Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Texas and other states are also ending their participation in the additional Federal unemployment benefits, which should improve unemployment numbers as well.

I don't believe there's a huge percentage of the population that's not going back to work as a result of these extra benefits, but anecdotally, I do know of at least two restaurant servers who have remained on unemployment assistance despite having opportunities to work, simply because the state plus Federal unemployment benefits allowed them to be comfortable enough to not work.

Mask mandates are gone today in Minneapolis and St Paul, as both have above 70% of residents having at least one dose.

We are still having 550 people die of COVID-19 per day nationally, which seems like a really high # to me.

That said, here in NE Iowa, the rural county I live in with a population just > 17,000 currently has no hospitalizations, a 14-day positivity rate of 1.8%, and no new cases today. The past week or so just 0-2 new cases per day. The rural county north of us had a new death reported, so it is not entirely over.

Our fully vaccinated rate in our rural county just went up to 50.4%. Dubuque County to our east has a 62.2% vaccination rate, and the county to our north has the lowest rate in our area of 47.7%

When experts last summer thought we could achieve herd immunity with 70% vaccinated, I think they were counting on vaccinations that were just 55-70% effective. No one thought then the vaccines would be > 90% effective, or as safe as they have turned out to be.

I bought carry-out tonight at the Chinese restaurant across the street from my office. I was surprised to walk in and for the first time since March 2020 there were diners inside; the family operating the restaurant was very cautious throughout the pandemic. When things closed down in March 2020 my neighbors went to visit extended family in Calif. for a few weeks, when they reopened to carryout in April there was a line around the block for carryout.  My neighbors have always had a large carryout business, despite a quality dining area.  I was so buoyed to see the support they had here, but then they have a good product.

Things are starting to brighten up, and are looking up here.

Scientists speaks, usually, in a very nuanced form with a lot of hemming and hawwing.

It’s always struck me as one of the more paradoxical social natures that the scientist, who’s tasked with carefully defining what’s provable and unprovable, speaks so cautiously to the point of unsureness, while on the other hand the people who speak with and rally the most confidence are those with nothing to stand on. The scientist almost always qualifies their talking points with “correct me if I’m wrong…” or “don’t quote me but…” Whereas those who let extremist politics or pseudo-cultish religion do their thinking for them are the ones most vocally certain of their rightness.

because it's certainly true

very few things are certain in this world

the intelligent folks realize this