Vaccine realities

News blues

Dr Fauci on where things are vis-à-vis vaccine, vaccination programs, booster shots.  (From an American perspective but globally applicable. 10:55 mins)

***

Good to know: COVID vaccines help produce antibodies ― and trigger another immune response that also fights the virus.

Much of the research regarding immunity against COVID-19 (which can be achieved either through vaccination or natural infection) has looked at antibodies. These little fighters go after the coronavirus and prevent it from binding to cells in our body and creating an infection. Some lab studies have found that antibodies don’t do as good of a job fighting variants, which has raised fears that the vaccines might not be able to keep us safe.
But antibodies don’t tell the full story. … The immune system is very complex, and in addition to antibodies, there’s a whole other aspect, known as the cell-mediated immune response, that’s just as important…. This part helps create something called T-cells, which are crucial to preventing infections. The COVID-19 vaccines don’t just generate antibodies; they also prompt your immune system to produce T-cells.
“T-cells are the main line of defense against the virus,” said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist with UCSF. T-cells can identify many different parts of the coronavirus (some studies say up to 52 parts) and get rid of any cells that are carrying the virus. The cell-mediated immune response can also help our systems produce new antibodies if need be.
Mutations or not, T-cells will still be able to detect the virus and jump into action. …
So, why aren’t we all talking about how awesome T-cells are? They’re really hard to measure… [but] findings are exciting.
For one thing, all of the vaccine clinical trials found that participants produced strong T-cell responses after vaccination…
There’s also evidence that the variants probably aren’t going to have a very meaningful effect on the immunity we get from being fully vaccinated. Two recent studies found the T-cell response was unaffected by variants, and another paper found that while some antibodies diminished against variants, our T-cell response held up just fine.
When it comes to COVID-19, a robust T-cell response is the difference between a mild infection and serious disease, research shows. The cells can’t always prevent an infection, but they may be able to clear it out quickly so you don’t get badly sick.

Read more  >> 

***

Tracking Covid-19:

• Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 
• South African experts to follow for up-to-date and accurate Covid information… 

Healthy planet, anyone?

The helping hand strikes again. Or overkill leads to overkill…
Trying too hard, UK retailer Marks & Spencer’s “do good for the environment” effort backfires. Turns out, releasing 30 million honeybees into the British countryside is not helpful to the environment – more likely, this effort “could damage ecosystems and deprive wild pollinators of valuable food sources.”

[M&S] placed up to 1,000 beehives on 25 farms to produce single-estate honey for customers as part of its five-year Farming with Nature programme. The bees are in cedar beehives, many made in the 1930s, with plenty of nectar nearby….
But the announcement has been met with dismay by some bee experts and conservationists. “Such and [sic] opportunity missed M&S, this is greenwashing or beewashing at its most blatant,” tweeted Gill Perkins, chief executive of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Critics say M&S should focus on restoring native habitats instead of releasing millions of honeybees, which are just one of the nearly 270 bee species in the UK, many of which are in sharp decline. “They are actually ending up doing something that may damage the environment,” said Matt Shardlow, head of the conservation charity Buglife.

Read more >> 

***

Then, entirely missing an essential truth of the current pandemic – humans are stressing our planet to extremes, ignoring and disrespecting nature, developing wild spaces, over-developing domestic spaces, forcing human and non-human species into too-close contact - global economies are forecasted to pour stimulus money into fossil fuels as part of Covid recovery.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency has warned,  the IEA, and one of the world’s leading authorities on energy and climate, warns carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history…. The leap will be second only to the massive rebound 10 years ago after the financial crisis, and will put climate hopes out of reach unless governments act quickly.
Birol said, “This is shocking and very disturbing. On the one hand, governments today are saying climate change is their priority. But on the other hand, we are seeing the second biggest emissions rise in history.”

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My daughter and I visited the community’s weekly Karkloof Farmers Market, purchased goods – goat cheese and blue cheese for me, locally crafted shoes for her – then sat outside for a cup of rooibos tea. All visitors to the market wore masks.
After that, breakfast at the Yellow Wood Café. The café, one of my favorite local historic sites, was hand built from local stone and reminds me of my childhood in a similar era building. My mother’s old place, largely hand built in local stone by my grandfather, was torn down to make room for industry.
A screen shot blurb for the Yellow wood Café website: 

 

Wildebeest

With the Howick Falls in the background, we watched a wildebeest leap over a fence to graze with the café’s domestic animals – donkeys, Shetland ponies, sheep, and pigs. Howick Falls in the background.

Howick Falls was once a tourist destination of note. Ditto the Howick Falls Hotel and the various historical buildings nearby and across the road. These days, tourist buses seldom appear, tourists are rare, even tourist-centric craftspeople are thin in the ground. The area, generally, presents an atmosphere of desperation and depression.

 
An information structure near the foot of the observation platform displays a poster titled “Howick Facts and Figures.” 

 A closeup of the facts and figures, however, lists a litany of deaths and suicides over the years! 

Hmmm....

***

Day by day, dark and darker in the southern hemisphere…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 14: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.
April 22: sunrise 6:22am; sunset 5:32pm.