Are We Making Any Progress At All?

Feeling defeated today.

Monday I did go downtown and get my first dose of the vaccine (Pfizer). The clinic is in the convention center and it was packed with people. It was weird and uncomfortable being around so many people. Everyone was well-behaved: wore their masks properly, distanced from each other, and followed the instructions of the many volunteers. My arm hurt that night, it was sore enough to wake me when I rolled onto that side, but by Tuesday evening the pain was gone and I don't think I've had any other effects.

Classes resumed. I only have an upper-level lab on Tuesdays, first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, one of my three students tested positive for COVID-19 later that day. The college considered me "exposed" and I got a phone call from HR yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, just as I was preparing to leave campus for the night. I need to stay home in quarantine for ten days. It is unlikely (but not impossible, of course) that I have been infected. The lab is pretty big, and well-ventilated. I was usually at least six feet away from the students. We all wore our masks and didn't touch each other. Will the vaccine I received ~19 hours earlier do any good?

I grabbed what I could think of from my office and now I'm teaching from my laptop in my attic again, just like last spring. I had to tell those upper-level students today that they don't get any more lab experience this semester. By the time I'm out of quarantine, there will only be a week left of this semester and not enough time to do any of the remaining activities on the schedule.

I barely slept at all last night. My brain was full of what I needed to do this morning to be ready for the Zoom lectures, anger at the student who exposed me, and just plain anger and frustration. Our state is having a huge spike in COVID-19 cases right now, and my school has the most cases we've had all year (it was something like 37 active cases when I checked most recently), but the administration keeps saying "business as usual" and classes are still primarily in person, our athletic teams are having practices and traveling for competitions. All the students went home for Easter last weekend, and I've overheard enough of them talking about all the fun things they did that I just despair for the future. The city schools are all having spring break this week, too. It's going to get even worse here when those people get back from Disney or wherever they all went.