Dear Friends, While many of us are still waiting for word of our first vaccination being scheduled (including yours truly), this was a much better week for our vaccination program, and I thought perhaps my readers might like to hear some of the feedback and information I have from this week. As you know, our staff were working hard over the past week to reschedule the appointments that had been cancelled by Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) for those 75 and over. From Friday a week ago through this Tuesday, 63 of our staff made 3,191 calls and scheduled 2,336 appointments. This was a … [Read more...]

Dear Friends,    I know many of you have received, or heard about, emails from Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) cancelling appointments for Covid vaccinations. We were just briefed on the situation by our staff at the end of today’s County Board meeting. Once the meeting is posted, you may want to watch the discussion, which began at about 12:50 pm today. VHC will no longer receive vaccines from the state. VHC will give second doses of vaccine to those who already have had their first shot, but they are cancelling all other appointments. Arlington County will now receive … [Read more...]

Dear Friends,    Following Governor Northam’s announcement yesterday afternoon, we updated the County’s COVID Vaccine page with information about phases 1b and 1c. We have also created a new registration page with Information on the priority groups and links to the registration forms: https://www.arlingtonva.us/covid-19/vaccines/registration/ so you can easily pre-register for your vaccination (if you are in Groups 1b or 1c). I expect more information to be coming over the  next days and again remind people that we will be holding a public Covid … [Read more...]

Dear Friends, I’m sure we are all watching with distress the events downtown at the U.S. Capitol. In cooperation with the Governor, we are putting in place a curfew for Arlington from 6pm this evening to 6am tomorrow. Alexandria has the same curfew. The press release below itemizes the details. Please note that there are important exceptions to the curfew for people going to and from work, in transit to home, seeking medical help, etc. We want as many people as possible to be home and safe to ease the work of our public safety personnel tonight.  Thank you and stay … [Read more...]

Dear Friends, The new year is off to a busy start. I wanted to share a couple of time sensitive items with you.DC Protests – January 6thWe are asking all residents to stay safe and refrain from counter-protesting in Washington D.C. on January 6, tomorrow, when far-right extremist groups are expected to gather in large numbers to protest what they falsely claim to be widespread voter fraud in the November 3, 2020, presidential election. Mayor Bowser has asked that people not come to the city to counter-protest and we strongly support her request. Vaccinations and our next … [Read more...]

Dear Friends, As this most challenging of years draws to a close, I want to wish everyone a healthy and better New Year. My daughter kindly put in calligraphy the quote from Vaclav Havel that I’ve had taped up on my wall for most of this year. It’s an important message. There has been a lot of love and truth shown this year by so many people from all walks of life as we helped each other get through the pandemic however we could. May we build on the positive things that got us through this year to make a better world in 2021,Libby … [Read more...]

Dear Friends, As this strange year comes to an end, the Board had — as now is usual — a combination of traditional Board issues and Covid ones. I marvel that only a short time ago holding meetings virtually felt odd. I think “you’re on mute” is the catch-phrase of the year. I now have a corner of my home that I call my “broadcast studio.”  Covid Work SessionWe continue to accept funds when available from the Federal and State governments to help with Covid relief, e.g., help with utility bills. As we all know, numbers of cases and deaths are rising rapidly and the beginning of … [Read more...]

Dear Friends, At last! Biden is the President-elect and has overcome voter suppression, voter intimidation, a pandemic, and an Electoral College system that makes a Democratic win extremely difficult even with a large popular vote margin. And at last for the first time in our history, we have a woman and a woman of color Vice President-elect.Over the last two presidential elections, the flaws in our democracy have become so clear.I am grateful to everyone nationwide who stood in line to vote, knocked doors, made calls, wrote postcards. I am grateful to the thousands of public servants who … [Read more...]