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Vaccination & Disease in Hawaii
Apr. 30th, 2021 10:14 pmKimberly and I got our second vaccinations on Thursday.
I managed to work with my dad in the afternoon (getting very close to finishing Kimberly's office!), but Kimberly and I were both EXHAUSTED by the evening. Then I had a fitful night of sleep, broken up when I was awoken by Kimberly around 4am, calling out for me because she'd gotten up, almost fainted, and thought her heart rate was 220. (That was due to the fact that she got woken up because her Fitbit beeped to congratulate her for 20 active minutes. She was having palpitations, and when she looked at her wrist it said 220, but that was steps, not bpm. Her actual heart rate was around 90.)
Then when I got up in the morning, I was stiff, sore, congested, and generally feeling crappy. (But not as muzzy-headed as I was after the first shot.)
I felt a little better after a very hot shower, but it was mid-day before I really felt myself again. I've been mostly fine since. I even walked out on the golf course before dinner.
Fortunately, I was bright enough not just to take the day off work, but to actually abide by that, mostly sitting around reading, albeit with a little online research for my first Designers & Dragons history in May, which will be Sine Nomine Publishing, for The '10s.
Kimberly had a worse time of it all, and is still feeling off this evening, but I'll let her write about that.
So, 13 days and counting at this point. Then I'm fully immunized, can stop shrinking away from every tourist on the trails, and will be 5G compliant.
When Kimberly and I were driving over to the Kauai War Memorial Convention Center yesterday for our shots, we noticed a long line snaking up the side of the building.
Kimberly thought it was great that so many people were getting vaccinated, as the line was much longer than last time. I was uncertain, because last time around we'd gotten vaccinated at the rear of the building (which was the main entrance), not the side. Sure enough, that's what happened again this time.
So what was the long line? I saw the sign while waiting in my own line: COVID TESTING.
Because Kauai is LITERALLY undergoing its worst outbreak of COVID throughout this entire pandemic. We have over 40 active cases, which we've never had before, and we're running a 7-day average of more than 7 cases a day, WHICH WE'VE NEVER HAD BEFORE.
The problem is that our feckless and mathematically challenged mayor opened the island up to tourists in April, even though we knew perfectly well that when he did that in October it led to a huge community outbreak (but not as bad as this!), forcing him to reapply quarantine.
Sure enough, the fool did the same thing in April, and (shocker) it had the same result. The difference? Last time he correctly pulled back, and reinitiated the quarantine that had protected us. This time, he's remaining bent over for tourist interests. He seems determined to try and weather it out, to wait until the vaccination forms a wall. As I said, he's bad at math. He doesn't seem to understand that the cases are getting exponentially worse. 2 cases for a few days went to 6 for a few days, went to over a dozen for a few days ...
The thing that just makes me weep is that everyone on the island who wanted to be vaccinated would have been by the end of May. We'd already been closed for 12 months. And he couldn't wait two more. He wasted all of our sacrifice because he was impatient, now people will die (already have) and will long-term health consequences as a result.
So, sot only was there a ghastly line for testing, but they actually ran out of tests! Today they were rationing them!
Dunno what's going to happen. We've already had our second death on-island, and that doesn't seem to be enough to deter Mayor Kawakami either.
In fact, he's been almost silent on the plague, pestilence, and death he's allowing to spread.
Yes, at a certain point we're going to have to tell people they're on their own if they choose not to get a vaccine, but right now we're at a point where people who get vaccinated on the first day it was generally available won't even be getting their next shot until next week at the earliest.
So, the phrase "grossly irresponsible" comes to mind.
As I've told Kimberly a few times, this whole pandemic has really destroyed my faith in humanity. Because we have so many scumbags who think their vacation is more important than other peoples' health. So many people utterly unable to see past their personal, sociopathic belief about "freedom" to the society that they're a part of. So many people who are so delusional, listening to whatever alt-right bullshit they hear on the internet. So many people who are just bad human beings.
And they really made it obvious during the pandemic, where they couldn't stay home, couldn't help their community, couldn't resist jumping on an airplane to go on a vacation in an otherwise protected island chain halfway around the world, couldn't even wear a frickin' mask.
I managed to work with my dad in the afternoon (getting very close to finishing Kimberly's office!), but Kimberly and I were both EXHAUSTED by the evening. Then I had a fitful night of sleep, broken up when I was awoken by Kimberly around 4am, calling out for me because she'd gotten up, almost fainted, and thought her heart rate was 220. (That was due to the fact that she got woken up because her Fitbit beeped to congratulate her for 20 active minutes. She was having palpitations, and when she looked at her wrist it said 220, but that was steps, not bpm. Her actual heart rate was around 90.)
Then when I got up in the morning, I was stiff, sore, congested, and generally feeling crappy. (But not as muzzy-headed as I was after the first shot.)
I felt a little better after a very hot shower, but it was mid-day before I really felt myself again. I've been mostly fine since. I even walked out on the golf course before dinner.
Fortunately, I was bright enough not just to take the day off work, but to actually abide by that, mostly sitting around reading, albeit with a little online research for my first Designers & Dragons history in May, which will be Sine Nomine Publishing, for The '10s.
Kimberly had a worse time of it all, and is still feeling off this evening, but I'll let her write about that.
So, 13 days and counting at this point. Then I'm fully immunized, can stop shrinking away from every tourist on the trails, and will be 5G compliant.
When Kimberly and I were driving over to the Kauai War Memorial Convention Center yesterday for our shots, we noticed a long line snaking up the side of the building.
Kimberly thought it was great that so many people were getting vaccinated, as the line was much longer than last time. I was uncertain, because last time around we'd gotten vaccinated at the rear of the building (which was the main entrance), not the side. Sure enough, that's what happened again this time.
So what was the long line? I saw the sign while waiting in my own line: COVID TESTING.
Because Kauai is LITERALLY undergoing its worst outbreak of COVID throughout this entire pandemic. We have over 40 active cases, which we've never had before, and we're running a 7-day average of more than 7 cases a day, WHICH WE'VE NEVER HAD BEFORE.
The problem is that our feckless and mathematically challenged mayor opened the island up to tourists in April, even though we knew perfectly well that when he did that in October it led to a huge community outbreak (but not as bad as this!), forcing him to reapply quarantine.
Sure enough, the fool did the same thing in April, and (shocker) it had the same result. The difference? Last time he correctly pulled back, and reinitiated the quarantine that had protected us. This time, he's remaining bent over for tourist interests. He seems determined to try and weather it out, to wait until the vaccination forms a wall. As I said, he's bad at math. He doesn't seem to understand that the cases are getting exponentially worse. 2 cases for a few days went to 6 for a few days, went to over a dozen for a few days ...
The thing that just makes me weep is that everyone on the island who wanted to be vaccinated would have been by the end of May. We'd already been closed for 12 months. And he couldn't wait two more. He wasted all of our sacrifice because he was impatient, now people will die (already have) and will long-term health consequences as a result.
So, sot only was there a ghastly line for testing, but they actually ran out of tests! Today they were rationing them!
Dunno what's going to happen. We've already had our second death on-island, and that doesn't seem to be enough to deter Mayor Kawakami either.
In fact, he's been almost silent on the plague, pestilence, and death he's allowing to spread.
Yes, at a certain point we're going to have to tell people they're on their own if they choose not to get a vaccine, but right now we're at a point where people who get vaccinated on the first day it was generally available won't even be getting their next shot until next week at the earliest.
So, the phrase "grossly irresponsible" comes to mind.
As I've told Kimberly a few times, this whole pandemic has really destroyed my faith in humanity. Because we have so many scumbags who think their vacation is more important than other peoples' health. So many people utterly unable to see past their personal, sociopathic belief about "freedom" to the society that they're a part of. So many people who are so delusional, listening to whatever alt-right bullshit they hear on the internet. So many people who are just bad human beings.
And they really made it obvious during the pandemic, where they couldn't stay home, couldn't help their community, couldn't resist jumping on an airplane to go on a vacation in an otherwise protected island chain halfway around the world, couldn't even wear a frickin' mask.