Not Quite Normal in These Foolish Things
- Sept. 3, 2020, 1:36 p.m.
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- Public
Geez. I’ve gotten so busy at work that it almost feels like pre-Covid normal times. Things that are feeling “normal”…and yet not quite:
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Got stuck in a 30-minute traffic jam on the way to the office this morning. But it’s so weird because NOBODY is in the office! Where are all of these people coming from? And are there offices that are actually at full capacity? I know manufacturing at our company is not running with a full staff because of social distancing practices, so where are people going? It feels like half the nation thinks that this pandemic is over and the other half won’t even come out of their houses. Yet our highways are just as busy as they’ve always been. What gives?
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I dress up for work like I’m going to have important meetings and presentations to give. I guess I am dressing up as wishful thinking. Maybe I think I’m going to run into someone? I’m literally sitting here at my desk in an office with maybe four other people in it and they are yards and yards away (and in athletic wear).
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Went to see my doc yesterday to check on my new BP medication. He gave me a flu shot, telling me that the flu vaccine they have this year is stronger and will last longer - he says it will last 6+ months. Then he told me something that actually came out later in the day in a “breaking news” NYT alert (I get them on the reg). He told me that it was going to be announced that there is going to be a Covid vaccine available before the election. Surprise, surprise. Not that I’m sure I will feel safe about getting the vaccine early, but that we may be getting back to some kind of normalcy by…the end of the year? Maybe? Is it even safe to hope??
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I actually had dreams last night. I haven’t been remembering my dreams lately, even though I have been getting some pretty great sleep for whatever reason. But my dreams last night were all about getting Covid and they were so REAL! Like, I could feel myself in the dreams getting a stuffy nose, then a runny nose, then a fever. And I happened to be traveling at the time. It was so realistic and weird.
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And unfortunately, this is probably more normal than not - I’m just not feeling it for either of those guys I went out with last Saturday. I’ve already blown off the anesthesiologist (Doc T.) and the other guy (Mr. P.) keeps wanting to get together and I am slowly backing away from that one. I may see him one more time just to make sure (I really liked our conversation, but that’s about it…no sparks…but maybe??). And the thing is, it’s not like I have anybody else lined up just yet. I keep thinking back to normal times. I can’t remember the last time I held someone’s hand and felt sparks? I think it was Doc. D. A year ago.
Time marches on, but life feels like it’s standing still.
Weird,
GS
Complicated Disaster ⋅ September 03, 2020
I think it's great to get dressed up for the office! A hint of normal.
Also, the science seems to say that an early vaccine isn't a good idea.
xx
Deleted user ⋅ September 03, 2020
I don't think it's going to happen with the vaccine. Everything I hear from my connections suggests that next spring is more realistic. The drug manufacturers can only move clinical trials so fast, and even fast-track status at FDA takes time.
Put it to you this way, no one has submitted a New Drug Application for a COVID-19 vaccine to the FDA yet, and if they were to submit one today and the FDA granted fast-track status under the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program, it's still a 60-day process for review, which would put us past October. Then the vaccines need to be manufactured and distributed, and the FDA has procedures that must be followed and site inspections that must be done for that. Then there will be an order of priority in giving them, as in health care professionals and first responders first, along with government, then people at highest risk, then on down.
So it appears that your doctor is misinterpreting what Fauci said, which is that a vaccine in October is "conceivable" but unlikely. I wish Fauci would stop catering to Trump propaganda, which is designed to make people believe there will be a vaccine before the election. Every time Trump opens his mouth about anything COVID-related, my internal monologue shrieks "That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works!"
Ginger Snap Deleted user ⋅ September 03, 2020
Ugh. I guess it’s wishful thinking. I know logically from everything I’ve heard that it’s not likely, but I want to have hope. Hope is what is keeping me alive right now.
Gangleri ⋅ September 03, 2020
My office is full except for the boss. We are a tiny office, but still.
Ginger Snap Gangleri ⋅ September 03, 2020
Wow! So is the boss doing remote? Why wouldn’t the boss come in if everyone else is there?
Gangleri Ginger Snap ⋅ September 03, 2020
It’s a combination of laziness and his wife being immunocompromised.
Deleted user ⋅ September 03, 2020
Maybe Trump landed a bulk discount for vaccines from Putin!
Ginger Snap Deleted user ⋅ September 03, 2020
Exactly!!
bobbi01 ⋅ September 03, 2020
If 2020 had a slogan your last sentence would be it!