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canyonwalkerToday is the one year anniversary of the Coronavirus pandemic. It was on March 11, 2020 that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic. I know that because— well, do you even read news? It's all over the media— and also because I wrote about it in my blog one year ago today.
Anniversaries are natural times for retrospective. There's so much I could write about how things are different now vs. then, even how what I think is different now vs. then. For example, on March 11, 2020 it wasn't clear that Coronavirus would become a pandemic in the U.S.
As I noted in a blog post six weeks earlier Covid-19 was following trajectories similar to SARS and MERS, two other Coronaviruses that reached pandemic stage earlier in the 21st century but never spread significantly into developed countries. But the spread had already begun; we just didn't know it. Through political leaders combining gross incompetence with flagrant dishonesty we didn't know how bad things were becoming until around mid-March. When their house of cards fell, it fell fast— at least for those of us open to science. Deniers kept on denying for months.
Now, at least, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Several vaccinations have been tested and approved. Millions have gotten shots. Although the rollout started three months ago the medicine is still in short supply. Locally I've seen a stop-start cycle with vaccination centers opening wide for appointments one day then having to close a few days later due to insufficient doses. A "vaccine tracker" at NPR (data as of 11 Mar 2021) shows that nationwide in the US just under 10% of the population are fully vaccinated and just under 20% have received one shot of the two-shot plan. I am among those who've not even been permitted to get a first dose yet. So, while the light is visible at the end of the tunnel, we're not out of the danger yet.
Anniversaries are natural times for retrospective. There's so much I could write about how things are different now vs. then, even how what I think is different now vs. then. For example, on March 11, 2020 it wasn't clear that Coronavirus would become a pandemic in the U.S.
As I noted in a blog post six weeks earlier Covid-19 was following trajectories similar to SARS and MERS, two other Coronaviruses that reached pandemic stage earlier in the 21st century but never spread significantly into developed countries. But the spread had already begun; we just didn't know it. Through political leaders combining gross incompetence with flagrant dishonesty we didn't know how bad things were becoming until around mid-March. When their house of cards fell, it fell fast— at least for those of us open to science. Deniers kept on denying for months.
Now, at least, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Several vaccinations have been tested and approved. Millions have gotten shots. Although the rollout started three months ago the medicine is still in short supply. Locally I've seen a stop-start cycle with vaccination centers opening wide for appointments one day then having to close a few days later due to insufficient doses. A "vaccine tracker" at NPR (data as of 11 Mar 2021) shows that nationwide in the US just under 10% of the population are fully vaccinated and just under 20% have received one shot of the two-shot plan. I am among those who've not even been permitted to get a first dose yet. So, while the light is visible at the end of the tunnel, we're not out of the danger yet.
