Dear Friends,
I hope everyone has had a good Martin Luther King Jr. Day and found a way to recognize his life and legacy.
I was pleased to attend some of our programs today and want to give a shout out to Volunteer Arlington for their great work putting together a good virtual program. The pandemic and George Floyd’s murder have helped put the issue of racial equity front and center.
Vaccine Update
I know many of us are worried about getting vaccinated and some have experienced problems with our on-line sign up link. We are doing our best to fix issues as we become aware of them. For up-to date information about Covid, please check our County website.
Those in Group 1-a, please go to the Virginia Hospital Center site. Otherwise if you are in Groups 1-b or 1-c, please pre-register go to our own site.
Also, I know many are frustrated with the slow pace of vaccinations. The Board is, too. Today, the Arlington County Public Health Division inoculated 900 teachers, after a previous 900 this past Saturday. We have the capacity to do 2,000 doses a day, and could increase capability to do more. However, Virginia is only guaranteeing 1,400 does for the whole week. In other words, our only limitation now on the number of vaccinations we do is the 
number of vaccine doses we receive. The County is doing everything we can to get more doses. I expect we all are reading about the chaos in the current Federal system of vaccine distribution to the states. This is affecting us directly here in Arlington now. President-elect Biden’s commitment to address this immediately after he takes office should quickly start to help bring order out of the chaos.
Inauguration Day
Noon on January 20 cannot come soon enough. I hope you will join me in celebrating this event virtually. Major security precautions are being undertaken for Wednesday, including closing bridges from Virginia into DC starting Tuesday morning. The precautions are likely to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, but they will make it extremely difficult to move around the region. I believe we will all be more comfortable and safer at home.
I have started to think of January as a bit of a hangover from 2020. Once President Biden is in office and vaccines start rolling out in a predictable way, I believe a much better new year will truly start.
Stay well,
Libby
