Guidelines for the vaccinated – First travel plans – The shift in emphasis in the entries – The last of Trump’s lawsuits against the election – Evening statistics
The CDC has released guidelines for Americans who are fully vaccinated. They may get together with other fully vaccinated individuals in small groups inside their homes without masks or physical distancing. They can also visit with unvaccinated people from one other household who are at low risk for severe disease. In addition, they will not have to quarantine or take a COVID test for traveling across state borders. At this point about 18% of the population has been vaccinated, so it is still advisable to wear masks and practice social distancing in large gatherings, if only to protect others.
All of which means that, on a personal level, I will soon be able to visit the homes of friends who have been vaccinated and to invite them as guests. The first such visit has already been planned. The trip to New York to see my aunt and to celebrate her 90th birthday, originally scheduled for July, 2020, will occur in April. I will also be making arrangements later on for staying a night or so in the Monongahela Forest area to hike in West Virginia and in the area close to Buchanan to hike in central Virginia. Perhaps, still later in the year, I will be able to stay in a convenient location to tackle the New Jersey portion of the Appalachian Trail as well.
The personal note is recurring in these memoirs, for two reasons. The first is that, as the new guidelines suggest, things are starting to move again. In future months my calendar will no longer consist solely of doctor or dentist appointments and visits from repairmen. As more people in my circle receive the vaccine, parties will begin – small and tentative at first, no doubt, but by degrees getting back to normal. I don’t intend to rush matters and, despite the recommendations of Governor Abbott of Texas, I have not jettisoned my facemasks. But no longer will I feel obligated to confine my activities within the compass of a two- or three-hour radius from my home once I receive my second dose.
The other reason is that there is a good deal less to report on the national front. By that I do not mean that business is at a standstill in the White House or that there is not the usual assortment of national and international situations that require careful handling – such as the recent coup in Myanmar, for instance. But the extraordinary atmosphere of calm now prevailing in the nation’s capital may be gauged when I relate that during the past six weeks of the current administration, not one member of the White House staff has been abruptly sent packing, not one highly placed official has been caught in the middle of financial defalcations or of forcing his attentions on nubile young women, and, most remarkable of all, there has not been a single temperamental rant or any display of pitiably unjustified boasting on the part of our President. It seems incredible. Over the past four years it appeared almost a law of nature that every 5 days or thereabouts the news headlines would broadcast the unceremonious dismissal of a White House staff member, accompanied by maledictions stigmatizing him or her as incompetent, stupid, or crazy, perhaps for no worse offense than omitting the mandatory daily grovel; or an outbreak of churlish disparagement of a judge who asserted his judicial independence by favoring the law over the President’s wishes to cover up some murky financial skullduggery; or an ignominious squabble with a state governor of the opposing political party at the expense of the health and welfare of all of the state’s residents; or a speech gloating about his achievements with such an exaggerated degree of rhodomontade as to cause murmurs of alarm among members of his own party; or – but I omit the other (and numerous) categories of scandal that afflicted the previous administration, for fear of being tedious. At all events, there is nothing of that nature to report now, which perhaps has the effect of making my daily entries less lively than before.
Trump has not quite eluded the headlines today, albeit not in the manner he desired: the Supreme Court has rejected both his lawsuit to challenge the state’s election results by alleging Wisconsin officials imposed “unauthorized absentee voting practices” without the state legislature’s consent and the lawsuit brought by pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other election officials in the state, which tried to stop the Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections in the state. These are the last two lawsuits remaining of the dozens Trump has lobbied in his attempt to remain in office after he was voted out, so he will have to rely on other means to win his way back to power. As the events of January 6th have shown, he is not particularly fastidious in choosing them.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 117,737,737; # of deaths worldwide: 2,611,556; # of cases U.S.: 29,693,959; # of deaths; U.S.: 537,827.