaccines don’t work. He continues to write and I continue to block his idiotic comments. The same things.
However…
Vaccines are subsidized and college does work.
Coincidental connection? I think not.
Stupidity should not be subsidized and reason doesn’t work with these people.
In these very trying times…what we REALLY could use is a vaccine against stupidity.
We already have a vaccine for stupidity. Its called science.
But the folks who need it most won’t take it.
Happy New Year!
Getting vaccinated and wearing good masks are the best way to protect your health and the health of your family and community.
I’m a skeptic on the reliance on testing, and I am thankful that the administration prioritized vaccinations. I know too many people who had a number of negative COVID tests before testing positive when they had mild cold symptoms. (NYC public schools were just informed that students with any classroom exposure or cold symptoms will be given take home COVID tests, which is fine but is sure to give a false sense of security.) Testing is important, but an unreliable way to stop the spread. Some of the recent super spreader events were gatherings of people who were triple vaxxed and tested right before attending. But the better news is that those super spreader events of triple vaxxed people did not seem to result in lots of hospitalizations.
see my bit on testing below
Song of the Repugnican CONgress
Democracy should be forgot
And never brought to mind.
No brain’s a gain. Don’t get that shot.
Democracy flatlined.
Cultivating inner resources in troubling times
Suppose that you are having a really bad day. You are late to work. Your boss is sick of this and cans you. You put your things in a box and go to call an Uber to take you home, but in the trouble and confusion of losing your livelihood, you’ve misplaced your phone, on which you have your entire life. You find the phone. On it is a text message. You are being audited by the IRS. They think you owe them $10,000 due to an error made over several years by your former employer.
Here’s the thing: because you are free, you could, ABSURDLY, make the choice to feel, at that moment, joy. This is the point of Camus’s retelling of the Myth of Sisyphus. You are THAT free. Here, one of the most ancient of all poems, an ancient Sumerian work in the voice of the goddess Inanna, in which she describes her descent into Hell (a standard mythological/folkloric motif, as many readers of this blog will know):
I went there of my own free will.
I went there in my finest gown,
With my rarest jewels
With my Queen of Heaven crown,
In the Underworld
At each of the Seven Gates
I was stripped Seven times
Of all I thought I was
Till I stood bare in who I really am.
NB: I’m sure that most readers of this blog know that the IRS will not make payments demands via text message. Scammers pretending to be federal employees do that. So, my scenario could use some work, and don’t respond to stuff like that.
I’m sure that most billionaires already know this, but just in case not:
If you are a billionaire (which I’m sure applies to many who post here), the IRS won’t make payment demands at any time by any method. Scammers pretending to be philanthropists are the only ones who do that. So don’t respond to stuff like that.
LOL
cx: Suppose that you are having a really bad day. You are late to work. Your boss is sick of this and cans you. You put your things in a box and go to call an Uber to take you home, but in the trouble and confusion of losing your livelihood, you’ve misplaced your phone, on which you have your entire life. You find the phone. On it is a text message. This is a request that you call the IRS. A reminder. You are being audited by them. They think you owe them $10,000 due to an error made over several years by your former employer.
A very happy new year and all my best wishes to Diane and her living room guests 😉 Thank you for being my port in the storm.
Here’s my piece on staying safe. Yes, obviously, vaccines/ boosters and good masks. Testing is the 3rd leg of the stool, and IMHO fed, states and employers need to get on the stick. There’s no excuse for hard-to-find &/or expensive rapid self-test kits. They should be cheap and plentiful. No excuse for lab capacity that can’t turn around PCR’s in 24hrs or less—which happens every time there’s a pre/post holiday crunch. Getting a PCR test should be quick [like same day you need it] and cheap or free. People who are out there working every day get exposed! Especially in indoor work settings where vax/ masks are optional/ not enforced (let alone proper air circulation). They need to be able to test pronto– & must be able to stay home during the period between exposure and reliable negative result (or recovery from covid)– without losing pay/ job! If a policy like that were required of all employers, you can bet they’d be enforcing vax for those who can, and masking for all, and upgrading their air circulation.
My sons are instrument/ band teachers with more risk of exposure than some people (& so have to get tested more often). Whether PCR or rapid self-test, you have to wait 72 hrs before administering (minimum incubation period). The self-tests come in packets of 2, because you need to test [minimum] two days in a row. A positive result is 75% reliable; a negative result is only 25% reliable. Self-tests are too hard to get &/or too expensive.
The PCR test is highly reliable, at normal times results are in same day, or 24hrs max. Getting tested has not been a problem. In the NJ city where they live, there are trucks all over town– you stand in line for a little while (no appt) & get tested on the spot. They’ve also found they can get appts quickly by calling around to nearby MedEmerge-type clinics.
Fortunately for them (unlike pubsch teachers), their music school has a robust online platform—and employer expects them to teach remotely from exposure date until in the clear. The whole staff got exposed recently after a weekend marathon of rehearsals/ recitals: an unvaccinated student tested positive the next day. Staff was all vaccinated (many boosted too, incl my sons), and all were well-masked throughout. No staff caught it.
However. My sons are both down with covid (probably Omicron) right now. Their bubble done it. (2 nearby apts, 5 people total, who get together frequently). These millennials are all double-vaccinated, some boostered too, & generally on the cautious side. But somebodies were apparently still living in the oh-great-Delta’s-declined world & didn’t get the Omicron memo. Elder son’s 2 roommates decided to travel to attend some crowded barely-masked event Xmas Eve, & the 5 got together just after Xmas… Damn!
Bethree5,
Recent research suggests that breakthrough infections greatly increase immune response going forward. See https://news.ohsu.edu/2021/12/16/breakthrough-infections-generate-super-immunity-to-covid-19-study-suggests .
If your sons have the typical symptoms of breakthrough covid infections, you should think of it as a blessing.
Thank you, TE! I’m sending that link right off to them. That will boost spirits.
So let me ask what are the odds that the 40% of unvaccinated Americans from 5 -95 or the 70% that have not taken a booster will pay attention to the test results unless they are highly symptomatic. Especially in a home test . Omicron although devastating for the hospital system may equal a super immunity for those already triple vaccinated without immune deficiencies. I am not advocating going out and getting infected. It may be a little late for testing at this point with an R factor of up to 5 . You do not catch up without extreme social distancing. Something we will not do.
This could give us a chance to correct our original sin. The failure here was to not remove patent protection last December, to enable world wide production and mass Vaccination before variants developed.
Wall Street Investors did not create the Vaccine. The effort would have died in its infancy without NIH and Defense Department funding.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion-dollar-covid-vaccines-basic-government-funded-science-laid-the-groundwork/
What will the next variant bring. Will it be as transmissible and more able to evade vaccines or more deadly. It wont matter how much we test here or vaccinate if we ignore the “Global South” .
Superimmune!
I passed the test!
And now I’m blessed
I’m Superman
And superimmune
The viral tide
Is nullified
I’ve won the fight
With Kryptonite
Superimmune!
I passed the test!
And now I’m blessed
The viral tide
Is nullified
I’ve won the fight
With Kryptonite
I’m Superman
And superimmune
Faster than a spreading virus
Able to leap pandemics in a single bound.
Look, up in the sky. It’s Superimmune!
Another round of Corona!
We celebrate the virus
With whiskey and with beer
And lots of friends beside us
To catch the virus here
Take care everyone! Let’s hope we can turn some big corners in 2022.
I tested positive on Wednesday. No symptoms.
!!!!
Please let us know how things progress with you, Flerp!
Thanks for asking, Bob. Still no symptoms for me or the rest of the family (we all tested positive). So our quarantine ends Tuesday. All good news.
Hospitalization numbers have been climbing in NYC, but anecdotally, I’ve heard from maybe 20-30 people who’ve tested positive in the last month, and none have experienced symptoms worse than a cold. Seems consistent with a weaker strain and effective vaccinations. So I am optimistic.
FLERP, I hope you stay asymptomatic. My son-in-law got it and quarantined for 10 days. He said it was like a bad cold. He was fully vaccinated.
Extremely glad to hear this, Flerp! One of my best friends and her 1-year-old baby both tested positive a couple weeks ago. Same. Very mild symptoms. Probably the Omicron variant.
The roll out is still rolling out a year later with the same medicine that nosedives within six months. If everyone lined up on day one when it was their turn what would it look like now?
I’ll leave this 12/30 hotlink report from LACDPH. And if you want to know what variant dominance looks like based on location, rewind to 11:38 for a piechart illustration of Omicron vs Delta.
For most of my life, about this time of year, there would be a lot of photo essays and just plain old essays in the media about “the most magical moments of 19__.” Not this year. Almost none of that. Gee. I wonder why. Does it have anything to do with a pandemic AND a president who tried to lead an insurrection against our government and has suffered ZERO negative consequences for this?
So, not “magical 2012 photo essays.”
With one exception. I just got a piece in my email entitled “The Most Magical Moments of 2021” from [drum roll please] Sotheby’s. Of cousre.
Oh yes, it was another magical year for the extremely rich. Sales of luxury goods are doing very, very well indeed. If you sell $400,000 watches, these are boom times. Of course, inflation in such markets is extreme. So, you might have to pay a little more this year for that painting you had your eye on for 180 million last year.
But you won’t pay a fraction of a percentage point more in taxes.
It’s magical.
The Magic Year
The Magic Year
For billionaire
Was filled with fear
And cupboards bare
For all the rest
For you and me
But year was best
For Jeff, you see
And Jeff’s are all
Who really count
They own the ball
Without a doubt
Don’t worry about me, SomeDAM. I taught at the end of my career, so I am, heh heh, let’s just say, VERY comfortable. Now, if you will excuse me, the new Hermès and Patek Philippe catalogues just arrived. So, just how dangerous is one of those Blue Origin flights?
Or as Trump would call them, the “blue oranges”
I hear that Florida has some very good blue oranges.
Hehehee, Bob. Now we know why you show only shoulders up in your adorable pic. I have mentally extended the portrait to include demurely folded hands—right wrist adorned with a classic Patek Philippe, left with an Apple Watch Hermès for keeping an eye on your fave stocks.
Wait for the punch line at the break.
Of course, these plus Cheez Whiz plus horse tranquilizer will reverse advanced Type 2 Diabetes entirely!
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Epidemiologist Donald J. Trump, February 2020
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear” said Trump…about American Democracy
“Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has boasted that she is unvaccinated, but news came out last week that she owns stock in three of the four major vaccine manufacturers. At least we can be assured that she’s not fighting vaccines for her own financial benefit.”
Really? Can we be assured of that? How do we know she is not actually vaccinated? By taking her word for it when she says she is not? Has she been truthful on other things?
A skeptic might say she is simply claiming not to be vaccinated to insulate herself from criticism from Democrats while simultaneously appealing to her base.
The skeptic might ask “How many times is Charlie Brown going to fall for Lucy’s football trick?”
Doesn’t the media have more important items to report on? Keep mentioning her and keep inflating her ego. NOT the way to go…
Either way she is playing with a fire she is unable to extinguish. Doing more harm than good. Seeking the spotlight at any price.
Latest on MJT: her crazy rants have pulled in $4.8 million from admirers. Why worry about stock prices when fools across the country will pay big bucks for your nutty comments.
On a good note: Twitter permanently banned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for spreading lies about COVID on her personal account. Their policy is “five strikes and you are out.”
Five strikes?
Is that Congressional baseball?
And a Congressional homerun is if you manage to get to first base.
Not incidentally, Taylor Greene’s documented lies are precisely why no one should believe her claim that she is not vaccinated.