Christmas in the DC metro area – Guarded hopefulness concerning the omicron variant – Empty traffic arteries and city streets – Decreased White House social activities – Evening statistics
It has been a merry Christmas in a tranquil sort of way. In the morning I went with various other Wanderbirds on an urban hike that looped from Dupont Circle through the Kalorama area and along the Kringle and Tregaron trails. Washington is not an especially large city by American standards, either in area or in population, but it has so much variety that one can embark upon hike after hike within its boundaries and encounter something new each time. At one point, for instance, we passed by a carefully preserved example of an overthrust fault, a type of fault occurs when the upper side of the fault is pushed up through constant compression. It was the first time I knew that such an example existed in the city, although as it happens there are several overthrust faults have occurred in the area. As we went through the Kalorama area, we saw several diplomatic residences, a few embassies, and several historic homes, and we also walked along the Taft Bridge, which carries Connecticut Avenue over Rock Creek Park, readily distinguishable by its concrete lions. Towards the end of the hike we descended along the Spanish Steps, which were created because the escarpment between R and S Streets was too steep to make construction of a roadway practicable without destroying adjoining buildings. The steps were built to provide a pedestrian walkway and were modeled after the Spanish Steps in Rome, although they of course are on a considerably smaller scale.
In the evening I attended a family dinner with CC, not a noisy jollification in the Dickensian style, but simply a quiet, sociable meal with that aimed at nothing more than providing delicious food and interesting conversation. These, however, were supplied in abundance.
CC and I indulged in the hope that the omicron variant will prove to be less dangerous than the other, earlier variants; and this expectation may not be entirely without cause. At this point the variant is sufficiently common to provide a fair amount of data for analysis, and preliminary studies indicate that the omicron variant is less efficient than others in invading the lungs, despite being more readily infectious. The increased number of infections will still place a great burden on hospitals during the weeks to come, but if omicron becomes the dominant variant there is a good chance that the death rate from COVID will decline significantly.
But even though the atmosphere was much less tense today than it was at the same time last year, the effects of the pandemic were felt. Hardly anyone was on the roads today. One would expect lighter traffic than usual on Christmas Day; but still during most years there is a good deal of visiting relatives and friends and neighbors, traveling back and forth among the various neighborhoods. Today the Beltway was so lightly used that I was able to drive on it using cruise control and I drove into downtown with as little difficulty as I would experience in a much smaller town. Again, during the hike we encountered very few people on the streets. Several stores were closed for the day, to be sure, but ordinarily Dupont Circle is bustling during the holidays; whereas today it was eerily quiet.
The White House has been affected as well: in place of the usual parties with overflowing buffet tables that have characterized it during previous Christmases, Joe and Jill Biden have observed Christmas with a limited number of food-free open houses for invited guests to gaze at the Christmas trees and other decorations. Various other major social events for the coming year have been canceled, including the White House ball for the nation’s governors and the Easter Egg Roll.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 279,829,699; # of deaths worldwide: 5,413,118; # of cases U.S.: 53,026,765; # of deaths; U.S.: 837,779.