What's the Buzz, Tell Me What's Happening

Youvarlakia Avgolemono

Greek Meatball soup with an egg lemon thing going on.  It's super easy but definitely has it's own unique flavor party happening.  This time I made the meatballs in the broth like you're supposed to and used uncooked rice and it really was that much better.  The meatballs were super tender like dumplings and the lemony dill broth is very lady like.  It's delicate and fresh, light. It's a pretty soup you might say, although I forgot the lemon peels to garnish.  

I added kale because you gotta get your greens in and they only enhanced the soup, took nothing away.

Writing this mid-December, a couple of weeks into this new Omicron variant, I'm thinking about how we process news, as the information pours in.  Or should I say lack of information but still made to be considered news.  The first days the variant hit the states, the articles read, what we believe will happen, what we imagine to be the case, we suspect the current vaccine will protect against the new variant, which is fair, why wouldn't they assume.  The CDC told us not to panic but then went on to say how the variant would consume the US within a couple of months and officially, they didn't know if we're protected (and still don't by the way, officially, as stated on their site).  Another journalist tells us it will be months before we know any real data on how the vaccine reacts to the new variant.  Others claimed one week in that, we now see the vaccine is effective against Omicron but that the pharmaceutical company is also working on a separate vaccine specifically for it, while another is working on a vaccine that will cover the flu and the Delta variant, meaning it sounds like we'll be topping off these vaccines like coffee at a diner for the rest of our lives.  I read a booster is really just half of a vaccine dose.  Some suggest getting a 3rd vaccine altogether if you're older or vulnerable.  So one year in, they haven't said officially how long the protection lasts but seem to suggest 6 months.  You can mix the different brands now when you couldn't before, or they didn't recommend it.  The first actual numbers are showing the majority of the people that contacted the variant in the states were fully vaccinated 18 - 39 but I suppose that might be more to do with travelling and testing.  However, they did not die, nor did they have major effects and the vaccine was probably to thank for that but that is another assumption.  I also read, that is common for a variant to start out mild before it starts gaining strength.  Viruses want to live so they can spread.  Normally the goal isn't to kill us.  Although you have to wonder if you're someone who believes it was created in a lab that it possibly does have murderous motives.  We won't know for a while if early US infected will suffer any long term effects. I read that the symptoms are more cold like instead of respiratory, so you have to also wonder how many folks are spreading and getting it without even realizing.  For example, many in my department came down with a bad cold in the last month.  It came sweeping through and I figured it's because our customers were no longer masked and the antiseptic wipes are not stocked for us regularly anymore. Or simply, it's cold season. With our defenses down and practices lacking, germs are probably having a field day with our new susceptibility.  I brought that cold home that has lasted 2 1/2 weeks so far and counting and now I wonder.

Cases were way down and now they have shot up again in the states.  They just announced on 12/11 that customers will need to begin wearing masks indoors again here in NYC.  I was having a conversation with a man yesterday that insisted on being on my side of the plexi-glass window we use for extra protection and midway, I realize his mask is around his forehead.  Inside I begin laughing hysterically.  I think that as soon as he got to my department and needed to speak, he swiped it up and there it stood for the rest of our conversation.  So for people that work with the public, I'm happy for the new rules but also sad to see us go backwards.  

I even made a little joke as I wipe off imaginary virus droplets,  'you have a little variant on your shoulder'.  This has mixed reactions.   You must keep a sense of humor because otherwise, the obstacles coming at us right now are too much. 

This soup is light but there is no getting around it, winter is coming to New York eventually in one form or another, and heartier soups will be in order.