In the news this week: Human trials of COVID-19 infection will soon begin in the UK with a group of 90 volunteers. We have seen discussion of this idea for almost a year, but the green light came last week when a company named Open Orphan announced the approval of an independent Research Ethics Committee on Feb. 17, allows the project to go forward

Ash Wednesday always feels transitional to me. It brings back that gray stretch between Christmas and Easter when one day blended into the next and school seemed like it would last forever. After 11 months I’m almost used to doing things the pandemic way, like celebrating Mardi Gras with a Zoom pancake supper. Last February, when thing were “normal” seems far away.

Here’s an experiment: just search on the words “Will life be normal”. I typed that in on Google this morning with no other qualifiers. But Google completed the question for me, as it always does, displaying: “will life be normal in 2021,” “will life be normal after covid,” and then, plaintively, “will life be normal soon.”

I got my shot yesterday! I’m happy to report that the Soka University site, which opened on Saturday, January 23, is running smoothly. Soka is Orange County’s second Super Point-of Dispensing, or POD, vaccination site. The first one was Disneyland, which opened on Jan. 13.

Good news today! I have an appointment to get a vaccination! From what I’ve read, Soka University gives the Pfizer vaccine. But I’m ready to get whatever they’ve got. The timing–31 days before the pandemic anniversary–suits my schedule just fine.

No, I haven’t heard about mine yet, but a multitude of emails and Facebook posts tell me that many of my friends either have their appointment or even their first shot. As for me, I check the website daily. In the meantime, vaccine news continues to dominate the early months of 2021. Seldom have research results been so publicly available and so widely discussed.