Parents went to China to visit Grandmother for Chinese New Years despite hearing about coronavirus outbreak.
Parents said they are only staying at home (in China). Supposed to come back to USA Feb 5th.
Parents changed flight to come back Jan 29th.
2/2020
Increasing case load in China, grandmother not leaving apartment, and aunt in China only leaving apartment to get groceries
Now with 11 deaths in USA, first confirmed case in Fort Bend county, everyone's gearing up for wide spreading of the virus. Clinic now has ability to gather sample, but need to send to state for testing. Turn around time 4 days. Clinic giving masks to everyone with fever, cough, travel coming through.
3/7/20
Alan: we are wondering whether we will need to cancel or reschedule our trip to Greece and Egypt in May. I think that by that time, virus will not be a concern and much of the worry is driven by media hype. We are uncertain of seasonal effects on coronavirus, whether it will follow typical flu patterns and die off in the summer with heat and humidity. We are encouraged as we look at case numbers in China, because it looks like new cases have almost come to a halt.
Meanwhile, as the stocks have fluctuated, Alan has created a plan on Excel of buying low and selling high. On a net basis we have bought a lot of stock.
South by Southwest has been canceled, and we're wondering if the rodeo will be canceled. People are saying South by Southwest has canceled because there are more internationals going to it whereas the rodeo is mostly local people. Likewise Ceraweek week is canceled.
3/11/20
Things have gotten worse. Universities are canceling school. For example Rice, MIT and Harvard has cancelled school right now. The rodeo is also cancelled because somebody was found positive who went to the cook-off. Seattle now has a ban on activities involving 250 people or more. and President Trump just announced a ban on flights to and from Europe. We also found out recently that Tom Hanks is coronavirus positive, as well as an NBA player. So now they canceled all the NBA games (we just saw last Rockets game). They have also canceled the coronavirus conference ironically because of the coronavirus.
AB is worried about his dad, because he went on the trip to DC recently and just got back today, and he is older. AB is also worried about me, because I see so many sick patients, and my clinic doesn't have any n95 masks. At small group we were discussing whether church was going to close, and it sounds like they will probably cancel most church activities. We're not sure what to do about small group, and also our upcoming birthday event.
We are expecting most offices and schools to close and transition to working from home. We're hoping that things will get better in one month.
It's a very confusing time right now, because while there is coronavirus that has the symptoms of fever dry cough is shortness of breath, there's also the flu circulating and allergies as spring brings tons of pollen.
3/12/20
Stock market had another all time dip (almost 10%). Schools in Houston are closed. Church and related activities are officially cancelled. Now there is a prediction in Ohio that although they only have 5 positive cases, there are probably 100k cases in the state. Hard to believe but possible? They say the peak will be late April or mid May. I was hoping it would fizzle out as weather warms up, but maybe it's not the case?
AB's work is asking him to give budget numbers for this month, but with these rapidly fluctuating rates, it's hard for him. His work is going to try testing working from home. Some people at AB's work think there is no structural issue, so the stock market will bounce back, but AB's dad think it's going to be more L shaped.
Most importantly, AB is happy to hear his dad is doing well after his DC trip. AB's mom is actually isolating herself from AB's dad in the meantime.
Regarding future plans of attending weddings, trips, etc, is how long will this last???
3/17/20
Now there's a new recommendation that there should be no more than 10 people gathered together. Bay area has a shelter in place order. Containment measurements in the United States have become a lot more strict, people are all about social distancing and flattening the curve. both the wedding this weekend and the one in April are being canceled, schools are closed, restaurants can only have takeout. We were able to have my birthday celebrated twice at restaurants before this new restriction. On the one hand it's good that the u.s. is learning from the responses of China (3k+ deaths), South Korea (fewer deaths, young population), and Italy (2.5k+ deaths, older, male smokers) and implementing serious measures 2 reduce the spread of the virus, however it's hard to know what the long-term effects of this would be. Currently there are 6,500 cases in the US and 115 deaths. Harris county has 10 cases and all of Texas has 1 death.
On Friday the stock market plummeted 10% (now down $26 from high) and today it went up 6%.
Positive development is that my clinic is screening people in front of the clinics and positive screens are sent to tents outside of LSW to get swabbed. They're also canceling well child checks older than one year old. My friend GA's daughter is in quarantine because one of the parents at her school I traveled and now test positive.
3/20/20
AB has started working from home. he is excited not to have to commute and dress up everyday. YW has a cough. hopefully it's nothing serious -famous last words. we hope to see fewer new cases in Italy over the next week because the United States is behind them in timeline. when we see a flattening of new cases there will be some optimism that's the worst is in the past.
MZ says that at her hospital they are given one masks and one masks only for the rest of this time. Not one last per day. Sounds like some serious rationing.
Meanwhile my English buddies friend says that at their hospital they're not even allowed to wear masks because they're concerned about it causing panic. and if they do wear a mask they have to show proof of purchase!
Jimmy Fallon #myquantinein6words:
Very close to befriending a volleyball.
Funnions for dinner, ok breakfast too.
Expelled my kid from home school.
Flattening the curve, fattening my curves.
I ate all my snacks on day one
3/31/20
Staying at home is the new norm. AB's working from home. While I still have to go to the clinic, we are trying to delay well child checks and do sick visits via telemedicine. Kids 12mo and younger still come in for check ups for vaccines, but it's been light. There are still silly patients who come for a cold and expose themselves to other people like me.
I found out PF's son has covid with only symptoms of no smell/taste and a headache. Meanwhile, friend who went to med school in Italy says family there is alright, but many previous professors were hospitalized and now recovering.
And just yesterday, we found out a pastor had covid. Fortunately we haven't had church since 23 days ago. He just had scratchy throat/aches for 1 day, and then no smell/taste. Same with his family. Seems like the no smell/taste is a classic symptom.
I had a cough, and it's mostly gone now. Still some residual cough/phlegm (used to be yellow, now clear), but no fever/aches or any other symptoms.
We played board games on boardgamearena.com for 12 hours this past Saturday with my brother. We played Puerto Rico, Hanabi, and learned a new long complicated game - Through the Ages.
Cases in NYC rising like crazy. MZ says they are putting beds in a track across from her hospital.
Some fun art pieces:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/25/opinion/coronavirus-art.html
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| Funny coloring book page |
4/5/20
We've been playing a lot of tennis at the local park even though it's supposed to be closed. most evenings we also take a walk because the weather has been pretty good. We have also started watching game of thrones. And we have also been playing games on jackbox TV with our small group and boardgamearena with my brother. We usually don't watch that much TV and we haven't watched many long series like game of thrones but now we do have time in the evenings and is a nice healthy distraction away from the news.
Meanwhile, the condition in New York has been terrible, there has been a lack of ventilators and masks. New York and you Jersey now have bout half of the cases in the US, 160k. We are expecting 80,000 deaths in the US. It's a lot more than what people thought originally but much better than the worst case. they're asking for volunteer health workers, and doctors from other states to help New York. Somehow my mom found a contact through her friend's college classmate who generously donated 3000 masks to my New York friend and another 3,000 to a friend here in Houston. It's a godsend.
The good news is that Europe infections seem to have peaked. So there's hope that infections in the United States will peak in the next week or two.
Also found out that my covid test came back negative. Turns my recent coughs have been due to allergies after a cold.
4/11/20
Admissions in New York hospitals have seemed to decreased. Deaths have increased to 2,000 per day in the US. But the projections 4 deaths have gone down to 60,000 in the US. England's prime minister was hospitalized in the ICU, but today they moved him out. One of our church members passed away.
Interactions have largely moved online. They even took down the nets of our tennis court. Easter will be spent on zoom with church and 300 other members.
4/17/20
The US government came out with a three-phase guideline for reopening the economy. As a result the stock went up. There is a large variety of views on how long the economy should be shut down. There has been also preliminary results in some clinical trials showing promise for the anti-viral remdesivir.
I was shocked to find out that my friend was prohibited from wearing n95 masks even now, unless she was doing particular procedures. And two weeks ago she was even prohibited from wearing surgical masks even when she was seeing patients. As a result two weeks ago, she was exposed to co-workers who were covid positive, and had to self isolate from her family. Meanwhile, my mom's friend donated a thousand n95 masks to Houston hospitals, a thousand n95 masks to Dallas hospitals, and I got 1000 surgical masks and 100 n95 masks from my parents (from their China friends) also for donation. There has been many kind and generous acts of donation amidst this crisis. But there has also been some very backwards acts and policies as well such as
prohibiting doctors from wearing an n95 masks.
4/29/20
U.S. cases have reached a million, so now it's more than a third of the world's cases (I know I doubt China's data is correct). Nonetheless, stocks have gone up despite economic turmoil and high unemployment. Now it's only 8% down from the year, isn't that nuts? There's optimism because of 2 other remdesivir studies. One was a worldwide study of 1000 patients, with preliminary studies showing decreased hospitalization. The other study seemed to show no difference between a 5-day dose and the 10-day dose. States are starting to reopen in early May, including Texas. Restaurants will be limited to 25% of capacity.
We visited the Woodlands and saw AB's parents and my co-residence. We spoke to them from a distance. AB's parents are in good spirits and getting groceries delivered. They were hyper-vigilant, wearing masks even indoors. We had to talk to them through the closed window, so we could barely hear anything. We have found some new bike trails and tennis courts to use in the evenings and weekends. Mountain biking was a lot of fun! We also finally managed to set up 4 cameras on a bunch of books in order to play pandemic Legacy with our friends. Talk about too real. we have continued watching Game of Thrones, and we're on season 6 now. We've done a lot of zoom events including church Connect events, baby shower, gender reveal, nerd herd meetups.
Due to more than 50% reduction in profits at our clinic, all the pediatric providers have to take 40 hours of PTO by the end of June. At least we still have a job. We got money back for our previously planned May Greece conference trip, but we're not sure what to do for the future.
5/3/20
The market went down a little bit because some of those companies that people thought would not be affected like apple and Amazon did go down.
Texas has entered stage 1 of reopening economy. Ironically Texas has reached its highest number of infection (1000+) and Houston as its highest number of deaths yesterday (5). Clinical trials for vaccines had been underway, and some say they might be done in September.
Meanwhile, we have continued to watch Game of thrones, we have acquired some patio furniture, and we worked on preventing grass from taking over our clementine tree. Since retail has opened at 25% capacity, I got my tennis racket strung, bought shoes and canvas for painting, and matched some paint for touchup work. we got Hamilton tickets in August for a cheap price - hope they don't get canceled!
5/14/20
We've been doing some mountain biking (more like trails), but it's been fun! The tennis courts in the neighborhood are also open so we could play tennis more! We went golfing at Deer Park Battleground Golf course where we lost a lot of balls in the water. Weather has been nice so we also have been eating on our patio. We finished Game of Thrones, so now we have a lot more time. We did pretty well predicting who would live or die. Restaurants have opened, and some people are eating out, but we are being careful and still do take out (once a week). But we saw a block party the street next to ours, and there were a lot of people not in masks and they didn't look like they were 6 feet from each other. :/
5/31/20
We have restarted playing Sherlock Holmes, with all the typos and mistakes. We found some more bike trails that are beginner friendly but still exciting. I have started some daily exercise regimen with my Seattle friends. I attended some virtual gatherings of MIT's reunion. We watch the successful launch of the Space X shuttle Dragon virtually. We are getting some take out to support local restaurants.
Most places are reopen now at reduced capacity. States are going at different paces. With the reopening some states have increased cases, but no one is overwhelmed. Ab's company is transitioning back to in office in June but still figuring out how to implement social distancing. Church is still deciding when to resume normal services and how. We would like to travel later in the year but the timeline is uncertain and we aren't sure that borders will remain open 100%. Work is largely the same, but we have seen an increase number of family members with coronavirus. There have been some protests lately due to poor treatment of black people by the police (G Floyd). Maybe the news is moving on from coronavirus. I heard a friend of mine is working on the coronavirus vaccine. Sounds like a lot of pressure!
6/10/20
Coronavirus cases are increasing in Houston. We're hoping at some point it will plateau. Right now there are about 230 cases of coronavirus in the ICU, so the caseload for coronavirus can double and it will still be within regular ICU capacity.
We are considering the possibility of visiting home. The right now I'm going to continue to assume that it will not happen just in case. Maybe we'll try to do some limited social distance friends dinner meet up outside.
Meanwhile, I'm being sucked into Asian drama one after another.
With rates low, considering refinancing house.
6/17/20
Had socially distanced dinner with ML, TC, and BC. Also had goodbye dinner with ZJ. All on our outdoor patio! It was nice to see friends in person!
6/29/20
Cases in US the going up. Governor is telling people to be more cautious and closed bars. Bellaire is closing some non essential services again. ICUs are reaching capacity, and may be going into surge capacity soon. The Children's hospital is accepting adult patients!
Meanwhile, just before closures, we flew to Seattle. Did some backpacking at Navajo pass and peak. It was beautiful and tough!
Predictions: NYC will be super cautious in reopening and people will recall how bad it was so will be more cautious on an individual level so case increase won't be dramatic.
Texas will continue increase in hospitalizations and deaths until people take it more seriously and more stringent measures taken.
7/6/20
Rest of Seattle trip was great! 😎 Played disk golf for the first time (so much fun), saw some friends in a socially distanced manner, got some kelp seaweed from the ocean (deception pass), hiked a bit, baked apple pies, got a lot of sunshine, and played a lot of overcooked with my brother.
Flight back nerve wrecking but fortunately uneventful, and it was great that SW left the middle seats empty, and we had our n95 mask on the entire trip and didn't eat or drink until at least 6 feet from other people.
Cases still increasing but stock market seems to be ignoring that because deaths have remained low most likely cases are younger and treatments better.
7/24/20
Cases have stabilized in Houston, but deaths are still rising as expected since there's a lag. Some vaccine companies have started phase 3 trial which is good news. The president has finally started putting on his mask in public and taking this seriously. Major league baseball has restarted with a shortened season, and Fauci threw his first pitch ("social distancing pitch" hahaha).
This has extended longer than what AB had thought initially. We have never thought it would continue into the next school year. Cases have decreased a little, but they're still at high levels. Now the debate is on whether to reopen schools. Some places in the US have tried opening schools, but shortly closing them because of cases. Even though children don't get as sick, they still canscan the disease. Most colleges are doing a mix of in person and virtual. Half of the college football conferences are delaying to spring.
Basketball is starting playoffs. So far there haven't been any outbreaks cuz they're isolated at Disney world. Baseball on the other hand has had a few outbreaks, so some teams have only played a handful of games while others have played a third of the season.
One of our friends is participating in a vaccine study, so we'll see how he does!
Went back to Seattle to visit family and go backpacking at enchantments. Wild fires throughout western usa, very unhealthy air. 3 vaccine companies working on trials. They expect to have a vaccine by the end of the year. Pretty much all pro sports have restarted. Some college sports have not started. Schools are a mixture of online and in person.
President trump tested positive after a crazy debate that seemed like 2 kindergartners were arguing. Apparently he had a fever and was on oxygen for a day. He got the lastest experimental medicines, and seemed to have recovered. Unfortunately he is still not taking it seriously and went around in a car waving to people yesterday. He got discharged today. Hope people will take it more seriously to stop the spread and reduce deaths of the elderly and vulnerable. It is hard to get people to think about their neighbors (others) and not just every man for himself.
Pfizer reports that their vaccine is more than 90% effective. Shortly after, Moderna reported 95% efficacy. Exciting news!
It's not clear what order they will give vaccines. But likely it will start with frontline health workers and high risk individuals in crowded living spaces. Also not sure when travel will reopen.
We thought about going to Hawaii for December holidays, but looks like you have to have a negative covid test before entering within 72 hours. Given you need it from a specific company and too many horror stories of people not getting the right one or not getting result back in time, we decided it wasn't worth the risk even though studies have shown low rates of infecting from flights if everyone wears masks.
It's a crazy election this year! Going in polls were showing that Biden was going to win. But during the election night it seemed like Trump was going to win. Then at 4:00 a.m. Alan looked at the new results, and then it looked like Biden was going to win. Unusual that Democrats won in Georgia. A lot of mailing votes delayed the countings for this year. Then Trump wouldn't concede even though there was overwhelming evidence that he lost, delaying transition and addressing the third covid wave. Cases and hospitalization are at their peak now because people are getting tired of staying at home.
We had a zoom Thanksgiving. Ironically we are seeing more family members this Thanksgiving than any other Thanksgiving, including having my family and Alan's family together on zoom.
Funniest musical mashup of Year 2020.
California trip cancelled bc rates high and they have a lockdown so one of the hotels was cancelled and no more Joshua Tree plans this year. Instead, staying in Texas and going to hill country.
Zoom Christmas with family. Playing interesting word game.
4 weeks later, I got my second dose and same with AB. What a relief! Feel like we are free to do anything now! Ab has been so good helping other people sign up and get their vaccines.
Been checking websites to see if maybe countries will reopen to people with vaccines. So far mostly south american or latin american countries are open to USA. Romania and Seychelles open to uSA travelers but require neg covid test. Thailand says open in June at the earliest. Here's to hoping the vaccine makes a big difference and will convince countries to open up quicker! USA has such high cases and ironically is requiring neg covid test to come back.
