April 2, 2021
I’ve never been a Winter person. I hate the cold, I hate the snow, and there is usually a several week stretch in the dead of January or February when I am particularly grumpy (as my wife can attest). You know that cartoon of the person saying, “The air hurts my face. Why do I live where the air hurts my face?” Yup, that’s me.
This Winter, in particular, was a rough one for me. By the time the pandemic was in full swing a year ago, we were getting closer to Spring, so we could see some options to get time outside, socialize in a safe way, and weather (no pun intended) the tough early days of the pandemic. This past Fall, however, as the temperatures turned colder, the cases began to surge in New England, we saw the need to hunker down for a tough few months. While the news of effective vaccines helped give us some light at the end of this nightmarish tunnel, we still had several months to go. Back in December, we thought we might not see widespread vaccinations until the end of Summer 2021. While we faced a race of a spreading virus vs. vaccination deployment, our family faced a new challenge right before Christmas. If you access this blog through my Facebook post, then you probably know that my wife is going through treatment for cancer. Fortunately she is doing well, all things considered, and her prognosis is very good. She just finished her radiation treatment, which was a momentous occasion to celebrate. But needless to say, it’s been a challenging several months.
So, as we turn the calendar to April this week, and the weather in New England continues to warm up (despite temperatures in the 30s today – hey, it’s New England weather. Gamble at your own risk.), we’re finally starting to emerge from the doldrums of a most challenging Winter, with hope on the horizon. Spring is the season of renewed life in nature, when the leaves return, the days last longer, and the birds remind us that Summer will be here soon. And, the most important harbinger of Spring returns on Thursday – I’m talking, of course, about The Masters.
Renewed Optimism
About a year ago, I wrote a blog post, stealing a line from The Shawshank Redemption for the title – “Hope is a good thing.” In the early days of the pandemic, we had no idea what we were facing, how long we’d be facing it, and what our future would look like. Beyond the day to day changes (capacity limits in businesses, mask mandates, schools closed, and almost the entirety of our day to day life shifting from “let’s go out” to “let’s set up a Zoom call.”), if you let your imagination get away from you, it could get pretty scary. In that post, I lamented the lost year of high-school and college seniors, who still made the best of a bad situation. As it is in most cases, kids can figure stuff out a lot better than we give them credit.
In that post, I also described an exchange with my friend Mark where we speculated about our annual golf trip to Vermont. We didn’t end up going – it was too complicated, with too many moving pieces to work – but my wife and I went instead. After recently returning to golf, she decided to go with me, so I wouldn’t lose the opportunity to play my favorite course in Killington, VT. We had a wonderful time, making new memories on the golf course, and will hopefully go back again soon. And the friends golf weekend will be back this year – we’ve already planned a weekend in Maine in September, and hopefully one in Vermont as well, if we can make it work.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
When the news broke about the first vaccine study results, it seemed like the world exhaled a collective sigh of relief. Finally, there could be an end in sight. It’s truly amazing how quickly this was accomplished (and no, I am not worried how fast it happened – I tend to rely on legitimate news sources and scientists to inform me, not a Facebook meme). The next questions were “How fast?” and “When?” Thankfully, there seemed to be an almost universal approach to vaccinating the elderly (especially in nursing homes) and health care workers first. The Federal government provided guidance on who should go next, but left it up to the states to decide how to execute the approach.
Early on in the pandemic, I remember feeling relieved that there was a tendency to let states decide how to deal with the specifics of testing, contact tracing, and implementing safety measures. My quick rationale was that health care issues are local and who better to determine what’s best for their constituents than the governors of the states. My feeling was that the situation in a state like New York was much different than South Dakota. Well, underneath that thinking was (in hindsight, a pretty naïve) assumption that there would be a massive foundation of logistics at the federal government level, and that all of the governors would act based on science. As we quickly found out, the federal government foundation was on quicksand and some governors decided that political grandstanding and re-election campaigns were more important than their constituents’ health and safety. And even a governor who seemed to have everything under control in New York has quickly lost the respect of many people in this country for questionable decision making we didn’t know about in real time, and apparent abhorrent behavior that may cost him his office. It goes to show you that trusting politicians is a fool’s game that we should all know we’ll lose eventually.
Speaking of politicians, while the jury is still out on how this will all unfold, I still feel fortunate to live in a state run by a governor who seems to be using common sense when it comes to managing the pandemic. Early on, he partnered with New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island on a series of policies and guidelines, given the close proximity of Connecticut to all of these states. With frequent travel among these Northeast states, it made sense to have a similar approach to managing health and safety measures. But, as the data continued to move and new facts started to emerge, our governor wasn’t afraid to break from those other states to implement policies that he felt were best for our state.
This was on full display when he announced his strategy for vaccine eligibility. After the logical selection of health care workers, nursing home residents, first responders, and the elderly, the next question was “Who’s next?” While numerous states followed the strict letter of the CDC guidance on making those with a litany of high-risk health conditions eligible next, our governor met with his team of experts and came to a different conclusion. If they followed this approach, then over half of the state’s population would be eligible at once, causing a massive overload to the registration system for vaccine appointments. The demand would far exceed the supply of available vaccine doses, potentially creating an environment where people got discouraged and gave up. It would also cause confusion as to who was really eligible, based on their specific medical diagnosis, or even their profession (as some states prioritized certain workers in high-risk settings, like grocery stores). There could be a mad rush to doctor’s offices by patients asking for notes from their doctor “proving” their condition and eligibility. Doctors clearly have more important things to do than filling out permission slips. The verification process of examining these notes, or pay stubs from employers of eligible professions, would slow down the vaccination process on site at clinics and pharmacies.
The governor consulted with his team of experts and they all agreed – set the criteria by age and execute with excellence. This criteria will be clear to everyone involved, we can go as fast as possible, and most importantly, the highest correlation to death and serious illness of the disease was the age of the patient. When the governor announced this change in tactic, he took a lot of shit from people who felt that they were promised to be next in line and now had to wait another month or two. But, I give him a ton of credit – it’s not easy being in a leadership position, and changing your mind in a public forum. You’re basically admitting that you made a mistake. You risk being labeled yet another “politician flip-flopper.” But, I’d rather have someone who says, “Well, we thought that was the best approach a few weeks ago. We looked at it further, we consulted with the experts, and this is why we believe this is a better approach instead.” Since that new policy was announced, Connecticut has continued to race through its vaccination program, consistently ranking in the top five states in the country of those residents who have received at least the first shot.
Of course, the success of this entire program was the implementation of an incredible logistics process, starting with the federal government. Instead of the quicksand foundation that was in place until January 19th (that basically said, “it’s up to the states to figure it out.”), we have a massive team of experts in place whose responsibility every hour of every day is to deploy the full power of the federal government to the states to implement the vaccination programs. It’s the logistics and infrastructure we were missing all of last year, when states couldn’t access testing supplies and PPE, and found themselves bidding against each other for ventilators like they were competing in an eBay auction. Now the states have the authority to execute on their plan of action, with the resources to get it done.
The End Is In Sight
I was fortunate to become eligible on March 19th for my first shot. I got an appointment for March 21st and on that day, I showed up to a large parking lot at a local college. The entire operation was being run by the Connecticut National Guard and couldn’t have gone smoother. In and out of there in 30 minutes. Everyone was pleasant, accommodating, and professional. In other words – perfect logistics in action. Our kids became eligible yesterday and already have appointments scheduled. My wife’s second shot is April 13th, with mine the day after. After our two weeks to achieve full immunization, by the end of April, we’re having neighborhood poker games and happy hours, and I couldn’t be more excited.
While I feel so lucky that Connecticut has gone so well, I’m hopeful that friends and family in other states, who are still waiting, can get theirs done quickly too. Because soon after that, we’re having family gatherings with my sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Lunches and happy hours with colleagues that I have liked seeing on Zoom, but really look forward to seeing in person. Traveling to places near and far to escape staring at the same walls every day. Going to a crowded movie theater to see the Top Gun sequel (coming in July – don’t worry, I’ve got a Summer movie preview coming soon.) And one of my favorite pastimes, going to a concert. Not sure on this one yet. I hope I can get to a show in the Fall, but feel like it might be next Summer, and that’s ok. I’m hoping that Springsteen is already mapping out his world tour, and there will be plenty of opportunities to see him and the E Street Band entertaining us all again.
Throughout the last year, we all made the best of a tough situation. Hunkering down and watching Netflix and baking (or eating my wife’s delicious baking, in my case) was fun for a little bit, but we are all social creatures. As much as I enjoy the quiet solitude of a matinee movie on a weekday, there is nothing like a raucous good time with family and friends. A chance to share good food and drinks, tell funny stories, share a laugh, and celebrate being together again. That’s what I am looking forward to and why hope is still a good thing.
This Week’s Movie Recommendation
Usually I spend the bulk of my blog post writing about movies I’ve seen, and sprinkle in a few words about a moment of happiness, but this week’s post is going to be the reverse of that. You’ve read about the moments of happiness – let’s close with a quick movie recommendation that I found very entertaining, but admittedly, might not be for everybody.
What do you get when you cross Freaky Friday with Scream? You get a clever take on the body swap genre starring Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton in a funny comedy / slasher film that came out late last year. Freaky was recently released on DVD and on demand, so it’s not yet available on a streaming platform, but you can still rent it. Vaughn plays a serial killer terrorizing a small town, killing four high-school students in the opening scene. Newton, who you may have seen in Big Little Lies, plays a student who gets chased down by Vaughn’s character early in the film. While she avoids a grisly death, she suffers something almost worse – trading bodies with the serial killer because of the magic forces (isn’t that always the way?) of a cursed dagger. What plays out is a fun combination of the usual suspense of a high-school slasher film (and some pretty gory killings – RIP Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and some great body-swap humor. Newton is terrific playing the menacing killer, but Vaughn owns the movie, fully embracing the angst of a teenage girl facing the joint horrors of being chased by a serial killer and dealing with high-school assholes. If you find slasher films appealing, and appreciate silly humor, Freaky was a fun one.
That’s all for this week’s post. I’ll be back next week to share my ramblings that are mostly about a musician who has a new (old) album coming out next Friday, launching one of the more daring and creative business ventures we’ve ever seen in the music industry. Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.
Thanks for an enjoyable blog Steve.