swamprat

I am about 3/4 through this one and I highly recommend it.

Oddly enough, when you are checked into the hospital, they ask whether you have had the virus or not, but not whether you've had the vaccine. They do ask if you have had the flu shot.

I dropped it when it hit $74 a month (with sports package) and they quit showing the Fox Sports channels. I already had Showtime, BritBox, Acorn, Hulu basic (not Hulu TV), and Friendly TV mostly for Mrs. S, who hardly watched YoutubeTV at all. I only watched YoutubeTV for sports, so I was chucking chucking out $100 a month for TV that, for the most part, wasn't being used. I added CBS All Access so she gets all the TV Shows she wants, and I'm only out $47 a month. (I have Amazon Prime for my business and I'd have it regardless of TV offerings, so the cost of that is not part of the equation.) I have an antenna if I need to see local channels, which is never. I simply do not watch television shows anymore. They bores me to tears, for the most part. I prefer to read a good book. I have NHL TV so I can watch the Lightning (think VPN), but I don't watch live college or pro sports much anymore. I can catch most high school sports and can get highlights of most college games I care about on YouTube proper (I still have USF season tickets for football, but I'm not sure how much longer I will do that, either.) If I really want to watch a sporting event, I have 100 sports bars I can go to and share a meal with friends and family while watching. Priorities change as you get older, I guess.

Thursday at 2 PM. Pfizer. Second dose April 8 at 2 PM. About 3 miles from where I work. My understanding is that it's an insurance issue for them. If I get it, spend an inordinate amount of time in the hospital, and/or die. Their rates go up.

Mrs. S has had both of her shots. Until this morning, I did not qualify by age. My primary employer informed me that now that I qualify I have to get one.

For the most part, every where I go people are wearing masks. I continue to wear one indoors and outdoors in large crowds. I have never and will never require people to wear one around me. However, many people at work, and in my side business, put one on when I have to work directly with them.

Compared to Summa Theologica, The Stand is a pamphlet.

For what it is worth, the vehicle was a Genesis SUV. It was a Genesis event he was hosting over the weekend, so that makes sense.

Because I am basically a sick individual, Mrs. S and I listened to this as we waited in the "drive through" line for her to get her first vaccination shot last Sunday morning.

The Pfizer vaccine requires 2 doses, the second 3 weeks after the first, and it DOES NOT prevent getting the virus, it is supposed to just lessen its severity. I know 2 people have come down with symptoms and tested positive since receiving the 2nd dose. However, their symptoms are not severe.

Mike Lupica needs to stick to sports books. I love the Jessie Stone series and this book may have killed it for me. It was worse than awful.

I was at Disney Springs the other day with my son-in-law and grandson to meet my daughter-in-law and those grandkids for lunch and gift exchange. Overhead announcements warned of being escorted out if patrons were not wearing masks and not wearing masks properly. The staff was all over telling non-compliant people to mask up or leave. Orange County Sheriff's deputies were the security, not some security service. Makes sense given they have a precinct office right in Disney Springs. Lots and lots of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, New York, and Ohio plates in the garages and school gear on the patrons. We got there a little before noon and the crowd was starting to pick up. We left around 3:45 and the place was packed.

Also, those getting sick in Florida, anyway, are not getting as sick. Hospitalization for COVID in the major hospitals in Tampa Bay are averaging under 10% with COVID. Tampa Bay as a whole is running around a 7% positive to test ratio. Deaths to positive tests ratio has gone back under 2%.

The numbers from late June and the month of July eschew the ratios upward. Yesterday, Florida performed 108,000 + tests with 8,000 coming up positive. 7.4% rate. Unlike the numbers you and CWB reported, as of yesterday, the hospitalization numbers down here in the Tampa Bay area show a little over 9% of available beds (13,000+) in Tampa Bay are filled with Covid patients ( approx. 1,235) and only 12% ( approx. 148) of those patients are in ICUs and only 3% of those in ICU are on ventilators (approx. 5). The survival rate is currently over 99%. I do not know the infection number of staffs in the area. I do know that ICU and ER nurses have been hit hard by the virus, but it has been getting better. Florida has performed over 7 million tests and is averaging around 100,000 a day. Back in June and July they were testing less than half that many a day and the positive ratio per day was broaching 20%. The death toll ratio has not increased during that time. The survival rate has.

In my area, the testing rate has increased dramatically in the past few weeks, leading to dramatically more positive cases, yet the positive case to test ratio remains around 13% and the death to positive case ration has dropped below 2% again.

My daughter's practice is shutdown this week after a medical assistant started showing symptoms Monday last. The MA had vacationed the previous 2 weeks, the first of those in Orlando. For what it is worth, my daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and the remainder of her staff tested negative.

Local hospital numbers from yesterday morning, from Tampa General (1000 bed level one trauma hospital) and BayCare (15 hospitals with 3480 beds). At TGH 46 Covid patients, 18 in ICU. 4% of total bed count. Drug overdoses outnumber Covid patients 10 to 1. Trauma 2 to 1. BayCare reporting 309 Covid patients, 40 in ICU. 8% of total bed count. These numbers are down from a month ago. It may be coming, but I'm still not seeing hospitals being overwhelmed. In fact, the total admittance in local hospitals is lower than previous years. That may be due to reduced elective surgeries or the snowbirds are staying home this year.