Maybe if the pandemic had started in October we would have been more motivated to distance over the coming holidays. Inspired to flatten the curve, we might have resolved to stay isolated over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Over the last nine months we’ve heard repeated warnings not to socialize over spring break, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Halloween. Remember the saying about the futility of repeating the same thing and expecting different results?

Exchanging letters at holiday time has always meant a lot to me. Perhaps this year more than most, because of the extreme isolation many of us are going through during the pandemic. I want to hear from people. Actually, I want to see people. And I will be doing some of that, but let’s leave that thought for the moment and go straight to the letter. You can’t get more socially distanced than this.

Yesterday they were turning off the lights behind us as we walked out the hotel door. Just like Friday March 13th when they were cancelling flights as we left Portugal. Déjà vu, as they say, all over again.

Two things I love to do: Sing and travel. There are limits on both this year. Travel is “fraught” as they say. (I’ve noticed the news media calls everything fraught this year, so I thought I’d join in.)

Thanksgiving is here and there is no shortage of advice. Stay home, limit gathering size, eat outside, don’t travel. Remember when Thanksgiving news articles were about whether to baste, brine, or deep-fry your turkey? I looked back to last year’s Los Angeles Times to seek a bit of nostalgia. And this is what I saw:

Around midnight last night I saw conflicting news alerts about the vaccine from Oxford/AstraZeneca. This is the third vaccine to publish efficacy results in the last two weeks. But 70% and 90%? It’s a huge discrepancy. Apparently it didn’t bother the stock market.

Not only the vaccines are making progress this week. New studies are beginning to give us a better understanding of how COVID-19 spreads and how long our immunity lasts. Many of these studies are of the “meta-analysis” type. That is, they search the literature