oh oh!

Worldwide (Map) 
December 29, 2022 - 659,290,487 confirmed infections; 6,685,590 deaths
December 30, 2021 – 284,807,650 confirmed infections; 5,425,550 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,8040100 deaths

US (Map) 
December 29, 2022 - 100,588,312 confirmed infections; 1,091,522 deaths
December 30, 2021 – 53,659,715 confirmed infections; 823,120 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 29, 2022 - 4,048,580 confirmed infections; 102,568 deaths
December 30, 2021 – 3,433,555 confirmed infections; 90,935 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths

Post from:
December 30, 2021 – “Auld lang syne” 

December 30, 2020 - “TGIO” 

News blues…

Current US joke:

Why is Covid better than Southwest airlines? 

Because it’s airborne!

(This, in response to Southwest airlines cancelling thousands of flights across the US.)
 

***

Not a joke:
“As Covid-19 Continues to Spread, So Does Misinformation About It. Doctors are exasperated by the persistence of false and misleading claims about the virus :

As Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise in parts of the country, myths and misleading narratives continue to evolve and spread, exasperating overburdened doctors and evading content moderators.
What began in 2020 as rumors that cast doubt on the existence or seriousness of Covid quickly evolved into often outlandish claims about dangerous technology lurking in masks and the supposed miracle cures from unproven drugs, like ivermectin. Last year’s vaccine rollout fueled another wave of unfounded alarm. Now, in addition to all the claims still being bandied about, there are consiracy theories about the long-term effects of the treatments, researchers say.

Read more >> 

***

Depressing Covid news:
China
China’s hospitals were already overcrowded, underfunded and inadequately staffed in the best of times. But now with Covid spreading freely for the first time in China, the medical system is being pushed to its limits. 

Read more >> 

Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?
Scientists don’t know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.
“China has a population that is very large and there’s limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. 

And…

The Biden administration is weighing new precautionary measures for travelers entering the U.S. from China, according to American officials, as sales of air tickets out of China soared following Beijing’s decision to reopen its borders to international travel for the first time in almost three years.

Read more >> 

UK
UK hit by fifth Covid wave this year as cases shoot up by 20 per cent in a week. While Covid levels will be higher than for most of the pandemic in the next few weeks they will still be some way short of the previous record, set in July, experts predict.
Read more >> 

India

India has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travelers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, the federal health minister said.
Passengers from those countries would be put under quarantine if they showed symptoms of COVID-19 or tested positive, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Saturday, as he posted photographs of tests being conducted at the international airport in the capital, New Delhi.

Read more >> 

***

On war… and culture war
Ukraine war photo essay >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay to remind us what we might lose unless we get out conservation act together. (And “we” here means ALL of us, not just a few; ALL OF US.)  

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I remain in California rather than having returned to South Africa, as planned. Here, we’ve had lots of rain, aka an “atmospheric river”  and the “pineapple express”. I’m not complaining about rain. We need it here and winter is the time for rainfall in California. (Luckily, I reside near the beach on San Francisco Bay and I’ve had no trouble with flooding as have some regions of coastal California.)
Southern hemisphere South Africa gets it monsoonal rainfall in summer (that is, now) beginning around October. This year, Kwa Zulu Natal is experiencing excessive thunderstorms, hailstorms, and rainfall. (As it did last year, alas!)
SA is 10 hours ahead of CA. Today, I awoke to a pinging cell phone. Two video clips had been sent from my late mother’s domestic worker about the SA house. The videos chilled my blood: the garden and the house’s lower flat have been completely flooded. The garden at the bottom of the property built on a slope culminates in a shallow valley with a lovely stream. This is not the first time the area has flooded but it is the first time I’ve seen it so completely flooded. Eyeballing it from rainy California I’d judge the water at least six to seven foot deep...and at least one foot deep in lower apartment.

Take a look:

Panic stations!
I immediately called KZN's local head of road works department who told me “It is end of the work day here and we cannot do anything until tomorrow.”

Alas, it’s not the first time I’ve worked with KZN's roads department folks. Unfortunately, they arrive with heavy equipment totally unsuited to the needs of the job. Both culverts must be cleared out, and regularly maintained so that water can can drain under the road and into a marsh area on the other side.  Moreover, silt and debris must be regularly cleared from the dirt road "gutters" so that this material does not drop into the house side of the stream. It's as clear as day that this is a good solution. It is a solution that the roads work team refuses to implement in any consistent fashion. 
I aslo notified the local Democratic Alliance councilor who has been terrifically helpful in the past. (The corrupt ANC has been outvoted in our district – largely due to ANC councilors’ complete lack of responsiveness.) 
My past dealings with roads works department and description of ongoing drainage problems with mindblowing photos:
From 2022, “More of the same”  and “Mortality rate backlog” 
From 2021, “Fishy” 
From 2019, “Fact or fake” 
It is NOT as if this problem has not been tackled in the past. It IS as if this problem has been tackled ineptly and incompetently in the past.
Now, from 14,000 miles away, I must figure out how to get competent assistance fast and get an insurance adjuster in to evaluate the downstairs damage and to pay out so I can get the damage fixed AND get the @#$#$#$# roads department people to DO THEIR JOBS FOR WHICH I PAY EXHORBITANT PROPERTY TAX.
‘nuf said!

… rain expected to continue through this AND next week in KZN and in California.
Groan!

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 4:58pm
     Rain, rain, rain….

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:01am
Sunset: 7:02pm
    Rain, rain, rain….

Babes in the woods?

The following Covid numbers compare today with the numbers 7 weeks ago, Week 61, Day 427, on the eve of my departure from South Africa - after an unplanned stay of 1.5 years. Still grim.

Worldwide (Map)  

July 22, 2021: 191,945,000 confirmed infections; 4,126,300 deaths
May 27, 2021: 168,418,000 confirmed infections; 3,499,000 deaths
Tracker for worldwide vaccination rate >> 

US (Map) 
July 22, 2021: 34,226,300 confirmed infections; 609,900 deaths
May 27, 2021: 33,190,300 confirmed infections; 592,000,000 deaths

SA (Tracker) 
July 22, 2021: 2,327,475 confirmed infections; 68,200 deaths
May 27, 2021: xx ,645,600 confirmed infections; 56,100 deaths

News blues

New study presents most comprehensive picture yet of true toll of pandemic in India, finding the true COVID death toll is likely in the millions .
Read in The Guardian >> 

***

An unbelievably large segment of Americans refuse to accept a free, life- and community-saving vaccine. Meanwhile, millions of people around the world would love, love, love as easy access to a vaccine that so many Americans eschew.
Again, Americans display to the world their myopic, self-centered and self-absorbed, navel-gazing worldview.
Science, medicine, and, yes, growing experience show that Covid-19 breakthrough infections do happen, are preventable, but that it's going to take a big effort to stop them. 

Question is, how? 

As long as charlatans masquerade as news journalists on Fox and Republican politicians promote distrust about the vaccine, all people, Americans foremost, but all people across the world, are exposed to the high likelihood of more virulent variants in the future.
Read more >> 

America’s vaccination rates have fallen off a cliff, and nothing seems to help. 

***

The Lincoln Project Fox is killing us  (0:57 mins).

Healthy planet, anyone?

The heatwave in one of the world’s coldest regions has sparked forest fires and threatened the Siberian city of Yakutsk with an “airpocalypse” of thick toxic smoke, atmospheric monitoring services have reported.
High levels of particulate matter and possibly also chemicals including ozone, benzene and hydrogen cyanide are thought likely to make this one of the world’s worst ever air pollution events.
Local authorities have warned the 320,000 residents to stay indoors to avoid choking fumes from the blazes, which are on course to break last year’s record.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s not easy, in California, to take a page from Italy’s playbook and siesta during the hottest hours of the day. Here on the river, the hottest hours of the day are about noon to 6pm. That’s most of the day. I can't siesta for most of the day: too depressing.
Swimming cools things down. So does regularly wetting my t-shirt or tank top. In the end though, it’s a losing game: small boat, hot sun, drought, and, oh yes, runaway climate change with no constructive response by politicians and destructive response by corporate apparatchiks.

***

One thing for certain: help is hard to find. While I was still in South Africa and since I’ve returned, I’ve tried to find a carpenter-type handyman-type to fix the bathroom floor in my apartment that the last tenant destroyed. No dice. People advertise their availability, sometimes even makes appointment to evaluate the work, then simply never show. Turns out this is a feature, not a bug, of carpenter- and handyman-types all over the planet. Is that called a “lifestyle”?
Similar trend at the marina. Lots of talk, no follow through. I did, however, finally get someone stronger than me to lift the too-heavy-for-me small 15 hp outboard motor onto my Sea Eagle inflatable. Took me weeks to get to this point. Now I’m “girding my loins” to install the sun canopy and then start the thing – with a pull rope.
Sometimes I wonder what the *** I’m doing, trying to live a quiet life on an elderly houseboat. I’d say I’m a babe in the woods, but I’m not a babe. More like, senior citizen in the woods or bright-eyed senior citizen in a circus.

Bliss - sort of

Quarantine is not so bad. I spend my days floating on a houseboat on a calm river in gorgeous countryside, not engaging with people. (A houseboat-load of unbowed Trump supporters live nearby and fly a “Trump 2024” flag.) 

This is the life – well, other than, y’know, that darned inconvenient pandemic….

Worldwide (Map) 
June 3, 2021 – 171,746,400 confirmed infections; 3,693,300 deaths
   Vaccinated worldwide: 2,002,900,000 

February 25, 2021 -128,260,000 confirmed infections; 2,805,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,905,000 deaths

US (Map) 
June 3, 2021 – 33,308,000 confirmed infections; 596,000 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 30,394,000 confirmed infections; 551,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
June 3, 2021 – 1,669,300 confirmed infections; 56,610 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 1,547,000 confirmed infections; 52,790 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths

News blues

The made-for-America culturally appropriate bribe-for-vax effort continues. West Virginia gives “away guns, trucks, cash as COVID-19 vaccine lottery prizes; hunting licenses and scholarships will also be among the vaccine incentives offered in the state.” 
Ah, Americans, adept at giving away democracy and one’s fellow humans’ well-being for trinkets.

***

India and Indians have a lot on their plate right now.
India's government is promising to vaccinate the whole of the adult population by the end of 2021, although its biggest vaccine maker has been struggling to meet demand ... Problems, problems, problems plague the vaccination program  as a second wave of Covid-19 overwhelms the healthcare system. Hospitals struggle to cope and critical drugs and oxygen are in short supply.  Moreover,

Cyclone Tauktae has flooded hundreds of villages and cities on India's western coast. 
Strong winds and torrential rainfall destroyed homes and uprooted trees and electricity poles. At least 12 people have died.
Meanwhile, 90 people are missing after a barge sunk off the coast of Mumbai city in the wake of the cyclone. The Indian navy has rescued 177 people so far.
The storm weakened after making landfall late on Monday but authorities have advised caution as strong winds are still sweeping coastal areas in Gujarat state.

Peru and Peruvians have it bad, too, as the rate of Covid deaths more than double… making it the country with the world's highest death rate per capita….
The official death toll is now more than 180,000, up from 69,342, in a country of about 33 million people. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Unwelcome guests and alien invaders:
South Africa: The hidden threat to food, water and wild places 
California has its share of aliens and invasives, too … 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After owning my houseboat for two years – and due to lockdown, etc., inhabiting it only for six months - I know I must have the pontoons cleaned and maintained. But the cost of professional maintenance – piloting the boat to the boatyard for haul out and labor - is beyond my pocketbook. 

I must delve into the arena of creative maintenance. Until necessity drove me, I avoided swimming under the boat between pontoons (the space between water surface and boat is about 3 feet). It’s creepy. (I’m too much of a South African to not feel queasy in tight, watery spaces with long strands of freshwater weed brushing against my legs… reminds me of shark-fear while swimming off Durban beaches.) Yesterday I screwed up my courage and explored the pontoons and found, to my pleasure, that they’re not as algae infested as I’d expected. Alas, there are small rust patches on areas of the iron/steel/non-aluminum frames that hold the aluminum pontoons. There’s rust on the iron/steel/non-aluminum foundational structure of the boat, too. The latter will be time consuming and expensive to correct – scrape, seal, repaint – but it is something I can do. Scraping and cleaning the pontoons? Hmmm, not something I can do without guidance, direction, help – and funds for haul out.
The elderly 85 HP Evinrude outboard motor that ran well when I departed 18 months ago has not been started or run since then. I must find “someone” who can prep, lubricate it, check the engine before I can try restarting. But who?
For now, I must forgo my interior decorating ideas – installing a shower, revamping the impractical kitchen counter and sink, scraping and repainting the decks and overall structure….
Ah, the inescapable downside of owning an elderly boat.

Observations of a single woman in the traditionally male world, particularly in California's Sacramento Delta):
The people who seek and can afford the boating lifestyle tend toward the uber-male persuasion – and are not urban-dwellers (indeed, they’re skeptical of urban-dwellers).
Eighteen months ago, only one other single (older) woman lived on a boat in this marina. (Today, I’m quarantined and, back then, she liked privacy so I’ve not explored whether she still lives here.) The other women seen here back then were coupled with men who piloted the boats, maintained the boats, talked about boats while the "little ladies" supported male activities and cooked, cleaned, and rode shotgun in the male-piloted boat…
I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was someone men chuckled about behind my back: a woman who, clearly, knew nothing about boats (true); clearly, who’d expect favors from the superior male species (false). Moreover, since I’d purchased my elderly houseboat from a gay couple, two women who, likewise, “knew nothing” about boats (also false, they know a lot) … I was probably gay, too.
How to sum up my attitude to this male-heavy environment? Oppressive. Isolating. Constrictive. And, this makes me more determined to learn as much as I can, reach out to the reachable, and enjoy my chosen life on the river….

***

Temperatures dropped precipitously in KZN. Snow at higher elevations. Frost, too. Cold. Cold. Cold. Thank the gods I escaped in time. I worry about my son-in-law becoming dispirited. So far, he’s coping.
California and Californians head towards summer:
Memorial Day, May 31, sunrise 5:46am, sunset at 8:23 pm; temperature 104 F/40 C.
June 3: sunrise 5:44am, sunset at 8:25pm; temps heading into the upper 90s.

Here we are...

Here we are, more than 400 days into a pandemic. Who knew, back in June last year, we’d still be locked down?
The mind-boggling numbers back then: 

• June 25, 2020 - worldwide: 9,409,000 confirmed infections; 482,190 deaths
  June 19, 2020 - worldwide: 8,489,000 confirmed infections; 454,007 deaths
• June 25, 2020 - US: 2,381,540 infections; 121,980 deaths
  June 19, 2020 - US: 2,191,100 confirmed infections; 118,435 deaths
• June 25, 2020 - SA: 111,800 confirmed infections; 2,205 deaths
  June 19, 2020 - SA: 83,890 confirmed infections; 1,737 deaths

Predictions were dire back on 20 May, 2020…  

Today's numbers:
Worldwide (Map) 
May 13, 2021 – 160,450,550 confirmed infections; 3,331,300 deaths
   Vaccine doses administered: 1,357,850,000
April 29, 2021 – 149,206,600 confirmed infections; 3,146,300 deaths

US (Map) 
May 13, 2021 – 32,814,500 confirmed infections; 583,700 deaths
April 29, 2021 – 32,229,350 confirmed infections; 574,350 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
May 13, 2021 – 1,602,100 confirmed infections; 54,970 deaths
April 29, 2021 – 1,578,500 confirmed infections; 54,290 deaths

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

The Our World in Data COVID Vaccination dataset has been published in the academic journal, Nature 

News blues

Herd immunity” is achieved when a large enough portion of a community becomes immune to a disease (either through natural infection or vaccination) that there’s nowhere left for the virus to spread. There may still be small outbreaks, but they would be contained. (That’s different than eradicating the disease altogether, which has only ever been done twice in global history, with smallpox and rinderpest, a bovine disease that decimated southern Africa’s cattle from 1896 through 1899.) So, is coronavirus here to stay? What to know… 

***

India, already reeling from Covid shows signs of yet more trauma, this time a deadly fungus:

A rare black fungus that invades the brain is being increasingly seen in vulnerable patients in India, including those with Covid-19, as the health system continues to struggle in the midst of the pandemic.
…The fungus, called mucormycosis, “is very serious, has a high mortality, and you need surgery and lots of drugs to get on top of it once it takes hold”, said Prof Peter Collignon, who sits on the World Health Organization’s expert committee on antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases.
The disease is caused by a group of moulds, called mucormycetes, that live throughout the environment including in soil and on plants. Mucormycosis is seen throughout the world, including in the US and Australia. It can be acquired in hospitals – most commonly by vulnerable transplant patients – when the moulds get on hospital linens, travel through ventilation systems, or are transmitted on adhesives.
“They’re a family of fungus that gets into your sinuses and deposit there, and they can get into the air spaces in your head,” Collignon said.

Read “What is the deadly ‘black fungus’ seen in Covid patients in India?” >> 

***

The glory of humor in dire times: an interview with Gary Trudeau of the cartoon, Doonesbury  (4:17 mins)
The Lincoln Project:

• Whaaat? On oldie but goodie? McConnell denounces Trump  (1;21 mins)
• Stefanik  (1:21 mins)

And, a clip from “our own” – SA’s Trevor Noah and The Daily Show: “a brutal look back at the life and times of Ted Cruz, ‘The Booger on the Lip of Democracy’”  (9:15 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Guardian News series on our disappearing glaciers

• Melting ice reveals first world war relics in Italian Alps. Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of ‘White War’ 
• Glacial lakes threaten millions with flooding as planet heats up 
• Receding glaciers causing rivers to suddenly disappear. Global phenomenon known as river piracy demands urgent adaptation from ecosystems and people who rely on their flow 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

If only I could chill! I hoped that pressure of trying to sell my mother’s house would diminish after we/I took it off the market for the interim. Alas, it turns out cultural norms in this country still have the power to reduce me to a quivering mass of anger.
Preface to what I’m about to relate: After living in California for about a decade, I returned to college to earn under- and graduate degrees. By then, I’d experienced many bouts of culture shock and, paying attention to what I’d learned, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on that topic. I worked on graduate level studies of cultural shock as an adult learning experience. It was a wonderful, fascinating and very enlightening course of study that continues to serve me every day of my life … 

But “knowing” what one is experiences only helps reduce – not extinguish – the negative sides of an experience.
I’ve complained about South African small businesspeople not showing up anywhere near the agreed upon day, and/or not showing up at all. I remind myself that, after decades in the US, I’ve taken on that culture’s view of time: linear, with a definitive beginning and end, and limited in supply. Working as a project manager made me especially attuned to “on time and on budget” focus on milestones and deadlines…
The US can be described as a monochronic culture that values orderliness and agrees that there’s appropriate time and place for everything. Most Americans hold the belief that “time is money” and do not value interruptions.
South Africa, I realize, is a polychronic culture that perceives time as cyclical and endless, a go with the “flow” attitude in which time-based schedule are followed loosely – if at all - and changes or interruptions are viewed as a normal part of the routine.
Here, it’s known as “African time” – and, if I don’t catch myself, it drives me crazy. That’s when I remind myself: “only 2 more weeks”… then I’m back to California, my family, my houseboat, and summer….

***

Getting darker here…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 15: sunrise 6:18am; sunset 5:39pm.
April 25: sunrise 6:23am; sunset 5:30pm.
May 1: sunrise 6:27am; sunset 5:24pm.
May 3: sunrise 6:29am; sunset 5:22pm.
May 10: sunrise 6:33am; sunset 5:17pm.
May 13: sunrise 6:35am; sunset 5:15pm.

SOS India

News blues

“What’s happening in India is an indication that South Africans can’t become complacent and think that we are going to get natural immunity and be protected."
Related news: Recent numbers in South Africa include 1,674 Covid-19 more infections, for a cumulative total of infections since the start of the pandemic at 1,581,210.
Over the past 24-hours, the tally of deaths in Eastern Cape stands at three, Free State one, Gauteng seven , KwaZulu-Natal four, Limpopo 0, Mpumalanga three, North West 0, Northern Cape 0 and Western Cape one.
The total number of deaths in SA stands at 54,350; recoveries at 1,505,620; number of tests conducted to date, 10,654,870.

***

Thirty-nine percent of the US adult population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than 100 million fully vaccinated Americans. Congrats, America and Americans! Maybe time to share the success and the bounty? The US and other wealthy countries appear hesitatant on this logical conclusion. The BBC’s podcast “How to vaccinate the world.” 

***

Tracking Covid-19:

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

***

An excellent view of life in and out of the US from the perspective of an American re-pat…  (30:50 mins)

 
The Lincoln Project:

First 100  (0:55 mins)
Florida man  (1:35 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Peek into our a-mazing planet and its critters: Starlings over Rome – 10 million of ‘em… But… there’s the poop problem….  (5:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

On her flights to South Africa, my daughter had an extensive stopover in Doha, Qatar. (This, to avoid a stopover at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg where her risk of exposure to Covid was, she deemed, greater than it was in Doha.) She reports Doha transited a group of Japanese travelers in the airport outfitted in haz mat suits.
Her return flight to California, again through Doha via Johannesburg, also had a group of travelers outfitted in haz mat suits. Judging by what showed of their faces, she determined the travelers were Indian and surmised they were traveling to India. Smart travelers. If haz mat suits are appropriate anywhere, they’re de rigueur for India:

…reporting 379,257 new cases on Thursday, a new global record and 3,645 deaths, the highest number of Covid-19 deaths the country has reported in a single day…. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations suggests the death toll could peak at more than 13,000 a day - more than four times the current daily death toll. 

Be safe, travelers! (Countries around the world are banning flights coming from India and/or changing travel rules and regulations to become more stringent for Indian travelers everywhere.)
Recover soon, India!

***

Temperatures here in KZN dropped over the last few days and its getting darker and darker…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 18: sunrise 6:19am; sunset 5:36pm.
May 1: sunrise 6:27am; sunset 5:24pm.

Consequences

Worldwide (Map) 
April 29, 2021 – 149,206,600 confirmed infections; 3,146,300 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 64,469,710 confirmed infections; 1,492,100 deaths

US (Map) 
April 29, 2021 – 32,229,350 confirmed infections; 574,350 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 13,920,000 confirmed infections; 273,370 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
April 29, 2021 – 1,578,500 confirmed infections; 54,290 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 796,475 confirmed infections; 21,710 deaths

Tracking Covid-19:

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

News blues

India: “We are facing very bad times, very bad times….”  (2:00 mins). 

India’s overall rate of infection is lower than the US but the US – crazy politics and all - is, at last, getting a handle on the pandemic. India is not, at least not yet. Scenes in video above give a sense of how bad things can get when a pandemic has the upper hand ….

"I'm afraid this is not the peak," said Dr. Giridhara R. Babu of the Public Health Foundation of India on Monday. "The kind of data that we see, (we are) at least two to three weeks away from the peak."
Others say India may be approaching the peak now, sooner than Babu's estimate -- but with so many ill and so few supplies available, the country will see many more deaths before the second wave subsides. 

Moreover, India is the world’s largest vaccine producer and, that it is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge is everyone’s problem. “Ninety-two developing nations rely on India, home to the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for the doses to protect their own populations, a supply now constrained by India’s domestic obligations.” 
The people paying attention know that coronavirus is a symptom of an over-stressed planet out of whack. The chamber of horrors in which India finds itself was not caused by any one man, or any single government. It’s a symptom of prevailing worldviews – and “What Happens When Rich People Do Nothing.” (I suggest an edit to this article’s title: “…when rich and/or clueless and/or feckless people do nothing…” 

***

Meanwhile, over the last week, California has reported an average of 1,901 new cases per day, a 34 percent decrease from two weeks ago…. 

***

By Wednesday, South Africa recorded 849 Covid-19 new cases in 24-hours with a cumulative total of 1,576,320.

Deaths, broken down by province: Eastern Cape five, Free State five, Gauteng three, KwaZulu-Natal one, Limpopo five, Mpumalanga 0, North West 0, Northern Cape two and Western Cape 17, bringing the total number of deaths since the star of the pandemic in the country to 54,186. 

***

The Lincoln Project’s latest ads remind the public of the recent past:
His Party  (3:00 mins)
McCarthy  (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

I am a longtime member on a Restoration Advisory Board that encourages local residents to overview the cleanup of toxic chemicals from the superfund site that is the former Naval Air Station, Alameda. As such, I’ve become aware of the volume of residual chemicals that the US Department of the Navy dumped on the 2,000-plus acres of landfill on the edges of the City of Alameda, California.
My research suggests that dumping toxics, by design or carelessness, has become a feature of “doing business” in our world. Various branches of the US government and business appear to act upon the aphorism “outta sight, outta mind.” Take the sampling up and down the California coast, for a regional example:

• Channel Islands 
• Farallone Islands 
• Santa Catalina Island 

Dumping and/or dispersing of toxic substances is a feature of American life. Nevertheless, it’s still shocking to learn that the Environmental Protection Agency, the US department tasked with protecting the environment is so, well, lax.

Starting in 1973, the EPA issued chemical giants permits to discard thousands of drums of industrial chemical waste at the offshore site. The pollutants included chlorinated hydrocarbons, or CHCs, a family of toxic chemicals that can persist in the environment and become concentrated in marine organisms, potentially migrating up the food chain and posing a risk to human health. In the decades since, oil companies have built up a vast network of wells and seafloor pipelines in the same portion of the Gulf. The area’s largest producer is Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, which operates three platform rigs and three drillships in what’s known as the Mars-Ursa oil basin. Shell also happens to be one of the companies that received permits from the EPA to dump huge quantities of industrial chemical waste in the Gulf in the 1970s, albeit at a different location.

Read more >> 

I’ve written much on this blog about the damage caused by toxics. For postings, see:

• It’s “perfectly safe; it just kills plants” 
• “Goodbye guineafowl, hello truck stop” 
• “BP’s Hayward…” 
• More on BP’s “responsive” and “responsible” ways 
• Hate to say it … but “told you so” 
• Play ball! ...on a radioactive site. Or, denial is a river in Egypt [on site at Naval Air Station, Alameda] 
• Deep costs of war trauma 

I’ve many posts of toxics and the effects on people and planet. Search the blog for terms such as “mothers”, “Vietnam”, “war”, “toxic”, “agent orange”, “RAB”, and similar.
Sometimes I’m tempted to believe we humans have despoiled out planet beyond the possibility of cleanup. But I cannot afford, emotionally, psychologically, sor piritually to hold onto that belief.
We must clean up our only home.
Knowledge is power. It begins with you.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My daughter is on her way back to California. Boo hoo! I already miss her. We enjoyed our two weeks together.
Seventy-two hours before her departure, she complied with her pre-flight Covid test. After that, we mulled how to spend her final days. This, after she’d driven the Chana bakkie to a local recycling plant where we recycled piles of various gauge electrical cable. (Driving is a thrill for her: on the “wrong side of the road,” and “steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle,” and “Huh, I’m not used to driving a manual transmission….”
As a passenger, I’m terrified: IMHO, too few thoughtful drivers in this country.)
After mulling a visit to Pietermaritzburg’s botanical gardens, we settled, instead, on driving towards the Drakensberg, to the village of Underberg. (I’d hoped we’d have had enough time together actually to spend a night at one of the many Drakensberg hotels or B&Bs. Alas, we simply ran out of time. Too many trips to scrap yards and recycling centers?)
The restaurant I’d visited once in the past, was hosting a private party so we sought another place. Slim pickings. We drove beyond Underberg to The Olde Duck, sat at an outdoor table under a willow tree, and enjoyed the view of the “’berg” on a perfect fall/autumn day.
We also visited the botanical gardens on the public holiday known as Freedom Day – a day to celebrate and contemplate election day 1994, the first time many – the majority? – of South Africans had the freedom to vote in an election. (That election resulted in Nelson Mandela becoming the first African elected as president in South Africa.)
The day my daughter departed South Africa, an audio message was sent to the community from a local security company reporting a hold up of a vehicle transporting at least 31 prisoners.
The message urged caution and described an incident that had occurred approximately 8 miles away from our town. Apparently, five men holding AK47s had stopped the prisoner transport vehicle, picked out and armed with AK 47s, had attacked a prison vehicle transporting a group of prisoners, and left the remaining prisoners to fend for themselves. Most had taken advantage of the situation and escaped the vehicle and were on the run.
By the time I returned from Shaka International Airport – about six hours after the prison break – six prisoners had turned themselves into police custody. Never a dull moment in KZN!

***

Long nights, shorter days  here…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 14: sunrise 5:58am; sunset 6:15pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 14: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.
April 29: sunrise 6:26am; sunset 5:26pm.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Worldwide (Map) 

February 25 -  112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,497,100 deaths

January 21 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths
December 17 – 73,557,500 confirmed infections; 1,637,100 deaths

US (Map)
February 25 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths 

January 21 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths
December 17 – 16,724,775 confirmed infections; 303,900 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 25 -  1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths

January 21 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths
December 17 – 873,680 confirmed infections; 23,665 deaths

Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

News blues…

Covid-19 can mess with your sleep 

India’s rate of infection and death dropping? Or… 

***

The Lincoln Project (down but not out?) presents The “new” Republican Party  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Quirky and cool – creatures of our planet
Magpies 
Amazing animals 
Amazing sea creatures, snakes, and insects 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday, the gardener and I loaded the “bakkie” with as much scrap metal as we could then I drove it to a local scrap metal yard. The yard I frequented last year went out of business this year and the “new” yard - more established, less “intimate.” The old yard weighed just the merchandise, the team weighed the entire vehicle – twice. I gathered the first load was iron and steel while the second was metal and “other” materials – plastic, wood, etc.
I was paid off – a measly rate but what can a gal do? - I returned home.
Scrap yards do good work (recycling metals) but one wonders how contaminated is the yard itself. And if the business pays health care costs for its workers. Hmmm.

***

February in KZN is “usually” hotter and drier than the early part of summer. Not this year. Rainfall is more copious. This is not good news since, and after 2.5 years of trying to get “someone” to clear the culverts, they are still blocked. 
Before dawn, gale force gusts and heavy rainfall hammered the house. I’m almost frightened to scan the lower garden for fear of flooding. The public / municipal department (that ought to be) responsible for public works continues their abysmal record of public no-works.
I’ll phone the local councilperson – third time - for an update. Alas, I predict he’ll say, “Haven’t they done it yet? I’ll call the person I know….”

***

My mother has two offers to purchase her house. Neither is the desired cash only offer although each offers advantages. Next Tuesday I will review both offers with my mother’s lawyer and decide which is the more advantageous.
I’m “California dreaming”: both buyers are open to negotiating an early move in. An early move in means I/we can move out – and I can return to the US.
Meanwhile, I explore potential liabilities associated with early move-in that could burden my mother.
Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel? Or is it the ominous glow of radioactivity ?