Mothers Speak about War and Terror: BA.5

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Surprised?

News blues

Surprise! “Official Covid-19 case metrics severely undercount the true number of infections, leaving the United States with a critical blind spot as the most transmissible coronavirus variant yet takes hold.”
Is anyone surprised by this information?
Reminder, for too many months, official policy has been to hand out Covid test kits (a good move) yet offer no effective plan to collect test data (a dumb move).
Surprise! Severe undercount is the natural result.
We, the people – a fractious lot at the best of times – might not have reported test results anyway, but at least there’d be an understanding of what is expected and why.

An estimate from the Institute for Health Metrics, a research center at the University of Washington, suggests that actual infection numbers in the first week of July have been about seven times higher than reported cases – which have averaged about 107,000 each day over the past two weeks…
Before the CDC lifted the requirement for international travelers to test before coming into the country last month … it was an “amazing opportunity” to monitor the state of Covid-19 across the US among a group of mostly asymptomatic people. About 5% of travelers were testing positive throughout the month of May, which he says probably translates to at least 1 million new infections every day in the broader US population – 10 times higher than the official count. Now that BA.5 is here, “we know that there is going to be a wave in the fall – there’s almost no doubt about that – if not before. So you just have to be really cognitive that that is what might happen…”

Read more >>

Buckle up, folks! And get boosted - again! Yes, another booster is coming.
Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator along with other health officials recently outlined their plan to combat the latest form of the coronavirus to pose a threat: emphasize existing tools like vaccines and boosters, testing, and treatments.

BA.5 has become dominant in the United States, as well as in much of the world, because it is so adept at establishing infections in people who’ve previously had Covid-19 or been vaccinated — even more so than other versions of the virus that also fall under the Omicron umbrella. At the same time, waning immunity from previous infections or past shots leaves people more susceptible to infections, even as vaccine-elicited protection against more severe outcomes is broadly maintained.
Health officials sought to convey they were on top of BA.5, while underscoring the risks it posed. The strategy outlined included improving the accessibility f tools that to varying levels have been available for months, including vaccines and boosters, the antiviral Paxlovid and antibody bebtelovimab, and easy and widespread testing. The White House also mentioned steps it’s taking to protect immunocompromised people — including expanding the availability of the pre-exposure treatment Evusheld — and to encourage building owners to improve ventilation.
“We can prevent serious illness, we can keep people out of the hospital and especially out of the ICU, we can save lives, and we can minimize the disruptions caused by Covid-19,” Jha said, highlighting the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments. “And even in the face of BA.5, the tools we have continue to work.”

On war and culture war

July 12, 2022 Ukraine/Russia news >>

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As the US careens toward fascism: watch January 6 rioter, former Oath Keepers spokesman testify in seventh hearing >>

Meanwhile, South Africa’s State Security Agency, Police Crime Intelligence, the military and the Hawks predict a repeat insurrection, likely driven by the pro-Zuma RET faction and marked by guerilla-style sabotage. The aim: to keep Jacob Zuma — and his allies implicated in the State Capture inquiry — out of jail.
Read more >>

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The Lincoln Project:
(Republican nominee for US Senate for 2022) Herschel Walker’s Green New Deal (Good air, bad air? Say what? (0:46 mins)
Proud Boys (0:55 mins)
The GOP’s Crazy Candidates (2:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Exposure to asbestos has been a long-standing issue, threatening the health of both the environment and human population for centuries. Hundreds of millions of people are exposed to the toxin worldwide each year, despite its known health risks. One study from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health estimates that roughly 250,000 people die as a result of asbestos exposure annually.
… Asbestos is a naturally found mineral and doesn’t pose a threat until broken or disturbed. Unfortunately, however, it was first mined and used thousands of years ago, making it common to come across in both the natural and built environment. Once released into the air, the toxin becomes extremely harmful for humans if ingested or inhaled.
The adverse health effects have been known for close to 100 years, but the toxin continued to be used in a variety of ways and the consequences have spread globally.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

As Mary’s surgery date approaches, she’s both terrified and ready forcibly to evict the Squatters. “I can feel them there now,” she reports. “Two months ago, I ascribed discomfort I felt in my back to a pulled muscle. Not any more. While my breathing is unimpaired, I can pinpoint areas of my chest and back where I suspect these uninvited ‘aliens’ hang out. To quote Lady MacBeth, ‘Out, damned spot! out, I say!’”
This time next week? Damned spots should be gone!
It’s schlepp.

Indeed.
And Mary’s up for it.

Friday, July 8, 2022

Coping - but just

News blues

As we’ve shared all this week, Covid cases are on the rise. Now, mask mandates may make a comeback.

Cities across the United States might be urged to bring back mask mandates as the new Omicron subvariants continue to spread.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that Omicron's subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are expected to make up a combined 70.1 percent of the COVID variants in the country as of July 2, Reuters reported. Both of the sublineages made up 52 percent of the variants in the U.S. during the week of June 25.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School said in June that new data suggests that the Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 seem to be more vaccine-evasive than previous subvariants among the fully vaccinated and boosted and those who were previously infected. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is still deemed as an effective way to protect against the virus.

Humor amid the horror: Good lines…

As America devolves into a sprawlier version of Hungary, let’s capture and celebrate creative lines:
Not my personal fav in terms of his worldview, David Brooks, of the New York Times, nevertheless produced an apt description vis-à-vis The Donald: “We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.”
Read The Atlantic’s “The most pathetic men in America” >>

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The Lincoln Project:
AZ Gubernatorial (2:16 mins)
Boris (1:25 mins)
Star (0:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

As introduced on July 4th, post “Oh, the irony,” asbestos is an environmental health menace. Like other environmental poisons, asbestos is stealthy, until it’s not. Then it’s a ghoulishly efficient and relentless killer.
And… We the People are set to endure yet another variety of human-manufactured toxins to bedevil our children and our children’s children.
Meet Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Perfluorooctyl Sulfonate (PFOS) and Other Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs), known collectively as PFAS.
At a recent meeting of the Advisory Restoration Board – RAB that I’ve served on for more than a decade - representatives of the companies “cleaning up” the former US Naval Base, Alameda, alerted community members to the huge until-recently unrecognized problem our community faces with PFAS. These chemicals are widely distributed on the former base, as well as in waterways surrounding the base.
Environmental contamination is not unusual for US military bases – anywhere in the world. For other posts on this topic, see “Consequences” and “Play ball” and “It’s perfectly safe, it just kills plants” )
More on PFAS:

PFAS are a class of chemicals used since the 1950s to make thousands of products repel water, stains and heat. They are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t fully break down, accumulating in the environment, humans and animals. Some are toxic at very low levels and have been linked to cancer, birth defects, kidney disease, liver problems, decreased immunity and other serious health issues.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s been a rough couple of days. My bestie looks the way she usually looks, perhaps a trifle more introspective - yet her left lung is contaminated with asbestos. (We refer to "him" as The Squatter - who has invited all his relatives in to share the bountiful free rent.)
This time next week she’ll have been sliced and diced, ribs spread, lungs scraped, and put back together again.
Terrifying!
Slowly but surely, we’re coping with this new reality.
As if we don’t have enough going on, someone, who knows who, crawled under my Honda and stole the catalytic converter.
This is nothing new for other unlucky residents in our town. Such thefts are reported every week, if not every day. Apparently, spending a couple of minutes under someone else’s car to rip off the catalytic converter is a quick way to make a few hundred bucks. In my case, my vehicle was parked in my parking spot in the so-called secured parking lot in the so-called secure complex.
So much for security.
On the plus side, it’s a beautifully sunny and breezy day here on the San Francisco Bay shoreline.
Pelicans, Canada geese, crows, cormorants, California gulls, Least Terns, ground squirrels, and others all having a great time.

On my iPhone, I captured this stilt singing in a local pond.

Stilt aria