damont

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe earlier today, so I didn't bother to change the timestamp. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Well, 2020 is officially over and those of us that survived it are pretty much still here if the worse for wear. After the totally predictable spike in infections following the Thanksgiving holiday "travel period" in the USA, when so many people who should not have gone anywhere did so anyway, many states tightened their restrictions for the Xmas-New Years holiday period that is coming to a close this weekend. Many other states should have tightened up but didn't, and we are starting to see the reasons why they should have, which will only get worse over the next couple of weeks. Other areas of the world are also seeing spikes in infections, it's not limited to the USA. Anyway, the last half of December in COVID-19 news was mostly about more vaccine approvals and the resulting rollouts, which are less of a "big news story" than the initial ones earlier in December. Perhaps because more traditional holiday and end-of-year stuff tends to take over the airwaves and newspapers and blogosphere this time of year. So I feel perfectly justified in taking a bit of a break myself from the "SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 related PSA / traditional weblogging and usual begging post mashup" last week. Even our friendly pharma-chemist blogger Derek Lowe takes a holiday break, so two out of five links from the second half of December are holiday food recipes.

Here are the two recipe links:

Holiday Recipe: Banana Bread

Recipe: Peruvian Roast Chicken

And here are the three actual news links:

Antibody-Dependent Enhancement

The New Mutations

Vaccine Roundup, Late December

And from the Entirely Predictable Things Department, it is now time for the usual PSA-and-begging part of this post. If this isn't your first time reading one of these types of posts, you know what comes next: the plea for those of you who are able to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES. Some businesses were essential and never closed during the lockdowns. Others, after having opened back up, are now trying to stay open to what extent they can as the various phases of "reopening" are more and more getting rolled back to more restrictive levels as the pandemic surges with the onset of cold weather. What they have in common is that locally owned and operated businesses give better "bang for the buck" when it comes to keeping the local economy moving. So please do what you can to help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat. Locally owned businesses are, and will continue to be, struggling to survive and get back on their feet, so please patronize them as much as you can. BUY LOCAL. Please however, do so in a safe manner. Keep on wearing masks and other protective equipment when going shopping in person, continue social distancing. Act intelligently, because I know you can.

And now, for ourselves. Rent on the storage units is now overdue, the medical bills aren't going away, and neither are any of the others. And thus, because after so long we STILL can't afford shame, here's my shameless and desperate plea for help. Please PLEASE spread the word as much as you feel able; share this fundraiser on lots of social media, by email, even by writing the link on pieces of paper and passing them around. Encourage folks you know to donate and to spread the word themselves. I've long since estimated that I'll need about 1,000 different contributors to make the goal, so getting the word out is important. And IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, please donate! We know that some of you have done so over the last eight months (for which A GREAT BIG THANK YOU) and lots of you just can't. For those of you who can, even a spare 5 or 10 dollars, if that's all you can afford, is appreciated. Every little bit helps. (Remember, NO FEELING GUILTY if you don't have the means to contribute, or enough spoons to spread the word as far as you'd like.) And as I also keep saying: unlikely as it may be in these times of pandemic-fueled recession, if you have any job leads for either of us, PLEASE contact us! Relocation is TOTALLY an option. (90-plus-percent remote-work is the best option in the current circumstances, at least through 2021.)

Again, if anyone here actually is in a position to help out, right now would be a truly awesome time to do so. If you can't, you can't; I understand that better than most... thanks in advance for whatever you are able to do. And remember to take care of yourselves, folks. Whatever the local restrictions may be now where you are, please practice the UTMOST caution: stay home as much as you can, go out to do what you must, and as I've been saying, keep tabs on the infection rate for your vicinity, not just your state/province/country. STAY SAFE. Wash your hands, keep hydrated, boost your immune system by whatever means works for you. Practice social distancing as much you realistically can. WEAR MASKS THAT COVER THE NOSE AND MOUTH and make sure you're actually COVERING both your nose and mouth with them. Keep in touch with your friends and loved ones from a safe distance. Tell them you care and that you're thinking of them. And as always, thank you for your continued support.