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This week we got some good news from Pfizer on a vaccine, and a whole lot of bad news about COVID infections exploding nationwide. A recent trial indicated that Pfizer’s novel vaccine was more than 90% effective. This would make it about twice as effective as the normal flu vaccine. Medical experts believe that up to 30 million Americans could receive the vaccine by the end of the year and it could be widely available by April. Thank God. At the same time, COVID infections in the United States are approaching 200,000 a day. This means a lot of people are going to die in the coming months. Tragic. Those of us in the housing business have been spared the financial devastation that others are experiencing right now. We’ve been lucky. Millions of people are still out of work and the economy is far from recovered. That said, we just need to get past this. I’ve had friends who became infected with barely any symptoms, and I’ve had other friends who were hit so hard, they were sure they were going to die. As difficult as it is for everyone right now, mentally, physically and economically, we have to make it to the other side of this. The one thing I hope we have all learned from the pandemic, is that nothing is more important than health, because everything else can be replaced. Stay safe and wear a mask.
Regardless of political persuasion, most people think the rhetoric of politics has gotten out of control. If you believe that, as I do, there IS something you can do about it. You can ask yourself whether you are helping or hurting the situation. I like to say that there are two types of people in the world: people who add stress and people who relieve stress. I think similarly, some people are adding to the political spectacle in the country, and others are at least trying for something better.
Gary's Blog will return next week.
This past week, the National Association of Realtors invited me to participate in a meeting with the NAR leadership and Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General of the United States.