One year later

Exactly one year after my first blog post, I received my first dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine.

Incredible to witness science at its best. But despite incredible work and speedy vaccine rollout, global vaccination rate doesn’t appear to be fast enough to prevent the third wave. Variants pose a new threat as well. The race is on to develop a safe vaccine for children.

Today, aside from New Zealand and Australia, the world seems to be worse off than year ago. Brazil has collapsed under defiant leadership which denies COVID pandemic altogether. Case numbers of the variant B117 are rising in Europe at an alarming rate. This variant is more infectious and more deadly than the original form. It seems to affect children more. Vaccine effectiveness remains to be seen. Warnings have been issued, even in Canada, where BC has a sudden surge of the P1 variant with at least 215 cases…twice the number in all of US.

We are still doing well but have seen a localized surge of cases. Rules are about to be relaxed for schools and children as teachers are receiving their vaccinations. Flights are scheduled to return in June. Public Health is keeping a close eye on the developing situation and will modify restrictions as needed.