Thursday, April 1, 2021

Catching up...

Worldwide (Map) 
February 25, 2021 -128,260,000 confirmed infections; 2,805,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 -  112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,905,000 deaths
January 21 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths

US (Map)
February 25, 2021 -  30,394,000  confirmed infections; 551,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths 
January 21 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 25, 2021 -  1,547,000   confirmed infections; 52,790 deaths
February 25, 2020 -  1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths
January 21 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

News blues…

President Ramaphosa addresses and updates the nation on Covid-19 Lockdown  (27:40 mins) :
Alert Level 1 remains in place, however measures put in place for Easter weekend to combat a rise in infections
  • Curfew remains midnight to 4am
  • Public spaces such as beaches, parks, and dams remain open, but subject to usual health protocols – social distancing, wearing masks, sanitizing
  • Funerals restricted to 100 attendees, maximum of 2 hour services
  • Inter-provincial travel permitted though caution required
  • Alcohol restrictions: sale at offsite locations prohibited Easter Friday through Monday. Onsite sales – restaurants, bars, shebeens – allowed, subject to licenses
  • Easter religious gatherings restricted to 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors
  • Small venues: no more than 50 percent of capacity allowed.
Within 15 days there’ll be a review of the pandemic, the state of compliance, and will respond swiftly at any signs of a resurgence of infections.
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This week’s news controversy:
It was supposed to offer insight into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, but since its release last Tuesday, the long-awaited World Health Organization investigation has drawn criticism from governments around the world over accusations it is incomplete and lacks transparency. Here’s an excerpt from Tuesday’s story:
According to a draft copy of the joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19, transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely.”
…researchers listed four scenarios in order of likelihood for the emergence of the virus named SARS-CoV-2. Topping the list was transmission through a second animal, which they said was likely to very likely. They evaluated direct spread from bats to humans as likely, and said that spread through “cold-chain” food products was possible but not likely.
The closest relative of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in bats, which are known to carry coronaviruses. However, the report says that “the evolutionary distance between these bat viruses and SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be several decades, suggesting a missing link.”
…
The draft report is inconclusive on whether the outbreak started at a Wuhan seafood market that had one of the earliest clusters of cases in December 2019.
The discovery of other cases before the Huanan market outbreak suggests it may have started elsewhere. But the report notes there could have been milder cases that went undetected and that could be a link between the market and earlier cases.
“No firm conclusion therefore about the role of the Huanan market in the origin of the outbreak, or how the infection was introduced into the market, can currently be drawn,” the report says.
As the pandemic spread globally, China found samples of the virus on the packaging of frozen food coming into the country and, in some cases, have tracked localized outbreaks to them.

Read “WHO Report Says Coronavirus Likely Spread From Animals To Humans. According to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press, a lab leak is “extremely unlikely” as the source of the virus. 
And... here’s the (inevitable?) news blowback:
In a joint statement, the United States and 13 other governments, including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea, expressed concerns over the study's limited access to "complete, original data and samples."
The European Union issued its own statement, expressing the same concerns in slightly softer language. The criticism follows an admission from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that investigators faced problems during their four-week mission to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in December 2019.
In a news briefing Tuesday, Tedros appeared to contradict the study's central findings by suggesting the theory that the virus escaped from a Wuhan laboratory should be followed up - even though the report noted such a possibility was "extremely unlikely" and did not recommend further research on the hypothesis.
The WHO investigation, conducted more than a year after the initial outbreak, came under intense scrutiny from the outset. Some scientists and the US government have questioned the independence and credibility of the study, raising concerns over Chinese government influence. Beijing, meanwhile, has accused Washington and others of "politicizing" the origin of the virus.  
Read “14 countries and WHO chief accuse China of withholding data from pandemic origins investigation” >> 
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In a White House press conference Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she felt a sense of impending doom over the uptick in COVID-19 cases.
“I’m watching the cases tick up. I’m watching us have increased numbers of hyper-transmissible variants. I’m watching our travel numbers tick up, and the sense is, I’ve seen what it looks like to anticipate the oncoming surge,” Walensky said. “And what I really would hate to have happen is to have another oncoming surge just as we’re reaching towards getting so many more people vaccinated. You know, we’re still losing people at 1,000 deaths a day. And so I just can’t face another surge when there’s so much optimism right at our fingertips.”  (1:22 mins)
***
In the macrocosm, for people who’ve had the privilege of making their own life decisions, aka “following your bliss …”, not knowing is the most difficult state of being to accept.
Kudos then, a year into Covid-19, for admitting that, when it comes to coronavirus, “We just don’t know” what comes next.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may drag on for years, but the nightmare of last year—of an entirely new viral illness, emerging in a specific sociopolitical context—is behind us. Instead we’re facing a new set of challenges, and they are not easily comparable to what has come before. It’s worth considering a new way of thinking about the period of the pandemic now ahead of us—one that leads us neither to complacency nor to paralyzing despair. In many ways COVID-19 is already over. What lies ahead is COVID-21.
Diseases are not static things. Pathogens change, hosts change, and environments change. In the case of COVID, all three are now different than they were in 2020. What began as one coronavirus has infected well over 100 million people and evolved into new forms that appear to transmit more readily and infect us in subtly different ways. Our immune systems have changed as well, as a result of fending off infections. And, of course, our lifestyles have changed, as have social standards, medical systems, and public-health programs.
COVID-21 is the product of all these changes in aggregate.

Read “Covid-19 is different now” >> 
***
The Lincoln Project: 
“Rupert”  (0:55 mins)
"Why we fight" (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: The Great Vaccination Campaign 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26:    sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm
March 2:  sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm
March 9:   sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm
April 1:     sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm

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