If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, his Main Story was on long-term care facilities.  It was an interesting, information and very good (and at times amusing) look at the problem with them and assisted living facilities.  At times it was a bit unfocused, dealing more with individual problems than systemic ones -- which are very real -- but overall very good.

One odd thing they missed is when they show a clip of a nurse at a nursing home making an impassioned case for the problems they have to deal with.  Her mask is off -- which is fine for someone talking to the camera -- but what caught my eye is that sitting right behind her is another nurse with her facemask on...except that it's lowered and doesn't cover her nose -- which isn't how they work, something you'd prefer a nurse to get right.  And I was a little surprised that Oliver and his writers didn't reference is.

By the way, as a sort of odd bonus, this story reminded me of a really terrific new movie for Netflix that was released a few weeks ago and is well-worth checking out.  The film is I Care A Lot with a wonderful performance by the excellent British actress Rosammund Pike.  It's about a woman who has come up with a brilliant, nasty scheme to make huge amounts of money by manipulating the rules for nursing homes.  It's a dark comedy that also stars Peter Dinklage (with an excellent supporting role by Dianne Wiest), and has a heavy emphasis on the "dark."  The trailer does a pretty good job with present the film, though it emphasizes the "action" a bit more than is in the film.

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, Al brings back a guest he’s had on before and often.  Although as he puts it in perspective, the guest is “Andy Slavitt (Again!) But Now He’s a Big Shot!”  That’s because Slavitt is now  Senior Advisor on the President’s Coronavirus Task Force.  And as Al notes, this time, Slavitt “explains it all.”
 

Randy Rainbow has a new video -- and the opening conversation he has with Joe Biden is almost funnier than the song parody.  The song itself has wonderful lyrics (often overlapping on themselves), and though the production starts out pretty basic, it eventually ratchets up and is terrifically done.

On last night's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, his Main Story about about the meatpacking industry.  Not about the conditions in processing the food, but the awful conditions for people working there, most especially under the reality of the pandemic.  Some of the piece is impressively funny, but what stands out is how it builds steam and angry he gets by the end.
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I've been on -- if not actually a deadline, then -- a sort of self-imposed schedule.  And I've enjoyed the work, diving back into my screenplay project as a result of some discussions with the producer and conversations he's had.  And I tend to lose track of time in those conditions, and so the last few days I've been working until around 1 AM.  (It's 1:04 AM as I type this...)  And then the next day, I jump back in to it.  As a result, I know some of the postings here the last few days have been more somewhat random-ish or uncommon than usual.  So, I'm sorry about that, though "uncommon" is sometimes good, but hopefully they've been fine, and we'll get back around to normal sometime soon.

But that means -- since it's now 1:07 AM -- that I will not be waxing especially eloquent and detailed at the moment.  But I can't let the Texas disaster go without mention.  It's especially been on my mind -- not because of Ted Cruz -- but because a good friend lives there, and I've been getting regular updates from him.  Or as regular as one can get from someone with limited electricity.  Fortunately, he planned ahead with food and water, but it's still been hellish.  I can only imagine who horribly worse it is for others.

I was a little concerned about him losing food because of defrosting, but he said that no, that hasn't been a problem.  I guess when your home is at refrigerator level indoors, things defrost much slower than in other climates....

I felt good that he had a portable power station I'd recommended a while back when he was concerned with the hurricanes they'd been getting, a Yeti 150 from GoalZero.  It's their low-end model but still heavy duty.  Unfortunately I felt bad that -- now that he needed the device during an emergency disaster -- it was defective and he wasn't getting the benefits he needed.  Fortunately, it seems that it's working okay-ish, but it's not displaying the charge left very consistently, going from 90% left, to 20% left to fully-charged without doing much.  It's supposed to let you charge a phone up to about 12 times, or fully charge a laptop twice, or run a lamp for 50 hours, and things like that -- but after one charge it was showing that he'd almost drained the power station.  But then later, it would be okay.  Anyway, when things return to normal, I expect he'll contact the company which has an excellent reputation, and he just got a semi-dud.  

On the better news front, he personally has gotten his power back, and just keeps his fingers crossed that it holds.  And that the warm front does come in this weekend.

What he has also said is how livid people are about Gov. Abbott, and that not only did no one serious believe Abbott's initial story to blame the non-existent Green New Deal for the problems, but that they'd angry he'd even try that.  He says that everyone knows that it's the fault of the governor, state legislature and power industry that has created a grid with limited controls for protecting against something like this.  And Abbott and them all are being vilified.  

And then Ted Cruz got added into the mix.  And it's been really terrible for Cruz -- and deservedly so, skipping out of town during the emergency, and then not only coming up with a lamebrain excuse but blaming it on his daughter.  Only to later have his travel manifests uncovered, and now his wife's emails about the trip to Cancun.

Personally, I think the level of hypocrisies here with Cruz are impressive even by GOP standards.  How he had slammed California during the wildfires for not being to provide the most basic services like electricity to the people.  And slamming the mayor of Auston for taking a trip to Cabo during the pandemic.  And then toss in his infamous one-person filibuster trying to block the Affordable Care Act by reading from Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham.  A great thing to be reminded of during a pandemic when you've skipped town for Cancun.  And then to top it all, his involvement in helping incite the insurrection.  It couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

And as much as I wish this disaster emergency didn't occur, since it's heart-wrenching, I can only add that since it did occur, I'm not losing much sleep that it was Texas that got hit. I'm deeply sorry for all the the people there -- and with special attention to my friend who's dealing with it all -- but Texas caused the problem for itself by being arrogant and irresponsible about its power grid, keeping it in state control only without participating in the national grid.  And Texas is the state that often tries to swagger about seceding from the union. And here they are, in dire need of national assistance -- and, because Joe Biden is not Trump, they're getting that assistance.  And should get it, and thankfully are. And I hope this ends so, and people can get past the aftermath, as well, which will be extremely tough.  But maybe this will get Texas on the national grid and understanding of the benefits of federal participation and an acknowledgement that science and Climate Change are a real thing and things to embrace and learn from for the betterment of society and not blame as a personal excuse for head-in-the-sand irresponsibility.  Though I doubt it.  Because, y'know, yee-ha and all that.  

Anyway, I think that's enough for now.  It's around 1:45 AM, and I'm just hoping that enough words here have been spelled right.  If so, then I consider this a win-win all around...

This is a little premature for many readers of these pages, thought not for all.  And even if premature, it's something that everyone will have to face.  It's a very interesting article in The Atlantic about why side effects about the second shot, which I thought you might like to know about. It centers around what seems like the odd reality that side effects after the second shot are generally worse (and in some, though rare cases much worse) than after the first vaccination, which seems counterproductive.

You can read the whole thing here.   

But this is the short version:
 
The side effects don’t mean there’s any sort of problem, but rather that the first shot is working.
 
Most people don’t have an increased problem after the second shot.  Maybe a third do, though.  And only a small percentage have substantive issues like a big fever and chills. 
 
Basically, the explanation is that once you have the first shot, the body’s immune system starts to learn what to do.  And when you get the second shot, the immune system now sees that as an attack (even though it isn’t, since there’s no virus involved, but sort of mimics the action of one), and the immune fights back.  It’s that fighting back that your body is reacting to, and it means that the immune system is now doing its job.
 
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​Yes, happily, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is finally back on HBO after its three-month hiatus.  His Main Story this week is on something that, as he acknowledges, is probably not what most people want to hear about today -- the pandemic.  Though this isn't about that, but rather the next pandemic -- which he notes people probably want to hear about even less.  But it's very interesting, about the causes, risks and ways to prepare.  And somehow he's even able to make it funny at time.

A little update on my vaccination journey here in Los Angeles County.

As I mentioned on Saturday, I was able to get my first vaccination at Ralphs Pharmacy, which is part of the Ralphs grocery store chain (which is owned by Kroger).  It was the Moderna vaccine, which requires a 28-day delay before the second shot, as opposed to 21 days for the vaccine from Pfizer.  For the record, the only side effect was that my arms was slightly sore the next day, but not much.  I consider this a good trade-off for something that stands a good chance of protecting my life.

It turns out I sneaked in under the wire.  The L.A. County Board of Health just took away the doses that Ralphs had and gave them to the mass vaccination sites (like Dodger Stadium).  As a result, a great many people had their Ralphs appointments cancelled (include a couple friends of mine) and, as you might imagine, they are extremely upset.  I'm not exactly sure why the doses were taken from the pharmacy chain, but one article I read suggested that it may possibly have something to do with how only 65% of Ralphs' allotment was fulfilled by appointments.  But to be clear, I don't know if this is true.  Whatever the reason, Ralphs has had appointments cancelled.

You can read more about it in this article from the Los Angeles Times.

If Ralphs gets more doses (or if there's enough complaints that the doses are returned) they’ll likely honor the appointments, although at the moment Ralphs Pharmacy is saying there’s no guarantee of getting anything “for a month or more.” 

Obviously, on a personal level only, I’m thrilled to have gotten my shot – though not happy about how that might impact getting the second shot.  What I have to find out is if any other facilities will give you a second shot who didn’t give you the first one.  At the moment, I’ve heard and read “no,” although with some rare exceptions, like perhaps (I've know of one case) for healthcare workers  So, I’m hoping (and still expecting, even though the L.A. Times article wasn’t encouraging) they get new doses by then.  We’ll see.

But – after that, the news is more positive.
 
For a reason I hadn't been aware of, I lucked out getting the Moderna vaccine.  With one shot, the Pfizer vaccine will be 52.4% effective after two weeks.  However, the Moderna vaccine will be 80.2% effective!  That strikes me as very high.  (Not as high as 95% but not shabby at all.  Higher even than the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine that appears about to be approved.)
 
Also, it turns out that the 21/28-day wait before getting the second shot is more regulatory than scientific.  On the regulatory end, during a pandemic the government wants the public to get their two shots as soon as possible in order to be fully protected, and those 21/28-day delays are the very earliest that scientists can recommend for the second shot.  But as noted by Moncef Slaoui -- an immunologist who has spent his 30-year career in vaccine development and was also co-head of Operation Warp Speed: “The immune system generally responds better when there's a wider gap [MY EMPHASIS] between vaccinations."  It's just that when the risk of infection is high, people are better off being fully protected from the second shot on the authorized regulatory schedule.  But that's totally separate from the scientific realities.
 
Further, the positive news is that the sources I found all say that if you can’t get your second shot within 4-6 weeks as the regulation strongly recommends, this does not mean you have to start the vaccination process all over again.  And even more, after just getting the first shot gives it provides significant protection -- if you get infected, for instance, you will not likely get a case serious enough to need to be hospitalized.

All of which I think is good for everyone to know once they've gotten their first vaccination, rather than be overly concerned that they might not be able to get their second shot in 4-6 weeks.
 
So, though I’d of course love to get the full protection in 28 days from my second Moderna vaccination, if I can’t it seems like it’s absolutely fine on several levels, most importantly having 80.2% efficacy.  Which, again, is why I said I lucked up getting the Moderna vaccine.  Though the Pfizer still does offer important benefits as noted.
 
And in the end, I still do expect the Biden Administration to be able to get more vaccine out in 4-6 weeks, including to Los Angeles.

I just wish things didn't get so screwed up with Ralphs Pharmacy.  For me, but more for those who haven't even gotten their first shot yet.

Just imagine if a good, effective distribution plan after the first vaccine was approved in early November, three months ago...

​I'm not naming any names.
 
 

Today V-E Day (Vaccination Elisberg Day…).  O huzzah!

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was able to get an appointment at Ralphs Pharmacy -- part of a grocery store chain, which is owned by Kroger's -- when they screwed up and jumped the gun, posting an online sign-up schedule early, before the Los Angeles County Board of Health had approved the plan.  But though they shut the appointments and initially cancelled them, they later said they would honor what they had.  (I'm not sure if that's totally true, since Ralphs is now saying that they're cancelling later appointments -- though that might change when they get more vaccine in.)

But I did get to keep mine -- a process made all the nicer since it's my own main pharmacy, and I could even walk over to the place.

It was a very simple process – in fact, I almost wondered if I went to the wrong Ralphs.  There was no line for the shot, just one person ahead of me picking up his prescription.  And when the woman at the pharmacy seemed almost surprised to see me, I was even more wary that I might have screwed up and so showed her the confirming email I’d printed out.  My guess is that I might have been the first shot of the day, and since I was eight minutes early, they weren’t ready yet.

There was about 20 minutes to wait for the pharmacy to prepare the shot, which was the Moderna vaccine, then the 15-Minute Obligatory Wait and the walk back home.  What's nonetheless odd is how few people were there for shots.  I suspect that's because this was part of that Ralphs' screw-up, so not too many people signed up before the list was closed.  But still, I expected more people.

Anyway, now, all that’s left is to see when the side effects kick in and hopefully it will be minimal.

And then assume and hope that the pipeline will be working smoothly in 28 days.