December 17, 2020

Dear Friend,

March 16, SF Bay Area counties ordered 6.7 million people to "shelter in place" "until April 7" due to COVID-19. I went home 3:00PM that day. I did heavy food shopping the previous 3 weekends and stockpiled food in my refrigerator, kitchen cupboards, and closet. I got an HEPA/UV Germ Guardian AC4825 from AMAZON.COM .

I have been working remotely in Palo Alto. I see my fellow UnifyID employees in Google Meet meetings and Slack calls, similar to Zoom. The farthest I've traveled since March 16 is to other parts of Palo Alto.

I switch between online 1 week food purchases from local restaurants (Siam Royal Authentic Thai, Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant, Darbar Indian Cuisine) and groceries from Mollie Stones. Once a week, I rev my car for 20 minutes and then move it to the other side of the street. On sunny days, I read science magazines, French science fiction, or walk with my homemade mask around my neighborhood.

Today, I attended a monthly Caltech Alumni Group meeting via Zoom webinar. Caltech professor Dr. Azita Emami talked about "Wireless Biomedical Devices for Sensing and Navigation". Atoms chips report their 3D position in space with high resolution via technology similar to MRI scanning. This is useful for orthopedic surgery.

Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine 94% efficacy reports are good news. Underdog scientist Dr. Katalin Karikó who persevered with her mRNA vaccine work in the 1990s will probably get a Nobel Prize. I'm optimistic the vaccines will succeed and 2023 will be a great year!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family!

Kelly Roach