COVID-19

a failure to write

whbeebe5 Comments

This is a desperate post. I haven’t written since the middle of July, and it’s now past the middle of August. 18 August to be precise, and the last post was on 18 July. That gives you some idea the length of time.

Trying to keep a reasonable writing cadence is tough, but it can be done if your mind is active with ideas chasing themselves around. My mind has, it would seem, gone dry of ideas. I’ve had several, but nothing like I’ve had in the past. Even when I sit down to begin to think about writing a post, no specifics suggest themselves. I’m left with the broad idea for a post, and nothing else.

The problem for me is dealing with the continuing COVID Delta variant pandemic in Florida that is decimating the unvaccinated. Florida is in the top five states with infections (if not number one), and has been for weeks. I’m back to wearing a mask, this time N95 class masks, and going out as little as possible. Which is what I did last year.

I did go to a local Publix pharmacy today where I was given a Moderna booster shot. My wife, who suffers from an immune deficiency, got her’s two days ago. I would have gotten mine the same day except Publix insisted I give them my Medicare insurance information, and when they entered it in their system came back saying my Medicare information was incorrect and to call the Social Security Administration.

I called today, spoke with a very nice and competent individual, and was able to ascertain that my information, specifically my name, was correct as printed on my Medicare card. Nothing was amiss in the system.

Turned out that someone at the SSA entered my name ‘oddly.’ Let me explain.

My name is ‘WILLIAM H BEEBE JR.’ That’s the way it is on my Medicare card and all my other correspondence with the SSA. But… it turned out that to enter my name correctly into the SSA system via Publix, it had to be entered as ‘WILLIAM JR’, HENRY, BEEBE. That’s right, boys and girls. SSA put my JR suffix in with my first name. Publix couldn’t figure it out the first time, and when I went to a Walgreens, they ran into the same problem. The problem was finally solved on my second trip to Publix because a new pharmacist was at Publix today and she knew how to solve that problem. Once they entered my first name as ‘WILLIAM JR’ in the first name field, everything went through.

Which begs a second question: the COVID shots are supposed to be free and to be given without insurance. So why ask for my Medicare insurance to begin with? That’s a good question, but the bigger issue was discovering this problem and the solution. I certainly didn’t know anything about this.

I know that WHO is really upset that the US is giving out booster shots, but I don’t care. I live in Florida, with crazy people who won’t get their first shots and who are acting as disease vectors for the Delta variant. And they’re being led by an idiot governor in Tallahassee. So I’m going to get my booster and wear my mask and keep out of crowds and social distance like crazy. The signs are already up to do masking and distancing where I need to go, such as drugstores and grocery stores.

I got the booster so that I can be as immunologically strong as possible for my wife’s sake. Hopefully with my booster, if she still gets ill with COVID I can care for her and myself. I have to be as strong and prepared as possible for both of us.

Hmm… I wrote a bit more than I anticipated. But not as much as I would have liked.

5 thoughts on “a failure to write”

  1. Agreeing with your opinion about the vaccination naysayers Bill – I’ve had one in the list of my (now former) colleagues, and for him I linked to Kirk’s article on https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2021/08/off-topic-why-you-are-evil-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheVisualScienceLab+(The+Visual+Science+Lab) on my own blog at https://wolfgang.lonien.de/2021/08/for-a-colleague-or-without-further-comment/ – he will get vaccinated now but only because he wants to travel for holidays… some people never learn until it’s too late it seems…
    I had the same problem with not knowing what to write about these last days, so I wrote a bit about changing hard- and software lately.
    All the best to you and to your wife and also your animal friends Bill. Just had one of our “visitors” – a neighbors’ siamese tomcat – coming :)

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  2. Yup; when the government fails to do the bleedingly obviously right thing you have to work around them to save yourself. There’s the proof in how your name was entered (something any 10-year-old would have done right) and the idiot governor’s continued Trumpian denial of the severity of the situation.
    It’s the same problem here. Plus our province is burning to the ground while the Premier is on vacation on the other side of the country and the Prime Moron has called an election hoping enough people who wouldn’t vote for him have been prevented from voting for anyone by the fires.
    Life Among The Idiots.

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  3. A booster certainly won’t do any harm, though it’s effectiveness will be questionable. If you’ve already had double Pfizer (or AZ, or Moderna), your protection from getting ill from Delta (and Beta also) is very high. What we need from the vaccines programme is tweaked boosters that further reduce the risk of catching and spreading the variants.

    If offered a booster, I’m hoping for a different flavour of vaccine than the AZ I’ve already had. Mixing it up a bit will hopefully make the odds a little better.

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    • I life in Florida, and it’s on fire with COVID. Questioning the effectiveness of the booster is a luxury I don’t have. Even if it’s only a small amount, as long as it boosts what I already have I’ll take it, especially if it’s offered for free.

      As for tweaking the vaccines to better combat the variants, I am in complete agreement. But until that is available I’ll take what’s currently on offer.

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