The traditional action for New Year’s Eve is to go to a party, stay up until midnight and watch the bell drop, and the traditional song is Auld Lang Syne.

I’ve stopped doing any of these things.

My traditional action is now to watch a bunch of great college football games that are the cumulation of the year’s season, and maybe have a few friends over.

As for songs, I have two. First, to look back on the year and the ways one is stuck, and think about and motivate what one might change, Anastasia’s Same Old Story. Then, to remind that life is awesome and my life is awesome, Jewel’s This Way.

It’s important to have rituals and traditions that speak to you.

It’s also important to contain multitudes.

The darkness is coming. So is the light.

Life is good. All signs point towards the golden scenario of a quick peak under reduced severity.

Happy new year!

Around the World

South Africa, the UK and Denmark are no longer uniquely informative places, so I’m combining all the areas into one section now.

There are a few cities where we may have peaked, but otherwise outside of South Africa? Not so much.

Cases still growing in the UK, but perhaps no longer growing in London.

Here’s a UK hospital update, from the comments via MoveMyCat:

I work at a large teaching hospital in the UK, but outside London. I’ve been isolating for a while (very mild if any symptoms, but was undergoing regular testing at work). Prior to my isolation, there were rising numbers, but they were still using respiratory beds for ‘Incidental Covid’ types. Anecdotal observation supported the idea that staff isolation and the need to isolate from vulnerable Covid-negatives was more of a challenge at that point than any influx of very unwell Covid pneumonitis types.
I’ll aim to update when I’m next in work.
…
I’m back in work now. There’s a small uptick in actual respiratory admissions but most of the increased Covid capacity the hospital has put together is being filled by geriatrics patients who happen to have Covid. A friend who works at a nearby hospital reports that she has about a quarter of her unit in self isolation for one reason or other.
It’s actually remarkable how few people are coming in with fevers and breathlessness.

If we do have access to the numbers on any of that, please do share, for now I only know of such numbers in San Francisco.

Germany is behind other countries in terms of spread and has stalled for...

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