Week 90
Day 633 - Thursday, December 16 - Reconciliation
Worldwide (Map) December 16, 2021 – 272,521,350 confirmed infections; 5,333,815 deaths
December 10, 2021 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,578,143,200
US (Map)
December 16, 2021 – 50,408,000 confirmed infections; 802,770 deaths
December 9, 2021 – 49,547,400 confirmed infections; 793,350 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 15,385,00 confirmed infections; 289,500 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 16, 2021 – 3,231,100 confirmed infections; 90,226 deaths
December 9, 2021 – 3,071,100 confirmed infections; 90,100 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 829,600 confirmed infections; 22,580 deaths
News blues
In South Africa, it’s Day of Reconciliation (formerly aka Day of the Vow, Day of the Covenant, and Dingane's Day). Despite low temperatures for summer, in the time honored tradition, South Africans flocked to Durban’s beaches.that’s more than the population of Seattle (about 737,000), Denver (about 715,000), or Washington, D.C. (about 690,000) and roughly equivalent to all of Kansas City, Missouri, (about 508,000) and Pittsburgh (about 303,000) combined.
It’s also the highest confirmed death toll in the world by country.
America’s elderly population has borne the brunt of the suffering. From the start of the pandemic, 75% of the deaths in the US have been people 65 or older, according to a New York Times tracker, in all, 1 in 100 Americans over the age of 65 has died from COVID-19.
Many of the country’s COVID-19 deaths could have been avoided. Unvaccinated individuals have made up the vast majority of deaths since vaccines became widely available in the U.S. in the spring of 2021, CDC data shows.
 |
| CDC data shows unvaccinated people were 14 times more likely to die from COVID-19 in September than their vaccinated peers. © Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
***
The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party (2:04 mins)
Hotline (0:45 mins)
Today, a view of what happens to those trying to block desecration of land for car batteries:
Hotline (0:45 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Recent post shared information on what happens to old car batteries.Today, a view of what happens to those trying to block desecration of land for car batteries:
…the Paiute and Shoshone people may soon see their traditions and cultural history uprooted: a multinational company plans to break ground on a new 1,000-acre lithium mine that would destroy sacred land in order to extract a central component for electric car batteries.Read more >>
Indigenous communities across the US face difficult legal battles when trying to protect sacred spaces outside their jurisdictions. The sites’ religious significance is often misunderstood or treated with blatant disregard. And because there are no overarching legal protections for sacred Indigenous spaces, tribes have limited options in the courtroom .
Similar thing going on along South Africa’s Wild Coast – a photo essay >>
And,
And,
Royal Dutch Shell will move ahead with seismic tests to explore for oil in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a court dismissed an 11th-hour legal challenge by environmental groups.Read more >>
The judgment, by a South African high court, allows Shell to begin firing within days extremely loud sound waves through the relatively untouched marine environment of the Wild Coast, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals.
Ways to get involved >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
 |
| "He was trying to enter the UK after delivering
presents in South Africa" (c) Rico - Daily Maverick |
***
“Out of an abundance of caution”: the buzz phrase that’s come of age during the Covid era. This week the City council of my small island city issued a Business Update “Out of an abundance of caution”:
Low temperatures keep me indoors – 8C overnight and lows of 3C predicted. To stay warm and feel virtuous about not wasting money heating a badly insulated home, I’m revisiting the joys of baking.
My flaky, short pastry for quiche turned out tasty, despite mistakes due to trying to outwit the recipe. (I’ll say no more about those mistakes other than I learned from them.)
I also made a simple, no-knead, very-hot-oven loaf (4:50 mins)
After years of having no time for baking, two changes in the world of baking jump out:
Change 1: ubiquitous use of high-end mixers. Rather than discuss merits of hand-kneading, bakers nowadays discuss merits of assorted attachments for their high-end mixers. Whatever happened to the joys of hand kneading whose purpose is to add air and improve the rise? (Compare kneading bread to wedging clay whose purpose is to remove air pockets to prevent cracking or worse, shattering, during firing. )
The California Department of Public announced Monday that all residents — regardless of vaccination status — must wear masks in all indoor public places beginning on Wednesday, December 15th. The mask mandate will last until at least January 15, 2022.Rain and Omicron keep me home these days. Omicron might very well keep me locked down in California, too. My go-to travel agent in SA advises that, while the short once-a-day commuter flights to my small city do continue, so too do restrictions continue for return flights to the US. Despite my eligibility for a booster shot in four days, Omicron rules! I’m (unofficially) locked down again.
State health officials said that the renewed masking requirement follows a 47% increase in COVID-19 case rates since the Thanksgiving holiday and the arrival of new variant.
The state mandate will override Alameda County's November 1, 2021 easing of masking requirements for certain controlled indoor spaces where everyone is fully vaccinated such as offices, gyms, and fitness centers.
While the requirement is specific to public spaces and does not extend to private gatherings, health officials recommend testing ahead of holiday gatherings and considering better ventilation by opening windows or convening outdoors when possible.
In addition to the new mask mandate, the state also announced that unvaccinated individuals attending "mega-events" with more than 1,000 people must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of the event if using an antigen test, and 24 to 48 hours of the event if using a PCR test. The state is also recommending that travelers get tested before and after trips.
Low temperatures keep me indoors – 8C overnight and lows of 3C predicted. To stay warm and feel virtuous about not wasting money heating a badly insulated home, I’m revisiting the joys of baking.
My flaky, short pastry for quiche turned out tasty, despite mistakes due to trying to outwit the recipe. (I’ll say no more about those mistakes other than I learned from them.)
I also made a simple, no-knead, very-hot-oven loaf (4:50 mins)
After years of having no time for baking, two changes in the world of baking jump out:
Change 1: ubiquitous use of high-end mixers. Rather than discuss merits of hand-kneading, bakers nowadays discuss merits of assorted attachments for their high-end mixers. Whatever happened to the joys of hand kneading whose purpose is to add air and improve the rise? (Compare kneading bread to wedging clay whose purpose is to remove air pockets to prevent cracking or worse, shattering, during firing. )
Week 90
Day 633 - Thursday, December 16 - Reconciliation
Worldwide (Map) December 16, 2021 – 272,521,350 confirmed infections; 5,333,815 deaths
December 10, 2021 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,578,143,200
US (Map)
December 16, 2021 – 50,408,000 confirmed infections; 802,770 deaths
December 9, 2021 – 49,547,400 confirmed infections; 793,350 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 15,385,00 confirmed infections; 289,500 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 16, 2021 – 3,231,100 confirmed infections; 90,226 deaths
December 9, 2021 – 3,071,100 confirmed infections; 90,100 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 829,600 confirmed infections; 22,580 deaths
News blues
In South Africa, it’s Day of Reconciliation (formerly aka Day of the Vow, Day of the Covenant, and Dingane's Day). Despite low temperatures for summer, in the time honored tradition, South Africans flocked to Durban’s beaches.that’s more than the population of Seattle (about 737,000), Denver (about 715,000), or Washington, D.C. (about 690,000) and roughly equivalent to all of Kansas City, Missouri, (about 508,000) and Pittsburgh (about 303,000) combined.
It’s also the highest confirmed death toll in the world by country.
America’s elderly population has borne the brunt of the suffering. From the start of the pandemic, 75% of the deaths in the US have been people 65 or older, according to a New York Times tracker, in all, 1 in 100 Americans over the age of 65 has died from COVID-19.
Many of the country’s COVID-19 deaths could have been avoided. Unvaccinated individuals have made up the vast majority of deaths since vaccines became widely available in the U.S. in the spring of 2021, CDC data shows.
|
| CDC data shows unvaccinated people were 14 times more likely to die from COVID-19 in September than their vaccinated peers. © Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
***
The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party (2:04 mins)
Hotline (0:45 mins)
Today, a view of what happens to those trying to block desecration of land for car batteries:
Hotline (0:45 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Recent post shared information on what happens to old car batteries.Today, a view of what happens to those trying to block desecration of land for car batteries:
…the Paiute and Shoshone people may soon see their traditions and cultural history uprooted: a multinational company plans to break ground on a new 1,000-acre lithium mine that would destroy sacred land in order to extract a central component for electric car batteries.Read more >>
Indigenous communities across the US face difficult legal battles when trying to protect sacred spaces outside their jurisdictions. The sites’ religious significance is often misunderstood or treated with blatant disregard. And because there are no overarching legal protections for sacred Indigenous spaces, tribes have limited options in the courtroom .
Similar thing going on along South Africa’s Wild Coast – a photo essay >>
And,
And,
Royal Dutch Shell will move ahead with seismic tests to explore for oil in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a court dismissed an 11th-hour legal challenge by environmental groups.Read more >>
The judgment, by a South African high court, allows Shell to begin firing within days extremely loud sound waves through the relatively untouched marine environment of the Wild Coast, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals.
Ways to get involved >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
|
| "He was trying to enter the UK after delivering
presents in South Africa" (c) Rico - Daily Maverick |
***
“Out of an abundance of caution”: the buzz phrase that’s come of age during the Covid era. This week the City council of my small island city issued a Business Update “Out of an abundance of caution”:
Low temperatures keep me indoors – 8C overnight and lows of 3C predicted. To stay warm and feel virtuous about not wasting money heating a badly insulated home, I’m revisiting the joys of baking.
My flaky, short pastry for quiche turned out tasty, despite mistakes due to trying to outwit the recipe. (I’ll say no more about those mistakes other than I learned from them.)
I also made a simple, no-knead, very-hot-oven loaf (4:50 mins)
After years of having no time for baking, two changes in the world of baking jump out:
Change 1: ubiquitous use of high-end mixers. Rather than discuss merits of hand-kneading, bakers nowadays discuss merits of assorted attachments for their high-end mixers. Whatever happened to the joys of hand kneading whose purpose is to add air and improve the rise? (Compare kneading bread to wedging clay whose purpose is to remove air pockets to prevent cracking or worse, shattering, during firing. )
The California Department of Public announced Monday that all residents — regardless of vaccination status — must wear masks in all indoor public places beginning on Wednesday, December 15th. The mask mandate will last until at least January 15, 2022.Rain and Omicron keep me home these days. Omicron might very well keep me locked down in California, too. My go-to travel agent in SA advises that, while the short once-a-day commuter flights to my small city do continue, so too do restrictions continue for return flights to the US. Despite my eligibility for a booster shot in four days, Omicron rules! I’m (unofficially) locked down again.
State health officials said that the renewed masking requirement follows a 47% increase in COVID-19 case rates since the Thanksgiving holiday and the arrival of new variant.
The state mandate will override Alameda County's November 1, 2021 easing of masking requirements for certain controlled indoor spaces where everyone is fully vaccinated such as offices, gyms, and fitness centers.
While the requirement is specific to public spaces and does not extend to private gatherings, health officials recommend testing ahead of holiday gatherings and considering better ventilation by opening windows or convening outdoors when possible.
In addition to the new mask mandate, the state also announced that unvaccinated individuals attending "mega-events" with more than 1,000 people must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of the event if using an antigen test, and 24 to 48 hours of the event if using a PCR test. The state is also recommending that travelers get tested before and after trips.
Low temperatures keep me indoors – 8C overnight and lows of 3C predicted. To stay warm and feel virtuous about not wasting money heating a badly insulated home, I’m revisiting the joys of baking.
My flaky, short pastry for quiche turned out tasty, despite mistakes due to trying to outwit the recipe. (I’ll say no more about those mistakes other than I learned from them.)
I also made a simple, no-knead, very-hot-oven loaf (4:50 mins)
After years of having no time for baking, two changes in the world of baking jump out:
Change 1: ubiquitous use of high-end mixers. Rather than discuss merits of hand-kneading, bakers nowadays discuss merits of assorted attachments for their high-end mixers. Whatever happened to the joys of hand kneading whose purpose is to add air and improve the rise? (Compare kneading bread to wedging clay whose purpose is to remove air pockets to prevent cracking or worse, shattering, during firing. )
Actually, this bread requires no kneading. It is a wet dough, however, and requires patient hands.
Thank the gods for hands that allow me to knead and to wedge - sans appliances. (Am I virtuous? sanctimonious? about the two-fer of heating my apartment by oven instead of space heaters and producing edibles? Perhaps neither virtuous nor sanctimonious but using practical commonsense – also in short supply these days.)
Change 2: notice the warning label on this bag of whole wheat flour: "cook before sneaking a taste"? It implies flour purchasers complain to the flour-producing company about … well, flour being raw. By golly! Why doesn’t flour come ready cooked? (Actually, when it does come cooked it's called bread, pastry, donuts, etc.)
Day 631 - Tuesday, December 14 - Should I stay or should I go?
News blues
Prez Ramaphosa down with Covid. He tested positive on Sunday after feeling “unwell” after the State Memorial Service in honor of former Deputy President FW de Klerk. He delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week.President Ramaphosa is fully vaccinated and in self-isolation in Cape Town. He says his own infection serves as a caution to all people in the country to be vaccinated and remain vigilant against exposure. “Vaccination remains the best protection against severe illness and hospitalization" >>
An estimated rate of previous infection at some 72% in Gauteng province – three times the rate detected during the Beta variant outbreak a year ago - “may explain the relatively low levels of hospitalisation and severe disease in the current outbreak of the Omicron variant, rather than the variant itself being less virulent.”
Vaccine expert Shabir Mahdi of the University of the Witwatersrand said that,
... emerging evidence pointed to the fact that Omicron was both more infectious and more able to evade antibody protection, he suggested that other mechanisms at work in acquired immunity through infection could explain the lower levels of hospitalisations and severe illness.Read more >>
While the UK has a seropositivity rate above 90%, South Africa’s experience may be very different to the UK’s in terms of the Omicron, with the UK having an older population and different vulnerabilities to disease.
Healthy planet, anyone?
Besides holiday cheer, the "festive season" generates millions of tons of cardboard boxes, plastics, glass bottles, and metals – about half of the 292 million tons of waste Americans produce each year.Besides putting out well-meaning but ineffective labeled and colored garbage bins, American recycling programs simply do not address the growing mountain of waste. Coupla easy solutions? 1) Americans refuse fancy packaging and recycle packaging they already have: carry reusable bags to grocery stores, farmers markets, and clothing stores; 2) The companies that create the waste rethink what materials they use; 3) Prompt new ways to think about how we recycle – and who pays for it >>
Old car batteries: what happens to them?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I must return to SA “soon” to attend details pertaining to my mother’s estate, her memorial, her house, dogs, domestic worker, etc. However travel and travel restrictions continue to confuse. One person’s story: “The Omicron variant turned my trip home from South Africa into a nightmare episode of conflicting public health orders that often seemed to have little connection to science.”Even as the UK removes all 11 southern African countries from their travel red list, I’m not convinced.
US winter is SA summer and, usually, summer is the time to travel to SA. Alas, the “festive season” means fewer deals on flights that compliment my wallet. More importantly in these unprecedented times, mixed messages confuse.
I’d have thought Amsterdam was a good bet – until I read the account (above). Which European airport offers the least intrusive stopover?
Moreover, SA recently published updates to Alert level 1 Lockdown restrictions. These travel restrictions imply - though do not clarify - that, once I arrive at Oliver Tambo, I may not find a connecting flight to Pietermaritzburg.
I continue in a watch and wait pattern….
Clash gets it right >> (3:06 mins)
***
Day 629 - Sunday, December 12 - Desperation
News blues
Nations turning to D.C. lobbyists to get the tools they need to fight the pandemic? Global health officials say that’s all that’s wrong with the fight against Covid.Asia Russell, executive director of the international advocacy group Health Global Access Project said, “Lobbyists are being used to help desperate countries get a better place in line for life saving commodities that never should have been rationed in the first place.” Read more >>
***
The first country to really get hit by omicron is South Africa.
Before the new variant took off last month, coronavirus cases there were low – only several hundred per day in mid November.
But by early December, the tally of daily infections had shot up to more than 4,500 — and genomic sequencing shows that omicron is to blame.
What's more, the variant quickly swept through all regions of South Africa – and has now shown up in about 60 additional countries.
Omicron hasn't yet triggered a global wave, but many scientists who are tracking its rapid spread believe it's only a matter of time.
The reason for their concern? >>
***
Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm correctly predicted the Delta surge and Covid-19 death totals. Here he discusses the Omicron variant and what he thinks is next for the US in the pandemic >> ***
Barring a miracle, by tomorrow the US will have reached more than 800,000 dead to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
Best advice? Get your first, second or third (“booster”) shot ASAP.
Best advice? Get your first, second or third (“booster”) shot ASAP.
(Eight more days before I’m eligible for my after-6-month booster.)
Alas, rain accompanied by temperatures into the low 40s and upper 30s. That’s cold for us Bay Area residents. But to borrow a phrase from the Rolling Stones, "You can’t always get what you want" >> (7:35 mins)
Week 89
Healthy planet, anyone?
Twenty collections of twenty (sobering) photos of the week since July 2021 >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Rain in the SF Bay area! Forecast to rain off and on for the next five days. Yay We need it!Alas, rain accompanied by temperatures into the low 40s and upper 30s. That’s cold for us Bay Area residents. But to borrow a phrase from the Rolling Stones, "You can’t always get what you want" >> (7:35 mins)
Week 89
Day 627 - Friday, December 10 - Who knew?
Who knew, this time last year – or the previous year - that Covid-19 would still control our daily lives?
Yet here we are.
The Lincoln Project:
Yet here we are.
News blues
Clarity of communication has not been a feature of this pandemic. Confusion and mixed messaging rules! Spotty information about Omicron continues this pattern. One day we hear Omicron is more transmissible but its effects less dire than the Delta variant. Next day we hear that “it’s too soon to tell…”. A sampling of recent information to sift through:- “COVID cases and deaths are on the rise throughout the U.S., even before the Omicron variant takes hold"
- “The Omicron variant can likely outcompete Delta — and that could worsen the U.S. COVID epidemic. Omicron is picking up speed in Europe, which has often served as a preview of what's headed the U.S.’s way. It’s an early sign that the already bleak situation here may get worse"
- “Ahead of Omicron, COVID hospitalizations are rising in 37 of 50 states, including several with above-average vaccination rates…and starting to climb in nearly half of the other 13 states, signaling that hospitalizations may soon follow. …Many Americans remain vulnerable to the still-surging Delta variant as the holiday season ramps up and Delta’s heavily mutated and perhaps even faster-spreading successor, Omicron, looms on the horizon.”
- According to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Omicron is projected to become the dominant variant in the UK by mid-December, based on current trends, while there could be more than a million infections by the end of this month – a tally that will be dominated by Omicron. Moreover, two doses of Covid vaccine offer less protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron than with Delta, with a lower level of protection seen against the new variant even after a booster jab.
- The US state of Michigan had more patients hospitalized for Covid-19 than ever before – a jump of 88% in the past month.
Jim Dover, president and CEO of Sparrow Health System, said, "We have more patients than we've ever had at any point, and we're seeing more people die at a rate we've never seen die before…. Since January, we've had about 289 deaths; 75% are unvaccinated people. And the very few (vaccinated people) who passed away all were more than 6 months out from their shot. So we've not had a single person who has had a booster shot die from Covid."
MSNBC “The 11th Hour” news anchor Brian Williams retired this week and, before signing off, warned his audience - average total audience of 1.6 million viewers - about the “darkness” enveloping America.
Question is, will We the People heed the warnings and get involved? Or will we go shopping, business as usual?
Williams revealed that his “biggest worry” as he jumped “without a net into the great unknown” was “for my country,” which in 2021 became “unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it.”Indeed. When the s*** hits the fan, don’t say Republican extremists didn’t warn the rest of us…
The “darkness of the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods… It’s now at the local bar, and the bowling alley, at the school board and the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for.”
“Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution, elected by their constituents possessing the kinds of college degrees I could only dream of, have decided to join the mob and become something they are not while hoping we somehow forget who they were,” he continued. “They’ve decided to burn it all down ― with us inside,” he said. “That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman.”
Question is, will We the People heed the warnings and get involved? Or will we go shopping, business as usual?
Protect America (0:55 mins)
The ubiquitous spider’s talents on display although few humans understand those talents.
Always anti-shopping, I stick close to home. That isolation is wearying. I gotta get out more but ….
Moreover, temperatures are dropping and fewer hours of daylight:
Today, the sun rose 7:14am and will set at 4:50pm
Eleven more days to California’s winter solstice.
Week 89
December 12, 2019: a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China’s Hubei Providence, begin to experience shortness of breath and fever.
Early 2020, after the December 2019 outbreak, the World Health Organization identified a new type of coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2.
Healthy planet, anyone?
Consider the spider, how it balloons - or doesn’t….The ubiquitous spider’s talents on display although few humans understand those talents.
It is commonly believed that ballooning works because the silk catches on the wind, dragging the spider with it. But that doesn’t entirely make sense, especially because spiders balloon only during light winds. Spiders don’t shoot silk from their abdomens, and it seems unlikely that such gentle breezes could be strong enough to yank the threads out—let alone to carry the largest species aloft, or to generate the high accelerations of arachnid takeoff. Darwin himself found the rapidity of the spiders’ flight to be “quite unaccountable” and its cause to be “inexplicable.”Read more >> Spiders Can Fly Hundreds of Miles Using Electricity
But Erica Morley and Daniel Robert have an explanation. The duo, who work at the University of Bristol, has shown that spiders can sense Earth’s electric field, and use it to launch themselves into the air.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Hmmm, social distancing and winter present unexpected challenges: feelings of isolation and lack of motivation (tinged with depression?)Always anti-shopping, I stick close to home. That isolation is wearying. I gotta get out more but ….
Moreover, temperatures are dropping and fewer hours of daylight:
Today, the sun rose 7:14am and will set at 4:50pm
Eleven more days to California’s winter solstice.
Week 89
Day 626 - Thursday, December 9 - Year 3 of the Covid Era
December 12, 2019: a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China’s Hubei Providence, begin to experience shortness of breath and fever.Early 2020, after the December 2019 outbreak, the World Health Organization identified a new type of coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2.
SARS-CoV-2, triggering what doctors call a respiratory tract infection, quickly spread around the world.
Below, today’s Covid numbers compared to numbers this time last year :
Worldwide (Map)
December 9, 2021 – 268,100,000 confirmed infections; 5,283,715 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,246,30,377
US (Map)
December 9, 2021 – 49,547,400 confirmed infections; 793,350 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 15,385,00 confirmed infections; 289,500 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 9, 2021 – 3,071,100 confirmed infections; 90,100 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 829,600 confirmed infections; 22,580 deaths
We don’t know how severe Omicron is, but we do know it’s spreading very fast.
If you’re in the mood for detail, WHO obliges with a technical brief, “Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529).” This reviews priority actions and “main uncertainties” for member states, including:
The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party (1:45 mins)
Road map (0:26 mins)
Meidas Touch: Politics Girl (2:43 mins)
Want more Politics Girl? Check her out >> (1:22 mins)
 |
| CDC Timeline for Covid, from 2019 to present |
Worldwide (Map)
December 9, 2021 – 268,100,000 confirmed infections; 5,283,715 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 68,849,000 confirmed infections; 1,568,750 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,246,30,377
US (Map)
December 9, 2021 – 49,547,400 confirmed infections; 793,350 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 15,385,00 confirmed infections; 289,500 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 9, 2021 – 3,071,100 confirmed infections; 90,100 deaths
December 10, 2020 – 829,600 confirmed infections; 22,580 deaths
News blues
SA passes grim Covid-19 milestone as 90,000 official deaths are recorded. SA's NICD reported this week that the official death toll was 90,002 after the latest data was released by the national health department.We don’t know how severe Omicron is, but we do know it’s spreading very fast.
If you’re in the mood for detail, WHO obliges with a technical brief, “Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529).” This reviews priority actions and “main uncertainties” for member states, including:
(1) how transmissible the variant is and whether any increases are related to immune escape, intrinsic increased transmissibility, or both; (2) how well vaccines protect against infection, transmission, clinical disease of different degrees of severity and death; and (3) does the variant present with a different severity profile. Public health advice is based on current information and will be tailored as more evidence emerges around those key questions.Download the pdf (8 pages) >>
Last week in the Republican Party (1:45 mins)
Road map (0:26 mins)
Meidas Touch: Politics Girl (2:43 mins)
Want more Politics Girl? Check her out >> (1:22 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Life: a force that adapts and evolves. Take, as example, the many coastal species living miles from their usual habitats finding affordable housing on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, halfway between the coast of California and Hawaii.Plants and animals, including anemones, tiny marine bugs, molluscs and crabs, found on 90% of the [Patch] debris.
[A recent study] examined plastic items more than 5cm (2in) in diameter gathered from a gyre - an area where circulating currents cause floating debris to accumulate - in the Pacific.
 |
| Neopelagic communities are composed of pelagic species, evolved to live on floating marine substrates and marine animals, and coastal species, once assumed incapable of surviving long periods of time on the high seas. The emergence of a persistent neopelagic community in the open ocean is due to the vast supply of durable and highly buoyant plastic pollution as suitable habitat for both pelagic and coastal rafting species. Examples of pelagic rafting species are: (a) gooseneck barnacle Lepas anatifera,(b) flotsam crab Planes major, and (c) bryozoan Jellyella tuberculata. Examples of coastal rafting species commonly found on floating plastic debris on the high seas include: (d) podded hydroid Aglaophenia pluma,(e) Asian anemones Anthopleura sp. , and (f) amphipod Stenothoe gallensis. Illustrated by © 2021 Alex Boersma. |
Lead researcher Dr Linsey Haram, who carried out the work at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre, said: "Plastics are more permanent than many of the natural debris that you previously have seen in the open ocean. They're creating a more permanent habitat in this area."[The downside?] Scientists are concerned that plastic may help transport invasive species.
…
The world has at least five plastic-infested gyres. This one is thought to hold the most floating plastic - an estimated 79,000 tonnes in a region of more than 610,000 square miles (1.6m sq km).
"All sorts of stuff ends up out there," said Dr Haram. "It's not an island of plastic, but there's definitely a large amount of plastic corralled there."
Much of that is micro-plastic is very difficult to see with the naked eye. But there are also larger items, including abandoned fishing nets, buoys and even vessels that have been floating in the gyre since the Japanese tsunami in 2011.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Nature Communications, initially embarked on the investigation following that devastating tsunami. The disaster caused tonnes of debris to be ejected into the Pacific ocean, and hundreds of coastal Japanese marine species were found alive on items that landed on the shores of the North American Pacific coast and the Hawaiian Islands.
Read more >>
What can you do? It’s depressing to see the hows and whys of our unique planet’s slow succumbing to humans’ abuse via refusal to address and end the reign of plastics, fossil fuels, manufacture of toxics, etc. One can easily feel disempowered by the enormous complexity and apparent lack of effective action. Yet, We the People can take small steps to address our complicity. Here’s one small swap that can make a difference: Switch to bar soap for… everything
I know coral trees grow in the hotter Los Angeles, but I’ve not seen such a large specimen in my San Francisco Bay Area town.
What can you do? It’s depressing to see the hows and whys of our unique planet’s slow succumbing to humans’ abuse via refusal to address and end the reign of plastics, fossil fuels, manufacture of toxics, etc. One can easily feel disempowered by the enormous complexity and apparent lack of effective action. Yet, We the People can take small steps to address our complicity. Here’s one small swap that can make a difference: Switch to bar soap for… everything
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
During my daily walk I noticed a familiar tree blossom. Close attention revealed a coral tree, native to SA and KZN.In KZN, coral trees blossom after leaves fall, bare limbs acting as frames for spectacular displays. This local tree displays both leaves and blossoms simultaneously.
Turns out coral trees – Erythrina with approximately 112 different species – also are found in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, Asia, Australia, and Hawaii.
Dr Salim Abdool Karim, epidemiologist and former co-chair of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, speaks to the latest developments in the data regarding the Omicron variant's spread in South Africa >> (1:28 mins)
An analysis by NPR shows that since the vaccine rollout, US counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump have had more than twice the COVID mortality rates of those that voted for Joe Biden.
With Covid’s social distancing keeping me home, I “twiddle my thumbs” making assorted “designs” with battery charging colors. Shown above, left, design created with short charge cycle pre-ISP contract - compared, right, to long charge post-ISP contract.
I pray the ISP contract relieves me of this obsession with battery charging .
Yesterday, I assumed my “free” TV box offered “free” access to news. Today, with “assume” having made an ass out of me, I’m older and wiser – and more satisfied. While I’ve NO free access to TV news (comes only with a subscription that I’ve no intention of purchasing) I discovered something more generative, less demanding and anxiety-provoking, more soothing and relaxing, and that also demands less fraught attention than the news. I’ve discovered free music – and lots of it.
I log onto YouTube (free) and, using the voice activated remote, I search for, say, “acoustic blues,” and I’m served hours of astonishingly terrific music and film footage from way back – y’know, the 60s: young Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter. Way, way better than today’s news.
Bring on the music.
Change is afoot! I last owned a TV in the 20th century, before the move to cable, the kind of TV that required aerials and rabbit ears. Could this TV, now resident in my home, signal a shift in how I perceive the half of me that’s American?
The other half. The half of me that is not American is floored by the headline, “Over 100 Michigan School Districts Closed Due to Threats After Deadly Shooting. More than 60 schools closed earlier in the week due to copycat threats.”
Say what?
Surely, no sane country would normalize the day-to-day reality of children (and adults) killing children in schools. Yet the US has done just that.
How many shootings in 2021? “… at least 144 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 28 deaths and 86 injuries nationally."
With a TV in my house and in my life, I’ll regularly confront the insanity that is life in contemporary America. Can I survive it? Time to buckle up for a wild ride. 
This sunlit tree caught my attention as I sat on the patio of a local taqueria. Fiat lux!
With the World Health Organization warning that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a "very high" global risk - it appears to spread more easily and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with previous strains – the variant arrives in the US. New York and Hawaii are the latest to announce infections, and officials in both states said there is evidence of “community spread.” Cases have also been detected in California, Minnesota, Colorado, New York, and Hawaii. The Minnesota patient recently attended a New York City convention that drew thousands of people.
Week 88
As Omicron variant takes hold around the world, infections rise precipitously in countries with early warnings (note SA numbers, below).
Worldwide (Map)
December 2, 2021 – 263,714,700 confirmed infections; 5,228,300 deaths
November 25, 2021 – 259,820,000 confirmed infections; 5,180,150 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered to date: 8,065,253,309
US (Map)
***
Here, days are colder and daylight shorter (sun rose at 7:13am today and will set at 4:49pm). Time to remember KZN’s summer birds: |
| Wooly necked stork dries its wings. |
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| Masked bishop. Photos (c) S.Galleymore |
Day 623 - Monday, December 6 - Socially distanced
News blues
Update on Omicron in US and in SA (7:00 mins)Dr Salim Abdool Karim, epidemiologist and former co-chair of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, speaks to the latest developments in the data regarding the Omicron variant's spread in South Africa >> (1:28 mins)
An analysis by NPR shows that since the vaccine rollout, US counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump have had more than twice the COVID mortality rates of those that voted for Joe Biden.
Editorial comment: Gosh! How surprising! Hmmm, maybe residents should try vaccine instead of cultish ideology?
Healthy planet, anyone?
Another foray into the life and times of bees: Honeybees survived for weeks under volcano ash after Canary Islands eruption: For roughly 50 days, thousands of honeybees sealed themselves in their hives, away from deadly gas, and feasted on honey. To humans this “is a very empowering story,” To bees? It’s business as usual. Eating honey, after all, is why bees make honey.Editorial comment: Hmmm, maybe humans could learn from bees to take better care of ourselves and our planet. Instead, we gamble when the stakes clearly are beyond our capacity to handle the outcomes – as in ignoring that:
Despite being more interested in simplicity than in owing more kitchen gadgets, I fell in love with a friend’s air fryer. After many delicious and easy to make meals made with said air fryer, I splurged and purchased my own. The outcome? My love life has expanded: I love my own small, easy to use air fryer, perhaps more than I loved his air fryer.
My air frying learning curve includes making my own falafel – a dish I never made at home in the past due to antipathy toward frying food. Now? Delicious falafel that involves no frying comes out of the gadget.
Today’s culinary experimentation: homemade potato cakes made from “real” potatoes – Yukon Golds (potato cakes aka aloo tikki). I’ll freeze most and pull them out when I make my easy version of chole aloo tikki chaat.
I also made cilantro pesto and tzatziki.
Coal ash, an umbrella term for the residue that’s left over when utilities burn coal, one of the United States’ largest kinds of industrial waste. Coal ash contains metals — including lead, mercury, chromium, selenium, cadmium and arsenic — that never biodegrade.Read more >>
…John Howard, who lives in Mobile County and has been fishing in southern Alabama for decades, said, “We’ve got an A-bomb up the river. It’s just waiting to happen.” Past environmental calamity spills include immediate fallout with ash blanketing up to 400 acres, killing hundreds of fish, damaging more than a dozen homes and polluting nearby waterways. That clean-up took years and cost more than $1 billion.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Cold outside today so I entertain myself with culinary experimentation.Despite being more interested in simplicity than in owing more kitchen gadgets, I fell in love with a friend’s air fryer. After many delicious and easy to make meals made with said air fryer, I splurged and purchased my own. The outcome? My love life has expanded: I love my own small, easy to use air fryer, perhaps more than I loved his air fryer.
My air frying learning curve includes making my own falafel – a dish I never made at home in the past due to antipathy toward frying food. Now? Delicious falafel that involves no frying comes out of the gadget.
I also made cilantro pesto and tzatziki.
Perhaps it’s the holiday season (SA dubs it the “festive season”) or perhaps the cold weather, but experimental cooking is on my daily agenda.
After not making a cheese cake in decades, last week I made my version of cheese cake that uses plain yogurt instead of sour cream and includes a layer of lemon curd.
Roll on, festive season!
Roll on, festive season!
***
Working to ameliorate the isolation of social distancing, I became obsessed over tracking my cell phone’s battery usage. The reward of an ISP contract is a cell phone battery that last longer, sometimes twice as long, than a phone not logged onto a private wireless network.
 |
| Battery charge durations illustrated. (Left) 2 short durations. (Right) 1 long - + 24 hour - duration. |
With Covid’s social distancing keeping me home, I “twiddle my thumbs” making assorted “designs” with battery charging colors. Shown above, left, design created with short charge cycle pre-ISP contract - compared, right, to long charge post-ISP contract.
I pray the ISP contract relieves me of this obsession with battery charging .
Day 622 - Sunday, December 5 - Silver linings
News blues
Update on Omicron in US and in SA (7:00 mins)Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Reality check for naïve, out-of-touch me! Or the silver lining: expect the unexpected - and love the results.Yesterday, I assumed my “free” TV box offered “free” access to news. Today, with “assume” having made an ass out of me, I’m older and wiser – and more satisfied. While I’ve NO free access to TV news (comes only with a subscription that I’ve no intention of purchasing) I discovered something more generative, less demanding and anxiety-provoking, more soothing and relaxing, and that also demands less fraught attention than the news. I’ve discovered free music – and lots of it.
I log onto YouTube (free) and, using the voice activated remote, I search for, say, “acoustic blues,” and I’m served hours of astonishingly terrific music and film footage from way back – y’know, the 60s: young Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter. Way, way better than today’s news.
Bring on the music.
***
A sunset walk along the beach presented:  |
| Night heron |
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| Stilt |
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| Greater and Lesser Egrets with coots |
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| Brown pelicans' feeding frenzy. |
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| King tides... the ebb tide |
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| All photos (c) S. Galleymore |
Day 621 - Saturday, December 4 - Downtime
The weekend downtime from Covid news. Instead, enjoy The Lincoln Project’s Work (0:55 mins)Healthy planet, anyone?
Between an ideal and an oil can? After shabby treatment during which I was refused a refund for the portion of my airfare impacted by flights cancelled due to Covid lockdown in SA, I cannot bring myself to purchase another long-haul flight with FlyUs or British Air. Alas, British Air is taking steps at least to try to address pollution associated with air travel. (Hmmm, I feel a dilemma of principle coming on.)British Airways has signed a deal for aircraft fuel made from recycled cooking oils and other household waste to be produced at scale in the UK and to be in use as early as 2022 to help power its flights….[purchasing] thousands of tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which it said would add up to the equivalent of 700 transatlantic flights on a Boeing 787 with net zero carbon emissions.Read more >>
BA has committed to power 10% of its flights with SAFs by 2030, and has forged partnerships with US fuel suppliers as well as invested in a future waste-to-fuel plant to be constructed in the north-east of England.
On the plastics’ front:
Companies rethink recycling as costs increase
For retailers and shipping companies, the holiday season is the time for delivery. All those millions of tons of cardboard boxes will need to be recycled, along with the plastic and glass bottles and metals that make up half of the 292 million tons of waste we produce each year. The mountain of waste we generate has prompted new ways to think about how we recycle – and who pays for it. Read more >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Television? Not a fan. Not a fan of a TV blaring in my living space. Not a fan of being forced to watch TV ads (ever listen to the “fine print” accompanying the many, many of the ads on American that push prescription drugs?). Not a fan of fiddling with controls, remote or not.However....
I am a fan of the Internet. And my recent purchase of a contract for Internet came with a “free” TV “box” and “free” access to “free” TV programs via the Internet.
I’d placed this box in storage, expecting it to live there for the duration of the ISP's contact.
Truth is stranger than fiction: that still packaged TV box began to niggle. I like to watch TV news…and "free" TV comes with the contract... and I'm not forced into buying any more gear, cables, or "boxes"....
On an off chance and never expecting success, I suggested a friend check the thrift stores in his area for a small, cheap TV. (This friend owns a large TV with all the bells and whistles. He has patience with and understands the intricacies of television and television set up, including how to use a remote.) Amazingly, he found a small TV – at about 22 inches it’s perfect for me – that cost $25, discounted down to $18. Great balls of fire!
Truth is stranger than fiction: that still packaged TV box began to niggle. I
On an off chance and never expecting success, I suggested a friend check the thrift stores in his area for a small, cheap TV. (This friend owns a large TV with all the bells and whistles. He has patience with and understands the intricacies of television and television set up, including how to use a remote.) Amazingly, he found a small TV – at about 22 inches it’s perfect for me – that cost $25, discounted down to $18. Great balls of fire!
The other half. The half of me that is not American is floored by the headline, “Over 100 Michigan School Districts Closed Due to Threats After Deadly Shooting. More than 60 schools closed earlier in the week due to copycat threats.”
Say what?
Surely, no sane country would normalize the day-to-day reality of children (and adults) killing children in schools. Yet the US has done just that.
How many shootings in 2021? “… at least 144 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 28 deaths and 86 injuries nationally."
With a TV in my house and in my life, I’ll regularly confront the insanity that is life in contemporary America. Can I survive it? Time to buckle up for a wild ride.
***
Day 620 - Friday, December 3 - Squirrely
News blues
Another week, another variant. This one, Omicron, seems to carry higher Covid reinfection risk. Scientists warn of higher rate of repeat infections but say vaccines appear to protect against serious illness.With the World Health Organization warning that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a "very high" global risk - it appears to spread more easily and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with previous strains – the variant arrives in the US. New York and Hawaii are the latest to announce infections, and officials in both states said there is evidence of “community spread.” Cases have also been detected in California, Minnesota, Colorado, New York, and Hawaii. The Minnesota patient recently attended a New York City convention that drew thousands of people.
Read more >>
Meanwhile,
This means many more photos of amazing critters as I visit the beach near my California home. Not a bad scenario. A look at today’s denizens welcomes great egrets - Ardea alba. Adult great egrets range in size from 37 to 41 inches in length and have a wingspan of 51 inches. Moreover, the elegance!
Meanwhile,
…Omicron’s effect on the course of the pandemic will be determined by three factors: its transmissibility; the degree to which it evades our existing immune defenses; and its virulence, or the severity of the disease that it causes. If Omicron turns out to jump between hosts with ease, blow past our neutralizing antibodies, and cause unusually dangerous complications, we’ll all be in deep trouble. But it could also turn out to do a lot of other things, with more subtle implications. If Omicron ends up being super contagious, for example, but mild in its symptoms, that might even be a good thing.Read “Omicron’s Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios” >>
At this point, living with the coronavirus for years to come is all but inevitable. In many countries that have had vaccines in hand for the better part of a year, inoculation rates still aren’t close to 100 percent. Even if every human on Earth gained a degree of immunity from vaccination or infection, the virus could retreat into its many animal hosts, only to reenter the human population in a slightly different form. “There’s no reasonable person, I think, in public health now who thinks that eradication or elimination or having zero COVID is a realistic goal,” says Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Healthy planet, anyone?
Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of: Billions of tiny plastic pellets – “nurdles,” a colloquial term for “pre-production plastic pellets” – a toxic waste that floats in the ocean, cause as much damage as oil spills. Nurdles, however, are still not classified as hazardous…the spillage of 87 containers full of lentil-sized plastic pellets - - nurdles – in May 2021, have been washing up in their billions along hundreds of miles of the Sri Lanka’s coastline, and are expected to make landfall across Indian Ocean coastlines from Indonesia and Malaysia to Somalia. In some places they are up to 2 metres deep. They have been found in the bodies of dead dolphins and the mouths of fish. About 1,680 tonnes of nurdles were released into the ocean. It is the largest plastic spill in history, according to the UN report.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
With the Biden administration's new, stricter Covid-19 testing requirements for all travelers taking effect this coming Monday, my return to South Africa in December looks less and less likely. Moreover, while I am a US citizen and could – legally and medically – return, at least in theory, reality suggests flights may not be available. I simply cannot afford to be locked down in South Africa or locked out from the US, for months again.This means many more photos of amazing critters as I visit the beach near my California home. Not a bad scenario. A look at today’s denizens welcomes great egrets - Ardea alba. Adult great egrets range in size from 37 to 41 inches in length and have a wingspan of 51 inches. Moreover, the elegance!
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| All photos (c) S. Galleymore |
Ground squirrels – never before mentioned here in a post - are ubiquitous along the beach and on the lawns. Members of the squirrel family of rodents - Sciuridae – they burrow into the ground rather than nest trees. Western gray squirrels – tree critters - live in the park's oak, cedar, and sycamore trees, too. Indeed, many visit my patio to plant nuts, seeds, and acorns in pots.
Viva creatures of the air and the earth!
Week 88
Day 619 - Thursday, December 2 - Déjà déjà vu
As Omicron variant takes hold around the world, infections rise precipitously in countries with early warnings (note SA numbers, below). Worldwide (Map)
December 2, 2021 – 263,714,700 confirmed infections; 5,228,300 deaths
November 25, 2021 – 259,820,000 confirmed infections; 5,180,150 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered to date: 8,065,253,309
US (Map)
December 2, 2021 – 48,696,400 confirmed infections; 782,120 deaths
November 25, 2021 –48,107,120 confirmed infections; 775,630 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 2, 2021 – 2,976,615 confirmed infections; 89,871 deaths
November 25, 2021 – 2,950,035 confirmed infections; 89,660 deaths
New cases in 28 days: 53,878
US: President Biden addresses Americans on Omicron (14:44 mins) Summarize: get your shot if you haven’t yet or get your booster if you have….
First case of Omicron in US found in San Francisco >>
Germany: as infection rates increase, Germany second on highest cases list, right behind the US with 1,314,558 cases in 28 days; 6,014,334 infections and 102,257 deaths. “Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholzspoke with state leaders and agreed on new measures to curb a dramatic spike in coronavirus cases.” The result? “Germany to impose lockdown on unvaccinated: Merkel says unvaccinated to be excluded from non-essential shops and venues, jabs could be mandatory from February.”
UK: while the UK has suffered with Covid overall, numbers of new infections rise. UK Covid restrictions change >>
Overall? Don’t panic. Practice safety protocols – vaccination, masks, social distance, wash hands – stay in touch with friends and family, and keep abreast of the latest news. WHO states, “It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta.
One reason for optimism on Omicron variant: our immune systems are not blank slates. People with some immune protections may avoid the worst of what Covid infections can do to immunologically naïve people.
The Project responds, lays out their Roadmap (0:30 mins), and invites you to “get in the fight”
Meet two bee brokers who agree that one never stops learning about bees and that bees are “just incredible”
Admiration presents all the more reason to understand the perils facing our planet’s bees through exposure to insecticides.
As for honey, look carefully at just what might be in that cheap jar of honey.
Therein lies the rub.
Just sayin’
Dr. Karim is correct. But how to break through the mountains of prejudices burdening We the People?
Listen, too, to US’s Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, share the latest scientific information on Omicron (if impatient, skip to around minute 5:25 of this video clip (8:26 mins).
Advice: Don’t panic but be realistic about Omicron. Get the jabs, mask up, socially distance, go back to pandemic cautions of 2020. And urge your Congress person to ensure fresh vaccine is shared with Africa and Africans.
Our oceans make up more than 70% of our planet, and we have basically trashed them. The world dumps a jaw-dropping 17.6 billion pounds (8 billion kilograms) of new plastic into the oceans each year. Question: is cleaning up the oceans’ plastic an indisputably good idea…or is it more effective to stop making plastic?
Watch: Omicron “500 times more infections than Delta variant” (13:59 mins)
Is it not time for a concerted, worldwide effort to vaccinate people everywhere? Despite anti-vaxers’ mindset, the vast majority of people around the world want vaccinations but have little access to vaccines. If Americans have enough vaccine to offer 3 doses to anyone who seeks jabs, we must expand effective distribution.
Cringe-worthy: Trump junior trumpets Trump senior – and both Trumps appear to think it’s really cool
Week 87
Worldwide (Map)
November 25, 2021 – 259,820,000 confirmed infections; 5,180,150 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 248,312,000 confirmed infections; 5,026,000 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 7,522,787,000
US (Map) November 25, 2021 –48,107,120 confirmed infections; 775,630 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 46,261,150 confirmed infections; 750,580 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
November 25, 2021 – 2,950,035 confirmed infections; 89,660 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 2,922,800 confirmed infections; 89,220 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
Given the last two years’ enormous confusion surrounding all things pandemic, I wonder: Will these pills deliver more rounds of “Confusion R Us”?
In other words, do these antiviral pills, in fact, replace vaccines?
No.
“The new antiviral pills are not good alternatives for coronavirus vaccines and do not replace the current Covid-19 vaccines. Rather, these new medicines …are actually developed to help infected individuals to recover from the deadly virus… people can't use them to enhance their immunity.”
Energy is the issue of the current moment. (That is, other than, y’know, a raging pandemic, corruption, politics, corrupt politics and politicians, immigration and refuge, climate refugees… indeed, the list goes on and on…)
South Africa presents a nutshell example of global energy difficulties.
Eighty-seven percent of SA’s electrical energy derives from coal. Since 2014, Eskom, the national energy provider, has struggled to deliver electricity. Eskom uses the term Eskom, “load shedding” to describe this struggle that turns electricity off – no power at all - for hours at a time many days per week, any time of year. Eskom defines load shedding as “a measure of last resort to prevent the collapse of the power system country-wide. When power is insufficient, Eskom can thus either increase supply or reduce demand to bring the system back into balance.” (A far simpler and more accurate definition: “we turn off your electricity even as we raise your rates – and, other than complain as you sit in the dark, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
SA, however, has pledged to reduce its overall carbon dioxide emissions between now and 2030 as part of global efforts to tackle climate change. The country faces enormous obstacles in doing so >>
At the same time, South Africa has plans to build new coal-fired power stations during the climate crisis. This is being challenged in court for breaching the rights of current and future generations.
South Africa and renewables: South Africa’s renewable plan…
November 25, 2021 –48,107,120 confirmed infections; 775,630 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 2, 2021 – 2,976,615 confirmed infections; 89,871 deaths
November 25, 2021 – 2,950,035 confirmed infections; 89,660 deaths
New cases in 28 days: 53,878
News blues
SA: new Covid cases double in 24 hours and facts and figures....US: President Biden addresses Americans on Omicron (14:44 mins) Summarize: get your shot if you haven’t yet or get your booster if you have….
First case of Omicron in US found in San Francisco >>
Germany: as infection rates increase, Germany second on highest cases list, right behind the US with 1,314,558 cases in 28 days; 6,014,334 infections and 102,257 deaths. “Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholzspoke with state leaders and agreed on new measures to curb a dramatic spike in coronavirus cases.” The result? “Germany to impose lockdown on unvaccinated: Merkel says unvaccinated to be excluded from non-essential shops and venues, jabs could be mandatory from February.”
UK: while the UK has suffered with Covid overall, numbers of new infections rise. UK Covid restrictions change >>
Overall? Don’t panic. Practice safety protocols – vaccination, masks, social distance, wash hands – stay in touch with friends and family, and keep abreast of the latest news. WHO states, “It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta.
One reason for optimism on Omicron variant: our immune systems are not blank slates. People with some immune protections may avoid the worst of what Covid infections can do to immunologically naïve people.
The emergence of a new Covid-19 variant with a startlingly large constellation of mutations has countries around the world sounding alarms. While the concerns are understandable, experts in immunology say people need to remember a critical fact: Two years and 8 billion vaccine doses into the pandemic, many immune systems are no longer blank slates when it comes to SARS-CoV-2.Where did Omicron come from?
“Dealing with naïve [never vaccinated] people is never the same as if you have some memory. It’s never like [being back at] square one,” Ali Ellebedy, according to associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “The virus is going to not find it as easy compared to the situation in January 2020 or December 2019. It’s just completely different now.”
Read more >>
…some scientists have an alternative theory for where the latest variant of concern, Omicron, may have acquired the unusual mutations that stud its spike protein.
They speculate the virus could have evolved in another animal species.
The theory goes that some type of animal, potentially rodents, was infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus sometime in mid-2020. In this new species, the virus evolved, accumulating roughly 50 mutations on the spike protein before spilling back over into people.
Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute, is among those who has been raising the idea that Omicron may have emerged from a reverse zoonotic event.
Read more >>
***
The Lincoln Project Last week in the Republican Party (1:45 mins) Healthy planet, anyone?
Time for a dash of good news:The Farne Islands are home to one of England’s largest grey seal colonies and have the longest history of seal pup counting. This week National Trust rangers – helped for the first time by thermal imagery technology – were completing a crucial count, which did not take place last year because of the pandemic.
In 1956 there were 751 pups counted. In 2019 there were 2,823. This year, the expectation is that there will be many more, making it a record year for grey seals on the islands.
“It is looking that way,” said Bevan, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University. “Some of the outer island groups look incredibly dense.”
Read more >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Pelicans doing well in my neck of the beach… |
| All photos (c) S. Galleymore |
Day 616 - Monday, November 29 - Bees knees
News blues
South Africa’s President Ramaphosa updates the nation on Covid’s Omicron variant. To summarize, for now we stay at Lockdown Level 1, continue to socially distance and mask, we stay with curfew from midnight to 4am, and, most importantly, we step up for vaccinations. (30:25 mins)The three most important things that can be done now are to be vaccinated, to be vaccinated, and to be vaccinated, especially if you're older than 50, have a comorbidity or have a compromised immune system.What we know so far:
The first South African Omicron infections were found in Gauteng [Johannesburg is the most populated city in that province].
South Africa’s national laboratory informed the World Health Organization on 24 November that it had identified the new variant.
Symptoms of the variant have been mild, but experts warn there is not enough information yet to say exactly how Omicron compares with other variants.
Omicron appears to be more transmissible than other variants.
***
The Lincoln Project runs into more resistance The Project responds, lays out their Roadmap (0:30 mins), and invites you to “get in the fight”
Healthy planet, anyone?
Earlier posts express my admiration and fascination with bees. Indeed, bees are the bees’ knees.Meet two bee brokers who agree that one never stops learning about bees and that bees are “just incredible”
Admiration presents all the more reason to understand the perils facing our planet’s bees through exposure to insecticides.
As for honey, look carefully at just what might be in that cheap jar of honey.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The glorious crisp, clear fall weather continues in the San Francisco Bay Area. No rain predicted for the near future. Hmmm, ominous. Indeed, last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom…declared a drought emergency for the entire state of California, as conservation efforts continue to fall far short of state targets. He authorized California’s water regulators to ban wasteful water use, such as spraying down public sidewalks, and directed his Office of Emergency Services to fund drinking water as needed. But he stopped short of issuing any statewide conservation mandates.The apparent good news? Waterfowl and shore birds appear to enjoy what they have: good weather, tidal ebbs and flows that provide abundant pickings along the shores, the ponds, and the lawns. On the other hand, who knows what goes on in the minds of our avian friends? What might they know that We the People are blissfully unaware of and they keep us simply continuing to do what we do? If what we do adversely affects the birds and the bees… well, as too many of us believe, “man has dominion over animals.”
“As the western U.S. faces a potential third year of drought, it’s critical that Californians across the state redouble our efforts to save water in every way possible,”
Therein lies the rub.
Just sayin’
Day 614 - Saturday, November 27 - "Work together"
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| Gary McCoy | Copyright 2021 Cagle Cartoons |
News blues
These days in the US, it is risky to declare that “I APPRECIATE and RESPECT science and scientists.” Sharing that declaration is revolutionary. Join the revolution: listen to and take to hear the words of South Africa’s Dr Salim Abdool Karim: “We must work together" (9:43 mins).Dr. Karim is correct. But how to break through the mountains of prejudices burdening We the People?
Listen, too, to US’s Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, share the latest scientific information on Omicron (if impatient, skip to around minute 5:25 of this video clip (8:26 mins).
Advice: Don’t panic but be realistic about Omicron. Get the jabs, mask up, socially distance, go back to pandemic cautions of 2020. And urge your Congress person to ensure fresh vaccine is shared with Africa and Africans.
Healthy planet, anyone?
What, if any, links exist between Covid-19 and higher levels of pollution?Scientists …looked for correlations between the disease and higher levels of pollution [and] found significant connections, but some worried that the available data, which averages groups of people, may hide other factors that were the true reason for the link.
So a new study this week represents a major step forward. First, it used extensive individual data on almost 10,000 people in Catalonia and, second, it ran blood tests for coronavirus antibodies in about half of them. The testing is especially important as it identified people who had been infected but without symptoms. This group may have been missed in earlier studies.
The findings of this strongest study to date were striking: people exposed to moderately above-average levels of small particle pollution in the two years before the pandemic were 51% more likely to suffer severe Covid-19, meaning they were hospitalised. For those breathing higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly produced by diesel vehicles, the increased risk was 26%.
This may well be because the dirty air had already damaged people’s immune systems or increased the level of heart and lung disease known to be a risk factor for severe Covid-19. Scientists can’t prove a causal link because, again, you can’t do harmful experiments on people.
Thanks to the blood tests, the researchers were able to show that air pollution did not significantly raise the chance of just being infected by coronavirus. It is likely that other factors such as social contacts, mask wearing and amount of travel are more important.
Read more >>
***
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| (c) Oceana |
Our oceans make up more than 70% of our planet, and we have basically trashed them. The world dumps a jaw-dropping 17.6 billion pounds (8 billion kilograms) of new plastic into the oceans each year. Question: is cleaning up the oceans’ plastic an indisputably good idea…or is it more effective to stop making plastic?
Good news:
The annual winter monarch butterfly migration, steeply declining in recent years, appears to be making a comeback. Biologists are encouraged and confused by the trend.
Last year, my agency and airline of choice – FlyUS and British Air – refused to refund the flights they cancelled due to Covid. Yes, I had travel insurance. Go figure. After a year of giving me the run around, they refused to refund me with a curt note. Live and learn: I’ll not fly using FlyUS or British Air again. I suggest you avoid them, too.
However, both airlines with whom I considered purchasing tickets this year are cancelling their flights to and from SA.
Giving thanks that I delayed purchasing tickets.
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| The number of monarch butterflies migrating to California this winter after years of historic lows. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
The annual winter monarch butterfly migration, steeply declining in recent years, appears to be making a comeback. Biologists are encouraged and confused by the trend.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I continue to watch the news on Omicron and its effect on international travel. My intuition to wait before purchasing tickets was on the mark.Last year, my agency and airline of choice – FlyUS and British Air – refused to refund the flights they cancelled due to Covid. Yes, I had travel insurance. Go figure. After a year of giving me the run around, they refused to refund me with a curt note. Live and learn: I’ll not fly using FlyUS or British Air again. I suggest you avoid them, too.
However, both airlines with whom I considered purchasing tickets this year are cancelling their flights to and from SA.
Giving thanks that I delayed purchasing tickets.
Watching and worrying about friends and family in SA (and US!)
Day 613 - Friday, November 26 - Black Friday?
News blues
Omicron. It’s got a name. Until today, the new Covid “variant of concern” was B.1.1.529. Now reborn as Omicron"Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, the TAG-VE has advised WHO that this variant should be designated as a VOC, and the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a VOC, named Omicron," the statement said.Watch: “’Real alarm’ around the world” as Omicron spreads (10:29 mins)
The variant was first discovered by South African health authorities and has sparked a forceful reaction across the world with a number of countries banning travelers from several southern African countries.
Watch: Omicron “500 times more infections than Delta variant” (13:59 mins)
Is it not time for a concerted, worldwide effort to vaccinate people everywhere? Despite anti-vaxers’ mindset, the vast majority of people around the world want vaccinations but have little access to vaccines. If Americans have enough vaccine to offer 3 doses to anyone who seeks jabs, we must expand effective distribution.
***
The Lincoln Project: Last Week in the Republican Party (1:44 mins)Cringe-worthy: Trump junior trumpets Trump senior – and both Trumps appear to think it’s really cool
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Not much going on back at this ranch. I’m in limbo, stuck between worlds – CA and SA – due to timing of Covid booster (I’m due December 20 and, no, cannot get it even one day earlier) and, now, Omicron (assuming I can find a flight there, I cannot afford another round of Lockdown in SA and/or quarantine on either continent).Week 87
Day 612 - Thursday, November 25 - Thanks!
Worldwide (Map) November 25, 2021 – 259,820,000 confirmed infections; 5,180,150 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 248,312,000 confirmed infections; 5,026,000 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 7,522,787,000
US (Map) November 25, 2021 –48,107,120 confirmed infections; 775,630 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 46,261,150 confirmed infections; 750,580 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
November 25, 2021 – 2,950,035 confirmed infections; 89,660 deaths
November 4, 2021 – 2,922,800 confirmed infections; 89,220 deaths
November 25, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 confirmed deaths
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New York, US The Tough Guy balloon is displayed on Sixth Avenue during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Photo: Jeenah Moon/AP More Thanksgiving Day photos >> |
News blues
Irony of ironies: While too many Americans continue to refuse vaccinations – due to vaccine infringing on their “freedoms” – Africans struggle to access vaccinations.John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said recently, “What we are seeing now is a lot more vaccines coming in and the uptake is challenged because of the logistics and delivery... It’s not necessarily about hesitancy, it’s about moving vaccines from the airport to the arms (of people), it’s about logistics.”
Africa is far from reaching the African Union’s aim of fully vaccinating 70% of people by the end of 2022. Only 6.6% of Africa’s population of 1.2 billion is fully vaccinated, as countries struggle with the logistics of accelerating vaccine roll-outs. Read more >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Since it is Thanksgiving in the US, let’s give thanks for our wonderful world. I took these pix in my backyard – a marine preserve and park on San Francisco Bay.
Below: I’ve planned for years to photograph this “slice of watermelon” that graces a local estuary and lagoon. Yesterday I finally did it.
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Day 609 - Monday, November 22 - Further confusion?
News blues
With tens of millions of Americans continuing to refuse to get vaccinated, do the new pills actually give Biden one more tool in blunting the impact of the coronavirus? Hmmm. Read more >>Given the last two years’ enormous confusion surrounding all things pandemic, I wonder: Will these pills deliver more rounds of “Confusion R Us”?
In other words, do these antiviral pills, in fact, replace vaccines?
No.
“The new antiviral pills are not good alternatives for coronavirus vaccines and do not replace the current Covid-19 vaccines. Rather, these new medicines …are actually developed to help infected individuals to recover from the deadly virus… people can't use them to enhance their immunity.”
Healthy planet, anyone?
Energy. We need it. But how do we create and recreate energy and efficiently dump fossil fuels and the fossilized political economy that supports it?Energy is the issue of the current moment. (That is, other than, y’know, a raging pandemic, corruption, politics, corrupt politics and politicians, immigration and refuge, climate refugees… indeed, the list goes on and on…)
South Africa presents a nutshell example of global energy difficulties.
Eighty-seven percent of SA’s electrical energy derives from coal. Since 2014, Eskom, the national energy provider, has struggled to deliver electricity. Eskom uses the term Eskom, “load shedding” to describe this struggle that turns electricity off – no power at all - for hours at a time many days per week, any time of year. Eskom defines load shedding as “a measure of last resort to prevent the collapse of the power system country-wide. When power is insufficient, Eskom can thus either increase supply or reduce demand to bring the system back into balance.” (A far simpler and more accurate definition: “we turn off your electricity even as we raise your rates – and, other than complain as you sit in the dark, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
SA, however, has pledged to reduce its overall carbon dioxide emissions between now and 2030 as part of global efforts to tackle climate change. The country faces enormous obstacles in doing so >>
At the same time, South Africa has plans to build new coal-fired power stations during the climate crisis. This is being challenged in court for breaching the rights of current and future generations.
South Africa and renewables: South Africa’s renewable plan…
... picked 25 wind- and solar-power projects to be built by private developers, part of a plan to reduce the nation’s reliance on coal for electricity and end rolling blackouts that are curbing economic growth.
The bidders will add 2,583 megawatts of capacity to the grid using clean-energy technologies….The projects total about 50 billion rand ($3.3 billion) of investment and will create 13,900 job opportunities >>
More on SA’s renewables: “The real deal with renewable energy in South Africa — unpacking the suite of options and inherent problems – acknowledge and unacknowledged >>
South Africa uses nuke energy, too, with Koeberg, its nuclear power station, installed capacity of 1,940MW, generating around 5% of South Africa's electricity. Koeberg, built in 1984, is Africa’s only nuke power plant.Recent comments from Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer about what is going on at Koeberg nuclear power station were refreshingly frank, and for that, he is to be commended. Whether anyone living near the plant — and that includes everyone in Cape Town and surrounds — will be able to sleep after fully digesting what he had to say is another matter.
Speaking to the press about Eskom’s status as we head into the summer months, Oberholzer said he was “extremely concerned” about the two trips to the unit one reactor at Koeberg (on 30 August and 24 October). He added that he was “horrified” at the number of staff who had left Koeberg in recent times, “taking away with them years of experience”. Some had resigned despite having no other job offers. Rumours abound that there have been as many as 200 resignations from Koeberg recently.Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Gearing up for Thanksgiving.
The two national Thanksgiving turkeys are seen in the Rose Garden of the White House before a pardon ceremony in Washington on Nov. 19, 2021.
Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
Peanut Butter and Jelly won't be at the Thanksgiving table this year.This season’s two national turkeys, Peanut Butter and Jelly, received a presidential pardon.
"With the power vested in me, I pardon you," President Biden said to Peanut Butter at a White House ceremony Friday.
After he spared Peanut Butter from becoming dinner, Biden encouraged the turkey to share his thoughts: "Go ahead, say something."
"Gobble, gobble," Peanut Butter replied.
Day 606 - Friday, November 19 - Build back better?
News blues
Still searching, after all this time: where did what became the virulent Covid-19 pandemic start? The search for origins – “wet” market, lab, somewhere else – comes full circle, from Wuhan’s or Hunan’s “wet”/live-animal markets to the political hot potato of a “leak” in a Chinese lab and now back to the markets. A recent analysis by evolutionary virologist Dr. Michael Worobey indicates, “the pandemic wasn’t triggered by a leak in a Chinese lab…or by a Chinese accountant…” and that “it becomes very difficult to explain the pattern if the outbreak didn’t start at the market.”
Read the article >>***What’s next with the pandemic? The next turn hinges on three unknowns >>Healthy planet, anyone?
The US House of Representatives passed the second – and most “progressive” part of Prez Biden’s Build Back Better bill. Now it goes to the Senate…where, no doubt, it will be whittled down to meaninglessness… and, if passed at all, will be toothless against real climate change and vitally needed social protections. What’s in it? >>
Or am I overly cynical?
Perhaps. But cynicism is well founded. Take, for example, the moribund US Senate’s years’ long fight against banning “forever chemicals” such as PFAS, aka “forever chemicals, a class of compounds used across dozens of industries to make products resistant to water, heat, stains and grease. The chemicals are especially common in food packaging because they repel grease and liquid, which prevents paper products from disintegrating. Passage of the bill “is far from certain and a fight with industry allies in the Senate looms.” >>
This is life in America where Republicans are horrified by passing anything that smacks of supporting, y’know, actual regular, hard-working humans…Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
More fall photos
A passel of ponderous pelicans
Above and below: two collections of curios cormorants
This is a family of mallards: two males, one female and two "sex undetermined".
Despite their coloring, the two white ducks (right) are also mallards.
Turns out mallards easily interbreed with other ducks species and these two are excellent examples.
Not a new species, but variation in mallard-ness.Week 86
Worldwide (Map)
Day 605 - Thursday, November 18 - Is The Fix in?
November 18, 2021 - 255,235,950 confirmed infections; 5,128,300 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 56,188,000 confirmed infections; 1,348,600 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 7,562,351,850
US (Map)
November 18, 2021 - 47,424,000 confirmed infections; 767,450 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 11,525,600 confirmed infections; 250,485 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
November 18, 2021 - 2,926,950 confirmed infections; 89,550 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 757,145 confirmed infections; 20,556 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths
Daily Maverick News blues
Anyone else notice that US news is reporting less about Covid and the devastation it is visiting upon humanity? Scanning US online news outlet shows US news favors America’s whackidoodle politics and politicians, the slow moving but nevertheless ongoing American coup/insurrection, the latest shootings in the US … and minimal coverage on Covid.
British news continues to cover Covid. From The Guardian:
A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions…Moreover, one study finds front-page stories about Covid-19 pandemic were sensationalist and unhelpful >>
However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.
Evidence shows vaccine-conferred protection against hospitalization and death remains high several months after inoculation, vaccines for children older than 5 can reduce Covid transmission, and new antiviral medications hold the promise of making Covid-19 a treatable disease.
Read more >>***The Lincoln Project:
Biden delivered (0:59 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party (2:18 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Abbotsford, a town is Canada’s province of British Columbia, is experiencing massive flooding with a death toll set to rise after…Torrential rains pummeled swathes of western Canada’s British Columbia and Washington state in the US in recent days – dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days in some areas – causing floods and mudslides that swallowed stretches of highways and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. One person has been killed and several have been reported missing.Not to dismiss or undermine that horror of such flooding and the “extraordinary events not measured before”….but… it is incorrect to write “These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”.
Abbotsford, one of Canada’s most intensively and diversely farmed areas, was among places hardest hit. Home to more than 1,200 farms, it supplies half of the dairy, eggs and poultry consumed by British Columbia’s 5.2 million residents.
Aerial footage showed several barns engulfed by flood waters.
Read more >>
And
… torrential rains and mudslides destroyed roads and left several mountain towns isolated. At least three people are missing. Some 18,000 people are displaced in the Pacific Coast province…
…The flooding is the second weather-related calamity to hit British Columbia in the past few months. A massive wildfire in the same region as some of the devastation destroyed an entire town in late June.
"These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”
That disaster could be the most expensive in Canadian history
Read more >>
Warnings about such events both have been measured and issued before.
One issue?Warnings - from scientists, geologists, water and flood experts, etc. – for decades went unheeded. Why?Such warnings were at odds with the desires of people and systems hoping to generate huge wealth from the area. Judging by the numbers of farms and towns now affected, wealth was generated. The underlying geology and geomorphology, however, remained.
Recently, as events unfolded, Abbotsville officials …reiterated their call for everyone to get out a few hours after Abbotsford said the Barrowtown Pump Station was in imminent danger of failing….But…
“The best thing we can do is monitor water levels and monitor the Nooksack River levels,” director of engineering David Blain said. “We’ll know what the situation could become should the pumps stop acting.”
The long-term backstory on this area?
To understand the flood crisis currently gripping the Sumas Prairie area in eastern Abbotsford, you have to understand the history of the area, and the roles played by the Nooksack River and what was once Sumas Lake. You need to know why Barrowtown Pump Station exists. And you need to know why, if it fails (and maybe even if it doesn’t), the lake will return.Read the backstory that details how, why, when, and who benefitted from not heeding the warnings >>
Upshot?
We the People are in the thick of man-made disasters put in place by the mentality that “we can fix nature and make it work for us.
What’s required is the mentality that “we can learn from and work with nature to live physically and psychologically healthier lives.
In which direction are we heading?
Hmmm, COP(out) 26 answered that question.Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Band o coots In my neck of the woods? Best time of year on the beach. I enjoy it while I can....
Day 601 - Sunday, November 14 - Speak louder than words
Healthy planet, anyone?
It’s years since I visited Oakland’s Museum of California – now known as MOCO – and learned that bees sang for their supper. Put another way, bees, upon alighting on a plant – sing an appropriate song to induce the plant to release its nectar and feed the bee.
Now, I learn that bees scream when attacked by murder hornets A recent study:… published in the Royal Society Open Science journal… revealed that bees release a “rallying call for collective defence” against the hornets. The previously undiscovered signal, now known as an “anti-predator pipe, shares acoustic traits with alarm shrieks, fear screams and panic calls of primates, birds and meerkats”…. Will humans learn the even a fraction of what makes our wonderful planet tick before we destroy all of nature?
Bees produce the sound by vibrating their wings or thorax, elevating their abdomens and exposing a gland to release a pheromone.***Meantime, let’s enjoy photo collections of other amazing critters and their habit.
Nature under threat: a Cop26 photographic competition
Avian adventurers: BirdLife Australia 2022 calendar.Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
More amazing critters. Took these pix with an actual camera on my walk today.
American wigeon
Brown pelicans and white pelicans, plus other shore birds
Day 600 - Saturday, November 13 - COP(out) 26
News blues…
RIP South Africa’s F. W. de Klerk***New political ads (and commentary): Joe Manchin (2:04 mins)
Meidas Touch: GOP Lies (0:38 mins)Healthy planet, anyone?
COP(out) 26. Another potential moment to address critical issues associated with climate change wasted. Disappointed – again - but not surprised. And, to top it off, “leading figures took to the floor for what they hoped would be the final time, to exhort each other to cooperate in the interests of people threatened by the climate crisis around the world”:At stake is the world’s chance of holding global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the tougher of the two temperature goals in the 2015 Paris climate agreement and a “planetary boundary” beyond which the ravages of climate breakdown will rapidly become catastrophic and irreversible.We know what we face, but we cannot agree on who should make the most money from the current situation. (See Joe Manchin ad, above.)
Read more >>
Meanwhile… PPE and “pandemic-related plastic waste" continues to pour into our oceans:Some 8 million metric tons of pandemic-related plastic waste has been created by 193 countries, about 26,000 tons of which is now in the world’s oceans, where it threatens to disrupt marine life and further pollute beaches….Read “The world created about 8 million tons of pandemic plastic waste, and much of it is now in the ocean” >>
The findings, by a group of researchers based in China and the United States, were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Concerns had been raised since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that there would be a boom in plastic pollution amid heightened use of personal protective equipment and rapid growth in online commerce. The study is among the first to quantify the scale of plastic waste linked to the health crisis.
The impact of the increase in plastic waste has been keenly felt by wildlife.
This according to a Dutch scientist-founded tracking project.
The UK’s chief scientist correctly states that “changes in behaviour are needed to tackle climate crisis.”
Ah, the one thing most of us humans refuse to do – indeed, cannot figure out how to do: change our behaviour/behavior …Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Life in my corner of the universe is good – for now. There’s no question that my modest condo on the park and beach will suffer the ravages of rising sea levels in the future. Sure, it’ll take another decade or two, but coastal flooding is on its way. Plus side of that? The waterfowl and shorebirds, ground squirrels, opossums, raccoons, and other critters will do fine (well, as fine as they can, given the ongoing toxicity of garbage pouring into the environment).
I carried binoculars during yesterday’s beach walk. Crowds of brown and white pelicans, cormorants, gulls of all shapes and sizes, sanderlings, curlews, Marbled Godwits, bowditches, avocets, wood ducks, ruddy ducks, grebes, and the usual flocks of mallards and Canada geese; quite the scene for our feathered friends – and those who admire them.
And, yes, I regularly find PPE – particularly masks – littering beach walkways. And yes, I regularly pick up and dispose of these discards into provided plastic garbage bins, lined with more plastic. This to, y’know, ensure garbage is placed into the correct receptacle to ensure it’s placed into the formal stream of garbage before ending up in the informal Great Pacific Garbage Patch .
I’ve been commenting on our – humanity’s – unconscious attitude toward garbage for many years. Moreover, my sculpture series, “Heedlessness” address this attitude. Riffing from a line of Rumi's poetry - "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" - I researched the location and dispensation of our planet's largest landfills. The Great Garbage Patch appears to beat all human attempts to formalize landfill.
What to say?
We humans do our best. Unfortunately, as COP(out) 26 demonstrates, that’s just not good enough.
Week 85
Today is Veterans Day in the United States.
Day 598 - Thursday, November 11 - Veterans DayLet We the People ensure vets get all the benefits they’ve earned.
- Note that the World War I armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. ...
- There were around 21.8 million veterans in the United States as of 2010.
- There are around 9 million veterans over the age of 65.
- Around 1.6 million veterans are women.
- Military.com’s history of veterans day…
Worldwide (Map)
November 10, 2021 – 251,624,400 confirmed infections; 5,076,300 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 7,365,272,360
US (Map)
November 10, 2021 – 46,793,200 confirmed infections; 759,100 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths
SA (Tracker)
November 10, 2021 – 2,924,625 confirmed infections; 89,435 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths
South Africa’s recent Covid tracker >>
News blues…
How are UK, US, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, France, Singapore, and other countries dealing with Covid vaccine mandates ? A quick glance …
From Atlantic Monthly:
…breakthrough infections remain a statistical inevitability despite our very, very excellent vaccines. We’ll need to get comfortable with them as we learn to live with the coronavirus long term.
- A breakthrough infection is a logistical nightmare. “A positive test sets in motion huge hassles and anxieties for anyone you’ve been in contact with,” says Alexis C. Madrigal, a co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic who recently contracted COVID.
- But your immune system is ready to handle it. “A breakthrough, despite what it might seem, does not cause our defenses to crumble,” my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote this summer. “Vaccines reinforce the defenses we already have.”
- We still don’t know how easily vaccinated people spread COVID. “We might not reach a consensus on just how contagious breakthrough infections are, and that’s okay….”
***New political ads: Electile Dysfunction (2:04 mins)
The Lincoln Project:Rebuild (0:57 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party (2:06 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Getting your point across...
Tuvalu's foreign minister, Simon Kofe, says his country is looking at ways to retain statehood
even if it disappears due to climate change and rising sea levels.
Photograph: Tuvalu Foreign Ministry/Reuters
Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe spoke to attendees at the COP26 climate summit and around the world while knee-deep in the ocean to show the effect of rising sea levels. >>
Tuvalu will continue to raise awareness about the complexities of sea levels rise as it seeks to maintain state hood.Tuvalu is looking at legal ways to keep its ownership of its maritime zones and recognition as a state even if the Pacific island nation is completely submerged due to the climate crisis….Nor is it "just" Pacific islands suffering effects of melting glaciers and rising sea level, Tangier Island – a Virginia fishing town home to about 400 people - is losing ground faster than previously thought, highlighting how climate change threatens U.S. coastal communities >>
“We’re actually imagining a worst-case scenario where we are forced to relocate or our lands are submerged,” the minister, Simon Kofe, [said].
“We’re looking at legal avenues where we can retain our ownership of our maritime zones, retain our recognition as a state under international law. So those are steps that we are taking, looking into the future.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Infrastructure is, indeed, a critical need in the US, even in cosmopolitan San Francisco and the East Bay. This became clear today as I drove through the cities of El Cerrito (home to the band Credence Clearwater Revival), small and cozy Albany, and Berkeley, site of the esteemed University of California campus. While these cities’ roads don’t have the extreme potholes of South African roads, they are, nevertheless, decrepit, cracked, patchy; in some spots – College Avenue, for example, it’s as if one is driving on loose gravel.
Shock at the state of the cities’ roads, however, was outweighed by the thrill of visiting these cities after several years’ absence. While I lacked time, today, to park and explore (I plan to do that “soon”) I noticed much that has changed and more that remains the same. I look forward to visiting as a tourist on foot – with camera – and sharing what I discover. What’s clear already, though, is that even cities age, sometimes, as I discovered, not gracefully.
The Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill – disappointing as it is in its paring down of what is vitally needed – addressing the effects of climate change - passed not a moment too soon.***Is it the pandemic or am I "just" nuts?
Insomnia evolves into obsessive attention to iPhone battery level graphs,
and turned into “art” depicting new levels of obsession….
Day 594 - Sunday, November 7 - Transitions
Healthy planet, anyone?
A reminder of the premise behind Healthy planet, anyone?: Out-of-whack global systems create unknowns with complexities that are, first, difficult to understand… then collectively to agree that the understandings are accurate, then collectively to create and operationalize plans to address the out-of-whackiness, then to convince diverse humanity collectively to adhere to those plans.
The out-of-whack system, meanwhile, increasingly squeezed by human exploitation, creates environments whereby pathogens can easily cross from animals to humans and spread with devastating results, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, Covid-19….
Healthy planet, anyone? seeks to highlight efforts both to address and highlight this new reality and efforts to stymie growing threats.
Today, how “…the banking industry’s pledges to help fight global warming are vague and unenforceable.”
Banks and other financial institutions took over COP26’s main stage Wednesday as companies holding assets totaling more than $130 trillion committed to hit net-zero emissions by 2050, a deadline scientists say is critical to limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Under auspices of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a coalition led by U.N. special envoy Mark Carney, the industry has pledged to shift trillions of dollars away from fossil fuels as part of a global effort to keep temperatures below the catastrophic level.It’s not only about banks, or fossil fuel companies, or multinational corporations, or political systems despoiled by mega-donors, or even out-of-whack political systems that allow politicians supported by mega-donors to hold entire nations hostage. It’s all the above, and much more.
…
But absent regulation, banks are establishing their own voluntary guardrails, which environmental advocates and some shareholders are eyeing with suspicion. Within their own ranks, banks are debating how to build reporting frameworks that will give credibility to their net-zero efforts. That could include imposing rules on the companies they finance.
Read “A $130T climate promise is greeted with suspicion” >>
Humans try to fight back. Most recently, a crowd of angry climate protestors spotted Democrat “Joe Manchin, West Virginia senator - and mascot for America’s well-heeled but clueless political class - driving his silver Maserati” . Protesters also confronted Manchin aboard his luxury yacht .It's the system that's corrupt and not just Joe. But good to know who is good ole bought off Joe.
Systems out-of-whack allow the rise of people out-of-whack….Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
South Africa, Nov 7, 2021 California, Nov 7, 2021 Let there be light: California has successfully transitioned to Standard Time.
Day 593 - Saturday, November 6 - Earthly paradise
Time changes in California tomorrow, so we enjoy the day …News blues…
A little news goes a long way….With Britain’s authorization this week of Merck’s new drug molnupiravir, and a cash infusion into antiviral R&D, the outlook for antiviral treatments is brighter.
Unlike vaccines that can prevent infection, antivirals act as a second line of defense, slowing down and eventually arresting progression of a disease when infections occur. They’re also important when effective vaccines aren’t available against viral diseases….
But developing antivirals is an expensive and difficult endeavor. That’s especially true for acute respiratory diseases, for which the window for treatment is short. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has unleashed the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have resorted to repurposing old drugs or compounds that were being tested against other diseases.
“That’s typical,” says Katherine Seley-Radtke, a medicinal chemist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Every time a new virus emerges or an old one re-emerges, you pull out what’s there in the cupboard to see what works.”
Read “How the rise of antivirals may change the course of the pandemic” >>***The Lincoln Project. Let’s revisit my all-time personal favorite Lincoln Project’s ads, Nationalist Geographic (0:57 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Having access to reliable and affordable energy is important to people, so it’s understandable that governments support energy access. But if these subsidies support the consumption of fossil fuels it comes with a large downside, air pollution and accelerated climate change.
Countries around the world agreed to reduce fossil fuel subsidies. It is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they want to reach by 2030. View the SDG-Tracker to find all of the available measures to track the SDGs.
In many countries fossil fuel subsidies are extremely high. The New York Times reports that in Venezuela subsidies were so high that “a dollar could once theoretically buy about 5 billion gallons of gasoline.” This would be “more than enough to supply the state of Michigan for a year.”
Venezuela was an extreme case. But as the map shows there are many countries with very large subsidies: several are higher than $100 per person per year. In others, it’s higher still.
Read more about fossil fuel subsidies >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
A friend joined me today for a walk along the beach, passed the bird sanctuary, and to the area we call Shangri-La - my version of a down-to-earth earthly paradise.
A photo essay (taken with my iPhone so not great photos but they communicate the gist of the walk – 13,695 steps on my iPhone pedometer….)
Winter flyway birds: curlews, sanderlings, avocets, Marbled Godwits...
Looking north west, toward San Francisco (left horizon)
San Francisco in the north west, from beach and bird sanctuary
Looking south, toward Shangri-la
Entering Shangri-la
View of one section of Shangri-la, looking north (towards San Francisco) What do I love about Shangri-la? It sits right on the beach yet it is modest. (Give it another 10 years, and residents will worry about sea level rise and water intrusion, but for now... enjoy!***
A rare item these days, this public phone situated on the beach walkway actually gets a dial tone...
Remembering Wilma Chan.
Last week, longtime Alameda County supervisor and former Assembly Majority Leader Wilma Chan died after being struck by a motorist during a morning walk.***Tomorrow we "fall back" to standard time.
OCD me? Not sleeping well means time on my hands at odd hours of the night and early morning. I've taken - as before - to making patterns with my iPhone's battery charging level indicator.
Fun for insomniacs....
California, Nov 6, 2021 South Africa, Nov 6, 2021.
The change in California time will give us an extra hour to snooze... or walk... or do something else.Day 592 - Friday, November 5 - Guy Fawkes
News blues…
In Britain and out there in the former British colonies, We the People celebrate Guy Fawkes, aka Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night, and Fireworks Night on 5 November. This celebration derives from 5 November 1605 when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the Catholica plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords to assassinate Protestant King James I and his parliament. Celebrating that the king had survived, people lit bonfires around London; and months later, the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure. More on this history >>
The day also marks the day during South Africa’s Second Boer War when an effigy of Paul Kruger, then President of the South African Republic, was burned in public for the first time.Healthy planet, anyone?
“It’s our lives on the line” Thousands of young protesters marched through the streets of Glasgow to demand urgent action from world leaders at the U.N. climate conference and stave off catastrophic climate change.…campaigners and pressure groups have been underwhelmed by the commitments made so far, many of which are voluntary, exclude the biggest polluters, or set deadlines decades away.
"We are in a disaster that is happening every day," activist Vanessa Nakate said of life in her home country Uganda, which has one of the fastest changing climates in the world. "We cannot keep quiet about climate injustice."
Read more >>***Something to plan for: Half world’s fossil fuel assets could become worthless by 2036 in net zero transition >>***Not a conspiracy theory: the energy charter treaty (ECT) allows energy corporations to sue governments for billions over policies that could hurt their profits.… New data … shows a surge in cases under the energy charter treaty (ECT), an obscure international agreement that allows energy corporations to sue governments over policies that could hurt their profits.
Coal and oil investors are already suing governments for several billions in compensation for lost profits over energy policy changes. For example, the German energy company RWE is suing the Netherlands for €1.4bn (£1.2bn) over its plans to phase out coal, while Rockhopper Exploration, based in the UK, is suing the Italian government after it banned new drilling near the coast.
“It’s a real threat [to the Paris agreement]. It’s the biggest threat I am aware of,” said Yamina Saheb, a former employee of the ECT secretariat who quit in 2018 to raise the alarm.
Read more >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
With Covid, climate change, lack of effective action on any front that matters in the grand scheme of things… these days, life is a challenge.
But look around you. Notice the moment-by-moment gifts presented to humans as we go about our day. Here’s my “back yard” – a public park and marine preserve – that is particularly gorgeous this time of year.Take the time to notice your surroundings … and give thanks by, maybe, picking up and disposing of a plastic bag or discarded plastic bottle….
Coots, aka mud hens, love the marina this time of year.
In California, the sun rose at 7:40 am and set at 6:05am.
In South Africa, the sun rose at 5:01am and will set at 6:23am.
Week 84
What a difference two years make - or not.
Day 591 - Thursday, November 4 - What a difference...
About two years ago, an unidentified and virulent illness began circulating. That illness, Covid-19, has gone on to claim more than 5 million confirmed deaths around the world.
Alas, WHO says Europe is “once again at center of Covid pandemic” with cases at near-record levels and 500,000 more deaths forecast by February
Worldwide (Map)
November 4, 2021 –248,312,000 confirmed infections; 5,026,000 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 48,136,225 confirmed infections; 1,225,915 deaths
November 4, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 7,147,376,200 That’s 7.1 billion.
US (Map)
November 4, 2021 – 46,261,150 confirmed infections; 750,580 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 9,487,470 confirmed infections; 237,730 deaths
November 4, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
November 4, 2021 – 2,922,800 confirmed infections; 89,220 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 730,500 confirmed infections; 19,585 deaths deaths
November 4, 2019 - 0 confirmed infections; 0 deaths
CDC Covid trackerNews blues…
In Colorado, the surge in Covid cases could force hospitals to ration services. The increase can be attributed in part to the almost 40% of the state population that has not been vaccinated And, the UK is the first country to approve oral antiviral molnupiravir to treat Covid. Pills can be taken twice daily at home and priority will be given to elderly patients and those with health vulnerabilitiesWill anti-vaxers take pills?
Are we about to uncover another layer of anti-vaxer philosophy?***The Lincoln Project:Last Week in the Republican Party (2:03 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Good news on the human front: Diwali begins. Last year, while in KZN, the Diwali celebration had me prick up my ears: sounds like gun shots at night had me nervously asking neighbors what, if anything, had gone on overnight. (It is way more likely, in America, that what sounds like gunfire, is is gunfire – rather than a happy celebration.) I learned, “Oh, that’s Diwali…” – the Hindu festival of lights. I'd heard fire crackers /fire works. This, as South Africa, a smaller country than the US (albeit about 3 times larger than California), has diverse cultures living in close proximity. Diwali is part of what happens in small and large communities – and shared by all – with no gunfire or crazy shooters involved. A nice change of pace. Enjoy pictures >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Time change afoot. There’s an ongoing conversation about the necessity for some states to practice day light savings time and for other states not to practice. As all things in the US, it’s complicated . For this year, at least, in the US day light savings time began on Sunday, March 14 and will end, Sunday, November 7, at 2:00am. Pic DLST.As shown here, today, in California, the sun rose at 7:38am and will set at 6:06am. (The chance of rain – 10% - was way off: it rained quite nicely overnight.)
In South Africa, the sun rose at 5:02am and will set at 6:23am.Ah, sunlight... gonna miss you.
Day 589 - Tuesday, November 2 - Spooky
News blues…
In April 2020, two studies on Covid-19 came out identifying obesity as a significant risk factor for serious illness and death. Doctors were scrambling to understand why coronavirus gave some people mild symptoms and left others so sick they were gasping for air.[Many countries are ramping up action] as officials begin to recognize diet-related diseases such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes have made their citizens much more vulnerable during the pandemic. Some states in Mexico recently went as far as banning junk food sales to children— on top of the country’s existing taxes on sugary drinks and fast food. Chile was already deep in its own crackdown on unhealthy products, having imposed the first mandatory, national warning labels for foods with high levels of salt, sugar and fat along with a ban on marketing such foods to kids.
[In the US] there has been no such wake-up call about the link between diet-related diseases and the pandemic. There is no national strategy. There is no systemswide approach, even as researchers increasingly recognize that obesity is a disease that is driven not by lack of willpower, but a modern society and food system that’s almost perfectly designed to encourage the overeating of empty calories, along with more stress, less sleep and less daily exercise, setting millions on a path to poor health outcomes that is extremely difficult to break from.
Read “Diet-related diseases pose a major risk for Covid-19. But the U.S. overlooks them” >>***COVID-19 still rages, but some US states reject federal funds to help. As the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic burns through the rural U.S. state of Idaho, health officials say they don't have enough tests to track the disease or sufficient medical workers to help the sick.***The Lincoln Project: Anti-American (1:10 mins)Healthy planet, anyone?
Will COP cop to climate-related challenges? Or will it be just more blah, blah, blah? …***There Is No Reason To Trust Brazil’s Climate, Deforestation PledgesThe U.S. has held on-again, off-again talks with [Brazil’s] Bolsonaro government over climate and deforestation since the beginning of the Biden administration, which sees its attempts to bring Brazil back to the table on environmental concerns as a centerpiece of its efforts to reestablish the United States’ own leadership role in global climate efforts.
But Brazil’s “new” pledges are far less ambitious than they seem at first glance, experts say.
The emissions goal is “just a correction” to a previous policy that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s government outlined in December, said Marcio Astrini, the executive secretary of São Paulo-based Climate Observatory.
The 2020 target would’ve allowed Brazil to emit 400 million additional tons of carbon than it would have under pledges the country made in 2015. The new pledge merely puts Brazil back on the same path it had already plotted six years ago, when then-President Dilma Rousseff signed the country onto the Paris Climate agreement.
“They just aligned the numbers to have the same emissions pledges for 2030 that the country already had in 2015,” Astrini said. The Bolsonaro government, he added, is “running to the past while the world is no longer the same, the climate emergency has [worsened] and countries are being called to look to the future.”
…
There is little, if any, reason to trust that the Bolsonaro administration is serious about curbing greenhouse gas emissions or stopping the razing of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest. Much like former President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has turned his nation into a global pariah on climate issues. He didn’t even show up for COP26 in Glasgow.
Read the article >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
As mentioned in an earlier post - Alaska has high rates of vocal anti-vaxers… and high rates of Covid-19 infections - among the highest rates in the US.
A family member who lives in Anchorage – fully vaccinated with three doses and masked when in public – reports Sunday night’s neighborhood Halloween party was hosted by a man infected with Covid-19. He was inside the house while party goers cavorted outside… and the party was well attended.
Day 585 - Friday, October 29 - Reincarnate
News blues…
COVID-19 has killed nearly 5 million people — that we know of and have recorded - and the pandemic is far from over.
As the world confronts another tragic milestone, experts say the death toll and collateral damage will rise unless vaccines are delivered swiftly. (Includes an aerial view of a COVID-19 victims' burial ground at Rorotan Public Cemetery in Cilincing, North Jakarta, Indonesia on July 21, 2021. Sobering.)Within the next few days, COVID-19 will have killed more than five million people worldwide. It is yet another grim milestone in a seemingly endless stream of them. In many countries, including the United States, COVID-19 is now a leading cause of death, alongside heart disease and stroke. And yet experts say the pandemic’s true toll is likely much higher.
“It’s quite possible that the number of deaths is double what we see,” says Amber D’Souza, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “But five million is such a staggering number on its own. No country has been able to escape it.”***Critical election coming up on Tuesday next week. The Lincoln Project offers a perspective:
What’s on the ballot (0:25 mins)
Critical race card (0:55 mins)
And, at COP 26, a dinosaur tells UN 'don't choose extinction' as part of new climate campaign (2:31 mins)
Get the Don't Choose Extinction toolkit.
Stephen Colbert’s humorous view of Dr Horsey promoting Ivermectin. © The Late Show. Healthy planet, anyone?
Jenny, a half-mile long trash-trapping system, hauled in more than 63,000 pounds of waste from the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And Jenny wasn’t even fully operational….***Always a treat to watch US House Rep. Katie Porter, Democrat of southern California, address congress. Yesterday, she did her usual exceptional job, this time schooling fossil fuel executives – and the rest of us, too. Read the article and do watch the vid >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
With almost 5 million recorded deaths from Covid-19, titling this post “Reincarnate”- “to undergo rebirth in another body” or “reborn in another body”- may seems tasteless when applied to my lowly laptop.
Yesterday’s post, RIP, referred to my suspicion that my laptop – only two years old – was kaput. That was before I met Vladimir, the kaput laptop reviver. Vladimir removed 44 viruses, replaced the bum hard-drive (itself replaced while I was in South Africa last year), installed affordable anti-virus software (Wetroot, $25/year as opposed to McAfee, $160/year) and sent me on my way, laptop happily breathing a sigh of relief at its reprieve. Reincarnated, indeed. Thank you, Vladimir!***I dropped into my friendly grocery store’s pharmacy today to explore the possibility of getting my Covid booster earlier than the six month wait period. This, because I expect to return to South Africa before the six month window. (While SA is no longer on the UK’s countries red listed for travel to the UK, the CDC still cautions travelers.)
My thinking? I’d be just two or three weeks under the completion date. Surely, surely, I could wangle a jab. Yes, of course, I’d do my pre-flight Covid test, but I’d like to have the booster before I leave, too. So far, pharmacists’ responses are unequivocal: “No… you must wait until you are fully over the 6-month period. Not even a day earlier than the due date.”
The pharmacist was happy to jab me with Fluzone so I am vaxed against at least a subset of this year’s flu viruses.
Even as I know many the world over who want the jab are still trying for their first dose, I hanker for a third...
Crazy times!
Week 83
Worldwide (Map)
Day 585 - Thursday, October 28 - RIP?
October 28, 2021 – 245,213,000 confirmed infections; 4,976,400 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 48,136,225 confirmed infections; 1,225,915 deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 6,903,622,700. That’s almost 7 billion. (World population: 7.753 billion.) Keep it up, vax-positive humans!
US (Map)
October 28, 2021 – 45,711,200 confirmed infections; 741,400 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 9,487,470 confirmed infections; 237,730 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
October 28, 2021 – 2,920,600 confirmed infections; 89,049 deaths
November 5, 2020 – 730,500 confirmed infections; 19,585 deaths deaths***The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party (0:30 mins)
Ungrateful (0:30 min)
A view of America, from a rock star and a former president, in 9:26 minutes. A great interview with two extraordinary guys: “Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen talk 'Renegades'"
Obama’s question: how do we regain a sense of a common American story? Both men agree: “It’s a generational process….”
Are you in?
Healthy planet, anyone?
Everyone clued-in enough to understand the urgency of the climate crisis probably knows that the ocean has become a dumping zone for plastic and that single-use plastic bottles and bags are choking the planet.***Here is a list of a dozen of America’s top “dirtiest” climate villains.
There are many more, in America and around the world. For example, “The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement." Also, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, 3 of the world’s largest money management companies.
Question: Who are the climate villains in your country? Do you know?***To successfully emerge from Covid into a fairer, greener future we need to recognise nature as an essential piece of the puzzle: “Net zero is not enough – we need to build a nature-positive future” >>***The Guardian’s Greenlight segment promotes The Climate Pledge , Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s contribution “of his personal $10 billion” to the Bezos Earth Fund - equivalent to more than 7 percent of his net worth.” (Ironically, Bezos recently spent $5.5 billion to be in space for 4 minutes...but who's quibbling? Better to spend something on cleaning up some of what you’re responsible for.)
On the other hand, his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, contributed $5.7 billion in unrestricted donations “to hundreds” of groups. The seven- and eight-figure gifts were the largest many [charities] had ever received." She’s donated $8 billion since 2020.Hmm, just showing up ol’ Jeff? Who cares? Compete away, Bezos... and keep it coming,Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
RIP laptop? My laptop is riddled with … something… that makes it most frustrating to use. Today, it goes into “the shop” for an overhaul for what's described as “a couple of days…”
We shall see. Post resume asap….
Day 583 - Tuesday, October 26 - Water
News blues
With further travel in my imminent future, digging through current travel requirements and restrictions is a fulltime job.
The CDC’s website “operationalizes the President’s “safer, more stringent international travel system”. The US White house’s website offers an outdated executive order, “A Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease”
New details emerge on travel to the US, including from South Africa:Beginning Nov. 8, foreign, non-immigrant adults traveling to the United States will need to be fully vaccinated, with only limited exceptions, and all travelers will need to be tested for the virus before boarding a plane to the U.S. There will be tightened restrictions for American and foreign citizens who are not fully vaccinated.Accordingly, given my vaccination status, I’d be cleared to travel to South Africa – well, pending negative results of my pre-travel Covid test. But I worry about clearance to return to the US in the spring. My current life is a balancing act: property and family responsibilities here in California and property and estate/family responsibilities there, in South Africa.
The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves away from restrictions that ban non-essential travel from several dozen countries — most of Europe, China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Iran — and instead focuses on classifying individuals by the risk they pose to others.
It also reflects the White House’s embrace of vaccination requirements as a tool to push more Americans to get the shots by making it inconvenient to remain unvaccinated.
Responding to those responsibilities in South Africa seems like a no-brainer… except for Covid. Covid, the Great Unknown.
***The Lincoln Project: What’s on the ballot (0:30 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Water. A non-renewable resource.
Did you know that there's as much water today, as there was thousands of years ago? Actually, it's the same water. The same water supply has been circulating throughout the world for ages. In fact, the water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank!
How is that possible? Through the amazing Water Cycle as nature's way of constantly meeting water demand with water supply.
We depend on fresh water from two main sources - surface water and ground water. Surface water is the water found on the earth's surface such as oceans, lakes, streams, rivers, ponds and reservoirs. Of all the earth's surface water, 97 percent is too salty to drink because it's located in oceans and seas. Another 2 percent is locked in ice caps and glaciers. Only about 1 percent of the earth's water is fresh water to be used for agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, community and personal household needs.
Read more >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Living in the conurbation of San Francisco Bay – population 7.75 million – means many choices of lifestyle. My choices include living modestly albeit close to water… near a marine preserve with miles of shoreline I explore regularly on foot.
Today’s exploration included the western portion of Ballena Isle, looking toward San Francisco. These photos (taken on my cell phone) don’t do justice to the Bay, nor do they give a realistic view of just how many cargo ships populate the Bay, awaiting service – unloading or loading - at the Port of Oakland… due to the ongoing supply chain backup.
I’ve walked this area multiple times over the years. Today was my first visit since returning from South Africa in early June.
San Francisco Bay - city on horizon - with cargo ships lining up...
More cargo ships awaiting service at the Port of Oakland.
An altar of small treasures. The marina on this side of Ballena Isle, home to some 200 boats of different sizes and shapes, looks about the same.
The big change was to the garden used by the marina’s life-aboards. What was once patchy and somewhat unkempt has morphed into a lovely, artistically groomed Eden, clean, swept, and full of small treasures.I met Peet walking Dave, her very friendly pit bull who, by way of greeting, slobbered over my trousered knees. During our friendly conversation, Peet explained she – and her husband and Dave – lived aboard their trawler. Surprise! I’d believed live aboard lifestyles were a thing of the past in San Francisco Bay. I learned that it was still possible – theoretically, right now, in my hometown, to live aboard one’s boat. Peet advised I approach the Harbor Master to “get your name on the two year’s long waiting list but get on it anyway…”. The waiting list wasn’t a surprise. Moreover, two years on a list for a slip is no hardship right now when I no longer have a boat.
At the Harbor Master’s office I got caught n the Catch 22: One can only get on the wait list if one already has a boat in that marina – that, presumably, one does not live aboard. But why would I have a boat in the marina if I wasn’t living aboard?Turned out, also, Peet is a self-employed muralist. She volunteered to paint a mural painted on the wall of a storage container at the marina garden.
Note the brown pelicans, once endangered, but making a comeback in this area...
Peet's mural, highlighting the comeback of California's Brown Pelicans.
Spectacular, aren't they? Note how Peet incorporated the actual tree (top left) into the mural.
Day 582 - Monday, October 25 - The day after
News blues
Still mulling Ivermectin? Before embarking on any self-help regime, get the basic facts. For example, the difference between what’s bacteria and what’s virus is not inconsequential. Bacteria and viruses can live outside of the human body (for instance, on a countertop) sometimes for many hours or days. Parasites and bacteria, however, require a living host in order to survive, and both can usually be destroyed with antibiotics. Antibiotics cannot kill viruses. Coronavirus is, yes, a virus.
Ivermectin kills parasites/bacteria. Moreover, “scientific” reports on Ivermectin show that not all science is worth following.How do you know what to believe? Keep an open mind, conduct research with discrimination, and practice discernment. These days, be skeptical.
Remember, no one ever promised you a rose garden … (3:09 mins)***MeidasTouch: Trump in hiding (0:30 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Inevitably, tens of millions of filthy, used medical gloves imported into the US: Trash bags stuffed full of used medical gloves, some visibly soiled, some even blood-stained, litter the floor of a warehouse on the outskirts of Bangkok.
But don’t only blame Bangkok. We in America do an excellent job of pretending discarded PPE miraculously disappear. We burn it . Or pretend we don’t know it’s there . Or “recycle” it ...
What so you so with your discarded PPE? What you do matters, too.Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Apres le deluge… Call it a bomb cyclone, an atmospheric river, or a drenching storm, local news reports on areas hard hit (1:16 mins) More local news tells of heavy rain that resulted in serious flooding and debris flows across drought-stricken and wildfire-ravaged California and even breaking some all-time 24-hour precipitation records >>
In my neighborhood, old oak and sycamore trees lining walkways near my apartment block my direct view of the park and beach. I donned my colorful polka dot gumboots and took to the pathways for a firsthand look.
Waterflow barometer: the pond is full to the rim
This short dam wall was completely exposed this time last week.
mo'tating mallards
This concrete "jetty" sat, dry, in sand and leaf debris just days ago
Polka dot gum boots indicated depth of water in a temporary pond
Amazingly small amount of debris blown out of sycamores
Ditto: not much damage to elderly trees
Leaf debris sculpted by water
Day 580 Saturday, October 23 - Atmospheric river
News blues
Boosting boosters…
I dropped by the friendly pharmacy at the local grocery store that delivers Covid jabs for an update. According to my reckoning, I’m due for a booster by December and wanted to confirm that’s the soonest I can get the jab.
Perhaps it’s a sign of the times – supply chains, inefficiency, etc., – but this major grocery store had posted someone at the entrance to prevent shoppers from entering. “The computer system has gone down. We don’t expect it up for at least another hour. Come back then.”
Hmmm.Being anti-shopping in general and particularly anti-shopping on weekends, I’ll try again on Monday. Meantime, I continue to read and try to make sense of the plethora of conflicting and/or worrisome information about the pandemic.And, how to know when the pandemic becomes endemic
- Mixing Covid boosters
- UK’s neighbours criticize Covid policies as cases begin to surge across EU
- Half doses, third doses, kids' doses: COVID vaccine delivery goes next-level difficult as the U.S. Covid-19 vaccine rollout gets a lot more complicated.
- The high-stake risks for older, fully vaccinated people; new data on COVID-19 vaccines for younger kids; rising anxiety and depression in children.
***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***Healthy planet, anyone?
Weather forecasters and emergency workers warn of impending atmospheric river – a deluge of rain. Rain in BA forecast Bay Area Bracing for Atmospheric River This Weekend
This forecast sent me out in the glorious fall weather both to gauge the impact of rain we had over the last couple of days and to record now what’s likely to change in the next day.
Gutters struggling to absorb what's fallen so far.
This neighborhood pond looked parched just a week ago.
Accepting storm water, it's looking healthier this week.
Next week? If rain falls as forecast, it'll be flush.
Ducks and coots appreciate the additional fresh water.
Storm clouds (facing east)
Storm clouds over San Francisco (facing west). Let the rains begin...Week 82
Today’s Covid numbers compared with numbers exactly one year ago:
Day 578 Thursday, October 21 - October updates
(Note: worldwide, we’re on the cusp of 5 million dead.)Worldwide (Map)
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 6,690,061,700. That’s 6.6 billion. Amazing.
US (Map)
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 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths
News blues
SA recorded 591 new Covid-19 cases and 80 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
… Of the new cases, only two provinces recorded more than 100 infections in the past day — KwaZulu-Natal with 129 and the Western Cape with 124. Gauteng was third most affected, with 71. Limpopo had the fewest new cases, with seven recorded.***Vaccines for kids ages 5-11 prepare to roll out, according to the CDC’s plan advising states on how to carry it out.***Where the rubber meets the road? Stopping the spread of COVID-19 is a great way to help U.S. military families, yet anti-vaxxers don’t see it that way: The Hypocrisy of the Anti-vax Patriot***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***Whackidoodle-ism continues
The Lincoln Project: This week in the Republican Party (2:00 mins)
One would think that, with close to 5 billion dead from a coronavirus on Planet Earth, contradictory humans would re-evaluate their points of view. Instead, too many continue to spew theories suitable only for Planet Whackidoodle:
- End-times radio host says COVID vaccines implant 'an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite' in your body
- Utah Protesters Claim Hospitals Are Killing People Who Have COVID
- Current top 10 conspiracy theories
Healthy planet, anyone?
California’s Dixie Fire is now 90% contained. The fire has burned a total of 963,195 acres, the largest single wildfire in California history.
See how California’s Dixie Fire created its own weather …
Tornadoes…
Fire whirls …
And atmospheric instability…
Fires and climate change … and more on fires and climate change
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Other than continuing to prep my apartment for short-term rental – and respond to interested parties about that – life has been non-eventful. Intermittent rain continues… Pacific Flyway birds continue to arrive in the park and on the bay.
Life is good enough.
Day 577 Wednesday, October 20 - Getting tough
News blues
US Prez Biden is cracking down on vax-avoidant states – finally!Officials with US OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration - are threatening to assert jurisdiction over workplace safety in three states that haven’t adopted President Joe Biden’s emergency regulation for health care facilities.
South Carolina, Arizona and Utah all have what are known as OSHA state plans. Federal OSHA oversees workplace safety around the country, but states are allowed to handle it on their own as long as they meet minimum federal requirements.
OSHA officials said Tuesday that those three states had missed the deadline to implement the Biden administration’s new rule meant to protect health care workers from COVID-19. If they don’t implement such a rule, the administration will move to revoke approval of their state OSHA plans — which would subject employers in South Carolina, Arizona and Utah to federally run inspections.
Read more >>***Variant of the Delta variant?
Delta is the UK's dominant variant, but latest official data suggests 6% of Covid cases that have been genetically sequenced are of a new type.Read more >>
AY.4.2, which some are calling "Delta Plus", contains mutations that might give the virus survival advantages.
… identified as AY.4.2, this offshoot or sublineage of Delta has been increasing slowly since then. It includes some new mutations affecting the spike protein, which the virus uses to penetrate our cells.
So far, there is no indication that it is considerably more transmissible as a result of these changes, but it is something experts are studying.***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>
(0:35 mins)
***The Lincoln Project: Rudy Giuliani loses it… again… here he is acting out the part of Abe Lincoln to blacklist a Democratic candidate … then putting his foot in his mouth to be sued by The Lincoln Project . Will this madness ever end?Healthy planet, anyone?
Rain has finally come to the Bay Area. This, as California records it’s driest year in nearly a century and Gov. Newsom declares a statewide drought emergency and officials announce that Californians reduced water use an average of 5% in August..
Rain falls only in winter in California and, usually, it’s a gentle rainfall, perhaps windy but seldom accompanied by thunder and lightning. Lightning is an anomaly and, when it occurs, frequently ends up as a spectacular photo on the front page of local newspapers.
Rainfall in Kwa Zulu Natal, on the other hand, usually is accompanied by thunder and lightning. The rainy season has begun there, too.
Water. Life giving.***Also life giving? A sacred valley. Could it be designated America’s next national monument? If successful, the designation would end a decades-long fight to protect rare swamp cedars — and a key Native American site >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
In Houston, Texas, a new theme for children’s birthday parties: Indoor skydiving…. Shown here, a member of the family checking it out as a venue for grandson’s birthday party with 5 of his friends. Woo hoo!
Day 574 Sunday, October 17 - Tourist
News blues
U.S. throws out millions of doses of COVID vaccine as world goes wanting >>***On US and global infrastructure and supply chain management (or lack thereof…)… the thick layer of irrationality …encrusts our supply chain. It’s beyond the power of any one person to change this anytime soon, but trying to scrape off as many of these encumbrances as possible should be a national priority.
We are experiencing the worst disruption of the supply chain since the advent of the shipping-container era in the late 1950s, driven, at bottom, by the pandemic. A surge in e-commerce, coupled with a labor shortage, helped to create the conditions for a spiraling series of bottlenecks.
Ships are idling waiting to unload their cargo at ports, while containers are waiting at the ports to be shipped further inland, while cargo is waiting outside full warehouses on chassis that aren’t available to use to pick up other containers, and so on. In theory, there are plenty of ships, trucks and other capacity to handle the volume, but not if so much of that capacity is tied up and frozen in place.
… there’s no underestimating the challenge here. Everyone along every part of the U.S. logistics chain is pointing fingers at each other, and everyone deserves some blame, whether it’s the ports, the truckers, the warehouses, the railroads or other players.
Read more >>
One section of supply chain buildup at Port of Oakland, October 16, 2021.
A supply chain joke for 2021. ***The latest information on vaccine boosters
Across the board, from Feds to local clinics, communication – lack of and outright miscommunication? – has been a worrisome feature of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contradictory information continues… but we do the best we can to research and uncover the latest information on how to protect ourselves and our family and friends. The following is the latest – as of this week – on boosters.
- FDA Panel Endorses Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Booster >>
- So far, 8.8 million Americans have received a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Here’s everything to know about booster doses of all three vaccines.
Read more >>- Should you mix and match COVID-19 vaccines? Experts weigh in. While not yet authorized, small trials suggest some booster combinations are not only safe, they may yield better protection. Read more >>
***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***The Lincoln Project : Peaceful Pledge (0:35 mins)Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
I recommend anyone become a tourist in her/his home region and/or city.
Yesterday, I was a tourist in one small section of San Francisco, from the ferry building to the downtown half mile of Mission Street, over Market Street via Kearney Street to inner North Beach. Blessed with great weather it was a wonderful trip!Ferry passing me… not even a thought to stop and pick me up!
I misread the ferry schedule and arrived at one of the East Bay ferry terminals early. According to my online schedule, a ferry is due at 10:15. According to the posted schedule at the terminal, there is no 10:15am ferry on a weekend.
Forty minutes later, aboard! On my way to San Francisco towards the Ferry Building.
San Francisco....
Ferry Building Landing with Farmer's Market kiosks.
Iconic Ferry Building, 2021. Mission Street hosts the leaning towers of the Millennium, Transbay Transit Center, and the Salesforce buildings – with tax payers on the hook to pay for the fix.
Impressive... too bad they're sinking... San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art – MoMA – seems to have expanded since my last visit, too.Of my choices – Paul Klee and Ruth Asawa, Alex Calder and other exhibits, I elected for Diego Riviera’s “Pan American Unity” mural.
I did not visit the Yerba Buena Ctr although I have many memories both attending and being part of presenting events there. Moreover, one memory still haunts: A group of anti-war protesters and protest groups – including Vets for Peace, Courage to Resist – presented a moving protest that entered and then passed YBC gardens. I noticed one woman, perhaps working in YBC garden, take fright at our overt spectacle. She sunk to the ground and began to cry. I do not speak Spanish nor was she interested in conversation. Instead, she ran away, still crying. Clearly, our raucous protest had stimulated unpleasant memories in her.
An example of how wide is human experience, memory, over-focus on one’s own current issue, and lack of awareness about one’s actions can affect others.
San Francisco is full of memories, from the Occupy movement – Justin Herman Plaza and local streets hosted many Occupy tents back in the day (see A Month in the Life of Occupy and May Day in Occupy Oakland and many more pictures).
In North Beach, I discovered City Lights books going strong (not shut down as I’d heard. Co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti died but City Lights goes on… So, too, does Spec’s although it opens at 3pm on Saturdays and I couldn’t wait.
Lunch was a North Beach Special sandwich from Molinari’s – prosciutto, provolone, pickled red peppers and sundried tomatoes. Yum!
Molinari's I ate half of the huge Molinari’s sandwich in a small park I’d passed through most every day of my life when I worked in the tech industry around Pacific Avenue and the Levi Strauss & Co building, then HQ for that company.
Good times!My visit stimulated so many memories. I’d find myself stopping at a point, trying to remember what about it stimulated my memory. Sometimes it was simply an area where I’d purchase coffee each morning, sometimes a spot where a US Army recruiting station had operated for a short while, or the building housing a TV studio where I’d been interviewed on my anti-war travels and book ….Crossing Broadway at Columbus and bumping into John Cleese...
One of my favorite North Beach buildings... on Colombus...
owned, or once owned, by Francis Ford Coppola.
I spent more than four hours visiting my past in San Francisco then took the ferry back home. The view leaving The City is as impressive as is the view arriving….
Interesting trivia on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge…
508-foot caisson This 508-foot caisson was thus built from the top down and rammed through 100 feet of mud into bedrock to tower 288 feet above the water. This anchorage contains more concrete than the Empire State Building.I’d planned to visit again today, with a friend. Weather forecasters predicted rain so we agreed to go another day. So far, alas, no rain….Week 81
Day 571 Thursday, October 14 - Leadership…the fading art of leadership…[is] not a failure of one party or another; it’s more of a generational decline of good judgment.
“The elites think it’s all about expertise… It’s important to have experts, but they aren’t always right. They can be “hampered by their own orthodoxies, their own egos, their own narrow approach to the world.”
[Conclusion]: “You need broad-minded leaders who know how to hold people accountable, who know how to delegate, who know a good chain of command, and know how to make hard judgements.— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid B
by Lawrence WrightTalking about leadership, or lack thereof, remember this "Failure" of leadership? >> (2:10 mins)
***Worldwide (Map)
October 14, 2021 – 239,341,600 confirmed infections; 4,877,540 deaths
July 22, 2021: 191,945,000 confirmed infections; 4,126,300 deathsMore than 6.5 billion vaccinations administered
Track worldwide vaccination rate >>
US (Map)
October 14, 2021 – 44,694,200 confirmed infections; 719,760 deaths
July 22, 2021: 34,226,300 confirmed infections; 609,900 deaths
SA (Tracker)
October 14, 2021 – 2,914,000 confirmed infections; 88,500 deaths
July 22, 2021: 2,327,475 confirmed infections; 68,200 deaths
News blues
Roughly 36,000 people died from Covid-19 in the United States from July to the end of August 2021. How many could have been saved if the nation as a whole had achieved ambitious, but nevertheless realistic, levels of vaccination?
Read “Lives lost to under-vaccination“ >> ***Quote:
By the end of 2020, the death rate per 100,000 for the United States as a whole was 134.89; in other words, more than one American died for every thousand people in the country. That was nearly two and a half times the rate in Canada, at 53.98. Only Italy and the U.K. had higher rates than the U.S. among countries most affected by Covid. In the first half of 2020, life expectancy in the U.S. fell by a full year, from 78.8 years to 77.8, the largest drop since the Second World War. By the end of the year, the United States had more cases and more deaths than any other country. The actual tally will never be known, but a retrospective serological study estimated that 35 percent of Covid deaths went unreported. Total deaths increased by 15 percent, making 2020 the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history. The figure that will haunt America is that the U.S. accounts for about 20 percent of all the Covid fatalities in the world, despite having only 4 percent of the population. At the beginning of the pandemic, China’s unprecedented lockdown, compared to the initial halting reaction in Italy, suggested that autocratic systems had an unbeatable advantage in dealing with a contagion like that of SARS-CoV-2. Over time, however, democratic regimes found their footing and did marginally better than authoritarian ones. Advanced countries performed better than developing ones, but not by as much as might have been expected. Due to the high volume of air travel, richer countries were quickly overwhelmed, while poorer countries had more time to prepare for the onslaught. High-tech medical advantages footing and did marginally better than authoritarian ones. Advanced countries performed better than developing ones, but not by as much as might have been expected. Due to the high volume of air travel, richer countries were quickly overwhelmed, while poorer countries had more time to prepare for the onslaught. High-tech medical advantages proved of little use when the main tools for countering the spread of the disease were social distancing, hand washing, and masks. This can be seen in the rankings by the Lowy Institute of the performance of countries managing the pandemic. The top ten countries are:
New Zealand
Taiwan
Thailand
Cyprus
Rwanda
Iceland
Australia
Latvia
Sri Lanka
The United States ranked number 94 out of 98, between Bolivia and Iran. China was not included in the rankings because of the lack of transparency in its testing.
The Pew Research Center surveyed fourteen advanced countries to see how they viewed the world during the pandemic. In Denmark, 95 percent of the respondents agreed that their country had handled the crisis capably. In Australia, the figure was 94 percent; Germany was 88 percent. The United Kingdom and the U.S. were the only countries where a majority disagreed. In Denmark, 72 percent said that the country had become more unified since the contagion emerged. Only 18 percent of Americans agreed with the statement. In every country surveyed, people ranked the U.S. response lowest. And respondents in most countries said that China was now the leading economic power, not the U.S. Each of these categories is a measure of leadership.
— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
by Lawrence Wright***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***“Global supply chain”… the latest buzzwords warning of upcoming trouble. And an opportunity for humans to understand how interdependent are We the People. One link of the chain goes down… and we’re all endangered.
Also known as, “another wake up call”?
Read more >>Healthy planet, anyone?
… the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.
… But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, puts it.
The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second … the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.
… But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, puts it.
The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.
Read “Climate disaster is here” >> Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Weather people continue to predict rain. Rain doesn’t seem to have heard the predictions. We’re still waiting….
I miss my houseboat.
Day 570 Wednesday, October 13 - So many dead...
News blues
Each flag represents an American dead of Covid-19.
In D.C., 695,000 Flags—and Counting—Memorialize the Americans Who Have Died of Covid-19. ... Each flag, planted in neat squares on 20 acres of grass just north of the Washington Monument, represents one person who has died from Covid-19 in the United States.. ***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***The Lincoln Project - and other media
Last Week in the Republican Party… (2:06 mins)
Dragon of Budapest (0:55 mins)
Italy’s economic experience after the Black Death. “It was a great time to be an artisan… Suddenly, labor was scarce, and because of that, market wages had to go up. The bourgeoisie, the artisans, and the workers started to have a stronger voice. When you don’t have people, you have to pay them better.”
The relative standing of capital and labor reversed: landed gentry were battered by plunging food prices and rising wages, while former serfs, who had been too impoverished to leave anything but a portion of land to their eldest sons, increasingly found themselves able to spread their wealth among all their children, including their daughters. Women, many of them widows, entered depopulated professions, such as weaving and brewing.
“What happens after the Black Death, it’s like a wind, fresh air coming in, the fresh air of common sense,” Pomata said.
The intellectual overthrow of the medieval medical establishment was caused by doctors who set aside the classical texts and gradually turned to empirical evidence. It was the revival of medical science, which had been dismissed following the fall of ancient Rome, a thousand years earlier. After the Black Death, nothing was the same,” said Pomata. “What I expect now is something as dramatic is going to happen, not so much in medicine but in economy and culture. Because of danger, there’s this wonderful human response, which is to think in a new way.”— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
by Lawrence WrightHealthy planet, anyone?
The UN’s main human rights body overwhelmingly voted to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right, and to appoint an expert to monitor human rights in the context of the climate emergency.Okay. That’s step one. Step two and implementation is a way more difficult job. Let’s see how that goes…. Meanwhile, read the article >>
The human rights council passed the clean-environment resolution, which also calls on countries to boost their abilities to improve the environment, by 43-0 while four member states – China, India, Japan and Russia – abstained.Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
How do I define luxury? Leaving my vehicle at home and taking the bus to the neighboring town to conduct business by appointment.
During these Covid-conscious days, local transit systems protect bus drivers from potential Covid infection by erecting a see-through Perspex door between driver’s cabin and bus interior.
On the way to town yesterday, the bus driver simply had riders enter the bus through the back door, no charge for riding, no need to pass through the Perspex door.
The bus driver on the return trip informed riders before they entered the bus that it was “very crowded, standing room only” (local high schools had closed for the day and many teenagers were on their way home). Passengers like me, determined to enter the bus, paid the fare then passed through the Perspex door. The bus was, indeed, very crowded – social distancing of fewer than six inches rather than six feet – and if a teenager wore a mask, s/he wore it around her/his chins. A crowded bus ride was still better than driving my vehicle.
My appointment was near an upscale grocery store I’d frequented in the past. Yesterday, I dropped by there, to purchase both lunch – pumpkin/apple soup – and, I planned, a bottle of imported British elderberry juice concentrate. Alas, the store no longer carries elderberry juice concentrate. It does, however, carry British imported Marmite.Marmite, as any Brit or South African knows, is a viscous, blackish, very salty spread made from Brewers’ yeast. Many not brought up on Marmite “sarmies” (sandwiches) find the substance gross. I admit I’m less fond of Marmite than I once was, particularly when the price of a jar is as jacked up as it is in this grocery store. Marmite in SA is less than half the price in California. Nevertheless, stymied in my desire to purchase elderberry juice concentrate, I opted for Marmite. (Elderberry juice would likely have been more expensive than Marmite, too.) Apparently, Marmite is expensive these days as British breweries shut down due to Covid.
The pumpkin/apple soup was good. I sat on a rickety bench outside the store to eat. Pre-Covid, the store offered customers outdoor tables and chairs. Those are long gone.
My car-free trip into and around town stimulated me to further exploration.
Yesterday was the first time, since my return to California on 28 May, that I had time to explore. Covid changes include shuttered stores and fewer shoppers in the streets, but just as many teenagers doing just what teenagers have always done on busses: rough-house, talk loudly, harassed one another – and never, ever, offer a seat to “seniors” as directed by bus drivers and posted signs.
Saturday I plan to board the local ferry and head into San Francisco, perhaps the Museum of Modern Art, or Union Square and other touristy areas.
Sunday, I’ll head back to San Francisco with a friend, again on the ferry, to explore North Beach.
North Beach was, once upon a time, the gathering place for “Bohemians” - artists, writers, and creatives. Alas, I’ve heard that famed City Lights and other famous bookstore, Spec’s bar, the Condor Club (of Carol Dodo fame) have closed. One of our most beloved local poets, Jack Hirschman, with whom many of us met each Wednesday night at Spec’s bar, died recently - one month after my mother’s passing. He was 87 years old.
I’ve been away for two years, but I might run into someone in North Beach that I know from that time….
Day 569 Tuesday, October 12 - Gear up for COP
News blues
More than 400 international health organisations and professionals, representing two-thirds of global healthcare workers, have signed an open letter calling on politicians to consider the health benefits of climate action ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.Read more >>
“We know that climate change is impacting people’s health, this is increasingly visible around the world. We also know that many solutions to address climate change offer tremendous health co-benefits,” said Dr Jeni Miller of Global Climate and Health Alliance, the organisation which drafted the letter. “The health community is really seeing that if we don’t step up and call for action on climate change, we’re failing the patients and the communities that we care for.”
Even Pope Francis is worried about political and corporate will, lack of focus, and inaction on climate change. Recently, 84-year-old Pope Francis told lawmakers to get their act together: “We owe this to the young, to future generations….”
COP 26 information >>
What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guide and many things you need to know about the Glasgow conference seeking to forge a global response to the climate emergency.***The Lincoln Project - and other media
Glenn Will Not Replace Us (0:55 mins)
— The Plague Year: America in the Time of CovidQuote: Patient Zero, if that person is ever found, will tell us how the current pandemic arose, but the search will also uncover the many ways dangerous diseases emerge. If the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is natural, then we can expect recurrences, as the processes that led to its interaction with humans — climate change, intensive animal farming, the encroachment of civilization into natural preserves, smuggling and consumption of exotic species — have only increased. If the virus was created in a laboratory, for whatever purpose, then it is a reminder that science is engaged in experiments that invite catastrophe with the smallest slip. In either case, Covid-19 is a harbinger.
Lawrence Wright
Healthy planet, anyone?
Creative thinking and doing….
In Nigeria, a country heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports, entrepreneur Ifedolapo Runsewe has identified another type of black gold: used car tyres.Read more >>
She has set up Freetown Waste Management Recycle, an industrial plant dedicated to transforming old tyres into paving bricks, floor tiles and other goods that are in high demand in Africa’s most populous nation.
“Creating something new from something that will otherwise be lying somewhere as waste was part of the motivation,” Runsewe said at her factory in the city of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria.
“We are able to create an entire value chain about the tyres,” she said, holding a paving brick that is one of the company’s best-selling products.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
No longer in the daily grind known as the commute, but I’m busy, nonetheless. More on that tomorrow…
Day 568 Monday, October 11 - As the world turns...
News blues
The struggle between and among the Covid convinced and unconvinced continues. The people of Anchorage, Alaska (largely unconvinced) were afforded six days to present their concerns about mask mandates – and, turns out, whatever else was on their minds. And a lot was on their minds.
Those focused on mitigating and surviving Covid stayed home to participate via Zoom and social media.… people lined up to comment against the ordinance.Fun times!
Opponents have shown up en masse night after night . Mayor Dave Bronson and Assembly member Jamie Allard, ardent opponents of COVID-19 restrictions and masking requirements, have encouraged comments and engaged in procedural tactics that extend the process.
Mask ordinance opponents on social media encouraged families to bring their children to testify, and many did. A group served pizza to attendees in the entrance to the library.
Read “Anchorage Assembly and mayor battle over proceedings during sixth chaotic night of public comment on proposed mask mandate" >>***Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>***The Lincoln Project - and other media
Package Deal (0:55 mins)
Not for Sale (0:25 mins)
After following the pandemic for close to two years, from perspective of a locked down South African and a Californian, Lawrence Wright’s new book, The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid is a good reminder of how We the People arrived at our current state. It’s also a confirmation of media reports from the pandemic’s early days.
Interesting quotes:
During the transition to the Trump administration, the Obama White House handed off a sixty-nine-page document called the “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.” A meticulous, step-by-step guide for combatting a “pathogen of pandemic potential,” the playbook contains a directory of the government’s resources in time of need and is meant to be pulled off the shelf the moment things start to go haywire. At the top of the list of dangerous pathogens are the respiratory viruses, including novel influenzas, orthopoxviruses” (such as smallpox), and coronaviruses.Another interesting quote…
The playbook outlines the conditions under which various government agencies should be enlisted. With domestic outbreaks, the playbook specifies that “[ w]hile States hold significant power and responsibility related to public health response outside of a declared Public Health Emergency, the American public will look to the U.S. Government for action when multi-state or other significant public health events occur.” Questions concerning the severity and contagiousness of a disease, or how to handle potentially hazardous waste, should be directed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal “Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Is there evidence of deliberate intent, such as a terrorist action? The FBI has the lead. Have isolation and quarantine been implemented? How robust is contact tracing? Is clinical care in the region scalable if cases explode?
There are many such questions, with decisions proposed and agencies assigned. Because the playbook was passed to a new administration that might not be familiar with the manifold resources of the federal government, there are appendices describing such entities as the Surge Capacity Force in the Department of Homeland Security, consisting of a group of FEMA “reservists and others that can be called upon as “deployable human assets.” The Pentagon’s Military Aeromedical Evacuation Team can be assembled to transport patients. HHS has a Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, with the dry acronym DMORT, consisting of “intermittent federal employees, each with a particular field of expertise,” such as medical examiners, pathologists, anthropologists, dental assistants, and investigators.
The Trump administration jettisoned the Obama playbook.”“January 27 ... “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.”There was an op-ed in USA Today that morning. “I remember how Trump sought to stoke fear and stigma during the 2014 Ebola epidemic,” Joe Biden wrote. “Trump’s demonstrated failures of judgment and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge.” The former vice president cited Trump’s proposed cuts to NIH, CDC, and the Agency for International Development— “the very agencies we need to fight this outbreak and prevent future ones.”Trump had dismantled the White House team in charge of global health security.”The Kindle version of this book is available in local libraries.
“And he has treated with utmost contempt institutions that facilitate international cooperation, thus undermining the global efforts that keep us safe from pandemics and biological attacks. “To be blunt, I am concerned that the Trump administration’s shortsighted policies have left us unprepared for a dangerous epidemic that will come sooner or later.”Healthy planet, anyone?
Plastic products have played significant roles in protecting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread use of personal protective gear created a massive disruption in the supply chain and waste disposal system. Millions of discarded single-use plastics (masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers) have been added to the terrestrial environment and could cause a surge in plastics washing up the ocean coastlines and littering the seabed. This paper attempts to assess the environmental footprints of the global plastic wastes generated during COVID-19 and analyze the potential impacts associated with plastic pollution. The amount of plastic wastes generated worldwide since the outbreak is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes/day. We estimate that approximately 3.4 billion single-use facemasks/face shields are discarded daily as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, globally. Our comprehensive data analysis does indicate that COVID-19 will reverse the momentum of years-long global battle to reduce plastic waste pollution. As governments are looking to turbo-charge the economy by supporting businesses weather the pandemic, there is an opportunity to rebuild new industries that can innovate new reusable or non-plastic PPEs. The unanticipated occurrence of a pandemic of this scale has resulted in unmanageable levels of biomedical plastic wastes. This expert insight attempts to raise awareness for the adoption of dynamic waste management strategies targeted at reducing environmental contamination by plastics generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.Click to download the pdf version of “COVID pollution: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global plastic waste footprint” >>Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Life in congested commute lanes continues for another day….
Talking Heads put it right: “ask yourself, how did I get here…?” (3:44 mins)
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