Well, this was a weird experience yesterday.

On Wednesday evening, I got an urgent phone call from a friend saying that Ralphs Pharmacy here in Los Angeles were now accepting appointments for COVID-19 vaccine shots for the group I qualified in.  But the slots were filling up really fast, so I should go to their website immediately.  He began telling a story about his experience signing up and what went on when he was...and I cut him off instantly without relying on politeness and in his mid-sentence I said, "Goodbye, I'll call you later!" and hung-up.

And it clearly was filling up fast.  The first few days were already gone, and when I got a date that was available, but the time I got to the end of the form, that date and time was no longer open. So, I picked another date and time, and the same thing happened when I reached the end.  It took four tries before I finally got an appointment for a little over two weeks from now.  But huzzah.

I was really surprised to hear about the scheduling, since I hadn't read anything about it on the news, but was very glad for his call.  He hadn't known either -- and he's usually on top of most-everything -- but his daughter had called him.  And word clearly spread everywhere.

Anyway, yesterday morning, I called Ralphs Pharmacy to find out if they'd be keeping a waiting list in case they got cancellations, since I live walking distance from it -- and it's actually the pharmacy I tend to most use.  The person I spoke to said, no, there wouldn't be a waiting list, but then asked when my appointment was for, which surprised me. But I told her, and at this point, the conversation went -- 

“The appointment’s been cancelled.”
 
Long pause.  “What do you talking about???”
 
“The appointment has been cancelled.  It’s only for healthcare providers.  You should be notified.”
 
Trying to digest this.  “What do you mean I should be notified??  Are they planning to send emails?”
 
“You should get an email about it.”
 
Taking a deep breath.  “This doesn’t make any sense.”
 
“You should keep the appointment, but right now it’s cancelled.  They’ll let you know.”

It made little sense to me, and was a bit disconcerting, needless-to-say.  But when it became clear that she didn't actually have information and couldn’t add more than to say that right now they were only giving the vaccine to healthcare workers and that Ralphs might be sending out an email, I knew that there was no pointing in getting upset with her or even arguing.  So, as much as I wanted to say, "You handled getting this information across really, really poorly" (after all, if I didn't ask follow-up questions, she would have left it at the perfunctory, "The appointment's been cancelled" -- which it must be noted is also a poor way of phrasing things when you later add, "But keep your appointment") -- I also recognized that they were likely overwhelmed with phone calls and harried, so I said goodbye, ungnashed my teeth, and hung up.
 
As the day went on, I talked to some people and read articles, and though there was nothing specific to learn, the situation did become a touch more clear and somewhat more comforting.  (With an emphasis on the "somewhat.") It appears that Ralphs jumped the gun and wasn’t supposed to create appointments yet.  In fact, for that same sign-up form on their website, “Coronavirus” is no longer listed among the options of vaccines that Ralph offers.  Press releases from Ralphs as of two days ago, however, say that they are, in fact, now giving the vaccine to healthcare workers.
 
Equally important to the picture is that a friend in Texas said the exact same thing happened there a couple of weeks ago.  There were sign-ups and then it turned out that they didn’t get their allotted vaccine supplies, so everything was put on hold.  But what's important to add -- and added to the comfort is that not only did they subsequently get their vaccine supply…but he got his first shot this past Tuesday.
 
That said, I don’t know exactly where things stand.  What I do know is that they said, “Keep your appointment.”  And no email has been sent out yet putting anything on hold.  Also, most people who signed up have times that are still a week or two weeks off.  And the Biden Administration is coming in next Tuesday, so there is probably a big push now to get vaccine out.  In addition, we know that Ralphs Pharmacy does, in fact, have vaccine which they are currently giving to healthcare workers.  And we know, too, that 30 million doses have been distributed but only about 10 million shots have been given.  So…it seems like things should be fine.  Though I don’t know.
 
But also, there is a possible good side to this, at least on a personal level.  The screw-up by Ralphs of jumping the gun early may explain why there were no big news stories about it – which in the end helped allow people to sign up for an appointment so early before there was a huge public rush.  So, assuming they do get it worked out, everyone who now already has an appointment probably has it earlier (perhaps much earlier) than they would have had otherwise.
 
And again, it remains comforting my friend in Texas said that this exact same thing happened there, and he not only kept his appointment, but got his shot earlier this week.

Of course, this all presumes that they do get their new allotment.  If not, they will have a huge mess on their hands for all the people who signed up the earliest and find their appointments cancelled, pushing them back into the pool.
 
When I had that phone conversation this morning with the pharmacy it was – as you might imagine – very weird and disturbing and very poorly handled.  But knowing more now, while still in a state of uncertainty, I do feel better about it.  And I especially feel at least a sense of comfort from being told, “Keep your appointment.”  And if and when there is any update – including to say that appointments remain on schedule – emails will be sent out. 
 
Anyway, that’s the news, which I suspect is good to know for other areas when they get their vaccine allotment and start to make appointments.

Thankfully, there is a vaccine.  And it will get administered soon.  But it's Impressive how smooth and impeccably well-organized everything about handling the pandemic and protecting the country has been by the Trump administration which alas, unlike the coronavirus, did completely disappear last March.

​January 20th can't come soon enough.

UPDATE:  There is an addendum to all this.

Since writing my column, an article in the Washington Post appeared which may be the explanation for the problem at Ralphs Pharmacy.  While Ralphs is at fault for jumping the gun, it will not shock you to learn that what caused the larger problems is probably because the Trump administration was lying.  Here’s the opening of the article –
 
“When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Tuesday that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December. Now, state and local officials across the country are realizing their limited vaccine supply will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding access for millions of people.”

Y'know, it makes it oh-so much easlier to run your operation at "Warp speed" when you don't have to deliver what you promised.
 
Hopefully there’s enough time between now and my appointment – and with the Biden Team taking over in five days – for them to get a supply out and I can keep the date.  But I’m not holding my breath on that.  The next hope is that when they do start rescheduling appointments that Ralphs will keep the current schedule and just move those to the front of the line where they were.
 
For those interested, you can find the full Washington Post article here.
 

​Watching news stories about all these holiday travelers flocking to the airports is a ghoulish experience.  Cases and deaths are going to skyrocket – and we’re already at 3,000 deaths almost every day, more each day than the deaths on 9/11.  A couple months back, I wrote that I think it’s hard to imagine that doctors’ concerns of up 400,000 deaths by the Inauguration won’t come to pass. As we're now into January, with the Inauguration around the corner, that reality becomes a near certainty.  But with additional caveats.
 
We’re already at 362,123 deaths.  There are 16 days left.  We reached 4,000 deaths just the other day.  But let's be conservative, let's say deaths actually drop to “just” 2,500 a day.  That would bring us to 402,000 deaths!  So, when you consider that we’re now often passing 3,000 a day – and that the Christmas/New Years spike will worsen things -- even this ghoulish total would be less than what's likely to come.  But even if some Christmas miracle happens and nothing increases because of holiday travel, and it even drops to 2,000 death a day…we will still be at 394,000.  And that’s the best case scenario.

The thing is...it's not like COVID-19 deaths will suddenly stop on January 20, 2021, when Joe Biden is inaugurated president.  These mass deaths will continue for a long time.  Even when the numbers plummet to "merely" 1,000 deaths a day -- which, in perspective, almost seems like a "blessing: these days -- , that means we'll keep adding 30,000 COVID deaths in a month.  Once upon a time, 30,000 deaths for the year was what we might expect from the flu -- and that's without wearing masks, social distancing, sheltering at home and closing businesses.  This would be an "almost-comforting" 30,000 more deaths on top of the horrifying cumulative number that will already exist at the time.
 
So, Trump once upon a time said he is a “war time president” against the coronavirus.  Well, he lost the war.  He’s the first “war time president” I know of who went AWOL.  If Trump had been a war time president in WWII…then today wir alle deutsch sprechen.
 
The good news is that there are already two vaccines are have been approved and are being distributed, with a third on the near horizon!  The bad news is that the Trump administration insisted that it's goal was to have 20,000 Americans vaccinated by the end of the year -- and their incompetence was, not shockingly, so vast that they only made about 2,500.  The good news is that when the Biden Team comes in, they not only have actual experts in charge, but people who actually care.

Yes, it's great and remarkable that we have two vaccines already approved and being distributed.  It's just that I’m appalled by the general recklessness that hurts SO many others who are innocent, hurts the country by risking it being closed down, and insanely risks death when an actual vaccine is so near.  And also appalled by the sheer thought of 400,000 Americans dead within 2-1/2 weeks.  And then far too many more.

However, yet another added problem to all this is that we hear these numbers on a daily basis so the horror of them almost becomes meaningless after a while from our daily familiarity with them.  When we hear 2,000 deaths every single day, it's only a little more than, say, 1,800.  And if that jumps to 2,500 deaths the next day, well, okay, that is "only" 500 more people in a land of 320 million.  And after weeks of getting used to hearing 2,500 deaths every day, 3,000 is just slightly more than that.  And on and on.  It's incremental -- but it's Every Single Day.  For nine months.  The disheartening death total on 9/11 was 2,977 for just one horrific day.  One day alone, not every day -- every day after day after day after day...after days and weeks and weeks when we "only" had a mere 2,500 deaths each day.  And by the same token, when we hear that a total of 362,000 Americans have died as of that day, that's hardly much different from the day before when we heard that 359,000 had died.  Day after day, the cumulative number stays almost the same as the day before.  So, each day, it sounds pretty much the same as the day before, as if not much changed.  Yet after nine months we went from zero dead to "It will go away soon like a miracle" to "I'm hearing 50,000 - 60,000" to...to 362,000 Americans have died.  So far.  Because it will keep going up and up and up.

And the reality is that to think my polite “average” of 2,500 will be the standard is laughable.  So, we can only hope that not many more than 400,000 Americans will have died by the time of the Inauguration.  And it’s not like they’ll suddenly stop dying at that point.
 
And Republicans officials are not only silent, but many push such actions.

And we haven't even touched on the 140 Republicans in Congress who've said they're going to channel the Electoral College votes certified by all 50 states.

This is not about Trump, we know who he is.  This is about the elected Republicans in Congress who enable him, are undermining democracy, overseeing the mass deaths of Americans and are all complicit down to their dirty fingernails.

Trump said that he was tired of hearing about "COVID COVID COVID" and that Democrats and the media would stop talking about it the moment the election was over.

He was wrong.

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guests are Pulitzer-Winning Infectious Disease Journalist Laurie Garrett and former. Medicare & Medicaid Head Andy Slavitt who both talk about “the Covid Spike, the Vaccines, & Trump’s Negligent Homicide.”  As Al puts it, “The Good News: The Vaccines. The Bad News: Covid Surge & Trump Blocking Coordination Between His Team & Biden’s.”

I finally got around to reading Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip in this past Sunday’s paper.  It’s just too good. 

There's much I want to say, but don't want to give anything away.  I'll just note that I love the matter-of-fact, meticulous phrasing of how it develops .

You can find it here online.

I fully understand the immediate reaction to Sean Penn appearing on the TV show Morning Joe looking wildly and oddly unkempt around 5:30 AM in Los Angeles, three hours earlier than the broadcast time in the East.  Of course it would have been much more presentable if he could have gotten up even earlier, prepare just a bit and at the very least comb his hair.  In fact, if Saturday Night Live was doing a show this weekend, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd have done a sketch about him.  That said, from my own personal perspective, I would far rather have him look homeless, destitute and bleary while creating a spectacular disaster relief program, CORE than seeing the lovely-coiffed, GQ cover candidate Mike Pence who oversees dealing with the pandemic and said back in April that the country would be over it by May 31.

Just to be clear for those unaware, ​Sean Penn is co-founder of the humanitarian disaster relief non-profit, CORE, which they quickly adapted to dealing with the pandemic and COVID-19 testing when the desperate need arose.  

Several months back, a friend had an immediate need for coronavirus testing when there was a possible outbreak at his kid's school.  There was a CORE center near him, and he was able to get tested for free and then received the results in only 24 hours.  He tested negative.

Yes, it was a bad look.  Funny, even.  And it couldn't help catch people's attention.  Mind you, I have no idea how he spent his night before -- perhaps up until the wee hours drinking or reading or watching movies, perhaps working on CORE activities and logistics -- or when he went to bed and got up.  Or if he was so tired he slept through his alarm.  Or if he'd been dealing with a CORE emergency that got him up even earlier than 5:30 AM.  Or what.  I have absolutely no idea.  And care even less.  Yes, it clearly distracted some people from what he was talking about, which is a shame and on him.  But being distracted by uncombed hair and focusing on that alone rather than humanitarian charitable efforts during a pandemic ultimately says more about those overly distracted than the subject.  Me, what I do care is that, so far, CORE has tested over 3.3 million Americans for free.  With that same 24-hour turnaround.  
​

Yesterday, Sen. Angus King (an Independent from Maine, though he caucuses with Democrats) made a suggestion to executives at Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO Max and Hulu, asking them to consider making their streaming services free during the holidays.  The intention is that with so much free movies and entertainment, it would convince people not to go out and ultimately help lower the risk of spreading COVID-19 and keep infections down.

As you might imagine, the public reaction to this was very positive.  And I think it's a very nice idea.  In fact, on the surface it's a wonderful idea.  I also think that once you get past the razor thin surface it is pretty meaningless.

For starters, I sense that most people who are traveling for the holidays or going out to holiday parties are not doing so because there's nothing to watch on TV.

I also sense, too, that not only do most households already likely subscribe to at least one of those services (Disney Plus alone has 86 million subscribers, which I assume are largely households), but the number of homes that don't subscribe to just one service AND would stay in if they got a temporary free subscription is small enough to not make a dent in health conditions.

Further, consider --

Can you imagine someone calling the parents and saying, "Mom, I won't be coming home for Christmas like we discussed because I got a free subscription to Hulu."  Even more to the point -- and this is the Big Logic Problem in this -- if everyone in the country was to get free holiday subscriptions to these services...then you wouldn't have to stay home to use them, but you could keep your travel plans, fly home to your family, and know that you could watch your free streaming movies from there!

(Besides, if a person is so irresponsible to travel during a raging pandemic in the first place, staying inside for any reason, let alone because  you could watch movies, is not likely a high priority.)

As for people who weren't planning to travel, but did expect to go to parties or socialize with friends, this streaming service offer has almost no impact on that either.

After all, it presupposes that people will stay at home inside to watch movies 16 hours a day.  Every day.  For at least a week.  You have to assume (have to) that after a while, anyone -- but especially people who were irresponsible enough to plan to go to parties and socialize -- wouldn't, at some point, get tired of watching TV all the time and want to get out, and go do what they were planning to before.  Go to holiday parties.  Or socialize.  And even if they stay inside, watching movies for 16 hours a day, all the time, but just decide they need to get out once -- go to one holiday party, not half a dozen, just one, or get together with friends for one night -- That is All It Takes to Get Infected.  Once.

Further, people who were planning to get together with friends for the holidays but now have streaming movies to watch will be under absolutely no obligation to watch them alone.  It is not unreasonable to think that people who wanted to socialize with their friends might now say, "Hey, we were planning on watching Hamilton.  Want to come over and watch together?  We can make a potluck party of it!"

Would there be some people who won't travel and stay at home watching their holiday streaming offer?  Or not go to Christmas parties or socialize with friends, and just watch their free streaming services?  Absolutely.  But those are the people who most probably weren't planning to travel, go to parties or socialize...anyway!

So, all that this would conceivably impact are the few households who don't already subscribe to a streaming service AND would cancel their irresponsible travel plans and irresponsible party plans and irresponsible social plans -- which they know at this point are irresponsible and don't care -- AND stay at home to watch streaming movies alone AND watch them for 16 hours a day, every day, for a week...because without having these streaming services they feel there is nothing else to watch on TV.

The idea that Sen. King suggested is an extremely nice one.  It is a nice one as a "thank you" gift to a nation that has been through a hellish year.  Businesses are under no obligation to thank the public, of course -- Senate Republicans finally agreeing to pass the $3.4 trillion relief and stimulus package that House Democrats passed back in May would be a really cool and much better "thank you" -- but yes, it would be nice.

But it would have pretty much next to zero impact on the pandemic.

If people do want to help out and have an impact on not spreading the coronavirus, my own suggestion is to wear a face mask for a few weeks.  And if you really want to do your civic good, don't go to parties.  And if you do go, stay six feet apart. And wear a face mask.

That, or watch Hamilton alone with your family 56 times.

And yes, I know that there are some people who will do that​...


​https://t.co/nAeBWPG9ln

The news stories were reported yesterday that members of Trump's White House staff with will in the first group to get the COVID-19 vaccine shot.  I have absolutely no problem at all with the president of the United States and his staff getting the vaccine.  Being president is certainly a critical job, and as far as "essential workers" go it's not only in the top 10, but probably even #1, and his support staff is significant for doing that work and keeping the White House operating smoothly on behalf of all Americans. 

Alas, life is not always that simple.

Given that, as of today, all of those specific staff members will be out of the jobs in just 38 days, and most (if not all) could likely do their jobs from home if they had to quarantine, and most staff -- no matter how essential their boss -- is largely support personnel, and that the White House has been denying the seriousness of the virus for nine months pushing the story that it's not much more than the flu or is a hoax, all of which has been at the center of, in fact, causing the very crisis that's made the vaccine all the more important, and that the White House has been knowingly (some might suggest, intentionally)  throwing 20 indoor Christmas parties in December alone that's raised the risk of infection exponentially, and also that a major reason there is a particular limitation for the first round of vaccines is specifically because the White House itself turned down buying an additional 100 million doses -- it seems that rewarding people whose work, while important, is not remotely as actually essential as healthcare employees who for those same nine months have been actually screaming about how deadly serious the coronavirus is and have been actually fighting the coronavirus rather than spreading and denying it, nor whose need is as critical as that of elderly residents of nursing homes which have claimed around 40% of the victims because of their far-higher susceptibility to the infection might be considered perhaps a profoundly poor use of resource management.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the United States, 16,737267 Americans have been infected by COVID-19.  And 306,459 Americans have died of the disease.

Again, that's 306,459 dead.  Of an infection we were told by Trump back in February that "You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down close to 0." And then "It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear."

And that it's just like the flu.  And that it will "just" be 50,000 death (which is ghastly enough on its own).  Or that now he hears it might be 60,000.  And that it will be over soon.  And you should take hydroxychloroquine, or maybe bleach or disinfectants or UV rays.  And that he said doctors were profiting from all the mass death they were putting themselves at the frontline to stope.  And that his experts who believe in alien sperm support him.  And that his experts who believe in herd immunity and widespread infection think that should be our policy.  And never mind that Trump cut the CDC budget.  And fired the CDC expert in infectious diseases who was literally stationed in China.  And that he and his transition team ignored the Pandemic Playbook that was left them by the Obama Administration -- along with well-stocked PPE, which has not been replenished and is now still in short supply.

And all that Trump is doing now is whining about how he really won the election which he, of course, actually lost horribly by 7 million votes and is trying to undermine democracy while playing golf.  And not a word about, as he whined, "COVID COVID COVID."

But yes, let's reward the people at the center of a fascist administration who have helped make life a living hell and ripped at the fabric of American society.  Because they're...what? -- "essential."

Seriously, who in their even half-right mind thought this was not only a good idea, but one that would fly under the radar unnoticed without attracting public outrage??  Just the mere concept of it as a random thought for discussion is unacceptable.  It's not shocking to discover that the anger it's provoked has been pronounced.

Now, this is about Trump.  And all his staff who enabled him, gave him support and are complicit.  Did some work to provide some stability?  Maybe, a small few, not most.  But I don't know how many, if any, did -- and who of them are still there with only 38 days to go.  I do know that in the end, whatever efforts may possibly have been made by a very few, he was still enabled  And I hope all of them are safe, whoever they are, whatever their actions, and that none get infected and wish them all well, and hope they all get and take the vaccine.

It's just that there are 320 million other Americans I'd like to see standing in line first, ahead of them.

Before the election, Trump tried to bizarrely convince people that all the reporting about "COVID COVID COVID" was just a political trick, and that, watch, after the election Democrats and the media would immediately stop talking about it.

Of course it wasn't just nonsense, it was dangerous.  And not only has the infection spread to ghoulish numbers, but two days ago the 3,000-death marker got passed, as 3,200 Americans died on that one day alone.  On 9/11, 2,917 people died.  And the President at the time spoke a great deal about it.  You may have read and seen the coverage, it was widespread.  On the other hand, yesterday, with 3,200 American deaths, Trump was silent to note the milestone.  Silent, too, were all Republicans in Congress.

Perhaps when Trump said that Democrats and the media would not be talking about COVID COVID COVID, he meant himself and all elected Republicans in Congress and just misspoke.

Indeed the coronavirus is spreading so fast now, despite the GOP silence, that I thought we might even reach 300,000 deaths overall yesterday -- an almost ghastly thought because we were 3,302 deaths away.  The good news is that, no, we didn't get there yesterday.  Nor did we have another day with 3,000 deaths.  The bad news is that we almost did.  On both counts.

Yesterday, 2,994 Americans died.  And so far, 299,692 Americans have died of COVID COVID COVID.  So far.

And no, Trump didn't say a word about it.  Nor did Republicans.  Of course.  Pretty much the only thing they did talk about is how they were still trying desperately to steal the election which has been certified by every state and undermine democracy.

Back in February, Trump said that the coronavirus was just like the flu and would disappear soon, like a "miracle."  It is not just like a flu, and it did not just disappear, either like a miracle or in any way.  I won't repeat all the different times Trump and his complicit participants kept saying the pandemic would be over soon, business would be back, and we'd only have a small, manageable number of deaths.  I don't have it in me.  Nor the space to type it all.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote that it seemed possible that we could have 400,000 deaths by Joe Biden's inauguration.  I think at this point we can change "possible" to "likely."  At this point, getting "only" 2,500 deaths a day would be low -- and that would take us passed the 400,000 mark.  And keep in mind that we've only just now reached the 14-day point after Thanksgiving when all the new cases from the holiday travel will start showing up.  And further, it seems probably that we'll go through all that again as mindless people travel yet again for Christmas.  And perhaps for New Years.

While I hope I'm wrong, I not only don't expect to be -- and worse, it doesn't matter, since it's not like the virus will stop spreading on January 20, 2021.  Even with the blessed vaccinations that are coming, it is going to take half a year to start looking at conditions where the pandemic will largely be behind us.  And yes, numbers should start dropping eventually as people do get vaccinated.  But even dropping by two-thirds means 1,000 days a day.

And through it all -- Trump and the complicit Republicans in Congress with quite-literal blood on their hands will be silent.  As will so many members of their party that is tearing at the fabric of democracy.  Well...silent except for forming in mobs to tell you why wearing a face mask for a few weeks violates their freedom, but it's okay to harass and threaten to kill public officials trying to keep you save and count votes properly.

The silence is deafening.

This is not about Trump, we know who he is.  This is about the delusional Republican Party that enables him, tears at democracy, and is complicit.