The Lazy Season

This is the season where I always become lazy and find it difficult to do any work. The time period typically ranges from Thanksgiving holidays through after the New Year. So, this weekend’s second post did not happen, even though I had an idea of what to write.

This year it’s a bit more difficult than usual. Gee, I wonder why. It’s been such an interesting year.

“May you live in interesting times.”

Supposedly a Chinese curse although it has been suggested that the phrase was coined in the 20th century.

I’d rather not have such an interesting life.

I’m not the only one winding down at the end of the year. Those folks who have been tracking and sending data on the COVID-19 took a break over the Christmas holidays. The medical personnel certainly deserve a respite (although, hospitals are currently reaching critical levels such that they fear they will have to start triaging care, which means death will climb up).

Here’s data that I pulled today:

Those downturns that we’re seeing in the cases and deaths…those are not real downturns because some local and state areas are not reporting over the holidays. My state did not report numbers over the Christmas weekend so I know more states did not report numbers. These numbers are artificially low.

The experts say that the reporting system won’t get back to normal until January 8 – I would have though sooner, maybe the 4th – but it will sometime around that week.

On another note, there is a new variant of the virus which is even more contagious than the one we had been seeing. It was first found in the UK but now other countries are seeing this new variant. Colorado has reported today that they have spotted this new variant.

With our hospitals nearing full capacity, this new variant is just going to complicate things. It may speed up our slow moving disaster because Americans have been traveling during this holiday season, which I impute to mean that Americans have been gathering around the Christmas table and will most likely be partying over the New Year. The bad results are baked in – there is no getting around it – and now we are adding in this highly contagious variant to the mix.

Yeah, it’s going to get worse in the US before it gets better. The vaccine won’t be widely available until maybe the beginning of spring or sometime in the summer. This bad news is locked in.