Sunday, March 28, 2021

A Time for Healing

It’s fitting that it’s spring, as (barring a powerful COVID-19 variant or world-class stupidity) we cautiously “re-open.”

I’ve watched many plants poke their heads out of the dirt, with the shy determination of a kid attending a first dance. I also recall an early spring day snowshoeing in some mountains in Oregon mountains and hearing sporadic loud gunshot-like sounds that turned out to be saplings, after months bent almost double under the snow’s weight, snapping to attention as the snow melted. Then there’s that whole groundhog shadow thing.

We see similar variety in our responses to COVID-19. I almost wrote, “among post-pandemic humans,” but people are still dying; the virus is still trying to morph into vaccine-resistant variants; our county is yellow, not green, in New Mexico’s color-coded system; vaccine-resistors might keep the virus around longer than necessary; many workers in our country are being exposed to possible infection in their jobs; and other countries (mostly poorer countries, as usual) haven’t yet acquired sufficient numbers of doses.

Just as the trees are budding and we’ve planted our first tomatoes of 2021, vaccinated people are dining with friends again indoors, major-league baseball teams are opening the season with partially-filled stands, March Madness is in full swing (with Loyola’s 101-year-old Sister Jean back in her seat watching, after battling for that right), the Belton Bridge Club board is discussing when and how to reopen, and the Black Box Theatre will soon perform before a live audience (albeit outdoors, in their delightful patio).

People seem cautiously relieved, more than joyful. I hadn’t greatly feared getting infected, although I consistently wore a mask in public and was careful, even delaying unnecessary ventures into stores. I’ve been playing pickleball outdoors, with others who also wear masks. I hosted radio shows, but observed the strict rules of the station, which for months was mostly closed and which still permits only telephonic guests. I went to court when needed, masked. But I damned sure felt pleased and relieved about getting vaccinated.

We have much healing to do. Many are grieving. Many who are grieving feel anger toward Republicans for not repudiating a leader who let more people die than necessary. Many who did not believe in masks or other precautions are angry at being forced to wear them. Some (e.g. Proud Boys, Boogaloo, and QAnon) who wanted to veto the election are now shouting that vaccines could wipe out humanity. On all sides, our varied pandemic choices haven’t so much created a bitter divide, as widened and deepened a divide that was already rancorous.

While for some folks the need to pull together (as in wartime) may have muted partisan sniping, for many it is otherwise. The majority of pickleball players fought the City’s rules and played maskless, often with masks at the ready if police or other officials appeared. Some on each side felt contempt or anger toward the other. Will that fade as quickly as our peach blossoms?

So we need to heal from our great losses and suffering, and from the cabin fever or even mental illness many have experienced, from stalled educations, sports development and careers, and devastated businesses. And we need to stay sensible and focused on getting through this together. Infections rose last week in 32 states (not including New Mexico), and Brazil just set a new high for new infections in a day.

Let’s not drop the ball while celebrating.

                                         30

 

 [The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 28 March 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 FM http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[Take a deep breath! Enjoy spring, despite dust storms, grief, and continuing awareness that “the Fat Lady ain’t sung yet.” And let’s each forgive ourselves our excesses in shouting what we thought about all this, and even consider that others’ excesses arose not from malevolence or some “evil” disposition, but from the same human emotions we and our families feel.]

 

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Registration Links for "Will Local News Survive?" and Dr. Gregory Cajete's NM SUCCESS climate change talk

 This post is purely functional: to provide information for folks who may be interested in either or both ofr two Zoom events later today: the 4 p.m. Sunshine Week panel discussion entitled "DEAD or ALIVE: Will Local News Survive?  A discussion of journalism's future;" and/or Dr. Greg Cajete's 7pm talk (the year's first in the NM SUCCESS climate-change series).  (Some panelists and organizers of the Sunshine Days event joined us on radio this morning from 8:30-9, and Dr. Cajete spoke with us from 9 to 10, and I promised to put these URL's up on the blog.)

Will Local News Survive? To register for this virtual event, go to https://bit.ly/2NY5u18 and you'll see the link to click on for actual attendance/participation.

 

To register for Dr. Cajete's talk, go to:

https://nmsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4G5mRJ9FQE6x8tyuhI-dOQ


I have also included below further information on these events: 

New Mexico State University will host a panel discussion for Sunshine Week 2021 at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 24. This year’s topic will be “DEAD or ALIVE: Will Local News Survive? A discussion of journalism’s future.” The virtual event requires attendees register at https://bit.ly/2NY5u18
 
“While news organizations have been under extreme economic pressure, over the last year they continued to report on some very major, very important stories,” said David Irvin, NMSU business and government documents librarian. “All of our panelists are working journalists from the region, so I look forward to hearing how they covered their beats in the midst of the pandemic.”
 
In its ninth year at the NMSU Library, Sunshine Week is a national initiative that was created by the American Society of News Editors to educate the public about the importance of open government.

Peter Goodman will serve as moderator for the panel discussion. He is a Las Cruces-based columnist and radio personality. Panelists include Walt Rubel, Las Cruces journalist and radio personality; Kathleen Sloan, publisher and journalist at the Sierra County Sun; Algernon D’Ammassa, reporter and columnist for the Las Cruces Sun-News; and Susan Dunlap, reproductive justice reporter at the NM Political Report.

For more information contact Irvin at 575-646-6925. The NMSU Library, Tim Parker, an NMSU alumnus, NMSU Department of Journalism and Media Studies and Las Cruces Press Women are presenting this event.



Dr. Gregory Cajete

Wednesday March 24th 7pm
Register for event

https://nmsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4G5mRJ9FQE6x8tyuhI-dOQ 

Gregory Cajete, Native American educator whose work is dedicated to honoring the foundation of indigenous knowledge in education. Dr. Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He has serves as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethno botany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. In addition, he has lectured at colleges and universities in U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Russia, Bhutan, Taiwan, Educador, Peru, Bolivia, England, France and Germany.

Dr. Cajete is a practicing watercolor, pastel, acrylic, ceramic and metal artist. he is extensively incolved with art and its application to education. He is also a scholar of herbalism and holistic health. In this capacity, he has researched Native American, Chinese and Ayurvedic healing philosophies and the cultural perspectives of health and wholeness.

Dr. Cajete also designs culturally responsive curricula geared to the special needs and learning styles of Native American students. These curricula are based upon Native American understanding of the “nature of nature” and utilizes this foundation to develop and understanding of the science and artistic thought process as expressed in Indigenous perspectives of the natural world.

Dr. Cajete has authored ten books including “Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education” (Kivaki Press, 1994); “Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Education Curriculum Model”, (Kivaki Press, 1999); “Spirit of the Game: Indigenous Wellsprings (2004),” “A People’s Ecology: Exploration in Sustainable Living,” and “Native Science: Natural laws of Interdependence” (Clear Light Publishers, 1999 and 2000).

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Write to a Beloved Teacher Today!

Spring’s arrival and school reopenings remind me of a conversation years ago, when a friend was saying that his high school French teacher had not only taught him French but held frank discussions of life from which Dan learned even more.

I suggested he write that teacher and tell him that. The teacher, likely retired, might be doubting he ever did anything worth a damn, and appreciate hearing someone recalled him gratefully.

And I realized I too had a couple of letters to write.

Sophomore year in prep school, English teacher Blair Torrey, who also coached hockey, had us write a theme each day for six weeks. It was intense training, and I still recall his human, personal comments. He loved words and nature, and had a special honesty. Gentle and thoughtful, he’d starred on Princeton’s football and hockey teams, and he’d been a Marine Platoon Instructor. In my third year, on the day I was kicked out, when my gut was churning and I had hours to kill before my parents picked me up, Mr. Torrey suggested: “Why don’t you go skate around the hockey rink and just shoot the puck against the boards?” I did, skating and thinking for hours, and in January I joined the public high school hockey team.

Eminent law professor Clark Byse taught us first-year Contract Law. If you recall the tough-minded Professor Kingsfield terrorizing first-year law students in “The Paper Chase,” that’s Byse. In a poll of Harvard students asking who was the model for Kingsfield, Byse won handily. Byse said judges would be a hell of a lot tougher on careless or witless presentations. (They were!) He was preparing us.

He was shocked to hear at lunch one day that his gruff manner hurt people’s feelings. By my third-year, changes in his personal life had left him lonely. We’d see him going to his office at all hours to work, accompanied by a little black-and-white dog.

In 1994, Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show,” made Byse mildly famous beyond the law profession. The protagonist, a young Harvard Law School graduate, feels intimidated when he has to visit a famous Columbia professor. Needing something common to both men as an icebreaker, they chose Byse. Whenever the protagonist visited, the older lawyer would ask, “By the way, how’s Clark Byse?”

Somewhere, a woman watched that movie and, a few days later, called Harvard, asking if there really was a Professor Byse. She said that during World War II, as an Ambassador’s daughter, she’d met an Army lieutenant named Clark Byse somewhere in the Pacific, and just wondered . . . They put her through to Clark, and while I don’t know exactly how well they’d known each other in the Pacific, by our 2000 class reunion, they had married.

I suggested that letters to teachers you really appreciated might be welcome. (Mine brought me back in touch with Blair Torrey, after decades! We talked at length over lunch in Maine, where he lived on an old farm. I also heard from Byse.)

Further reflection shifts my emphasis to just being in awe of some of the wonderful folks who taught me, and were still going strong. (Others seemed jerks, and I gave ‘em hell, with youth’s unwitting cruelty.) I’d prepared this column two weeks ago. Then the tragic loss of Karen Trujillo, the ultimate teacher, became my column.

Thank someone who taught you. While you can.

                                 – 30 – 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 21 March 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 FM http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[Early this morning a friend who reads the Sun-News emailed me, “Amen!  I had “teachers”, both school and “non school”, that I’ve kept in touch with until their death.  Still have youngsters popping up in life that give me new insight into the puzzle of life I’ve been assembling for decades. If we stop and consider our lives, we will be amazed and grateful for the abundance of gifts that we’ve received down through the years.  Expressing gratitude is an excellent elixir of health” I agree with his description of gratitude, which reminded me of a 2018 column (Bicycling to the Gratitude Cafe). This column was actually sparked by talking onn radio with my friend Rudy Apodaca, Las Cruces native and former Chief Judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals, who sang the praises of a Las Cruces teacher to whom he was grateful, then having our producer say that she’d really enjoyed that same teacher years later. I also wanted to get across was what an unexpected boon it was for me to have reached out to Blair and Clark.]  

.

[Blair Torrey had never intended to teach, but found teaching as a Marine Platoon Instructor in 1954. He taught at Hotchkiss for 41 years, retiring in 1997. He died in July 2020 at the age of 88. In 1997, Sports Illustrated writer E.M. Swift ’69 wrote about his former coach: “In the spring of his final year teaching at Hotchkiss, Blair Torrey leads his senior English class across the campus, beyond the golf course, past a storage shed that is cluttered with piles of tires and rusting pipes. This is an outdoors course of Torrey’s invention, dedicated primarily to the business of seeing and the close observation of nature, subjects dear to his heart.”

'''It’s what we English teachers do,’ Torrey explains. ‘Try to get the kids to see more than the obvious. Good writing is seeing things other people don’t ordinarily see.'''

He had been a three-sport star at Princeton: guard on the football team, catcher on the baseball team, and hockey goalie. Somehow those three positions sum up something about him: rugged, smart, and doing the tough, essential, but relatively unsung work. I’m extremely fortunate to have gotten back in touch with him. Dael and I had a delightful lunch with him in Maine (where for forty years he had a tree farm, which is now in the National Trust). He was a tall, distinguished older gentleman who was great to talk with. Like Byse, too, he found late love: he had been happily married to Ellen Rainbolt (whose brother was a friend of his, and whose golden retriever was a pal of mine at Hotchkiss), but a while after she died he married Eugenia, to whom he was happily married when Dael and I saw him, and who has survived him.]

[Clark Byse (1912-2007) was a legend in legal circles and a warm, wonderful guy.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer wrote of him:

Clark Byse as teacher taught administrative law and contract law to generations of law students. His object was to transmit what we call “legal thinking” — the disciplined, critical, purpose-oriented approach that underlies American law. Indeed, Clark made a point of telling his students, “[N]ever forget that the emphasis in this class is on what and how you think, not on what some judge or treatise writer or your instructor thinks.” As a teacher of legal thinking, Clark was a giant, a master of the trade.

Clark Byse as colleague was ever ready to discuss an issue, to take the time necessary to help others, including many fledgling colleagues such as myself. When I would barge through the door, concerned about an administrative law problem, Clark would spring to life, pace back and forth with me, arguing, discussing, provoking, as we wore out the carpet, and he would eventually come up with the suggestion or thought that made the difference. He loved discussion; he respected the right to dissent; he was a champion of academic freedom, in his words and in his deeds.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan called Byse “Professor Byse was a brilliant and legendary teacher, a genius at using the Socratic method to hone students’ intellects, and an uncompromising scholar who demanded the best of both his students and himself.” She also cited a 1958 example of his passion for academic freedom, when he pushed Harvard not to administer a “loyalty oath” then required of students receiving certain federal grants.

I just know that at our 20th reunion, the ex-professor we all wanted to get to see was Clark, who had retired from HLS 17 years earlier.

In snagging another photo of Clark, I ran across a post by a Geoff Shephard called "A Tribute I Wrote about my Favorite Law School Professor" -- which describes at some length Clark destroying the writer as a "1L" (first-year law student), then adds this account of seeking Clark out in his office to beg for mercy:

When I found him in his office, he had no idea why I’d come. I asked him if I had offended him in some way, and told him how devastating it was for me to be singled out for abuse in his class. He softened immediately. He told me that he thought we had merely engaged in intellectual jousting—for our mutual enjoyment. He knew I would be prepared and was genuinely hurt to learn that I was almost sick with fear of him and of going to his class. Beneath that very gruff exterior (and totally unlike Professor Kingsfield), beat a soft and caring heart.   As it turned out, he became my mentor and best friend on the faculty, and his insights and approach were a critical part of my legal education. I got my highest grade in school for Byse’s class, but that part I earned (I can still recite the details of virtually all of those early contracts cases); I also became Byse’s research assistant for the next two years

I include this because it sure does sound like stuff I saw.  However, Shephard did not turn out, politically, to be the sort of fellow Byse would agree with.  With Byse's help, Shepard got a White House Fellowship.  Richard Nixon was in the White House.  Shepard worked directly with the Nixon folks who got jailed after Watergtate, soon started hosting reunions of Nixon Administration members, and, as his website describes it, "In 2008, Shepard’s book on the politics behind the successful exploitation of the Watergate scandal, The Secret Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President, Inside the Real Watergate Scandal, was published by Penguin."

I disagree with him, but will order the book. ]

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Wondering Why New Mexico Thinks the Virus Cuts Religious Folks Some Slack

 Governor Lujan-Grisham and Dr. David Scraase are navigating well among dangerous shoals labeled “Raging, Red-Alert, Hospital-Filling COVID-19 Spread,” “Financial Ruin,” “Public Emergency,” and “Individual Rights.” It’s a tough, complex piloting job. But I’m troubled by a few apparent missteps, and more troubled by getting stiffed when I ask about them.

Similar conduct in similar structures presents a similar danger and should be similarly treated. Say a building has 80 audience seats and a platform from which people present, preach, or lecture. If political meetings that size were allowed, at partial capacity, and masked, but religious services weren’t, we’d hear much shouting and suffer lawsuits alleging unfair discrimination.

That discrimination would be unfair. The reverse is unfair, too. How, I asked, is a small, independent live theater more dangerous than a church the same size? (A small movie theater seems even less dangerous.) Assuming an institution observes mask and distancing rules, how do these activities differ significantly as far as spreading the virus?

I sought some reasoned basis in science, or plain good sense, for this discrimination. (I get that it’s politically convenient.)

Just as our Constitution doesn’t permit unnecessary or discriminatory interference with exercise of religious faith, it also forbids establishment of religion. Arguably, the State’s discrimination against non-religious gatherings is unconstitutional. Supreme Court cases have recognized citizen’s rights not to believe in supreme beings.

Even assuming it’s Constitutional, it’s obviously unfair. Sure, some people of faith feel strongly about attending church; but many folk find powerful instruction and community in a good play well-performed or a thoughtful movie.

So why is an 80-seat church given a break and an 80-seat theater classed “a large entertainment venue?”

Nora Meyers Sackett, the Governor’s press person, responded to a question about the unfair categorization by sending me the categorization, and confirming that the State classed small theatres as large entertainment venues. Kind of like if I asked why a law forbade Ukrainians from owning dogs, and the reply was, “Yes, you’re a Ukrainian.” “Jeez, I know that, but why can’t I have a dog?” A follow-up email seeking some more meaningful dialogue went ignored. Other efforts through other officials have been equally fruitless.

This sort of arrogance is dangerous. Notably, the extraordinary health order, more than most laws, depends on voluntary compliance. On the public buying into it. Public respect for laws can vary in direct proportion to public perception that they’re fairly and thoughtfully enforced. That perception is undermined by seemingly unfair rules and by officials who make pronouncements but won’t tolerate questions. I’m particularly dismayed, because I take both the virus and democracy seriously. (Hence I made extra efforts to discuss this issue before writing about it.)

It’s also troubling that a small business might not have access to a simple way to resolve such issues. I know some folks oppose the whole effort to minimize spread, and think masks are pointless or horribly violative of their constitutional rights. Others challenge scientific observation for political gain. My theatrical friends and I believe in the science and generally approve the steps the State is taking. We just want small, local enterprises to be treated equally, or hear a rational explanation why they can’t be.

I know you’re busy, guys; but we can’t be the only folks who are on board but have serious questions. Ignore us, and you sacrifice a whole lot of credibility in the short run.

                             - 30 - 

 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 14 March 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 FM http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[Obviously, I have mixed feelings about criticizing the governor regarding the pandemic, in the context of so many others doing so mindlessly or for political reasons or out of greed; but it's kind of my job. And I don’t mean to pick on Ms. Sackett. I tried other ways to learn if there was a good reason for this discrimination, such that I could either shut up or articulate that reason in my column. I also tried to emphasize in the column that generally the state government has been doing a good job on informing people.

Of course, I hope all this will become academic soon, as more and more folks observe the precautions and more and more get vaccinated. I have watched many of the Facebook briefings the Governor and some of her cabinet-members have done, and

have generally thought those were good; and I know folks fighting pandemics might have limited time to explain what they’re doing. Nevertheless, I think that particularly where you’re implementing rules people find inconvenient, you have to sell that program, with facts and discussion. Prohibition’s the classic example of a law few believed in, and one that police officers weren’t keen on enforcing. And here, (a) penalties to individuals for not wearing masks are minimal and (b) some law enforcement personnel (if not most law enforcement personnel) are ignoring the rules. The Governor knows that, and has made serious effort to inform folks, but I sure struck out trying to inquire about this.]



Sunday, March 7, 2021

On Getting Vaccinated

On 3 March, a 4:42 a.m. text announced: “Your COVID-19 vaccination appointment is at 1:30 p.m.”

The text (and an email) directed me to fill out an online medical questionnaire: nope, hadn’t been vaccinated, wasn’t pregnant or likely to be, and had no known allergies to shots. I read the warnings for Pfizer and Moderna.

I arrived around 1:15. Plenty of cars. Plenty of soldiers, fire department personnel, and volunteers to make sure I stayed put to answer questions before joining the long, physically-distanced line inside the main entrance. The vaccines (J&J) were late. Suddenly looked like a long wait. Felt mildly disappointed it was the J&J vaccine, but would take what I got.

Once the vaccine doses arrived, the line moved quickly, with twelve stations rapidly vaccinating folks. Volunteers and fellow vaccinatees were all pleasant. Mild pinch, then I was directed to the 15-minute waiting area as a precaution. (There’s also a 30-minute area.) Seats were disinfected the moment anyone left. Briefly felt a little weak and tired. (Power of suggestion, plus usual post-radio-show fatigue.) Quickly forgotten.

It was all carefully organized. No unknowns, no ambiguities, no unnecessary delays, once vaccine arrived. Later a friend called, impressed by “how fast Biden is moving.” The J&J vac had arrived in NM Tuesday, and he’d gotten a shot in Gadsden Wednesday. Health Department, Governor, and our community deserve our praise and appreciation.

It was a non-event, a point worth making to folks who are worried.

As scientists have said consistently, “Take the vaccine you’re offered.” My mild disappointment about the J&J vaccine is not uncommon, but all three vaccines protect against serious COVID-19 cases. Extremely well. J&J’s testing was more recent. It’s efficacy rate against mild cases is 72% (flu vaccines=20-60%); but mild cases aren’t the real concern; and the figures may be skewed because some testing was done in South Africa when more infectious and vac-resistant strains of the virus were about. Whether or not the Pfizer or Moderna does better against mild cases seems an open question.

The J&J requires just one shot because a dose is stronger. Pfizer and Moderna are sometimes effective after just one shot, but efficacy is more certain with two.

I will not soon change my behavior. I wore a mask more for others than for myself, and because it’s the right thing to do. Nothing’s changed. Vaccinated people may still carry enough virus in the nose to infect others with a maskless sneeze; and full immunity occurs two weeks after the shot.

We owe it to vulnerable folks; friends, lovers, and neighbors; and local businesses to avoid contributing to higher numbers here. Keeping numbers low can save lives and help expedite re-openings.

Greg Abbott is nutty to let his lust for political popularity lead him to abandon the mask requirement early. It may turn out okay, given the ramped-up vaccinating (though Texas is slower than most states); but it’s callous and just plain dumb. I also hope no one listens to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, calling J&J “morally compromised” because in creating the vaccine “Johnson & Johnson used cells derived decades ago from an abortion.” (Last December, the Vatican approved vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”) What a sad irony if following that silly order cost even one death!

Please register; get vaccinated; but don’t send your brain on vacation.

                                            - 30 -


[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 7 March 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 FM http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[NOTE Just read (Sunday afternoon) on thehill.com, a piece headlined "world on brink of fourth wave of coronavirus.  Of course, I'm hoping it's unduly alarmist, and the models showing a big increase in cases (which increased worldwide this week after six straight weeks declining) are flawed; but so far, the dire models and predictions have been more or less correct, and the "Don't worry about it!" message of Mr. Trump and others has been a badly-cooked pot of wishful thinking. So "hoping for" ain't quite "betting on" yet.  Widespread vaccination, experts say, is the only way we move from riding this tiger to driving it, and our neighbor, Texas, seems to be screwing that up too.]

[I’m no immunologist, so don’t rely on me for detailed scientific information, but I’ve read in several pretty authoritative places what I say about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Here’s a NY Times article on what the numbers mean. Efficacy depends on the details of a trial, such as where it took place. Johnson & Johnson ran trials at three sites: in the United States, Latin America and South Africa. The overall efficacy was lower than than in the United States alone. One reason for that appears to be that the South Africa trial took place after a new variant had swept across that country. Called B.1.351, the variant has mutations that enable it to evade some of the antibodies produced by vaccination. The variant didn’t make the vaccine useless, however. Far from it: In South Africa, Johnson & Johnson’s efficacy was 64 percent. ]

[My vaccination was a non-event, in terms of fear, pain, reaction, etc.; but I’ve had several friends for whom the second shot, with Moderna or Pfizer, is a problem for a day or so, so folks should be ready for that.]