What? Not again?

When The President got infected with coronavirus he immediately headed to Minnesota for a couple of fundraisers and a rally, and that's where he was when his first symptoms emerged. Did he personally infect anybody? Who knows? There WAS a surge in coronavirus cases in northern Minnesota a couple of weeks after his rally in Bemidji, and a month later the upper midwest is the coronavirus hot spot of the nation. But any specific surge due to POTUS's visit has been swamped by the behavior of our boneheaded neighboring states (can you say "Sturgis?") so it's hard to tell. It's not like anybody is seriously doing forward contact tracing, much less backward tracing. 

But the White House hasn't given up on its misguided attempt to kill off its own supporters before the election. Guess who's headed here today for another fun maskless campaign event on the Iron Range? That's right, Vice President Pence and his new acting chief of staff, the Grim Reaper! Pence hasn't tested positive yet, but this is a perfect opportunity for him to emulate his role model by celebrating his first infectious day in Minnesota. 8 days before the election, the optimal timing for rally attendees to fall ill just in time for election day. Gods of Irony, are you listening?

I sure hope that wasn't a mistake

After dithering about it for months I finally ended up going into my local clinic for no really urgent reason at the absolute height of the coronavirus infection in Minnesota. *sigh*  I certainly would have been fine without those annual labs, but I finally gave in and scheduled them to coincide with the flu shot. But it was so fucking hard to get a flu shot scheduled that in the 3 weeks that I had to wait for an open slot the infection rate in Minnesota literally doubled. If it hadn't been so difficult to get the appointment in the first place I would have cancelled. They couldn't even guarantee that they would have the high-dose vaccine that my doctor ordered.

Despite having the shot scheduled for a very specific time I had to wait a full half hour in the waiting room, which made me very unhappy. It was not crowded, but not empty either. At least a dozen people came through that waiting room while I was sitting there (and it was not a high-ceilinged room like a supermarket with a huge air volume). Everybody was masked and distanced and nobody seemed sick, but it still made me nervous. 

At least they DID have the high-dose flu shot in stock. I would've been really annoyed if I had to jump through all those hoops to get the same one I could have gotten with much less fanfare at any old pharmacy. And the procedures themselves were quick and painless; the lab tech drawing blood hit the vein on the first try, which does not always happen, and the shot didn't hurt at all.