Here We Go, Here We Go...

Like Chicago, (there's a) lot of flights in Minneapolis containing first- and second-generation African-Americans and visitors, shuttling between the dark continent and their new homes here.  We have a robust, and relatively young, population in our diverse Asian- and African-refugee/immigrant population contributing to our region's still-functioning economies 

Once politicians and scientists confirm and announce these things publicly -- the discovery of a new immune-resistant virus -- it's a safe bet to assume the new Covid variant has already landed and is beginning to circulate.  (I know Covid came to the East Metro before March 2020 too, cases later medically confirmed.)

These new mutations, reportedly incubated and evolved in the body an HIV-positive patient, are undetected by the most-recent on-the-market boosters and vaccines.  This variant hits the young especially hard, they say, who run the risk of their bodies' strong  immune systems going into a hyperdrive protective response -- the perfect storm of a protective response to new stimuli that cannot be slowed as one's body essentially declares victory by essentially beating itself.

New York already has declared a state of emergency; many countries have already closed their borders to flights from the affected region, leaving the United States of America -- with our barn doors wide open until Monday -- as a destination for desperate travellers eager to get out and get in somewhere before another global lockdown goes into effect.  That appears the most effective tool, if the vaccine-makers are scrambling now to meet the challenges of fighting the next round with another shot, as more and more Americans are assessing their personal health risks in choosing to continue vaccinating, or not.  For some at risk, the heart conditions and health effects that came after their vaccine shot(s) make them more likely to step out of line now, and take their chances in home isolation, a choice those working and living in public and private institutions maybe won't have...

The seatbelt-protection and vaccine-protection analogy only goes so far when you consider that encourages some drivers, and their immune systems unfortunately, to go 100 miles an hour because... hey, we're super-protected now, right?  Nature has lessons to teach scientists still, it seems.  Don't get cocky and over-confident, she warns.

Pray for the vulnerables then: the very young children, the extreme elderly, those already sick and weakened, the pregnant people -- birthing and nursing mothers, and all those who cannot put off medical care.  Like barnyard animals, there will be casualties, and this go-around -- like the second-season of the Spanish flu -- might take a toll on  the young and  healthy too.

The essential workers get kind of taken for granted, but we will all feel the repercussions if they are lost for any lingering time from today's workforce: nurses/CNA's, teachers, truckers, store personnel. If they sicken, a lot is lost downline from interdependency.

Added: From a marketing/comm perspective, you can see why they broke this news holding our for the Thanksgiving holiday.  The economic disruption, and likely travel panic -- especially in the air, was not worth making the announcement before yesterday.

Now, travellers have Saturday and Sunday to scramble home, and only yesterday did the market begin to respond...