Resorting to physical therapy – Elon Musk – A faked vaccination certificate – Some positive developments about omicron – Evening statistics
I am not an especial hypochondriac, but I tend to get apprehensive about unexplained aches in the knees and hips. I have known several friends and relatives who have neglected seemingly slight pains in these joints until they become so serious as to be the first step in the descent to lameness. For the past several days I have had a persistent dull ache in both the left hip and the right knee, and today I went to an orthopedist to have it investigated. Both the knee and the hip were X-rayed, and the news is good: no cartilage damage, no signs of arthritis. The orthopedist wrote out a prescription for physical therapy, which I was able to obtain this same afternoon. I have had recourse to physical therapy in the past for other issues, and I am always impressed by the therapists’ professionalism and range of knowledge. In this case the exercises that the therapist recommended have already provided considerable relief.
Time Magazine has designated Elon Musk as “Man of the Year,” and if by that they mean someone most representative of the age at large I concede that they have made a thoroughly appropriate choice. Senator Elizabeth Warren noted that he had paid no taxes in 2018, and called upon him to correct this oversight. Whereupon he publicly excoriated Warren in the most shrill and venomous terms, outraged by the suggestion that his special privileges are called in question and that he is expected to pay taxes like everyone else. I am bound to say that I am mystified by the praise so many have bestowed upon him. He appears to have the same sort of bloated ego that afflicts many of our most prominent celebrities. Happily he has not, up to this point, demonstrated any political ambitions; otherwise he could easily become a second Donald Trump – and merely one of these, surely, is as much of a penance that any nation can reasonably be expected to endure.
An unidentified woman was admitted to the Raymond-Poincaré de Garches hospital in Hauts-de-Seine for COVID-19 at the start of December. When she arrived at the hospital, she presented its medical staff with a certificate that said she had been vaccinated against the virus. The staff accepted it at face value, although as matters turned out, the certificate was faked. The virus was less readily hoodwinked than the physicians: the woman’s health deteriorated rapidly and the tests she underwent revealed that she had no antibodies. By the time doctors found out about her fake vaccination, it was too late to change her treatment. The disease had progressed to a degree that its effects were irreversible and she died shortly afterwards.
Several fully vaccinated, boosted staffers who work at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center recently contracted the omicron variant of the virus after attending a wedding. The outbreak actually gives us reason to be hopeful. None of the staffers fell seriously ill and they don’t appear to have passed the virus on to anyone else. So far, despite its transmissibility, the symptoms of the omicron variant appear to be relatively mild. Cases of the virus as a whole are increasing, but hospitalizations remain relatively low in counties whose population has a 70% or higher vaccination rate. At any rate, it’s beginning to appear that those who are fully vaccinated do not have to worry about the omicron variant. It’s still a bit early, of course, to make a definite pronouncement on this matter; but the results so far are certainly encouraging.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 273,197,272; # of deaths worldwide: 5,352,184; # of cases U.S.: 51,435,652; # of deaths; U.S.: 824,520.