News blues…
Global Death Toll From COVID-19 Tops 3 Million amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.On the vaccine front, Albert Bourla, CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, says it’s “likely” those vaccinated with the company’s COVID-19 inoculation will need a third shot sometime within 12 months after getting the initial two doses and will potentially need a new shot every year thereafter. This, because COVID-19 resembles the flu more than it does a virus like polio.
And the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.
“A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months, and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed,” Bourla said during the event. He added: “There are vaccines like polio where one dose is enough, and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year.”Read the article >>
More than 102 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed in the U.S. thus far, and more than 38 million people have been fully vaccinated.
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- Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide
- South African experts to follow for up-to-date and accurate Covid information…
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The Lincoln Project:- Proud Boys (0:52 mins)
- 100 Days (0:25 mins)
- Officer Brian Sicknick (0:25 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Following a visit to Shanghai by US climate envoy John Kerry, former US secretary of state, the US and China have “committed to cooperating” on the pressing issue of climate change.The statement from Kerry and China’s special envoy for climate change Xie Zhenhua, “The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.”
The joint statement listed multiple avenues of cooperation between the US and China, the world’s top two economies that together account for nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. It stressed “enhancing their respective actions and cooperating in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement”.
The nations also agreed to discuss specific “concrete” emission reduction actions including energy storage, carbon capture and hydrogen, and agreed to take action to maximise financing for developing countries to switch to low-carbon energy sources.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Temperatures have plummeted. Local folks are digging out winter wear as a cold spell rolls over the area.Folks from California, however, find the weather balmy. My daughter basks in what locals call “cold”: “this is a perfect temperature, she says.
Moreover, the local monkey troop that has been conspicuously absent over the last days, appeared yesterday and put on a show for the visitor from California, hooting and hollerin’ and leaping and balancing along the overhead cable.
Thank you for the show, monkeys.
No information forthcoming on what killed the 38-year-old, previously healthy man.
South Africa’s state-run hospitals? You check in but you don’t check out….
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The appalling news? The gardener, sick for weeks with no conclusive diagnosis, taken 3 weeks ago by ambulance to hospital where he has, apparently, had multiple episodes of un- and semi-consciousness, died 5:00am yesterday morning. No information forthcoming on what killed the 38-year-old, previously healthy man.
South Africa’s state-run hospitals? You check in but you don’t check out….
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My small garden is almost sufficiently protected by hedge that grazing zebra, impala, and warthogs avoid it. Nevertheless, one adult male zebra wandered in then stretched its long neck over assorted potted succulents to gnash through several branches of blue chalk stick succulent before I spotted and discouraged the animal. |
| Blue chalk stick succulent |
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| Gourmet zebra sampling blue chalk stick succulent. |
I’d been warned that, in the winter, wild animals might eat my garden plants – particularly tubers and bulbs. That this zebra went for the blue chalk stick succulent makes me wary of winter…. What else don’t I know about the culinary habits of domesticated zebras? And impala? And Warthogs?
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Out with the old, in with the new? Another interested house buyer in the wings, this one an entity representing a home for under-privileged children. They find the house to be perfect for their needs, plus they “prayed to the Lord” to show them a space that includes enough room to create a children’s work shop area, a stream, and enough garden space for children to play. My mom’s house offers all that.
Now I must “pray to the Lord” that He supplies charity of thought to the banker with decision-making-power to grant a bond (mortgage).
Other buyers will view the house over the weekend.
My philosophy these days?
Been there, done that; show me the bond!
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Getting darker each dayFeb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 14: sunrise 5:58am; sunset 6:15pm.
March 21: sunrise 6:02am; sunset 6:07pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.
April 18: sunrise 6:19am; sunset 5:36pm.
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