Covid Vaccine - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Covid Shots

My wife and I were able to register on-line for both Covid vaccine shots while wintering here in Florida and were administered both shots (Moderna) this past month. Fortunately, the injections were no worse than the typical flu shot with the only side effect for me was minor arm soreness and for my wife the arm soreness and a headache for a day. The shot was much less fearful than the vaccinations I recall as a kid as described in this past blog. The most challenging part of the vaccine process was navigating the on-line sign-up process, which meant getting up at 6:00am to log into a Publix Pharmacy website via multiple devices and reloading the webpage every five seconds until one device got through and you could set up an appointment. First time we got shut out, but the second time worked. Once in, you can also sign up others, so I was able to get 7 others scheduled before all the time-slots were full. One friend and his wife had to go all the way across the state for their two shots.

On top of all that, just before our first shot was scheduled, a monkey wrench was thrown into the process limiting the vaccine to only Florida residents. As a result, we had to scramble to provide written proof of residency via two documents showing we were property owners in Florida and resided on the property, even though we maintain our primary residence in Michigan.

It was a huge relief to finally get the shots after almost a year since the pandemic began here in the US. Covid first came to our attention when President Trump blocked all travelers from China from entering the country on January 31, 2020. We’ve been extremely careful over that year, primarily by following the mask and social distance guidelines and by spending most of our time in the great outdoors when not in our home. I did have a Covid scare last summer that turned out negative as documented in this previous blogpost.

Outdoor activities over the year included most of the activities on the left in the above chart while avoiding those on the right. For example, we dined only at home, via curbside pick-up or at restaurants with outside seating. I played a lot of golf either by walking or using individual carts, and also enjoyed tennis, biking and walking.

Of course, we watched a lot of TV, mostly binge-watching Netflix shows and Trump’s nightly news conferences. Family get-togethers were unfortunately avoided, except a periodic one-day trip to Russia visiting my wife’s 91 year old Mother. Incidentally, she also has been given the vaccine recently after having successfully avoided contagion for over a year in somewhat isolation living at home.

She spent a lot of her pandemic time doing jigsaw puzzles from the large stock at the Russia Gathering Center. Fortunately, she’s safe, primarily thanks to the wonderful care provided by my wife’s siblings over that long year. However, a number of family members, primarily those who live in Shelby County, did get the virus, fortunately most had relatively minor cases, with only one overnight hospitalization.

As an engineer, I preferred to “follow the science” regarding the virus by staying on top of all the data that was published about the pandemic. Watching the trends in Ohio, Michigan and Florida were always first up in my daily routine to analyze Covid. This Johns-Hopkins Covid website was most useful. One study I followed throughout the year was an analysis by the Universities of Iowa and Illinois about a region involving adjacent counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois about the virus trends in two states that had dramatically different approaches to control the virus. The region surrounds the Quad Cities of Davenport, and Bettendorf, Illinois and Moline and Rock Island, Iowa, each divided by the Mississippi River and the state line.

Illinois enacted one of the strictest lockdowns in the Country while Iowa had only minor restrictions. Yet the infection and death rate data does not show that much difference. On the other hand, the economic activity showed a huge difference with the Iowa side much better. Initial cursory conclusions assumed the Illinois lockdown minimal affect on stemming the virus; however, further research showed that the Iowa population essentially voluntarily locked themselves down to almost the same extent as the dictated shutdown in Illinois. This may be explained by the fact that both areas have essentially the same media providing coverage on the virus.

Similar results occurred with the contrasting approaches by Michigan dictating strict lockdowns and adjacent Indiana with few restrictions. Ditto for Florida versus California as described in this article. The peaks and valleys in the state-by-state data varied somewhat, with the strict lockdown approach showing more immediate impact but not sustainable longer term, while the more lenient areas took a little more time to react but were able to sustain the better levels longer. Plus the economic impact was much less severe in the less restrictive states. In monitoring the data and following the science, I never could figure out what Ohio's Covid approach was! Seemed like it was a flip-flop/knee-jerk approach especially this fall when cases and deaths peaked. But what do I know?

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