Repeated repetition

Repetition is the act of repeating or being repeated while repeat is an iteration or a repetition.
Hmm....
These days the news is repetitive: numbers of coronavirus infections break records; wear masks, wear masks, wear masks… stay home, stay home, stay home…

News blues…

• The US posted yet another daily record of confirmed cases on Saturday night, with 66,528 new infections, while the death toll rose by almost 800 to nearly 135,000.
• Last Thursday, California, Texas, and Florida reported new record daily highs for deaths:
  - California: 149 deaths
  - Florida: 12 deaths (more than 12,000 infections in one day – another record broken)
  - Texas: 105 deaths (ditto on another record set for the third-straight day)
• South Africa recorded 12,349 new cases on 10 July, taking the cumulative total to 250 687 (with 118 232 recoveries).
  Deaths rose by:
  - 140+ in the Western Cape,
  - 39+ in Gauteng,
  - 24+ in the Eastern Cape and
  - 11+ in KwaZulu-Natal
  - Total death toll (today): 4,079+

Ominously:

• Oxfam reports, "The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that the number of people experiencing crisis level hunger will rise to 270 million before the end of the year as a result of the pandemic, an 82% increase since 2019.
  ‘This means between 6 000 and 12 000 people per day could die from hunger linked to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic before the end of the year, perhaps more than will die each day from the disease by that point.’
• Hunger is worsening in the US, too. 
• Meanwhile, the White House takes aim at Fauci as he disagrees with Trump on virus 
• Dr. Fauci on why he's not being allowed on TV.

***

Ramaphosa speaks: President Cyril Ramaphosa Nation Address | 12 July 2020
Takeaways:

• Country remains at Alert Level 3
• Tighten up on mandatory wearing of masks
  (let’s hope – insist? - “tighten up” does not mean “beat up”) 
• “Mask” defined as anything – t-shirt, cloth – that covers nose and mouth.
• Curfew from 9pm to 4am
• Reinstituting the ban on the sale of alcohol as of last night.

***

Alas, TV presenter and journalist, Justice Malala writes, “The ANC and those who voted for it aren’t victims. They chose the mess SA is in.”

***

Daily Maverick webinar: “Inside Track: Hotspot Gauteng”
Hosted by Mark Heywood with Doctors Nathi Mdladla and Jeremy Nel.
Takeaways:

• “In terms of people, we never actually instituted Lockdown. We went from hard Lockdown to softer… the reverse from what the rest of the world did. We behaved like Sweden.”
• “We’ve lost control of the pandemic. … We can intervene, but escalating higher level of lock down now may lose more benefits than gain…”
• Hospitals in Johannesburg are groaning but still managing – for now.
• Predominantly a respiratory disease although often affects other organs. 
• Oxygen is the primary therapy for Covid 19. Getting right the delivery of oxygen is essential. 
• Stocks of oxygen depleted. Oxygen delivery more important than ventilators.
• Infrastructure – hospitals, oxygen, beds, and personnel – remains the challenge.
• Systems are getting better at managing care.
• Integration of private and government hospitals across provinces is vital; all must cooperate/ network to provide best delivery of scarce resources.
• Obsession with numbers isn’t helping people feel safe…. (Mea culpa – guilty!)
• Seeing more young people affected but SA is a country with many young people. This will help keep mortality rates down although co-morbidities don’t help rates of survival (diabetes, hyper-tension, obesity, etc.).
• Flattening the curve: more important than ever to wear a mask – the best prevention - practice social distancing, sanitize, stay home, and avoid groups of people.
• We are going into peak risk period.

Whackjobery*
Young Americans tempt fate and attempt – fatally - by trying to prove the pandemic is, as Donald Trump claims, “a hoax.”

A 30-year-old patient died after attending a ‘“Covid-19 Party”, believing the virus to be a hoax, a Texas medical official has said.
“Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’” said Dr Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer at Methodist hospital in San Antonio.

*Whackjobery: term promoted by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I instituted a set of protocols for anyone entering the property – beginning with the gardener.
I placed hand sanitizer and viral guard throat spray on a table near the gate and txt’d him instructions.
That went off without a hitch. He appeared to find it novel, rather than intrusive.

Temperatures overnight expected to drop below zero for the next week. This, just as seedlings emerge. Let's hope the cold frame/greenhouse protects them.

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