2/19/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I hope you get a chance to discuss Myanmar with the folks at the G7 meeting today. Things seem to be getting more dire there & a unified international response might make a difference.

            The folks of Portage are getting ready for your visit today. When you’re there, I’m sure you will put a positive spin on the progress we are making in getting folks vaccinated. About half of the people in my Quaker Meeting have had their first shot & the older folk have had 2. We are lucky to live close to UCD which seems to have a steady supply & is well organized to distribute the shots. I wish everyone were so lucky.

Today’s Guardian featured the story of the pair of 34 & 44 year-old women in FL who were so desperate that they dressed up as “grannies” with bonnets & gloves & went to their local vax station. They were found out & carted off to the police station & charged with trespassing.

  According to MLIVE a 66-year-old who lives within 20 miles of the Pfizer plant hasn’t been able to get vaccinated yet. If she happens to come to your press conference, I suggest that you avoid playing “personal politics” & refrain from telling her you will take care of her. Folks like me wonder, “what about the rest of us?” Instead, you could explain that you are working with CVS & Walgreens so they stop hoarding & you’re doing what you can to support the production of lipid nanoparticles.

In case you have lost track, they are a key ingredient to the Pfizer shot & are in short supply. According to the WP, they work by making a cocoon around the genetic payload. Their electrical charge changes when they enter the cell & they release the payload. Before CV, they were only used in a treatment of a rare disease so ramping up production has been a challenge.

            Send my best to the folks in MI – I have some dear friends who live there & they are troubled by the political division in their small town. Whatever you can do to heal that would be great!!!

            PBWY,