After I got the vaccine I sort of forgot about the pandemic. Not really but, I still wear a mask and stay away from certain places. The gym, the bar...those sort of places.

Yesterday the mother of my business partner died from Covid-19. This morning I got a call that one of my wife's cousins died last night. Two parts of the world, same results.

This is a sort of sad helpless feeling and once again I am ordering flowers and sympathy cards in two languages I only speak well enough for normal day to day conversation.

Take care of yourself and get vaccinated if you can and you feel it is the right thing for you. This is a serious disease that is still killing people. Today my dear friends and family...tomorrow no one knows who is next.

Be safe,

Billy

Sorry to hear your news
It indeed is all very real (at least here in MI)

My dad came home from the hospital 2 days ago (after being intubated)
We've lost other people close to family
I can relate to the pain and 'helpless' part of your post

I guess the most hopeful thing I can add is that I was vaccinated for 2 weeks before being in close contact with my dad the day before he went into ER, and I have had no symptoms (still quarantining though, 13 days later)

So I'm kinda pro vaccine at this point myself.
When I first heard he was in ER, getting intubated for Covid, I gotta admit I panicked a bit .. as I was just in his house the day before

People had this ridiculous notion that when 2020 ended and the regime changed that Covid would be done too. How many posts and tweets and all of that did you read that said something close to "I can't wait for 2020 to be over so we can get back to normal."

WHY did any even semi intelligent person think that changing the last digit of the year was going to make Covid go away? Even with the vaccine people need to expect to continue to work from home. The bunch that immediately raced to the bar and the restaurants and in the group that now have a piece of luggage hanging from their lungs. NOTHING is over! The vaccine was probably the most misinterpreted thing I have ever seen. It doesn't prevent you from catching it, and nobody ever claimed it did. It eases the symptoms if you DO catch it, but it won't keep you from getting it. What will keep you from getting it is the same things that kept you from getting it for the last year. The vaccine is almost a bad thing because of the false sense of security that comes with it. There are people who have Covid and don't know because the vaccine suppresses the symptoms who are going out into close quarters and spreading it. A large number of state are reporting INCREASES in number of cases since the vaccine started.

Keep your distance. Wear your mask. And if yo want to keep being bullheaded about not wearing your mask, stay the hell away from me so you don't infect me.

Billy, I'm sorry for the loss you and your wife are experiencing. Rharv, I'm glad to read your Dad has left the hospital.

Billy, sorry to hear about people in your circle...
Sad.

I've heard Biden speech yesterday. Among other things, he talked about forming ARPA-H a health research agency, based on DARPA model. I think it might have significant potential for situations similar to the one we are in.

P.S. Got my first shot today. No crazy stuff. I spoke to younger people in their 30's and folks 70+. Most say after a second shot they experience cold like symptoms for a day, then it is back to normal.

Thanks guys. Sometimes there is just not much place to go to express how I feel. There is a sense of community here on this forum. I am generally pretty stoic about such issues. Somehow this just seemed to hit pretty hard. As I get older I find I am just not as bulletproof as I once thought I was.

Rharv, I also am glad to here the good news about your dad.

Be safe,

Billy

Sorry about your losses Billy.

A musician friend died last year.

A family member got COVID-19 over a year ago and still hasn't regained his sense of taste or smell. The docs say it's brain damage, and he has to try to train his brain to smell again.

The whole family got it, they were anti-vaxxers. Now they tell me, they were stupid.

Notes

Thanks Bob. I feel better today.

There is positive information coming in about the effects of the vaccine both in preventing death and resistance to acquiring the disease to begin with and very little negative reports.

In both the cases with my family the people had not been vaccinated. One because the doctors said it was ill advised for Carlos mom. She had serious health issues. The cousin because the vaccine was not available.

Near the beginning of the pandemic we had several people we know die. Then both the infections and deaths seemed to just stop here in the farm area. Now we are all vaccinated to include the employees.

Just about the time I began to relax this happened. Hit squarely in the face that this pandemic is not over by a long shot.

Perhaps most people don't have friends and family scattered all over the world like I do. So what is going on with the pandemic in other countries is less of a concern to them and more directly affects me.

Getting control of this disease here in the United States is my first priority but we will never be safe until it is under control world wide. By under control I am referring to reducing this from a pandemic status to a least an epidemic status.

Civid-19 will be here indefinitely like many current diseases. The flu kills some number of people here in the United States. The numbers are actually unknown as no one is tracking those deaths. The estimate is somewhere between 20,000 to 60,000.

Vaccines may not be perfect but they are the only answer we have at the moment. I have listen to people tell me the vaccines are experimental. With 100 million people vaccinated here in the US alone I think we are far beyond the experimental stage.

Fear of using the vaccine is not supported by the facts. How many people do you know who have died from Covid-19? How many people do you know who have died from the vaccine?

Be safe,

Billy

To all that have lost loved ones due to Covid 19 I'm sorry for your losses.

I agree with Billy that until the entire world gets this under control we are still in danger. Vaccines are the answer. That has been proven thus far and although I don't like the government telling us what to do IMHO getting this vaccine should be mandatory. That is no shot(s) no work, no welfare, no unemployment checks.

After all Americans get vaccinated we should be selling the shots to rich countries and giving them to the poor countries.

This pandemic is something we have never seen before thus must be treated differently.

YMMV