Chugging along

Worldwide (Map) 
18 August, 2022 - 593,867,700 confirmed infections; 6,447,250 deaths
19 August, 2021 – 209,892,500 confirmed infections; 4,401,700 deaths
19 August, 2020 – 22,425,000 confirmed infections; 788,000 deaths

US (Map) 
18 August, 2022 - 93,368,674 confirmed infections; x,630,850 deaths
19 August, 2021 – 37,201,600 confirmed infections; 625,150 deaths
19 August, 2020 - 5,530,000 confirmed infections; 173,177 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
18 August, 2022 - 4,008,700 confirmed infections; 102,000 deaths
19 August, 2021 – 2,652,660 confirmed infections; 78,694 deaths
19 August 2020, – 596,060 confirmed infections 12,423 deaths

Post from:
19 August, 2021, “Hip to Covid” 
19 August, 2020, “Rile up” 

News blues

CDC director Rochelle Walensky admits flawed COVID-19 response and orders agency overhaul to boost transparency by releasing data more quickly and to improve communication with the public. 

Read more >> 

The roll-out of updated Covid boosters will coincide with the logistical tangle of the regular flu shot drive. Needless to say, there will be questions about timing the booster to provide the best protection through our third Covid winter. 

Read more >> 

Long COVID: is recovery finally getting the attention it deserves in the US? The US government plans to invest in new research that investigates the variability in recovery. 

Read more >> 

***

On war and culture war

Dozens of vehicles and some people on foot, clinging to their belongings,
streamed into Kharkiv, once Ukraine’s second largest city,
on April 29, fleeing fighting in a town to the north.
© New York Times. Ukraine Under Attack: Documenting the Russian Invasion >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Insider  (0:55 mins)
Outsider  (0:55 mins)
Dr Oz goes shopping  (0:40 mins)
President Biden on the Inflation Reduction Act (2:05 mins)
Laura Ingraham ditches Trump  (0:30 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - August 16, 2022  (2:07 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A recent study finds that ants can be better than pesticides for growing healthy crops, indeed, that harnessing natural insect power can, with proper management, have higher efficacy than resorting to harmful chemicals

***

Bosco the potbellied pig has lived in the front yard of a local house for many years. Whether he’s an older, perhaps wiser potbellied pig now than ever before, I’m not sure. I do know that he’s just as photogenic as he’s ever been.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After trying to resolve the ongoing theft of succulents from her garden – as mentioned in a recent post  - my friend Linda gave up. 

She communicated her disappointment to the neighborhood.
I am sorry, Linda, that humans are so, well, human: can’t live without ‘em and, alas, have a hard time living with ‘em, too.

I love that Linda tries to communicate and doesn’t resort to violence.

***

On the meso front, Mary is healing by leaps and bounds. She’s pushing the envelope with the opioid drugs, cutting back as fast as she can, and intending to be done with oxy by the time chemo sessions are scheduled to begin – in about 2 weeks.
Cutting back with oxy is easier said than done. Now at 5mg every 6 to 6.5 hours, she’s often tuckered out from the effort.
“What I feel is not what I’d define as pain, more like a feeling that my chest is boxed in and constricted. Having said that, though, I also feel pinpricks of what I would define as pain.”
After not talking to a medical professional for more than 3 weeks, Mary emailed her surgeon and, after a back-and-forth of emails, was put in touch with a Physician’s Assistant. The PA was helpful on a variety of fronts, also assuring Mary that the pain she described – often located between her shoulder blades - was a known post-surgery symptom.
In other words, Mary’s healing well, better than many. This, Mary reports, is on a par with what she learns from the assorted online meso support groups and webinars she attends. “In fact,” she says, “it sounds as if I’m doing better than many participating in the same groups. That makes me optimistic.”
Me, too.
Keep on keeping on, Mary!