Winter break is the time to look back this year and plan for the next year.
2020 was a highly unusual year. Due to Coronavirus, our university was closed for 2.5 months (March-May). Although it did flatten the curve, Coronavirus lingered during the Summer. As winter came, COVID19 again started marching on. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna recently became available to frontline healthcare workers, nursing home residents, caretakers, and first responders.
Remote work is encouraged, and mask and social distancing are enforced in the campus.
That is where we are now.
I never had an official diagnosis for COVID19. But I had suspicious and persistent chest cold during quarantine, also had one day in Summer I felt sick with headache and stomachache, both of which are quite rare for me. I suspect they might have been a mild form of COVID19, and if so, I'd probably be okay and would live through this pandemic.
I'll still be cautious. Report said a few days ago that a Japanese politician, age 53, died of COVID19 after 2 days of feeling ill. He was on his way to get PCR test for COVID19 diagnosis when he collapsed. They are still investigating exact cause of his death (pneumonia? Pulmonary embolism and stroke? Coronavirus can affect endothelial cells and blood coagulation.) Stories like this should make people act carefully.
Or, perhaps, more famous people need to die or something for the virus to be taken seriously? Some COVID19 deniers' responses are truly dumbfounding.
I'll wear mask, wash hands, keep social distance anyhow, and will take the vaccine when it become available some time next year.
I am one of the fortunate people who did not get seriously sick in 2020. I am also one of the fortunate who got to keep his job thus with minimal financial impact. In 2020, I wrote 4 grants and participated in another. I published one original research, one review, and had one perspective manuscript accepted. Since lab work is slowed down, I initiated a collaboration project with a bioinformatics expert. We found something interesting and a manuscript is about to be sent out. I'll see if we can get by with this type of projects with minimal lab work for a time being.
Many things in life is beyond my control. I can still choose what to focus on my thinking and efforts. Need to think to get it going strong in 2021 and beyond.
