COVID-19 Update: Thursday, December 16th, 2021

1. J&J vaccine is facing some possible restrictions on who can get it. The FDA is meeting today to discuss it and recommendations should be forthcoming. This is not shocking as most other countries have already done this.

2. Omicron is here. Also not shocking or unexpected in the least. There is still a ton we don't yet know but here is some stuff we do know. The vaccines are holding up but not perfectly. Pfizer seems to be having the most trouble and they are working on an Omicron-specific booster. Omicron transmits more easily, and seems to infiltrate the respiratory system more quickly but is slower to move into the lung tissue. This explains why it spreads more easily (more of it in your nose and throat) and why it seems like it may be less severe (less in your lungs). But more people with it will naturally mean more people with severe illness - which is not great for our healthcare system. Still, more research is being done to know for sure which way this will go. Just a reminder that 3 exposures to the virus seem to be the most effective at protection, so two-shot vaccine and booster, or COVID infection and vaccines, etc. Also worth remembering is if you got your vaccine over 8 months ago a booster should be on your calendar. The vaccines seem to lose their juice after about 6-8 months, as does natural infection. This is not uncommon, there are quite a few vaccines that we take a series of shots in order to gain full immunity or that fade over time. Consider that we have to get the tetanus vaccine every 10 years, flu every year, so this is pretty normal vaccine behavior. And when the variant changes significantly, it is pretty common for the vaccine to need to change too.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Captain's log stardate -302957.58.....I seem to have lost all track of time and space. Christmas is upon me and I am unsure how that happened. A tree wrapped in lights and lined with a few meager gifts is in my house, but the normal festivities are somehow missing. With great shock, I realized that Christmas is only days away and I have only watched one Christmas movie, have yet to purchase the majority of gifts needed, and am running woefully low on Christmas spirit as well as Christmas carols. There has been no Eggnog this year, no hot chocolate, no Christmas parties or festival of lights. Christmas cookies have not been baked and decorated, there have been no sleigh rides, and I have no treats to leave for the Reindeer. There has been no Christmas miracle. Like so many others I have to work right up to Christmas Eve and will be back at it the Monday after. I feel inexplicably stressed this year. I am guzzling coffee by the gallon and somewhere along the way, I seem to have run out of steam. Many are also struggling with recent storms, the loss of loved ones, the anniversary of the loss of loved ones, loss of their homes, their jobs, their health.....the list is long. And so today I choose to stop and breathe. I choose to remember what is truly important in life and what this season is all about. I choose to be reminded that December 26th will march in without concern for what I did the day before or how much Eggnog I had time for. Time marches on. It doesn't care if we are ready and once it passes there is no retrieving it. So today, breathe. Look around. Laugh. Waste a little time, because in some circles we call that savoring, living in the moment, and finding some joy.