Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Poking around a little, I found that (a) Evusheld is supposed to provide at least six months of protection, but (b) it may be less effective against omicron than against earlier variants, so (c) the FDA doubled the dosage last month, from 150 mg each of the two antibodies, to 300 mg each.

This is for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, an acronym that some articles are assuming (correctly, in my case) that the reader knows.

The protection is at its strongest right now, and will diminish over time because the number of antibodies in the patient's system diminishes.

Putting this here largely for my own reference.

ETA 3/18: I found the AstraZeneca factsheet on Evusheld for medical providers, which includes the pharmacology: half-life is a mean 87.9 days (SD 13), which makes six months of protection seem plausible. (The person I talked to yesterday was guessing that the half-life would be about four weeks, based on the half-life of IgG treatments for hepatitis B.

[apparently it's "Evusheld," no i.}

I wrote to my doctor a few days ago, asking whether it would be possible to get a blood test for anti-covid T cells. I heard back today, and there doesn't seem to be:

Maybe?

It looks like you would be better off looking for a test that evaluates the T spike cells. I found two or three companies that offer it, but none are formally FDA approved. I also can't easily tell how to get it done. It is unlikely that your insurance would cover this test because it is not FDA approved.

We also don't know how many T cells would make you immune, though I could imagine you thinking "any T cells is something anyhow!"It looks like you would be better off looking for a test that evaluates the T spike cells. I found two or three companies that offer it, but none are formally FDA approved. I also can't easily tell how to get it done. It is unlikely that your insurance would cover this test because it is not FDA approved.

We also don't know how many T cells would make you immune, though I could imagine you thinking "any T cells is something anyhow!"

She included links to what she found, but I don't think this is worth pursuing further. I will continue with the non-pharmaceutical prevention, masking and ventilation and social distancing. Whether or not the CDC is premature in saying that "most healthy people" can stop masking against covid, I can't.

siderea explains what "as contagious as chicken pox" means, having noticed that a lot of people were born after the vaccine became available.

I just got the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

My doctor's office called an hour and a half ago; they said they were squeezing out a few extra vaccine doses, and asked if I could come in right away. I said "give me time to grab clothes and call a car," did that, waking cattitude in the process, and headed over to Somerville.

I have been vaccinated, and then Carmen (my nurse practitioner) came into the office to tell me what comes next, and answer any questions--in my case, is it okay to take naproxen for my hip pain today?--and she offered me a hug, unexpected but welcome. That makes her the third person I've hugged this year.

I will be going back in four weeks for the second dose, and should check with them on what time to go in, since it looked as though they were timing things to have room in the waiting room for people to sit for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine. Also to do, notify neurologist and ask about postponing the upcoming Ocrevus infusion.

So, the governor of Massachusetts has announced new limits on gathering sizes and how many people can be inside a place of business, which I think will accomplish little except unite everyone in thinking he got it wrong.

Maybe the lower occupancy limits will help a little, but: anything that was allowed to be open under the current restrictions is still allowed, including casinos and indoor dining in restaurants. Alao employees explicitly don't count toward the limits on occupancy for restaurants, hairdressers, and retail businesses (they do count toward the total if it's a library, driving school, or fitness center).

Oh, and hospitals have to halt "non-essential in-patient visits," but this does not include outpatient procedures, pediatric appointments, preventive screenings for cancer and other maladies, or ambulatory services.

So I'm sitting here thinking this isn't going to do any real good, in terms of saving lives or easing the pressure on hospitals and health care workers, but it is going to be hard on a lot of businesses.

I am honestly not sure whether Charlie Baker thinks this will make a difference, or whether he is trying and failing to find a compromise between public health and capitalism, knowing that a significant number of people will be angry no matter what he does.

The text of the order is here.

On my way home Saturday, I noticed that the stored value on my Charlie card was down to $5.70,, so stopped off to add to that. This after a few months when they weren't charging bus fare, and another month when I have only been traveling a little. This isn't Before Times normal--if it was, I'd be buying monthly passes--but it nonetheless felt significant.

However, I have cancelled my appointment for a haircut Wednesday. When I called a month ago to cancel, the receptionist suggested rescheduling. At the time, I figured that by the beginning of September either it would be safe enough to go get my hair cut, or I would assume it won't be for a long time to come, and either grow it out or get cattitude or adrian_turtle to trim it for me.

I realized in talking to rysmiel that part of why I has hesitant to cancel was that "go, get a haircut, stop on the way home for a chocolate cheesecake" would be reassuringly normal. For me, having identified that this is what I was doing helped me decide not to.

Among other factors, I have five in-person medical things between now and October 2nd, which is a lot of travel by current standards for a person who doesn't drive. As things are in Massachusetts right now, I consider those to be acceptable risks. Any risk tolerance beyond that, I'm using to see Adrian, or maybe to try on shoes. (

The mayor of Somerville just announced that Somerville will not be going to phase 3 of reopening on Monday, because the 7-day rolling averages in Middlesex county and several other nearby counties are moving in the wrong direction.

My working guideline is that I am being at least as cautious as Somervillke, which in this case translates to not getting a haircut next week, even though it would be allowed under the phase 2 rules.

I called and rescheduled for a month later. By then it will either feel safe, or I will cancel and not reschedule.

I am going out to see Adrian, and for medical things that can't be done remotely, which included a drugstore trip that couldn't wait. A haircut is much lower priority. When I noticed that I was trying to think of an argument for doing it anyway, I realized that meant that I thought I should cancel, and adrian_turtle encouraged me to do so right away.

I just checked the city of Somerville website, and they're not reopening phase 3 step 1 businesses until July 20. The state as a whole moved to that stage this past Monday, and Boston is doing so Monday, July 13.

I no longer live in Somerville, but am following their guidelines specifically because they're more cautious than the state as a whole.

This probably doesn't affect anything I'd be likely to do, but it's a further note of caution with regard to things that were in phase 2 (either part): do I take the bus to the outdoor farmers market? Is Trader Joe's too high a risk? (Groceries are essential businesses, but we've been getting all our groceries delivered, with the exception of the pastries I bought when I was in Davis Square on Thursday to see my doctor.

Tracking all this is complicated in part because what is in which phase, and how many phases there are, varies widely. At first glance Massachusetts has a four-phase plan. But phase 2 was divided into two steps, and phase 3 will have at least two parts. And then -- I hope -- we wait for a vaccine or real treatment for COVID-19 before moving into a "new normal" that will still involve less physical contact with other people than in the Before Times.

I put on a mask this morning, watered the plants (calling hello to a neighbor who was exercising several yards away) and went for a walk around the neighborhood. In Belmont masks are strongly advised when going for a walk, but required only indoors or anywhere you can't maintain social distancing; I'm wearing mine even when it's not required, if I go further than the yard or front porch.

adrian_turtle came over here today, and we had lunch and watched Hamilton. (This is the recording of the Broadway play, made in 2016, which Disney just released on Disney+.)

We all enjoyed it, and I will probably go back and listen to the cast recording to make out more of the lyrics. (Between the loud orchestra, and some buffering glitches, there were lyrics I literally didn't hear, and others I couldn't make out clearly.)

I found myself crying near the end, in part thinking about people I've lost, and letters I didn't keep, or discarded in what now seems like an excess of post-move tidying some years ago. We paused the show until I stopped sobbing, wiped our eyes, and watched the last bit.

At the curtain call, the entire cast next to each other, I was thinking that this show looks more like New York than anything other live theater I've seen, on or off Broadway. Not at all surprising -- Lin-Manuel Miranda lives, or lived, in Washington Heights -- but I hadn't thought of it that way during the show.

Cattitude got the TV a few weeks ago, and set it up in the basement, which lets him watch things on a big screen instead of a tablet, and gives me a bit of time/space to myself while we're staying home because of COVID. This is the first thing I've watched with him; if I was more interested in television we wouldn't have lived without one for so long.

Given my general feeling that almost everywhere, including Massachusetts, is reopening too soon and/or too fast, I doubt I'll be going to the theater for a while after that becomes possible again. (Broadway has announced that nothing is reopening until at least January, and I don't know when anything else, including college productions, will resume.)

*I went outside before it got hot, tended to the vegetable plants, and sat outside for a few minutes, reading (on the iPhone kindle app) and just looking at blue sky and green leaves. Gardening was watering the plants; moving a cucumber fruit so it wasn't flat against the dirt; and thinning the lettuce seedlings/nibbling those microgreens.

*My nurse practitioner called, and we discussed how soon I should come in. We settled on waiting a couple of weeks, which is some kind of balance between the wrist is still a problem and how soon do I want to go to/spend time in Davis Square.

*My proprioception has been worse than usual the last couple of days. This is the sort of "clumsy" that means walking into doorframes, or hitting the back of my hand against the sink, because I'm not paying (enough, or the right kind) attention to where I am relative to my immediate environment. I'm not dropping things any more than usual, which is part of what "clumsy" covers. (This started yesterday, and seems worth having a note of in case it continues for very long.)

*We got another grocery delivery order, and again have plenty of milk, cold cuts, yogurt, and bananas -- things cattitude and I tend to have for breakfast. I have gone online and ordered the toothpaste I like from Amazon, because Tom's of Maine isn't selling it through their website and this isn't the time to go to extra stores. (My local CVS doesn't carry it.)

*I got email from my hairdresser, saying they have rebooked everyone on their list, so if they missed you please get in touch to make an appointment. I started to fill out the form, since Taylor never got back to me when I asked for something in the second half of July, and then realized that I'm not sure I'm ready to go get a haircut, which (like when I see Carmen) is mostly about travel to/through a crowded part of Somerville. Typing this, I have decided to ask for an appointment, and if I realize a few days in advance that it's too soon, I will cancel.

*I did another tiny bit of paid proofreading, which arrived after I posted the above. Tiny=a four-page PDF with a few grammar fixes, ten minutes' work (rounded up to 15, because that's the minimum I charge for--if something takes longer than that I round to the nearest five minutes: 40 minutes doesn't get charged as 45).