I am going to get a facial and a massage. I just booked my trip for March.
I have not booked any flights in so long, I was surprised how few flights were available and I had a hard time finding a direct flight. I guess a lot of airlines have cancelled flights.
Covid rules or not, cause and effect still functions and life as we used to know it may eventually come back… some of it.
I don’t think even the most shut-in amongst us could deny they weren’t warned.
In terms of conveying specific industry information , yes. In terms of the value of the convention, relationships, etc. not even close.
Business is about relationships. Zoom is not a replacement for this. Just doesn’t work that way. I have been to many many many of these and the value of relationships built and preserved at dinner, in the bar, on the golf course is not replicable online. It just isn’t. The technical stuff, sure. That’s not what these are for.
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I’ll just worry less in general. DH is a pharmacist in a grocery store and for several months my son was working at a different grocery store so our bubble has never been tightly closed and even though we’ve been pretty careful (always masked, no indoor restaurants and very few outdoor patios, masked and outdoors around friends and family) I’m surprised no one brought home Covid before now given the spread in our community.
DH is more than two weeks past his second Covid vaccine and I already feel safer myself and less worried for him. I’m in the no priority group so it’s going to be a while before I’m vaccinated, but I look forward to going to church in person again, and not worrying so much when someone walks too close to me in a store. I’ll enjoy sitting on the patio at our local coffee shop even if it’s not empty, going to the gym, and I really look forward to the return of the Broadway touring season (I’m hearing rumors of September 2021 for that) and hope I can relax enough in a big space with lots of people to enjoy it.
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Also, I really look forward to my son’s choir performances being live and in person again, even if I have to get on a plane to see them, and being vaccinated will make that possible.
Hate to be the Debbie Downer here, but S Africa just suspended use of the Astrazeneca vaccine there, since it didn’t seem to work well against the variant that’s become prevalent there. AstraZeneca’s Vaccine Does Not Work Well Against Virus Variant in South Africa - The New York Times
Clearly, the vaccines are going to have to be reformulated to cover the prevailing strain. Looks as if this is going to be a periodic booster vaccine, newly engineered to match the latest strains.
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Your husband couldn’t just sneak you a shot? 
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I guess no different than flu shots.
I fully expect to need a booster or additional vaccines. That’s fine with me.
I get a flu shot every year. I got the pneumonia and shingles vaccines. I’m not adverse to vaccines and will do whatever is needed.
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Is there any evidence that the current Pfizer and Moderna vaccines help at all with the SA variant?
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They have no idea if boosters will be needed. When they first had chickenpox vaccine, they thought it would be just one and done, but then when my kids were 5 they needed a booster and then another as teens. Who knows if they’ll need another now that they are in their 20s? These 20-30 somethings are the first generation to be vaccinated with the chickenpox vaccine, just like we are all first for the covid ones.
I am extremely high risk and because we have to be so careful the toll on my kids has terrible. Our state has had ten months of virtual schooling. Zero play dates. I would live like this forever if they could just have even semi normal lives. The stress reduction alone would be so wonderful.
He’d get fired if he sneaked me a shot 
also the entire clientele of his store is elderly folks and of course wouldn’t take a vaccine from any of them if it was offered. They do have some sort of informal cancellation call list but no one is cancelling, and they have plenty of over 75’s on the list and in the store all the time just in case someone does cancel. I do kind of hope to be on the early side of things when there’s finally some vaccine availability for my non priority group.
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The issue with varicella vaccination is that there is incomplete response to the vaccine.
Some people will still get a mild infection if exposed after only one dose (both my kids did). The second dose brings the number who become immune up to about 99%. Its not that anyone’s immunity wears off, and they need yet another dose after that. Once you’re immune, you’re immune (it seems - we only have about 40 yrs of data so far).
Because scientists believe that immunity after Covid infection wanes, it seems likely that immunity after Covid immunization would wane, too. But the real problem is that the spike protein is mutating, and the current vaccine strategy is to get the body to make antibodies to the spike protein. Imagine a lock and key. Change one little nubbin on the key, and it doesn’t fit anymore. Change a base pair or two on the spike protein, and it folds a bit differently, and the antibodies induced by the vaccine may no longer be able to bind to the spike protein, and prevent it from infecting cells.
The solution is going to be an annual Covid vaccine, probably together with the flu shot, that is genetically engineered to match the newest variant, maybe even more than one variant, the same way that we have 4 strains of the flu in the flu shot.
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And hopefully the annual Covid vaccine is better predicted for variation than the luck of the draw that sometimes seems to happen with flu shots
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We have run into the same issue. The vaccine comes in vials of 10 shots and has to be used moderately quickly once it is taken out of the deep freeze. Who they can give it to is very heavily regulated. At the end of the day they have to throw it away if they do not have an exact multiple of 10 patients in the correct authorized group. Someone I know well has had to throw some away rather than have me show up and use the last dose.
They are very careful about getting an exact multiple of 10 patients to avoid wasting any. However, there has been at least one case where I could have been there in time to get the last dose and it was not allowed – it had to be discarded instead.
The vaccination centers here can give out the last doses of the day, but they need to be fair. I’m on a list at a hospital and have agreed to be there in 15 minutes if I’m called.
Yesterday at one of the big events for 70+ year olds, they ended up with 200 extra doses. They contacted a school district and offered them to the first 200 teachers who showed up. Now teachers are in the group that opens tomorrow, so it was a violation to do them yesterday, but they did. It also was a suburban district where most of the district was much more than 30 minutes away and they only had 1 hour to get there. A friend got the email and she got there in time, but her house has to be 40 miles away. This also caused a traffic back up at the event center, and they had to park and go inside too.
I suspect the provider of the event is also under contract with the school district starting tomorrow.
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When I went for my last dose they were allowing seniors without appointments to wait until the end of the day if there were extras. You had to be eligible to be receiving in this group and live or work in our town.
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I think the stress relief after getting fully vaccinated will be huge. Especially for my daughter who is a worrier - she is worried now for herself and my husband. That will go away in March once they are two weeks past their second shot.