Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Burlington: home, live, restaurants)

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

If the pandemic has you down, I can recommend a small adventure with this Hakutsuru Sayuri Nigori sake. Unlike most sakes, this one is served chilled, and it has a milk-like appearance is due to the coarse filtration used in the rice brew processing - you shake it a bit to suspend the fine solids before pouring a glass. It's on the lighter alcohol side for sake, and very smooth, without a pronounced alcohol taste and with a little sweetness, and certainly goes well with sushi, as well as other Asian dishes and seafood dishes. Pretty easy to find in stores as the brand is a big one.

https://sakeone.com/product/hakutsur...-nigori-720ml/

Thanks for the recommendation. We went all-in on sushi-making last month for my wife's birthday, and it's been a lot of fun (and delicious). I'll put this on the shopping list. We've been out to dinner once in the past year, so we've been getting pretty creative at home and trying to make home-cooked meals more special than they used to be.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by bohemka

Thanks for the recommendation. We went all-in on sushi-making last month for my wife's birthday, and it's been a lot of fun (and delicious). I'll put this on the shopping list. We've been out to dinner once in the past year, so we've been getting pretty creative at home and trying to make home-cooked meals more special than they used to be.

Oh, kudos to you! You are more ambitious than I - making your own sushi! I imagine it's very interesting though. My parents grew up in Indonesia, and I am a fair hand with Indonesian food, but Japanese food, especially sushi, is more exotic for me :-) I get mine at the little Japanese restaurant in town or at the supermarket. Any tips on info sources for recipes or tutorials for sushi?

[OutdoorLover]

Some coverage of a new "pooled" Covid-10 testing program in metro area schools (this one happens to be in Nbpt). Student samples are combined, up to 20 of them in one group sample which is then tested in one go, which reduces the cost and time needed for the test. If there's a positive result, they go back and figure out which member(s) of the group are infected. This is being carried out on a weekly basis at area schools to facilitate reopening.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/video/53...ryport-school/

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I have mentioned that I adore WFH, no desire to head back to the office, but I have also noticed that I like other changes that have been made. For example, the library was closed during the pandemic. You could still take out books and they'd leave them for you in the front area. I would order my books online then when it was time to pick them up I'd just walk in, get my books and go. The library has opened again (limited hours). The books can still be ordered online, but now when you pick the up you have to go in, get out your card and get them from the librarian. Yesterday there was a fairly long line and i left because i didnt have time to wait. I was thinking I prefer to just walk in, get them myself quickly and not have to wait or talk to anyone.

It's kind of sad but I think we realized a lot of things could be done with much less interaction.

When I was in retail we started to classify customers. Here's the names I remember.

the laser - they buy what they want and get out asap

the heretic - (now they call this Karen) they want to speak to the manager and their manager etc

the juggler - having something distracting (kids, noisy phone, something dragging or falling apart

the barfly - someone that thinks you are a bartender and has infinite stories.


I know there are those that love having human interaction with things but some of this just doesn't play out today. I heard about some new setup in NYC that looks like a automat with ipads.

Like many people I'm trying to do as much at home. I order online, I get groceries from instacart, I have that scanned mail delivery, trying to kinda make a home gym (I have a thing that turned my bike into a stationary one, some bands in lieu of weights, pull up bar etc), my recycling and trash are curbside, haven't really traveled..haven't been out of new england in over a year, I have direct deposit and deposit checks online, haven't been on a plane in about 18 months, I don't hang around places I get what I want and go asap.

What do I miss?

I miss going to a starbucks for a few hours and overhearing music and conversation for a few hours.

I do miss concerts or at least small ones. 2019 was like a 9 month party at mgm springfield. ..the beer fests, music fests,

I miss local comedy. some of it is still going on but it depends.

[yesmaybe]

FDA Panel approves of J&J, could get formally approved pretty soon and start shipping next week.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

FDA Panel approves of J&J, could get formally approved pretty soon and start shipping next week.

Yep, that's good news - will bring some increased supply, plus it only requires one dose / one appointment, and is stable at ordinary fridge temps for 3 mos.

The Federal govt has ordered 100M doses of J&J's, 300M of Moderna's, and 300M of Pfizer/BioNTech's, so the mRNA vaccines will still make up the lion's share of doses... of course, at 2-doses per person for the mRNAs, it's closer than it looks at first. J&J will provide doses for 100M people, while Moderna and Pfizer will provide doses for 150M people each.

[skeddy]

what happened in a lot of states is they gave the first vaccine and at that time gave you an appt for your second. Then as the date for the second approached, they emailed you cancelling shot #2. Then you're back to square #1 scrambling around looking for a shot#2. With more vaccine maybe that will end, but right now it's going on nationally.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by skeddy

what happened in a lot of states is they gave the first vaccine and at that time gave you an appt for your second. Then as the date for the second approached, they emailed you cancelling shot #2. Then you're back to square #1 scrambling around looking for a shot#2. With more vaccine maybe that will end, but right now it's going on nationally.

This is what happens when you prioritize the distribution of available vaccines over all. Lots of folks complain about MA's distributed vs allocated percentage but it prevents nightmare scenarios like that. If it is hard for elderly and less tech literate to even schedule their first appointment try canceling and rescheduling the 2nd dose. Total chaos, you'd have people showing up expecting to get their shot and not even knowing why.

[OutdoorLover]

According to the NY Times' vaccine tracker, 14.2% of the US population has been vaccinated with at least one dose so far. Nowhere near herd immunity yet, but significant progress is being made now. MA is up to 16.9% vaccinated with at least one dose as shown in the interactive GIS visualization for the nation, while CT, often referenced here, is up to 18.2%. Yes, that's higher, but frankly it's not a huge difference.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ine-doses.html

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

This is what happens when you prioritize the distribution of available vaccines over all. Lots of folks complain about MA's distributed vs allocated percentage but it prevents nightmare scenarios like that. If it is hard for elderly and less tech literate to even schedule their first appointment try canceling and rescheduling the 2nd dose. Total chaos, you'd have people showing up expecting to get their shot and not even knowing why.

Baker has also made it clear in his news conferences that he felt it was important to vaccinate the most vulnerable people first, and this was why he wasn't acting as quickly as some other states to open up eligibility to less vulnerable groups. I think some people are quick to interpret that as the other state having made more progress, but you're not necessarily comparing apples to apples, and it may be that the other state is just throwing the 60yo people in to compete with the 80 yo people for appointments, which isn't necessarily "better".