REGJB STATUS REPORT : CODE BLUE

 We've been wandering the hallways of the REGJB lately as is our wont. The old lady has held up just fine through the pandemic. This has been the longest time the courthouse was closed. But even when closed, people showed up and cleaned the floors and bathrooms and Judges zoomed from the chambers. 

A quick and un-official survey when we sat in courtrooms is that four out of five lawyers are not wearing masks. This is a mistake. A recent report out of Israel is that the Pfizer vaccine is 64% effective against the transmission of the Delta variant, although it is very (90 percent) effective against serious complications if infected. 

Here is why you should wear a mask: more than half of Americans are vaccinated. The virus is searching for hosts, which causes mutations. Eventually there will be a mutation that will be infectious, deadly, and against which vaccines will be ineffective. Do you want to be part of the news story that starts with Mr. Ovalle writing "A new and deadly variant of the Covid19 virus swept though the Miami courthouses last week, causing dozens of lawyers, judges and employees to become sick and hospitalized and an emergency closure of the courthouses. The CDC is warning that there appears to be a new variant that vaccinations do not protect against...." 

Don't be reckless. Wear a mask in court. 

Proof that the courthouse is springing back to life: 

We saw a traffic enforcement officer issuing tickets in lot 26. Police cars cannot be far behind. 

And while perambulating the REGJB we spotted in the distance a gaggle of a rare species of humans, identifiable by their unique white tags hanging from their clothing, huddled together in a group. We opened our weathered and well thumbed  "Guide to Occupants Of the Gerstein Justice Building"  (Winton, Third Edition, 1998) and identified the species as ...JURORS!

Emptiness. This is how the old lady looked during the pandemic. 

CODE BLUE:

        The re-done elevators, a project started in the mid-1980s and completed last year in record time (there are three elevators after all) have in the interior a mysterious "code blue" button.  It is the button on the far-right above the no-smoking sign- which is, as we said, proof the project was begun in the 1980s when people smoked in the courthouse. 

   So what does the code-blue button mean? A heart attack? Why not label it a medical emergency button and put on a caduceus insignia?  Or a Red Cross?  This shall require further investigation. 

To summarize. The courthouse is slowly emerging from hibernation, like an old Grizzly in spring. Lawyers are not being smart and are not wearing masks. Cops are again giving people tickets for parking where they should not. No signs of the hotdog stands yet, but they are expected. Jurors have been sighted and there is a mysterious code blue button in the elevators that we need to get to the bottom of.