WHATCHATHINKIN’

WHATCHATHINKIN’

SHIRA KAMIL

Acceptable Scarlet Letter

Each morning, my computer gives me the news of the day. I get a number of e-newsletters from varying sources – motorcycle, travel, commerce, etc. One of the more interesting and fun ones is the Morning Brew which concentrates of industry and nance. Believe me, I am not a high-powered trader nor do I religiously follow the market numbers, but I do nd their ‘lighter side’ of these topics more engaging, thus I don’t give in to the random ‘SQUIRREL’ when I’m reading it.

One of the segments, which has been included for a number of months now, is the Vaccine Tracker. In today’s edition, they brought up vaccine incentives that individual states are adopting. West Virginia is offering young adults a $100 savings bond and Maryland will give $100 to state workers to be stuck. My home state of New Jersey cleverly adopted a ‘shot and a beer’ program, including many of the craft breweries throughout the state to hand out a free beer when shown a covid vaccine card. Governor Murphy may also pick up the handing out of cash idea if the rate of vaccinations doesn’t increase.

While the rush was on when the vaccines rst became available to sign up for the waiting list, it seems now there may be more vaccine than people who want to receive it. In the U.S., the rate of vaccinations continues to decline, with an average of 2.09 million doses a day, declining 21% from the previous week. Globally 8.1% of the population have taken their shots, but the wealthier countries are vaccinating citizens 25X faster than lower income countries. We’ve all seen the news regarding India and their rise in covid cases. It seems a bit ironic, as they are the biggest producers of vaccines globally, yet they are suffering the highest rate of cases and lack of vaccine.

Why do I bring all this up in a motorcycle magazine? Because it is TIME TO RIDE, and it seems that every day there is a new mandate on what you can and cannot do with/without your full vaccination. As has been said many times since last year, both Brian and I went through the dif culties of the virus. Seems to me that once we got past that shit show, we were dosed with antibodies and would be safe to go on with our lives sans vaccination. We did deliberate whether to get it. We listened to others who had received all of the vaccines; those who had had the virus and those who had not. One particular comment made me chuckle: ‘I’m not getting it, and in a couple of years my blood is going to be worth $10,000 because it is pure.’ Scenes from SyFy shows and movies oated through my head: “It’s a cook book!” Or Brazilian president Bolsonaro’s warning that, if those planning to take the covid-19 vaccine in the country turned into alligators or grew beards post-inoculation, then it was their problem. Before our trip south to ride the new Triumphs, we, being avid baseball fans and trying to hit all the major league ball parks in the U.S, bought tickets to a Mets game at Citi eld the day before we went and to a Braves game the next day when we arrived. Totally excited to see live baseball once again as well as ride these terri c Triumphs, we were blown away when BOTH venues pulled our tickets only to resell them to a limited capacity audience very soon after. Of course, we were locked out of repurchasing both as we A) did not have our vaccinations and B) were not among the inner sanctum who could actually get through to purchase them. Both offered us credits to be used before 2023. We explained to the folks in Atlanta that we were only going to be there for that day and a credit would do us no good. They were understanding and gave us a refund. Our beloved Mets were not so generous and held onto our cash for a game to be named at a later date. Hell, at least we live here and, hopefully, the Mets will continue to play decent ball when we actually do get to see them in person.

Continued on Page 10