Vicky Blogs: COVID-19 (& beyond)

  As we’ve entered the new year, the news seems to be shifting to talks of first responders and essential workers beginning to receive the COVID-19 vaccines that are now available.  These two vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, are a two-dose ‘end’ to the seemingly unending pandemic that we have all been living through. Pfizer was the first to have a vaccine approved by the FDA on December 11th, 2020. Their vaccine was 95% effective in clinical trials at preventing lab-confirmed COVID-19 illness in those who received the two doses and had not been infected previously. The Moderna vaccine, approved by the FDA on Dec 18th, 2020, was 94.1% effective in clinical trials.   Many employees are wondering whether they will be required by their employer to get vaccinated before they return to a physical workplace. There is, of course, also the question of if the 'return to work' will be a 100% workforce return to a physical space. Some have speculated that a handful of employee...

We are now a bit under two weeks into 2021 and I feel like I am just getting a chance to breathe.  The holidays were a weird and almost foreign feeling time this year and the first few days of January flew by so quickly.  With all of the stress and craziness that went down during the month of December, it makes sense that it's taken some time to recover from putting out all of the fires. My family had a COVID scare over the holidays.  We had someone be exposed to a family friend who then came down with a low grade fever... and BOOM! ~ Apocalyptic Nuclear Explosion ~  We were already feeling some pressure as a family because we were meeting my brother's future in-laws for the first time ever.  This first time meeting meant that they were living with my family for a full month - talk about being thrown into the deep end.  They are lovely people and we all get along just fine, but this would be a stressful situation for anyone in a normal time.  Add a pan...