One year ago today, Anne Laurie posted her first regular daily update post about covid.
How many of us owe a debt of gratitude to Anne Laurie? Probably most of us.
I see many expressions of thanks in the comments, both for Anne Laurie herself and for her daily updates. Still, one year of coronavirus posts – every single day, except perhaps one – is a herculean feat and an amazing accomplishment, definitely something to commemorate.
I checked in with Anne Laurie before writing this, and as usual, she was the voice of wisdom. She suggested that we make this post not just a thank-you to her, but also a chance to vent about our year with coronavirus.
It is my fervent hope that long before a year from now, daily covid posts will no longer be necessary to our safety and well-being.
On this, our paper anniversary of daily coronavirus posts, I hope you will join me in thanking Anne Laurie for her daily labor of love. Anne Laurie, please accept this “paper” gift as a token of our great affection for you and of our enduring appreciation of your work to keep us better informed than most of our fellow citizens. (artwork by Kattails)
So… THANK YOU Anne Laurie, from the bottom of my heart. And fuck you, COVID, for upending our world and robbing us of so much that matters to us.
Haroldo
Indeed. Thanks, Mz. Laurie. And fuck you Covid
(And quite eloquent, WaterGirl.)
Joey Maloney
Vent? OK, I got one.
For more than a decade I’ve lived on literally the opposite side of ther planet from my parents, and I’ve visited them annually. Now they’re in their 80s and declining and I haven’t seen them in two years. In a week I’ll be fully vaccinated but thanks to D fucking T and the fucking GOP, there’s no telling when they will be able to get the shot and it will then be safe for me to travel to see them.
Fuck covid, but more than that fuck the criminals that were in control of the US government and fuck every one of the 60-odd million people who preferred those pieces of shit to Hillary Clinton. If I ever run into, say, Jared Kushner on the street? I’ll GLADLY take the assault charge.
stinger
YES — Thank you, Anne Laurie. These have been invaluable, and I can only imagine how time-consuming and probably fairly depressing for you to compile.
Kristine
Many thanks, Anne Laurie. ?
chopper
thanks AL. and fuck covid, fuck it right in the ear.
scav
It’s been a backbone to the year those threads — congrats and thanks to all there, Anne esp. but also the sub-contributors and readers.
chopper
as to venting, goddamn is it difficult to keep a 2nd grader tuned to the computer for hours and hours of virtual classes. the 6th grader is doing great tho.
Reboot
Anne Laurie’s covid posts got us so up to speed that we were ahead of the curve. They continue to be a necessary daily dose of reality. Many thanks!
Ksmiami
@Joey Maloney: ditto Mitch McConnell and any one of the enablers. Do not memory hole this. The Republican Party needs to pay. Ps I knew the virus would spread etc. I just thought we would do better at public health than in 1918
narya
Thanks, Anne Laurie! I at least skim it every day, and I am grateful because I know if I want to do a deeper dive, there’s a place I can go.
I really don’t dare complain on my own behalf–I’ve been very fortunate; I may miss being able to see friends and aging parents, but that is minimal in the face of so much devastation. But I WILL complain on behalf of the folks who’ve had to bear the greater burdens of this, who have lost their own lives or have lost family members, who have had to work in the face of maskholes, whose jobs and businesses have disappeared.
Kirk Spencer
AL? What she (WG)said.
Auntie Anne
Anne Laurie’s post is the first post I read each morning. They are invaluable, and she deserves every bit of the accolades she gets.
That it didn’t have to be this awful is all on Trump and the Republicans – I see red every time I let myself dwell on it. I hope they all burn in hell.
Princess
Thanks to Anne Laurie’s posts, I was way ahead of the curve. I did my stocking up in mid-late February and was able to stay out of the stores in March.
MoCA Ace
Thank you Anne Laurie. Your daily posts both infuriate me and help me keep my eye on the prize, so-to-speak, when my commitment to good COVID practices wanes.
And Mr. Maloney is right at #2. Virus is gonna do what virus do… fuck all those assholes who cleared the path for COVID and turned the US into the contagion capitol of the world. I fully expect the next more virulent, more deadly, and probably vaccine resistant, strain to emerge from the US long before I get my first dose.
Xentik
I’ll add my sincere thanks as well. I’ve used Anne Laurie’s posts this year as a source help inform my workplace and co-workers as to what was going on, and how best to deal with the pandemic. Having a continuous, concentrated source of information on COVID has been a huge boon, on par with David Anderson’s posts about the ACA over the years.
WaterGirl
Big shout out to Kattails for the lovely artwork!
Anne Laurie, Kattails will send you the original artwork, if you like! All she will need is your address. Or she could send it to John’s P.O. Box and then Cole could send it on to you.
Loving all this venting.
Nelle
First thing, every morning for a year now. Thank you for the steadying flow of information when we could not find the truth from “our” government. Thanks for breaking the myopia of “it’s happening to us!!!” by persistently going global and providing a forum for our friends around the world.
As a teacher, I had to have faith that there would be rewards I would not see, seeds planted that might bloom years later, jewel-like rocks dropped into ponds that would ripple and reverberate. But I would never know.
You may not know the true worth of your efforts, but believe me, it extends outward.
(A big exception: you often note tweets from a former student, Gerry Doyle. I take no credit for him -his efforts got him where he is – but I do get to see him doing well. Thanks!)
West of the Rockies
AL is a treasure. She (you, AL) brings so much to the table: information, humor, and wisdom.
R-Jud
Many, many, MANY thanks to Anne Laurie. I’ve recommended her morning threads to numerous people who have all found them useful. I’m hunkering down for another summer without a visit to the U.S. Hopefully by Christmas 2021 I’ll be able to hug my mother again (and Anne Laurie can retire the updates).
Dagaetch
YES. And YES!!! Thanks to AL, I feel like I actually know something about what’s been happening, and usually before other folks. So much appreciation.
geg6
Many thanks to Anne Laurie. Her COVID posts been tenacious and full of good information. She has had coverage leaps and bounds better than any of our major media, IMHO. A truly masterful blogging performance.
And yes, fuck COVID.
Tracy
I credit your daily posts for keeping the danger of covid at the top of my mind, and keeping me from slipping up “just this once” to see friends or family. Thank you for all your dedication and hard work Anne!!
Your posts are so informative and gather an amazing number of updates from across the globe. Reading your posts every day has been a sobering reminder that we need to have constant vigilance. I have really limited my grocery store outings this past year, and have only met one friend outside twice for an important reason (loaned him our second car while his was in the shop for several weeks). Thank you Anne!
pat
Yes, thank you!
And a big FU to ALL repubs. The repubs in Wisconsin are trying to get rid of the mask mandate. Can you imagine? Anything to screw with the Democratic leadership. Let’s hope that redistricting takes care of some of the awful gerrymandering. 50% vote Dem and end up with 30% of the seats.
Nicole
Anne Laurie’s Covid updates have been my go-to first read in the morning since last winter, too. So grateful for them. Thanks, Anne Laurie.
I’m on my next-to-last day of isolation for testing positive and feeling very grateful for a mild case (3 days of fever, maybe a week or so of mild fatigue after). My husband had a mild case, too. And I wish I could say we’d been careless, but we’ve been very careful to wear masks and social distance and wash hands. I think it was a trip to my kid’s pediatric dentist that might have done it, but it had been over a year since he’d been seen, thanks to the pandemic, and tooth decay can cause its own health issues. If the kiddo was our Patient Zero, he had an asymptomatic case that he was over before we knew it- so far, he’s continued to test negative. Otherwise, he’s somehow dodged the bullet that hit both his parents.
I’m so glad there is a plan for vaccine distribution now. I don’t want anyone else getting sick from trying to stay well.
Steve from Mendocino
My sincere thanks for all your posts. Your perspectives are among the few that I rely on to shape my perspective on the goings on outside of my little bubble.
SiubhanDuinne
Adding my thanks to the loudening chorus of praise for Anne Laurie.
If the daily Covid updates were her only contribution, dayenu.
If the Sunday morning garden threads were all she did, dayenu.
And if her frequent open threads, with their curated content, were the only thing she did on BJ, dayenu.
Anne Laurie, though? She does ‘em all.
StringOnAStick
The Covid news I got here from Anne Laurie was always, always ahead of the MSM curve. I’d take that news to work and was told I was “overreacting” every time. When it finally hit the MSM in a big way in on a Sunday in March is when they first got a glimmer of understanding and our dental patients cancelled en mass that day, except for the wingnuts of course.
I retired rather than work as a dental hygienist during Covid, my husband got to retire early and we moved to our dream retirement location and bought the perfect house for us, so thank you, thank you, thank you Anne Laurie, we owe it all to you, because without your daily information, the good things we salvaged from all this awfulness would not have happened!
MarkPainter
COVID has been tough for everyone, my family included. Anne Laurie’s daily COVID post is often the first thing I read every morning, over my first cup of coffee. It helps me understand what’s going on and what to expect next, and that’s as much comfort as we can expect to get during these crazy times.
You help keep us sane. Thank you, Anne Laurie!!
gkoutnik
Yes, yes, and yes again: THANK YOU, AL. My first stop, after coffee and the local paper, in the wee hours. And the faithful commenters, as well – so much is added by being connected to Malaysia and China and the OC and England and Scotland and Genesee Co and everywhere else. We’re all in this together, and it’s so easy to forget this, without our special daily reminder.
And fuck Donald Trump, a murderer. He will never be anything other than that.
mali muso
Chiming in with thanks for the indomitable Anne Laurie!
I have vivid memories of being home alone with my toddler while my husband was traveling right when all the crazy went down in March, and it was partly on the strength of the information I got here that I warned him to get himself on a plane in time to avoid getting stuck. Also how I felt less alone during the hours he was in the air by spending time here with the jackals. What a year it has been!
VeniceRiley
I do quite a lot of Covid reading on my own, but often find a gem I had not seen in Anne’s posts. Thanks Anne!
For Covid Festivus, I can only say it’s going on a year since I have seen my fiance in person. And Prison Service is not on priority Vax list in UK. Teh stupid! I feel fortunate to have gotten the Moderna, with the added anxiety of hoping the booster will be there.
Festivus mood song! Hasa Diga Eebowai
SoupCatcher
Many heartfelt thanks, Anne Laurie!
Like others have said, it was your daily posts that led me to start stocking up in February. Seeing what was going on in Italy and Spain, led to my getting the small business where I work ready for everyone to work from home, so that we transitioned to lockdown smoothly.
TheflipPsyD
A very sincere thank you from a long-time lurker (probably 18-19 years), but a faithful reader of this blog and Anne Laurie’s posts. These posts have been a daily part of my life for the past year. I also have used the information to keep my co-workers up to date and on how to keep us all safe. I have praised you and recommended the posts (and the blog of course) to everyone I know. I started washing my hands, not touching my face and trying to follow good hygiene shortly after I saw your first post. My co-workers thought I was a bit crazy in the beginning (even the germaphobes in the office, and there are three open and proud ones in my office). But, on March 16, when we were told that we would be working remotely for who knows how long, these daily posts kept me feeling like I had least had some knowledge and as time passed, brought me hope for a better future. I am amazed and feel blessed on a daily basis to “know” all of you. The breadth of knowledge at this blog is amazing. Thank you so much!
Brachiator
YES — Thank you, Anne Laurie. These posts have been essential reading.
AnotherBruce
I totally agree, now get some sleep (or not) Anne.
JoyceCB
Many thanks, Anne Laurie, from a grateful (mostly) lurker.
Skepticat
Your efforts are invaluable and so much appreciated. Has it been only a year?
NeenerNeener
Adding my thanks to Anne Laurie for staying on top of this!
I hope someday to be able to go for a medical procedure that takes more than 5 minutes, to stand in line at the post office, and to be able to see my out-of-town family again, all without taking my life in my hands.
On the other hand, I’ve really enjoyed working from home and picking up my groceries curbside.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: I remember that, but I hadn’t remembered that that was you!
Faithful Lurker
I want to add my thanks for the Covid information and everything else Anne Laurie posts. They make my morning and the first thing I read everyday. I got my first shot yesterday, months before I thought they’d be available.
Scout211
Yes, thank you Anne Laurie. Your morning COVID-19 updates are my go-to source for information about the virus in the US and in the rest of the world. You not only give us the information and facts that we need but you also introduce us to the many healthcare professionals tweeting daily with real medical and scientific information.
One year ago this week I was visiting my grandchildren. I had no idea that that visit would be the last time I was able to see them in person. It was also the last time I was on a plane and the last time I traveled anywhere other than to essential shopping or appointments.
But even though I miss my grandchildren, we have communicated via zoom and text. So I am grateful for that. There are way too many families that have lost their loved ones to this horrible virus and can only grieve for them. So I can wait.
It’s been a long 12 months.
Lavocat
Thank you, Anne. I caught this fucking thing way back in March 2020 & was lucky enough to recover. Then I was exposed to it again, in December, and then TWICE more this month. It has already killed 2 family members & I do NOT want to be #3. I monitor the vaccination distribution DAILY, and I thank you for doing the same. BTW, I will not be satisfied until I see Traitor Trump dangling from the end of a fucking rope.
JoyceH
Festivus? Are we airing our grievances? I’ve got one, though it’s disgracefully selfish.
A couple weeks ago, I got notice that I was selected for a BookBub promo. For the non-writers out there, as far as book promotions go, BookBub is the Big Kahuna. Their promos are difficult to get and quite expensive, but oh boy are they worth it! Last year I managed to get three BookBub promos, but they were all for my older series, the Regency romances. I’ve been submitting and submitting on my newer series, which is historic fantasy based on Pride and Prejudice. And finally after multiple rejections, I got accepted! Mary Bennet and the Bingley Codex (Book 1 of the Regency Mage series) will be in the BookBub newsletter and presented to 1,700,000 fantasy readers – on February 9th.
Damn Trump, even out of office he’s getting in my way – they’re impeaching him right on top of my BookBub!
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Yep, that was me. And I remember you being so kind to check in and make sure he made it back. :)
espierce
Thank you for the time and work you put into keeping us informed, Anne Laurie.
Punchy
@chopper: in the….um…ear? (Checks anatomy)….is this possible?
rikyrah
I read the COVID post first thing every morning. When she first started doing them, it was nothing but terror. Then, I settled in for the daily bad news. Then, I continued to read them for the daily reports from the rest of the world BJ Jackals. They reminded me that there were those in government taking this seriously. They just weren’t in the United States. I needed to be reminded of that, especially when we were going through the Hunger Games with the States in Spring 2020.
I will thank AL for doing the COVID beat.???
So much of the COVID information that I pass onto others comes from her posts.
patrick II
Vent. OK, I will — about Donald Trump and Scott Atlas’ genocidal herd immunity theory of pandemic control. When we first heard of this “strategy”, the arguments against it were mostly straightforward math — if you get 250 million people sick with COVID, millions of people would die — which is irrelevant to Trump. But, now, with the event of various new variant strains it becomes clear even to us laymen that there is a second reason this “strategy” is so demented — if you let the virus run its course, the herd will never get immune. A new variation will arrive and pass through the population next year, and the next. And the more opportunities the virus is given, the more often more virulent and robust variations are given the opportunity to evolve. Yeah, that’s right, Evangelicals, evolve. That’s why you should have studied science in school.
The strategy was yet another example of Trump’s narcissism — this is what he wants to do, this is the way he wants the world to be so he will do it and find someone (Atlas in this case) to give his depraved ideas a patina of respectability and a sham of permission. So, Trump, rationalized by scientific pariah Atlas, got to do what he wanted — be macho and not wear a mask, hold rallies to make him feel powerful and also make his fans unwitting, as usual, participants in the “let’s get everyone sick” strategy, and help spread the disease through the country. And here we are with 400,000 dead and more coming.
My wife and I have not gone out to dinner or a movie in a year, and I feel guilty even mentioning such a minor indisposition. I have had two members of my family get ill, one seriously with a blood clot in his lung, but both made it, thank god. I have been reading commentators here at Balloon Juice who have lost family and friends and it breaks my heart, and it is infuriating because there is no good reason; what is driving so much of it is just dogged stupidity powered by perverse need.
Anyhow, you asked us to vent, I vented.
Hoodie
Anne Laurie’s Covid posts have been indispensable, giving a context to help guide decisions at our small business, especially when government info has been lacking. We’ve been so fortunate that our work lends itself to virtual implementation, but the readings Anne Laurie has provided have helped us get a grasp on what we needed to do to protect our staff. We’ve been able to keep working and have only one member of our team get infected, not at our workplace. And yes, fuck Covid and the malicious incompetents that have let it get so out of hand.
Wapiti
Thank you, Anne Laurie!
My vent: My MIL died in April 2020 (not covid); my FIL died in May 2020 (maybe covid; he was hospitalized in March, testing generally sucked and we got conflicting diagnosis.) We saw them in January. My wife wasn’t able to go to their bedsides because of covid; she wasn’t able to go to their graveside because of covid. The estate was sold/donated remotely. We were able to do a little Facetime and Skype before they passed, so thank goodness for tech. We were extremely fortunate that my FIL, an old insurance man, had set everything up so that his wife and daughter would not be burdened by the details and arrangements.
topclimber
@Tracy:”I credit your daily posts for keeping the danger of covid at the top of my mind, and keeping me from slipping up ‘just this once’ to see friends or family. Thank you for all your dedication and hard work Anne!”
Let me add my personal thanks to you as well, Anne. Along with tough love nagging by my adult kids, your daily round-up keeps my laissez-faire self from ignoring precautions. Thanks to your faithful commenters too, who remind us everyday that this is a worldwide fight.
jeffreyw
Yay for AL and the whole team that keeps this place working. It’s a haven for me and I am not alone, ever, while here. Any time, day or night, I know that the light will be on and the doors ajar.
Ramiah Ariya
Thank you from India – AL’s posts appear around my evening, and I read them without fail every day.
cckids
I’ll add my thanks, appreciation and admiration to the chorus, AL. Your work is invaluable!
patrick II
@patrick II:
Oh, and thanks Anne. You have been brilliant, science filtered through the warmth of care.
realbtl
Thanks Anne Laurie.
Embra
Anne Laurie is my favorite insomniac. I start the day off feeling as close to fully informed on the most recent COVID-19 developments, and before she started doing those posts I thoroughly enjoyed the more mundane updates from the twitterverse. Heck, she more than anyone else helped me find a way into that medium (not sure yet if that’s a net good thing or not…but her work did have me positioned to see my state’s dept of health twitter announcement that the over-65’s were added to the first vaccination tier, and let me get in early on scheduling my “Fauci Ouchie” that I got yesterday).
waynel140
I nominated her for a Pulitzer back in June, I think. I know of no reporters who have done a better job covering the pandemic. She is the Woodstein of COVID reporting.
MisterForkbeard
This post is so perfectly Balloon Juice, I swear.
Thank you, Anne! And thank you to all the other folks here who helped make covid-times bearable. Except for that one guy, screw him. :)
Tim in SF
How does one email Watergirl? I have a question about Kattails’s art.
FelonyGovt
Let me add my thanks to Anne Laurie for all of her hard work on these detailed COVID posts for a year (!) now.
Now that we have a competent and compassionate President and administration, the utter failure of the Republicans to do anything is even clearer. With a strong national masking and social distancing mandate in March 2020, maybe we wouldn’t be sitting here now with untold deaths, illnesses and economic devastation.
Ben Cisco
Thanks, Anne Laurie. And fuck Covid-19. Also Covids 1-18 just to be on the safe side. Speaking of which…
Good news everyone! Made it to the VA and got shot 1 today. Arm didn’t fall off, and I haven’t grown any additional parts, so BONUS!
Louise B.
So grateful, Anne Laurie, for your work. Especially the global focus, which is hard to find with the MSM here in the states.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and under Festivus Miracles!
I don’t think one person in this thread has called Anne Laurie “Annie”
feebog
Thank you Anne Laurie for keeping us updated and educated. Good news from SoCal is that there are several Super Sites up and running in LA County. We are now in phase 1B, 65 and older. My neighbor got her first shot at Dodger Stadium Thursday. I’ve been trying to schedule appointments for the wife and I but all the slots are full. Which is a good thing. The other good news is that new cases in LA County are dropping steadily. We are not out of the woods yet, but it looks like we have plateaued in terms of hospitalization and ICU capacity.
dmsilev
Chiming in to say thank you. It’s been a hell of a year, and while we’re not out of it yet, at least we can see a path to get there.
For airing of grievances, fuck RFK Jr for using Aaron’s death as a platform to spread his anti-vax filth.
wvng
Checking Anne Laurie’s covid post is literally the first thing I have done every morning for at least six months. I can’t express how grateful I am for her attention to what is happening worldwide. I have used her posts frequently to help others understand that the US is only one among every other country struggling against this threat.
Thank you thank you thank you!
And f..k Covid!
Zelma
I’ve read the COVID posts every day since they started. It has been an impressive feat. Some future historian would be able to write a history of this disease and its impact simply by following these posts. He or she will be grateful and so am I.
dmsilev
@Ben Cisco: I’m pretty sure we established that the prehensile tail doesn’t start growing until after the second shot.
Mart
Thanks AL.. Never realized until today that it was because of you that last February I started fist bumping customers, buying groceries while traveling to eat in the hotel room, and using a pen to push buttons. Well ahead of the NBA shut down that got everyone’s attention. Thanks so much for teaching us about the damn virus. Now if you could just fix my nerves…
Kattails
This was a huge amount of time and care to dedicate day in and day out and so valuable. As someone mentioned, it kept the dangers forefront in my mind, let me know what’s been going on around the world, reminded me of how many monumental idiots are out there. So much information to process and it will be a valuable archive for the future. Thank you so much for these efforts.
I have a couple who are very dear long-term friends, both in the hospital with serious physical issues and no one can visit them even for a few minutes. They’re each sedated, not really responsive and I can’t help but feel that someone holding a hand and speaking to them would be helpful. Being in hospital even for one night is very disorienting and hearing a familiar voice would be grounding. And yes I blame Donald Trump and every last one of his enablers and toadying sycophants for this.
retiredeng
Words can not express how thankful we are for your hard work Anne. Thank-you for all your writing and all the other front pagers on Balloon Juice and John Cole for leading the charge. I in particular have needed moral support to maintain my sanity for the last five years and especially for the last two and a half years of being a care giver for my partner who had a stroke in August of 2018. Life is hard sometimes but you guys take the edge off of it all. Thank-you all again from the bottom of my heart.
Leto
AL’s diligence in providing the best information possible stands in such stark contrast to the previous year’s gaslighting, disinformation, and callous disregard for our fellow human’s basic wellbeing. I, along with many others, will be forever indebted that we have such amazing people here who share the basic belief that we’re all in this together, and that we’re better off when we include everyone. Thank you for everything that you do to keep this community going, and I fervently hope that this time next year we’ll be on to fundraisers for the mid-terms, continuing to expose all these traitorous fucks, and endless pet pictures, with COVID posts a thing of the past. Fuck COVID!
Rusty
Many thanks to Anne for her good work. She has done a better job being comprehensive and authoritative than most news sites. Thank you, thank you!!!
divF
Thanks to AL for doing this. I read this almost every day, mainly just after it is posted, when I wake up in the middle of the night (I’m in CA) and can’t get back to sleep.
No venting, but much sadness. Madame and I are seeing one friend here through dying of cancer, inside our/she and her husband’s COVID bubble, but otherwise masked and distanced. And my sister just went on hospice, also from cancer, but she is in MA, and I am too much at risk to travel to see her. We will be visiting her this afternoon on zoom.
SkyBluePink
Much appreciation for ALL you do, Anne Laurie, to keep us informed and entertained!
db11
Many thanks Anne — your daily COVID round-up is the first thing I read most days.
Zzyzx
God I hope we’re not doing this in 2022. I’ll be completely insane.
But, yes, the work has definitely been appreciated!
Another Scott
Thanks AL!! Time flies…
“I’m American!!”
(via NotLarrySabato)
Cheers,
Scott.
dexwood
Chiming in to add my thanks, Anne, and gratitude for Balloon Juice for giving her a forum.
N M
Big thanks AL, you’re a national treasure trapped in a maybe top 10,000 blog :)
Sister Golden Bear
Many thanks Anne, your work has been invaluable!
TheflipPsyD
For the vent portion, I have two fourth graders (boy-girl twins) and a son in sixth grade. Because of that traitorous orange menace, I (and their dad) have struggled to figure out how to manage to keep some sense of normalcy for them while also helping each deal with their emotions, particularly the anxiety and loss they’ve experienced. I know that we are blessed and have been incredibly lucky as none of us have tested positive despite my husband’s workplace having a number of positive cases. Losing my mother in April, having not been able to see her because no one could visit any longer and not being able to have a funeral was difficult, but since then, I know that my family and I have been very blessed and very lucky. I feel ridiculous complaining or venting about anything that has changed in my life. But I will vent about what my kids have experienced in the past months. They don’t talk about it much and overall I know that they are resilient, but sometimes, they will say something that makes me realize how much life has changed for them and that they are much more aware of what is going on than they talk about. Because of that man’s sheer egocentrism and selfishness, teachers, other staff and kids must still fear for their life to attend school. My kids did well in the beginning with remote schooling, and I was able to take a breath in october and november that maybe this would work and they would be ok. But I have watched as time has passed and they have struggled with being in front of the computer for hours at a time. They begged to be allowed to return to school on a hybrid basis and we agreed to let them despite our concerns. All three of my kids are so much more emotionally reactive and spent. My oldest son is probably the easiest going kid I’ve ever met, and yet, now, he will become angry and snap. Some of that is probably hormones, but he is also so angry for missing all the milestones of moving from elementary school to middle school He never got to return to say goodbye — on Friday March 13, 2020, he was told that he would go to school remotely for 2 weeks and then return. Even though I knew that wasn’t going to happen, he was so looking forward to all the fifth grade milestones. And then on his 12th birthday, there was an attempted coup. We did our best to celebrate his birthday — to laugh and share cake with his neighborhood friends that are part of our bubble (outside of course). He blew the candles out (with me holding them, not on the cake), and he seemed ok. At the end of the day, we asked him if he had a good birthday, and he said, “Meh.” We were somewhat surprised, and he pointed to the tv (on msnbc) with news about the capitol. And as has happened in these moments in ther past, I realized how much more he sees what is going on. The people who were supposed to figure this out and make things safe failed him. And even though we all learn that lesson eventually, I am livid that this is how he learned the lesson.
ETA typo
tybee
+1
Benw
Thanks AL! I can NOT believe it’s been a year.
4D*hiker
Thumbs up. Required reading. Thank you
J.
THANK YOU, Anne Laurie!
There go two miscreants
Adding my sincere thanks for Anne Laurie’s posts! Pretty much the first thing I look at over the first cup of coffee in the morning. A very useful source of info.
WaterGirl
@TheflipPsyD: I really did not expect to find it so cathartic to read the venting and festivus comments.
surfk9
Thanks Anne Laurie! You are one of the main reasons that we stocked up on bomb rations and paper products last February which worked out really well when the store shelves were empty.
Kent
What I was thinking the other day. What would have happened if we had had Biden or Clinton running the country this past year and Covid deaths were a third of what they are?
The fucking MAGAts would all be jumping up and down saying “see, Covid isn’t any worse than the flu. We have had 100,000 flu deaths in a year too. And for this we wrecked the entire economy?
There is almost a no-win situation here. We don’t know what the worst-case scenario is until we experience it. then it is too late. Dems will never get credit for doing the right thing and preventing disaster. Because the absence of disaster becomes the example of why there wasn’t one in the first place.
Sigh…
SFBayAreaGal
@Ben Cisco: Congratulations. I’m still trying to get my shot through the VA in San Francisco
dc
Thank you so much for the daily updates. You’ve kept me informed and able to get more information from good sources.
zhena gogolia
Thank you so much, Anne Laurie.
Tired of talking about Covid and especially about vaccines, so I will leave it at that!
Nicole
@Kent:
They would have been impeached over 30,000 deaths. And quite possibly removed from office. Rules are always different for Republicans than for Democrats.
CarolPW
Many thanks to Anne for these. About a week after they started, I told my sister that we should start stocking up in preparation for a shutdown. She thought I was being premature but I managed to convince her otherwise. When the shit hit the fan (she is close to UC Davis med center where the first California case ended up and I am in eastern Washington state) we were ready.
I suspect Anne’s posts are the reason none of my small family circle have gotten sick. I know Anne’s posts are the reason none of us came close to running out of toilet paper.
One lens is held (poorly) in my glasses using a twist tie. And I would like to pick out my own damned avocado. Otherwise we’re good.
Orange is the New Red
Chiming in with thanks!
SFBayAreaGal
@TheflipPsyD: I don’t know if this will help or not. My sister also celebrated her birthday on January 6. She remarked, “well at least my birthday will be a historical birthday.”
Ken
Let me add my gratitude to Anne Laurie’s work. I was able to use her information to persuade my parents to distance in February of last year.
errg
Thanks Anne Laurie! It’s been hugely useful getting your summary every day, and I know it must be a ton of work…
Middlelee
Thank you Anne Laurie for a huge amount of work to keep us up to date on a worldwide pandemic. Like so many others I read your COVID-19 post first, every morning.
TheflipPsyD
@SFBayAreaGal: Lol — that is what we told him. He will never forget his 12th birthday
burnspbesq
@feebog:
Great news, thanks for sharing. My kid is still in OC.
As a former Californian now living in Texas, it’s quite maddening to see what a difference competence and caring in state and local government can make. Vaccine distribution here is Charlie Foxtrot squared; the state is actively fucking up, and my county (Williamson) isn’t even trying.
And yes, thanks to the amazing AL for all she does here.
Tony Jay
Oh hell, yes. AL’s tireless round-ups have done the job our respective news medias have spectacularly failed at, and in the process given commentators the space to describe how their countries are doing in detail. We’re all more informed for their collective efforts.
Brachiator
Only a few family members have come down with the virus, and they have all come through it OK, thank goodness. Other friends and family are doing well. My mother is scheduled to get the vaccine next week and my sister, as caregiver, is eligible for the jab as well.
I was working remotely before the Southern California lock downs hit, so again I have been very lucky. But I also have some medical vulnerabilities, so I have been trying to stay home as much as possible. I cannot help but feel a sense of dread, because I am reasonably sure that if I came down with the virus, I would not survive it. Staying home is not just an inconvenience or a shift in habits, it has become the chief element of self preservation.
Thanks to technology, computers, cell phones, video conferencing and texting, I have been able to keep in touch with people. A friend’s daughter got married via Zoom.
I noted to a friend that one of the things I most missed was going out to the movies after work. I miss hot dogs and movie popcorn.
I have long detested Trump, and my disgust for him probably hit a new high after his horrible mistreatment of immigrants and children. But his callous disregard for the lives of Americans because of his pitiful reaction to the pandemic tripped some switch. I understand that his supporters are fellow citizens and we must all live together, but they and Trump crossed a line from which forgiveness and reconciliation will never be possible, barring some monumental act of contrition.
On the other hand, I do not expect miracles from the Biden administration, but I have tremendous faith and confidence in them. I am also reassured in the hope and goodwill and belief in something better by all of us who voted for Biden and Harris.
glc
Remarkable sustained work in an unexpected venue; I remain impressed and grateful for it. I hope at some point this year we can consider ourselves past the emergency phase.
We still have a lot to learn about this disease, vaccination, immunity, variants, effects, and, for that matter, its transmission.
frosty
So for a year now my first activity of the day has been to read the COVID roundup. And except for a brief time last summer, the second activity has been to pull the covers back over my head and hide.
Thanks for these AL, you’ve made me an expert!
Betsy
Thank you, Anne Laurie, and not just “thank you,” but “owe you” — because I’m sure that my loved ones and I have benefited (in terms of being prepared, protecting ourselves, and in other ways) from your updates and information, starting early, early on.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Thank you, Anne-Laurie for everything you do. Much appreciated.
Anotherlurker
Thanks so much, Anne, for you COVID updates. You give me useful info and a place to start my education on all things COVID.
Your hard work has paid off in a more informed, critically thinking Lurker.
The Thin Black Duke
Be Blessed, Anne Laurie.
Miki
Thank you, Anne Laurie, for your heavy lifting. My day can’t properly start without it. Looking forward to this shit show winding down so I can come out of pre-retirement and join the living. It’s been hard on me, in spite of my near-pathologic introvert tendencies.
On the positive side, I’m an old vet with co-morbidities so I get Shot #1 on February 2 and Shot #2 on February 27 (Pfizer). Yee haw.
Betsy
@Betsy: And P.S. Someone on this site — maybe a front-pager — made an estimate (as I recall it) of 200,000 to 500,000 American dead. That was many, many months ago.
It’s a range that has stuck in my mind and stood above the murky, choppy sea of information and predictions and suppositions.
Was that Anne Laurie?
RedDirtGirl
Yes, indeed. Thank you soooo much!
l3000
Big thank you to AL. Finding the info in one place was wonderful and so helpful. Must have been tedious and stressful to compile for us. You do/did a fantastic job. Sadly I’m not sure when it will not be needed, not as optimistic as most people.
Thanks to all the front pagers (?terminology) for all the info and words to keep us sane for the last 4 yrs.
Betsy
@Joey Maloney: Hugs and heartfelt sympathy.
For all the right-wingers and covidiots blathering about their right not to wear a mask, and to carry on like the monsters they are, I want to say on behalf of you and all of us who are watching the hourglass of our elderly loved ones’ lives, waiting and waiting to be able to see them again:
We’ve masked and isolated and stayed home for nigh on a year now. We’ve gotten and given the coronavirus to exactly ZERO humans.
IF EVERYONE HAD DONE WHAT WE HAVE DONE, (or been enabled to stay home by Republican electeds who chose to withhold survival payments), THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN OVER BY NOW.
They talk about their rights! Where are OUR rights? What about our freedoms?
They were taken away by all the morons who didn’t have the self-continence to take reasonable steps, who weren’t capable of the smallest act of self-regulation — not even in the most urgent circumstances.
West of the Rockies
Oh, great, now all of the frontpagers are going to be expecting this kind of praise.//
Yes, yes, Adam, you’re super important, too (even if you have odd taste in filmed musicals).
Betsy
@CarolPW: This, this, and this.
Cermet
Thank you for all the very difficult work and helping people here both learn more about covid and prevent they and their loved one’s from getting ill.
grandmaBear
Thank you, Anne Laurie, and to all the commenters who enlighten us on their local conditions – I also read this column first every morning. In October 2019 I was in China (including a few days in Wuhan), then came back to my Chinese language class. By mid January at the latest we were discussing the situation in my class, so it was nice to see the emphasis on it here, and the number of useful links. One classmate went to China around Jan 25th to meet his prospective in-laws (did not go well) and came back (showing up in class the day after returning) describing how quick they were to shut down and how repressive they were. He swore he’d never accept being deprived of his freedom like that. Asshole. Could have infected us all.
Betsy
@TheflipPsyD: I feel this. My niece lost the last half of her junior year, and now her whole senior year of high school. I see effects in her, a resilient, wonderful, kind and gentle kid, just like what you see in your son. It’s deeply worrying.
For american kids a high school senior year is such a rite of passage. I see a whole cohort of those graduating kids having probably life-long effects from that particular loss. And your son’s class year having their particular trauma. And so on.
It’s too huge to comprehend. We see it in our immediate families and friends, then think of those traumas played out in the millions. I lose track of how to even encompass it in my feelings. It burns a wound of rage in my heart.
Wag
Anne, your post have been a voice of reason in a year and for a subject where reason has been hard to find. Thanks for all you have done.
HRA
I have been reading your posts Anne since day1of your arrival here. I remember when people began to ask if you ever slept, too. Personally I have enjoyed all of your posts and come back in intervals to see if you have sent another one. Thank you for all the information.
jackmac
Thank you Anne Laurie! You are awesome!
Baud
You make Twitter seem like a worthwhile tool, AL. Thank you.
Betsy
@Kent: You captured it exactly. Successful prevention gives the deniers their “evidence” that the very measures of prevention were “unnecessary.”
I’m dreading how this dynamic plays out with carbon emissions and climate change.
Spanish Moss
Thanks Anne Laurie! I begin my morning with Balloon-Juice, usually starting with a post from you. I so appreciate the information, insight, and snark.
S. Cerevisiae
Yes, thanks so much for these COVID updates, they are my go to for current information.
Matt McIrvin
@Betsy: I’ve been told this about acid rain and ozone depletion–that the success of environmental regs here was like the magic rock that supposedly repels crocodiles.
altofront
Breaking out of lurkerdom to offer sincere thanks, Anne Laurie. These posts are often the most important thing I’ll read all day. I can’t imagine the effort it takes to collate everything, to say nothing of the psychic toll involved. Thank you!
SFBayAreaGal
Thank you Anne. Because of your posts I was able to convince most of my family to prepare for the shutdown and get into the habit of wearing face masks. It helps when most of my family believes in science and facts.
Also, thank you to the other commentators that keep us updated about on what is happening in their part of the world concerning COVID.
MB
I too have read AL’s column every day. The one thing I missed, and this is not a criticism, is reflections on how pandemics can be traced to the invasion and destruction of wildlife habitat by humans. Sadly, I’m sure there will be more pandemics like this as we insist on maintaining a lifestyle that is no longer sustainable.
SoupCatcher
For the venting portion, it has been hard to see my daughter sad about school. She is in middle school, and in the drama program. Their spring play was canceled due to lockdown. Her entire eighth grade has been/will be online, and there are no plans for performances. She was really looking forward to getting bigger roles during this, her last year before moving to high school. Added to that is that she’s been playing soccer with the same teammates for quite a few years, and in the same girl scout troop for half a decade, and there hasn’t been anything in real life since March.
She’s handling it a lot better than I would have at her age.
Joy in FL
Thank you Annie Laurie!
Even when I didn’t read them, it helped me to know you were keeping up with what was happening.
CaseyL
@Ben Cisco: Fantastic news!
AL’s Covid posts were must-reading for me, too, especially in teh beginning when there just wasn’t much reliable information to be had elsewhere.
Though, come to think of it, AL’s covid posts were even more valuable once the Official Disinformation Machine took over elsewhere, when anything coming out of the T* White House was a lie, and the MSM was more interested in not upsetting T* and his legion of losers than in providing accurate information.
The past year showed, as nothing else could, just how deeply broken this country is.
SectionH
Thank you, Anne Laurie so much for your Coronavirus reports, not to forget the Xday Morning Open Threads, the Sunday Garden Chats, the Late Night Open Threads and all the others.
Maybe when it’s safe to meet in groups, and to travel, we could have a meet-up in the Boston area with AL as the guest of honor. (Only if she’d like that of course!)
eclare
Anne,
Your coronavirus updates are “must read” for me. I can’t imagine how much work (depressing work) that takes on a daily basis. Thank you so much for keeping us informed.
The Moar You Know
OK.
2020 was an awful year and I suspect that 2021 will be worse – and as some wonderful commentor said here the other day, wait until we crawl out from our burrows and try to resume “normal life” and discover that no matter how well vaccinated, that is not going to happen. They are right: that life is over. That is when the shit is really going to hit the fan.
Getting rid of Trump was needful – this nation would not have survived four more years of the government actively working to kill us all – but sadly, it’s not going to solve much. The problems facing this nation and this world are largely beyond the ability of politics to deal with. If Biden can get the country vaccinated and COVID under control he will have exceeded my expectations and done everything I would have asked him to do. Anything else he can get done is bonus. I have never felt sorry for a president before, but I feel sorry for him. He is literally taking on Washington/Lincoln scale problems.
Thanks for listening. I have to go strap on my month-old N95 to go to the grocery store.
Old School
The daily coronavirus update has become standard breakfast reading for me.
Thanks Anne Laurie for your dedication in putting it together every day. I look forward to it coming to an end someday.
lashonharangue
Another lurker here jumping in to say thank you for you huge and sustained efforts. Reading your posts has been a daily ritual for this awful year.
raven
discover that no matter how well vaccinated, that is not going to happen
Horseshit
Betty
Chiming in to add heartfelt thanks to Anne Laurie for her amazing devotion to provide us with comprehensive Covid news on a daily basis. Just reading through her posts is demanding. The effort to pull all that together on such a regular basis is truly heroic. All accolades are well deserved. Such a heartbreaking time for the world.
Lyrebird
ALL THIS
times hundreds!!!
Can’t thank you enough &
don’t have Kattails’ chops, so please just admire that again from
a fairly frequent reader who wants her shot already…
Laura Too
Thank you Anne Laurie!! You have kept me informed and sane through all of your posts. I fell better if I have more information. The work you put in each day is greatly appreciated! Thanks to Watergirl for her thoughtfulness in giving us a chance to show our appreciation. I put my grievances in today’s post. Fuck Covid, and Fuck republican stupidity and meanness.
badgetoon
Just my two bits of thanks to Anne Laurie, like so many others the fount of knowledge has guided me thru the year and it’s been a crappy year for sure. Glad my Mom passed in late October of 2019 but then all the death has just reinforced the sadness. It made phone banking even harder then just doing it over zoom emotionally more than anything else. This week is the first time I felt it was okay to give into a grief much larger than a parent by 400,000
stinger
@divF:
Holding you in my heart.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
I’m thinking back to how Martin and others here talked me and my husband out of a trip to Philadelphia on the train in mid-March.
I was always several steps ahead of anyone I knew, thanks to BJ.
Tenar Arha
Thanks AL. As some have noted above, thanks to you & this blog I feel like I was stocked up & mostly ready for the first shut down, & for the year that has followed.
As for this unique Festivus , I’ll start by noting that I’ve been safe & sound & I’m truly lucky that I haven’t lost anyone to this disease. I’ve weathered this year. I’m lucky that I was already okay with lots of alone time, bc I need that to recharge in general. Yet I still miss terribly those things that used to get me out of the the house & out of my solitude, movies, museums, nice meals—though I’ve found ways to maintain connections to my friends & family via remote means.
And fcuk that orange murderer, I’m going to have missed two birthdays & two Passovers with family & friends bc of that guy’s sociopathic mismanagement. And I’m never going to forget how many people were killed from deliberate neglect aided from the top right down to the local levels. (Truly, damn the Noems and DeSantises of their party to the hells they believe in). I’ll probably spend the rest of my life making sure I am never friends with anyone who voted for the IGMFY party & hasn’t atoned for it.
Thanks again AL.
danielx
Thanks AL – for everything.
R-Jud
@SoupCatcher: I feel this. My kid is autistic and in the UK equivalent of 6th grade; she had all her music classes cancelled last year and only a few weeks of them this year. I’m trying to get her back on track with the guitar but it’s hard, when I also have to try to keep her from falling even further behind academically, do my paid work, my grad school work, and keep the house clean.
I haven’t had a hug from an adult since July.
satby
Absolutely heartfelt thanks indeed AL! I’ve shared so much information over the year that you first collared for us here, and by extension you’ve helped dozens more people who’ve never read balloon-juice.
Rob
Thank you Anne Laurie for doing these daily posts for the past year. After checking the weather forecasts, Balloon Juice is the first site I visit every morning and the coronavirus posts are something I see at the start of every day.
KenK
I would like to add my thanks and appreciation to Anne her daily updates. I also want to thank the BJ commenters to her post for their local updates. Unfortunately, these were usually sad and disappointing, but they combined to paint a picture of how horrible and ‘pan’ this disease truly is. Thank you all.
Vent: It has been a year since I’ve held my (now) three year old grandson. I had hoped to travel the 2,300 miles this March to be with them for my 70th. Hopefully, after vaccination, I’ll be able to see them in the near future.
I’ve had friends and family suffer this disease and it claimed one relative. This is probably a common thread amongst many of you here. It didn’t have to be this way.
TheflipPsyd
@Betsy: I’m a psychologist and think about these things as well. How these events and losses will affect this generation. My parents grew up during the depression. My father remembered bill collectors pounding at his door. I grew up where we always had lots of food in the house and arguments between him and mom arguing because he would not spend any money on keeping up the house because he wanted to make sure they had money in the bank. Spending money was risky and dangerous. There will be long term effects that will not be seen for years. I feel for your niece and have often thought to myself that if my son feels this way about moving up to middle school, I can’t imagine the loss and anger for juniors and seniors.
MazeDancer
Boundless gratitude, Anne Laurie!
H.E.Wolf
Anne Laurie –
Adding my thanks for your great and generous effort on our behalf!
LevelB
Very grateful for the updates.
Laura Too
@Ben Cisco: I’m so thrilled for you! It was wonderful to “meet” you on the call.
CaseyL
@Tenar Arha:
Hell to the Yes!
I’m fortunate in that no one I’m close to is even a Republican, much less a Trumpster. (The funny/tragic thing is that I know of people who might have been receptive to the “old” GOP, in terms of supporting a smaller welfare state, but now they’re permanently alienated due to seeing what the GOP really is.)
But the repugnance I feel for the GOP has colored other areas of my life. (I guess this is a Festivus comment, as I thanked AL in an earlier one.)
Besides the conclusion I already came to over the summer, never to move to, or live in, a city or town that is Republican, even planning vacations is affected. There are parts of the country – even parts of my own state of Washington – that are staggeringly beautiful, that I would love to visit, but will not because the GOP is so strong there.
I’m thinking safe travel may be possible this autumn, depending on how the mutation issue develops. It would be lovely to take a week or two to just hike in places I’ve never been, drive off to see parts of the country new to me. But a lot of potential destinations have been removed from my bucket list.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@chopper: I think I’ve said my DIL teaches kindergarten remotely. I don’t know how she, they, and their parents manage. All the sympathy to you.
LNNVA
I have been reading your Covid-19 report since you started. I couldn’t start my day without it. Thank you so very much for all the hard work. From a long long-time lurker.
Jay
Thank you so much, Anne Lauri.
I hope that writing these posts have not taken any kind of toll on you, because you have been doing Saintly work keeping us all informed and safe/er.
And thank you to all the commenters who add to and build on the covid threads.
loveyou all.
eclare
@TheflipPsyd: I think of that too, and also the kids falling behind in education who will never catch up. The effects will last for decades, because selfish assholes would not take simple steps to protect others.
Kayla Rudbek
Thank you, Anne Laurie!
sdhays
@Tim in SF: Check out the “Contact Us” link at the top.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I can’t fathom the amount of work it must have been to put those posts together every day. Every. Day.
Thank you, Anne.
Mandarama
Anne Laurie, your work has meant a lot to our family. When March came, we were prepared to plan out meals, buy in bulk, reduce how often we leave the house, and console our teens about their reduced lives. My husband had articles at his fingertips as he argued to have his whole team work remotely. We have faced the difficulty of not mingling with my sister and BIL (both of whom also comment here occasionally) and their 4 year old, my only nephew. We all live in the same town, but we know we can’t afford for any of us to get sick. We endured separate holidays from them, but we all celebrated remotely on Inauguration Day! Help is on the way. Biden said it over and over, and we say it too: Help is on the way.
Thank you so much, for all your research and care. <3
waratah
Thank you. Your morning posts are the first ones I read, and lately your evening ones the last. I have a love affair with your Sunday garden posts,
sdhays
@The Moar You Know: This really has been hard on teachers. I think it’s probably akin to how the civilian population doesn’t really grasp the costs of the Iraq War because we weren’t part of fighting it (beyond going to the mall, of course). I know I don’t know a tenth of it, and I find it horrifying.
A teacher I know from back home is now working 60 hours a week just to keep up with the remote learning – he was in the local newspaper during the initial lockdown for voluntarily setting up a FaceTime lessons in the mornings for students who didn’t want to fall behind (he’s a high school teacher). Members of his immediate family are very vulnerable, so anything like COVID is that many times more stressful, and he has school-age children as well.
Do you really think that people won’t want to go bars and listen to live music as much once we actually achieve herd immunity with vaccines? I feel like as soon as there’s a fairly clear “all clear” signal from trusted government and people are vaccinated and case counts are minimal, people are going to be running to bars and not leaving (but I’m a terrible judge because I don’t drink and have never liked bars and don’t understand why anyone could argue that they should not have been shut down all year last year).
Genine
Thank you, Anne Laurie, and Fuck COVID-19!
Jacqueline Ogburn
Long-time lurker here. Thank you Annie Laurie, for the work you have done all year with these posts. I have read them every day, sometimes following the links to read more in depth. And thank you, John, for keeping this going.
Jacqueline Ogburn
Long-time lurker here. Thank you Annie Laurie, for the work you have done all year with these posts. I have read them every day, sometimes following the links to read more in depth. I find knowing more reassuring.
And thank you, John, for keeping this going.
Gbbalto
Anne Laurie and our intrepid correspondents around the world – thank you so much for your time and efforts to keep us well informed. Part of my job is to support my Govt agency’s Covid response and AL’s links have been a great help.
PST
Thank you so much Anne. I check your post every morning, and it guides me to whatever other information I need. If it’s important, you have it.
I probably have less to vent about than most people. My wife and I have lost friends, but not family or close, dear friends. Our anxieties, our difficult everyday choices about what small risks are worth taking and what aren’t, and the burden of separation from family and friends are the same as everyone else’s. I really miss travel, which was a big reason for retiring. My perspective is affected by my age. Losing a year of normal existence feels different when eternity is starting to loom over the horizon and the years are hurtling by faster and faster than it does when you’re 20 and immortal.
Phylllis
@Ben Cisco: Yay! Based on a memo we received yesterday, looks like school folk in SC will get our shots soon-ish too.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This. She put an amazing amount of time and effort into keeping us informed.
Wuhan is almost back to normal, and maybe in a few more months we will be too.
phdesmond
thank you, Anne Laurie,
steady point in a turning world.
dkinPa
Adding my thanks to Anne Laurie for her timely and informative Covid posts. I’m not always able to ready every BJ post, but I make sure to read her posts every day.
Also, f**k Covid!
sab
Thank you Anne Laurie
I have read these posts every day for the past year. My sister married into a Chinese medical family so SARS made us all sit up and notice, but I learned things from you that she wasn’t aware of.
I had not realized how ahead of the curve you were, putting so much effort in well before the end of January when there wasn’t much generally available information until March.
Thanks to you I was sounding off at work for a good month before anyone took it seriously, when the NBA shut down and then when DeWine shut things down.
randy khan
Besides the Biden win, this place has been one of the few bright spots in what otherwise was an annus horribilus.* And Anne Laurie’s posts have been really helpful and much appreciated.
As for COVID-19, it’s hard to have much to add to what everyone else has said..
*Okay, there also was a kitten, and she would rank pretty high as a bright spot even in a regular year.
satby
You speak for many here on this blog. I feel for everyone in what was taken from us. But I also try to take some small comfort in how the need for personal connections between people has made many of us remember that’s what matters most in life. We were forced apart, and when we can be together again we won’t take that for granted for a long time, I hope.
JMG
Anne Laurie has my heartfelt thanks for collating invaluable information I am way too disorganized (and lazy!) to gather on my own. It takes a lot of mental strength to face the covid story as much as she has done. For the venting part, I’ve been very fortunate. No one I know has gotten sick (that I know of, haven’t seen or communicated with my golf group since November), my son and his fiancee shared the summer with us and are here with us now, and aside from the crushing boredom of each day being so damn like the last one, I have but one complaint. I have not seen my daughter (lives in France) since December 2019. We have face to face calls, but it’s not the same.
I look forward to the day when I can go indoors to eat at a restaurant. Alice and I usually sit at the bar for social interaction, but really, the best part is when they take the dishes away and you realize you don’t have to think about washing them.
waratah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I call her that to myself. I was raised singing that lovely song.
grandmaBear
@TheflipPsyd: my mother was born in 1918. Her mother & 2 of 4 siblings died within a 2 week period in Jan 1919. She was given to a maiden aunt to raise by her overwhelmed father, who then demanded her back when he remarried. Serious psychological repercussions from all that her whole life.
eta but we all knew to get our flu shots!
Mai Naem mobile
Thank you Anne Laurie. I kind of wish I had continued to pay more attention in the first couple of months but honestly I can only handle so much negative stuff. I have to admit I am still surprised at how utterly incompetent Orange Lump was being that it was in his best interest to take care of it. I still can’t believe they wouldn’t have handed this over to the professionals to deal with.
BellyCat
Adding my deepest gratitude, Anne Laurie. Thanks to your diligence, my intolerance for countless others’ feckless behavior is indescribable.
Personal Covid Count: Sister (survived), Sister’s Ex (died), Two Friend’s Father’s (one died, one just entered hospital). Fuck Covid and Fuck Trump & Co.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@waratah: ah, I didn’t know it came from a song.
Tehanu
Many thanks to you, Anne Laurie. I couldn’t do what you’ve done, day in and day out, and I really appreciate your work on this awful thing.
Brachiator
@sdhays:
I think you are right here. Celebrations will be wilder than those when Prohibition ended.
Sandia Blanca
Thank you, Anne Laurie! When you first started these posts I thought, “why are you doing this? We don’t need this information.” How wrong I was, and so grateful to know that you were here, slogging through the mountains of noise to bring us the awful truth about the pandemic.
Our family has been most fortunate during this time, with most able to work from home, and I’ve actually received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine, thanks to my healthcare system employer. But we’ve seen many others suffer losses and hardships as a result of the “administration’s” complete lack of competence. Grateful that President Biden and VP Harris will be able to stop the bleeding and put us back on track.
MomSense
Thank you so much, Anne Laurie. Grateful for you.
Wolvesvalley
Adding my thanks to Anne Laurie for her wonderful reporting over the past year.
The Pulitzer Prize nomination deadline is Monday, if anyone wants to second waynel140‘s effort to draw the Pulitzer board’s attention to her work.
I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine today. I am looking forward to being able to choose my own damned fruit again (yes, CarolPW!) in March.
mvr
I got here late but do want to add my thank you. Thank you!
I’ve used the posting regularly to keep on top of the Covid 19 news. It’s been really useful.
Suzanne
Sooooo. I have successfully booked an appointment for SuzMom to get vaccinated on Thursday. We had a family Zoom call, and her siblings (one in CT, one in FL) still haven’t gotten the Fauci Ouchie. But soon, we hope!
I miss my people.
CCL
@mvr
I got here later, but also my heartfelt thanks to AL. I read every morning and feel as if these postings keep me on top of the ever evolving situation.
EmanG
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the great new word! As in, new to me. It’s going into rotation asap.
stinger
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Her brow is like the snowdrift
Her throat is like the swan
Her face, it is the fairest
That e’re the sun shone on
That e’re the sun shone on
And dark blue is her e’e
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me doon and dee.
EmanG
I add my thanks to the amazing AL. Your posts have helped me from sliding into the “eh, it’s not that bad/dangerous” mindset. Small ripples spread out even after we can’t see the surface disturbance, thanks for your concern for us all.
prostratedragon
Thanks to Anne Laurie for helping us stay ahead of the curve with this thing. So much looking forward to the benefits we’ll all get from z real federal response.
sab
@sab: I read about awful heartbreaking things in Wuhan. No,coverage in US media.
I read about awful stuff in Italy. No coverage in most US media.
We heard a bit about Washington State outbreak. (I am in Ohio).
Basically national ( DC and NYC) and my local media ignored it until it hit home. By that point we had had months of warning and our medical professionals were shrieking.
Locally officials were all saying it’s okay while the Cleveland Clinic was buying up our elastic and fabric and going to Amish country for housewives who would sew masks.
But Anne Laurie was already posting.
banditqueen
Read the updates daily–so–what everyone above said x1000 :)
Stevo
This is my coffee reading every morning. The links are perfect and I have recommended it to a number of friends.
Nancy
I appreciate what you’ve done. And your basic humanity that shines through.
As with most of the jackals.
Nice to have a virtual community.
UncleEbeneezer
YES!!! AL’s daily posts are an absolute must-read and probably the best one-stop-shopping place to go for Covid news. I’ve encouraged numerous friends to follow them. Thanks to AL for the hard (and depressing) work of putting them together. I’ve tried to do things like that in other groups that I Admin, and it is a REAL pain in the ass, and very hard to keep up, long-term.
Elie
Thanks so much Ann! I’m very grateful to you and to all of the jackal and jackal readers here. You kept me sane this year…. and will continue to…..
J R in WV
Many Thanks to Anne Laurie, Watergirl for her work supporting the web site and being creative about posting, John G Cole for founding this amazing digital place, and all the posters, lurkers, and commenters for participating in the community.
We know first hand about things in specific locations all over the world, from South Pacific Malaysia, to Greece, England and Scotland, Australia, etc, etc. I am grateful for that work from commenters all over the world. You all have kept us way ahead of the curve learning about this Trump Plague, and I have no doubt that the B-J Jackal team has saved many lives by educating people about protecting ourselves from infection.
I am livid about the continuing Cluster Fuck that the vaccination program remains. Right now I don’t know where, when, how to sign up for a vaccination, when to expect any information from someone who actually knows where and when vaccine will be available. Nothing~!!~
Trump is a mass murderer in my book. First at the borders, amnesty, all of that. Then other small things like that, now the plague. Livid. Hope he is aware that his position in history will be as a foot note to Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, the King of Belgium, etc,
WaterGirl
@Wolvesvalley:
Are we considered a news organization? I think we have the regular publication schedule in 2020 covered with Anne Laurie’s daily posts!
Miss Bianca
Hi, Anne Laurie – there’s not much I can add that’s unique in terms of accolades – everyone has said just about everything there is to say.
I do remember beginning last year with an absurd sense of optimism, which was at first only slightly tempered by the daily reminder that there was this virus out there on the far side of the world. I had some money in the bank, the theater I was working for was having a great run of movies that were actually making us some money, I was going to be directing the lead show in our live theater season, I had auditions for the cast, I had the working script ready, I had two or three freelance journalism gigs, the metaphorical cotton was high…
Until March 16, 2020. We shut down that day and haven’t re-opened, except for one or two rare, strictly vetted and social-distanced occasions since.
I knew what was coming because of the daily doses of COVID coverage I was getting from your posts. There were times when, cursed with as much knowledge as I had gleaned from them, I felt like I could only rail helplessly like Cowgirl Cassandra against the magical thinking I saw all around me, my own included, about what was and wasn’t going to be possible in our community as spring turned into summer into fall into winter. Festivals canceled – or not canceled – depending entirely upon the politics of the sponsors and our community leaders. I knew to expect no spike in case numbers after our masked and socially-distanced Black Lives Matter march in May, and to expect large spikes in case numbers in July after the temper tantrum Fourth of July “protest” (“Why do WE need a parade permit? We don’t need no steenkin’ parade permit! We’ll show those dirty mask-loving hippies that WE can have a protest TOO!”), and the rodeo. I knew to expect that our local authorities would take no measures that they would deem political suicide, like actually enforcing public health orders. I knew that vaccines were coming, and when. I knew what was happening with COVID around the world.
I began this year with optimism too, only slightly shaken by knowing that some of the gun-totin’, god-bothering, mask-refuseniks around me were there in Washington, DC, and that most of them voted for both our new state rep Ron Hanks, who was also there, and Lauren Boebert. I still think we’re going to make it out the other end of this COVID thing. But I also still read your posts every day to keep a sense of optimism real.
rikyrah
@Ben Cisco:
Yesss??
TS (the original)
Always late to the party – but so many thanks AL for the posts – been so much appreciated since day 1.
Anne Laurie
You’re welcome, everybody — and thank *you*, in return!
Special thanks to my regular Covid Correspondents – YY Sima Qian, Amir Khalid, NeenerNeener, Sloane Ranger, Mary G, and the others.
I started doing these posts because I’m pandemic-paranoid (some of you will remember I was extremely annoying during the 2014 Ebola scare). Putting these aggregations together helped manage my own anxiety; I could set every new piece of information aside for the next post, rather than obsessing about them. Been blessed that I’m retired, and a night owl, so I can sweep through each day’s info and pass it along when most of you will be able to take best advantage.
For the record… at this point, I’ve got a ‘cheat sheet’ of a half-dozen or so regular twitter reads which, along with my general news reading, lets me put each of these posts together in two hours or so. And I sent WaterGirl a list, just in case I lose my internet connection (we used to say ‘get hit by a bus’, but I’ve only left the house a handful of times since last March).
As Jane Austen said about her Lady Catherine de Bourgh, knowing these updates are helpful ‘is a great consolation, for I love to be of use.’ But — like everybody else — I’m sure hoping that the day will soon come when they aren’t needed, at least on a daily basis!
rikyrah
@The Moar You Know:
The school thing, I don’t understand. We have a vaccine. Get every adult in the school vaccinated and begin again in September.??
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CaseyL: If I avoided “red” parts of California, I’d shoot very little astrophotography shots. People like to live in the blue parts of the state and people’s presence produces light.
I’ll add my thanks to AL for her morning COVID updates.
Anne Laurie
@stinger: Yes, my parents did indeed name me after an obsolete pop song. They thought changing it to ‘Anne’ instead of ‘Annie’ would help, for some reason.
And I love it just as much as someone named Brandy loves having people sing ‘… You’re a fine girl, what a good wife you would be’ when they’re introduced.
David C
Thank you, Anne! These posts are my go-to destination first thing in the morning. I’ve fortunate in that I have worked from home since mid-March. This is a stress, but I am fortunate. Knowing too much about the processes (disease and response) has been stressful since the Trump administration has taken the wrong direction so many times.
Shameless plug – we got a publication out of this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33064832/
bjacques
Very late, but thanks, AL, for the daily Rona Roundup. It’s helped keep me sane and able to try to help others do so, even angry Republicans trying to out-argue the virus.
Living in a foreign-speaking land, I follow stateside news via CNN, the Grauniad, and rationed WaPo and FTFNYT, but only here do I get all the COVID news in one place. It’s also a bit like Factsheet Five, not the zine digest from eons ago, but the JG Ballard short story that inspired it, about a news digest that predicted the near future. That’s what it’s felt like, much of the year, reading tomorrow’s milestones, good and bad, today, and with the scientific background generally lacking in general-interest media.
I’ve been lucky, so far, being able to carry on with my job near home since mid-March, likely so into summer. It’s been hard sticking close to home but obviously so much worse for others. There’s a vaccine on the horizon (May? June?). We’re short (in the raven and Ruckus sense) and there are plenty of idiots volunteering to needlessly walk point, even in NL (had an anti mask rally on the 17th). I wish they wouldn’t, but better them than us.
randal m sexton
Thank you very much Anne Laurie, your posts have been very helpful to me, and as a very high quality curation of what is happening, and what is known, and what is not known. I live near Stanford hospital and have forwarded many posts to many Medical folks, and research folks, and on occasion THEY have thanked me for information. You did that. I owe you. Thanks. And also, thanks for the high quality comment threads.
-randal
susanna
Adding my thanks and gratitude for the information you’ve put before us, Anne Laurie. From forwarding your posts, I and friends have felt well-informed with ease to make decisions and understand what’s going on in the medical community.
You have admirable research determination and seldom leave any questions on the table.
You’re very much appreciated, obvious with the comments from us readers.
Mary G
I am late to the thread as usual, but what everyone else said. My normal insomnia dialed itself up to 11 and I am so grateful for the fresh news at what is as close to being off the air as the internet gets. I feel a little silly posting local numbers, but I get “talk to the hand, we’re sick of it” from friends who should know better and it’s so helpful to have a place to put it. The virus has made me aware that being a hermit and not going anywhere has its downsides and once I can again go out in the world I plan to do so. I have been dragging my feet on selling my Forester and buying a van adapted for a wheelchair but I have decided that I won’t be ruined financially and will be doing it once I get the shots.
Also big special thanks to YY Sima Qian who provided a front row seat to us from China long before this was on the American radar.
And add me to the long list of those who were able to stock up before grocery stores ran out of everything. I was already using Instacart and my shopper was puzzled by having to bring double bales of Costco toilet paper and paper towels and jugs of Clorox Cleanup, but I never had to worry about finding anything that I had to have. I do have tons of flour and a pound of yeast than I chased obsessively and have yet to open or bake anything with!
Amir Khalid
The daily Covid-19 update is indeed a godsend. Even though the news it brings is usually less than cheerful. Anne Laurie is a champion, and we are blessed to have her.
J R in WV
@Mary G:
I have a lot of flour and yeast also… but there is this bakery in town that does a very professional job of baking bread.
If things had been worse, more contagious, more fatal, perhaps I would have become a great baker. But in reality, the local bread bakery has come through for us all.
Carol Van Natta
Piling on extremely late with the grateful thanks to Anne Laurie for reliably sane reporting on COVID-19, which has turned out to to be neither a hoax nor the zombie apocalypse.
2020’s fear, uncertainty, and doubt, plus the constant worry that the Orange Menace would blow up the world, played merry havoc with my ability to string sentences together into books I wanted to write. Three days of the current administration gives me the first deep, cleansing breaths I’ve taken in what seems like forever and has put a spring in my step (on the treadmill until the weather warms up).
I’m mostly a lurker, but I love every one of you jackals, and am equally grateful to the front-page posters who give us all a place to hang out and things to talk about.
Beautifulplumage
Also late to the Anne Laurie for this consistency in posting. As a west coaster I appreciated the timing. And some days I just couldn’t go there.
The responses to covid are what made me angriest. The denial and intentional ignorance coupled with a complete misunderstanding of science & epidemiology just made me want to rage.
I am fortunate that the small business I work was able to pivot enough to stay open & even thrive. However, we lost a valued employee to covid back in March. One of the hardest aspects of the pandemic is the “touchless grieving” and zoom services.
It’s been a year requiring flexibility & resilience which has pushed my depression forward. I at least recognize my limits and have been sleeping a lot.
The pandemic has also brought out the amazing in so many folks! And the speed of understanding this virus and creating effective vaccines is just unbelievable!
MagdaInBlack
I’m late, but Thank You AL. I read every morning so I know what I’m facing, and so I know when someone doesn’t know wtf they’re talking about.
CrimsonTwig
Manager of an NYC school in the Queens pandemic epicenter here, and these daily updates have been invaluable for keeping my people informed about what’s going on. Thank you so much for all your hard work putting them together! They’ve made a real difference.
terben
Thanks, Anne Laurie. Of all the frontpagers, you are the one I read every day. If I post, it’s usually in response to your post. It’s easy to become insular in one’s outlook during Covid times, but you are the antidote against isolation.
206inKY
Can we hold a fundraiser of gratitude?
Annie Laurie, you literally saved my life. Thanks to your posts, I bought three quality masks with P100 replacement filters when still available, and I have recycled them ever since. I had a close call in the early days, but was among the few who were masked up. The mask allowed me to fly to see my mom in February before she died. I have acute anxiety and the masks have been a lifeline for mental health when things seemed impossible. I never harmed myself no matter how bleak. But I don’t know how I would have done it without that early warning.
I’m an idiot in many ways. That was during my brief dalliance with Bloomberg. But this blog truly saved my life.
Planetjanet
I am so grateful to Annie Laurie for all her hard work. She has been my primary source of information. I credit her with helping to keep my 84 year old mother healthy, who just got her first vaccine dose. The global perspective is truly unique to see all the different approaches and how they are working out. It is sad to see the whole world suffering so right now (except New Zealand) and to know the danger was not all the impeached one’s doing. After reading this morning’s post, I am off to hunt an N95 mask. Thank you Annie Laurie!
eachother
Thank You Anne Laurie. Some of what didn’t suck in 2020 was your work to organize and inform about Covid. Happy Anniversary? Thank you for your time and effort. Even though the whole of the Covid debacle is terrible and not getting better, you described the nature of the beast expertly.
Wishing you and all you have touched, Good Health.
Baquist
Sooo late to the party (due to what may be covid), but thank you Annie Laurie! Your daily updates are invaluable and I’m so grateful.
Fcuk Covid. My parents 4 month visit to the US was first delayed, then extended to 6 extra months due to this plague. And while we’re at it, Fcuk Trump and the GOP for mismanagement.