Costs of denialism?

Worldwide (Map) 
October 20, 2022 – 626,441,100 confirmed infections; 6,573,750 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map) 
October 20, 2022 - 97,085,250 confirmed infections; 1,066,600 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 45,161,400 confirmed infections; 729,500 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 20, 2022 - 4,024,555 confirmed infections; 102,246 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Post from:
October 22, 2021 “Not much” 
October 21, 2020 “October updates” 

News blues

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.
….
Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups. .
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.

Read more >> 

Gov. Gavin Newsom will end California's COVID-19 state of emergency in February 2023 and surrender the emergency powers he has held for over two years, the governor's office announced this week. What does this really mean?
Read more >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Political ads flood the airwaves as We the People get closer to a nailbiter election. (Each day as I read the news, I CANNOT believe that ANYONE would vote for ANY Republican “policies”. WTF?)
1849  (0:57 mins)
J. D. Vance is an Extremist  (0:56 mins)
Even Fox News gets it  (1:00 mins)
The Difference Between McMullin and Lee  (1:14 mins)
Mike Lee begs, Part 2 (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The SF Bay Area is experiencing wonderful Indian Summer weather. Additionally, it’s a pleasure to walk along the beach with Mary and more wonderful to hear her maturing perspective on the devastating form of cancer that afflicts her. In short, Mary finds the implications on her health – mesothelioma does not reverse, nor it is curable – a “kind of precious gift that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the gravitas that is life and living. Weird to say but I’m more fully enjoying each moment of my life. More weird to say, more people might face similar fates to allow their deeper apprecation of their lives - and the implications of wasting their time on over-emotional nonsense such as vaccine denialism, etcetera etcertera etcetera."
Thank you, Mary.

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Mary suffers from toxic contamination of asbestos, and subsequent malignancies in her left lung with “some” implication of lymph nodes near her lower trachea. 

What is asbestos? A mineral mined that, among other uses, is an effective foil against excessive heat buildup. 

What’s its history and is it banned in the US? 

In a word, no, it is not banned. 

I’ll collect and share pertinent info on this mineral as it becomes available.
Asbestos history and background – and culpability
ProPublica: “Swimming in this stuff”: The U.S. never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price. 

As other countries outlawed asbestos, workers in a New York plant were “swimming” in it. Now, in a fight against the chemical industry, the United States may finally ban the potent carcinogen. But help may come too late.

Read more >> 

NPR: They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men have come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

Read more >>

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SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 6:24pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 6:11pm