Patience is a virtue

 We are all understandably excited to hear the outcome of the upcoming FDA Advisory Committee meetings to discuss the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for prevention of COVID-19. But even if the outcomes are positive, even with the best case scenario, it is still going to be quite a while until most of us will be vaccinated.

First, I saw this on a friend’s Facebook page:

When can I get a coronavirus vaccine?

Then, today’s New York Times provided some terrific graphics and a brief questionnaire we can each use to calculate an approximate timeline for receiving the vaccine. I indicated that I am 68 years old, live in Bronx County NY, and do have COVID-related health risks.

 

A vaccine may be around the corner, but how long will it be until you get the shot? Health officials are considering vaccine timelines that give some Americans priority over others. If you’re a healthy American, you may wait many months for your turn.

To put this in perspective, we worked with the Surgo Foundation and Ariadne Labs using their vaccine tool to calculate the number of people who will need a vaccine in each state and county — and where you might fit in that line.

To start, tell us about yourself:

How old are you?What county do you live in?

Do you work in these professions?

 Health care worker

 Essential worker

 First responder

 Teacher

 None of these

If an essential worker, you've probably been working in person throughout the pandemic in a vital industry like health, food or energy.

Do you have Covid-related health risks?

 Yes

 No

These include conditions tied to increased risk of Covid death, like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity or other immunocompromised conditions.

Based on your risk profile, we believe you’re in line behind 23.0 million people across the United States.

When it comes to New York, we think you’re behind 1.8 million others who are at higher risk in your state.

And in Bronx County, you’re behind 114,400 others.

If the line in New York was represented by about 100 people, this is where you’d be standing:

1.4M healthcare workers

273k in nursing homes

139k first responders

You, with 5.3M with health risks

508k other elderly

511k essential workers

455k teachers

79k homeless

70k prisoners

2.5M young adults

4.0M children

713k other essential workers

3.6M others

As they say, patience is a virtue. Guess we're going to need quite a bit of that virtue over the coming months!

Meanwhile, do all you can to stay safe and well!

Love,

Rebecca

The Social Dilemma

Over the weekend we watched the Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma.” Through interviews with numerous individuals who helped design and implement these internet giants, the film looks at the effect that companies such as Facebook and Google have had over billions of people around the world. Interestingly, most of those interviewed have since left the companies they helped to found and/or fuel due to their concerns about the influence of these tech giants.

Interspersed between the interviews are two other “fictional” pieces. The first involves young teenagers who are obsessively linked to social media and their parents desperate to return them to civil society, and the second is a reenactment of how we might imagine the thought processes and machinations of the creators and drivers of these web giants. Both provide rather frightening images.

As the credits roll, the interviewees recommend taking the following countermeasures to protect oneself against social media (my thoughts are italicized below)

·        Turn off notifications or reduce the number of notifications you receive

·        Uninstall social media and news apps that are wasting time

·        Use a search engine that doesn't store search history

·        Use browser extensions to block recommendations

·        Fact-check before sharing

·        Obtain sources of information with different perspectives, including sources one might disagree with

·        Do not give devices to children (age limit is unclear); no screen time (does that include Sesame Street?).

·        Never accept recommended YouTube videos

·        Try to avoid any clickbait material (I am not sure what that is)

·        Keep devices out of the bedroom after a certain time (probably good advice for adults as well)

·        Do not allow social media use until children reach high school (not easy for sure)

 

Here is the cast list (in credits order):

	Tristan Harris		Self - Google, Former Design Ethicist / Center for Humane Society, Co-Founder
	Jeff Seibert		Self - Twitter, Former Executive / Serial Tech Entrepreneur
	Bailey Richardson		Self - Instagram, Early Team
	Joe Toscano		Self - Google, Former Experience Design Consultant / Author - Automating Humanity
	Sandy Parakilas		Self - Facebook, Former Operations Manager / Uber, Former Product Manager
	Guillaume Chaslot		Self - YouTube, Former Engineer / IntuitiveAI, CEO / AlgoTransparency, Founder
	Lynn Fox		Self - Apple, Former Director of Corporate PR / Google, Former Corporate Communications
	Aza Raskin		Self - Firefox & Mozilla Labs, Former Employee / Center for Humane Technology, Co-Founder / Inventor, Infinite Scroll
	Alex Roetter		Self - Twitter, Former Senior VP of Engineering
	Tim Kendall		Self - Facebook, Former Executive / Pinterest, Former President / Moment, CEO
	Justin Rosenstein		Self - Facebook, Former Engineer / Google, Former Engineer / Asana, Co-Founder
	Randy Fernando		Self - NVIDIA, Former Product Manager / Mindful Schools, Former Executive Director / Center for Humane Society, Co-Founder (as Randima 'Randy' Fernando)
	Jaron Lanier		Self - Founding Father of Virtual Reality / Computer Scientist
	Roger McNamee		Self - Facebook, Early Investor / Venture Capitalist
	Shoshana Zuboff		Self - Harvard Business School, Professor Emeritus / Author, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
	Anna Lembke		Self - Stanford University, School of Medicine, Medical Director of Addiction Medicine
	James Fetter		Self - Anna's Son (as James Lembke)
	Mary Fetter		Self - Anna's Daughter (as Mary Lembke)
	Jonathan Haidt		Self - NYU Stern School of Business, Social Psychologist / Author, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
	Cathy O'Neil		Self - Data Scientist / Author, Weapons of Math Destruction
	Rashida Richardson		Self - NYU School of Law, Adjunct Professor / A.I. Now Institute, Director of Policy Research
	Renee DiResta		Self - Stanford Internet Observatory, Research Manager / Data for Democracy, Former Head of Policy
	Cynthia M. Wong		Self - Human Rights Watch, Former Senior Internet Researcher

I cannot say I have yet shut down my Facebook account but I am thinking about it. Fortunately, in addition to the handful of people I “follow,” I primarily receive ads for clothing, and I try not to let that do too much damage to my credit card. Given that I barely leave the house these days, that is not so difficult.

Meanwhile, stay well!

Love,

Rebecca

You know you’ve been together a long time when…

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours, of course, was quiet, although we did manage to have a full family Zoom call, albeit a poor substitute for enjoying the day together. We did not have turkey but we had all the side dishes, including “stuffing” (made with challah, almonds, walnuts, celery, and vegetable stock), sweet potatoes mashed with maple syrup and a little sour cream, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

And speaking of being together, Barry and I now seem to be sharing dreams. He often has, and more importantly, remembers rather vivid dreams. I, on the other hand, rarely seem to remember whatever dreams I may have had. But for some reason on Friday night we both dreamt, and both of our dreams related to the same thing: travel. Despite travelling relatively infrequently over the years, Barry has had some trips that were definitely the stuff of nightmares. This time, he dreamt of struggling to finish packing and arranging a ride to the airport, and then missing a flight that, unbeknownst to him, had been rescheduled. I, unfortunately, cannot remember the details of my dream but I know it had to do with travel.

I wonder how much this has to do with the impending approval of vaccine(s) that may enable us to travel again in the foreseeable future. Of course, we recognize that it will still be some time before we and our extended family are actually able to be vaccinated, but at least it is seeming within the realm of possibility.

Meanwhile, stay safe and healthy. We keep trying to do the same.

Love,

Rebecca