Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. We’re still dealing with increases in cases of covid19 in these parts due to wider spread of two variants - B.1.1.7 and B.1.526 - both of which are more virulent than the original covid19 strain that did so much damage this time last year. The former was first identified in the UK (hey, how’d that get here?!) and the latter was identified first in NYC (USA! USA!)

And yet, people want to reopen schools faster and loosen restrictions, even in this area. That is stupendously counterproductive, since kids and people under 55 are the largest pool of cases at the moment, and they’re also the ones unable to get vaccinated until April 19 at the earliest unless you have health conditions.

It’s a particularly risky time here because you’ve got pandemic fatigue, wishful thinking that the vaccine is the sole solution, and we don’t have to worry about new cases or deaths because those are “manageable”.

It’s a race to get more people vaccinated than the new variants can spread and infect more people.