Tested

Worldwide (Map)

September 30, 2021: 233,414,450 infections; 4,776,885 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 33,881,275 confirmed infections: 1,012,980 deaths
Total vaccinations conducted around the world: 6,219,646,200

US (Map)
September 30, 2021: 43,361,700 infections; 7.808,100 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 7,233,199 confirmed infections: 206,940 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 30, 2021: 2,898,900 infections; 87,420 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 674,340 confirmed infections: 16,735 deaths

News blues

South Africa returns to Alert Level 1. 

Speaking to South Africans last night, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that as many as 20,000 lives could be saved if the majority of the country's adult population received their Covid-19 vaccines. He pleaded for all citizens to do their bit.
For this reason, the country will embark on a mass vaccination drive which will allow people to receive their jabs on weekends. Ramaphosa, his deputy David Mabuza, and other officials were expected to mobilise communities to take their jabs as the “Vooma Vaccination Weekends” programme kicks off from Friday.
Mass gatherings allowed as Ramaphosa moves SA moves back to lockdown level 1. 
The last time SA was under level 1 was between March and May this year.
Listen and watch President Ramaphosa  (29:30 mins)

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Kids in the US, from ages 5 to 11, soon could be eligible for vaccine against Covid 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>

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Catching up with The Lincoln Project….
Last Week in the Republican Party  (2:20 mins)
The Fox Virus  (1:20 mins)
Governor Freedumb  (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Last Friday, the drive through Flu Clinic where I work vaccinated 990 clients, from babies 6-months and older to adults and retirees. Today and yesterday, our Covid vaccination clinic jabbed the arms of more than 650 patients each of those two days. That’s a good thing: 990 fewer people with flu this year; more than 1,200 fewer people risking Covid-19.
While holding the positive aspects of vaccination, think also of the waste generated by these efforts (waste that will end up incinerated, in landfill and/or eventually the ocean):
Over 3 days, 990 + 1,200 = 2,200 one-time-use plastic syringes (incinerated… )
Packaging for 2,200 syringes plus dozens of hard paper/soft cardboard boxes of flu vaccine – 10 syringes per box
At least 2,200 cotton balls for swabbing
Plastic packaging for cotton balls
Swabbing antiseptic in plastic containers
2,200 one-time-use band aids
Packaging for 2,200 one-time use band aids
2,200 pairs of rubber gloves for each of 6 nurses. That is, at least 13,200 pairs discarded over 3 days
Packaging for that many rubber gloves (each box holds 25 pairs/50 gloves)
Surgical masks for all staff: 6 nurses, 4 Medical Assistants, 6 to 10 support staff, masks changed several times each day
Additionally, many patients arrive for vaccination either alone in a vehicle or with a spouse and, sometimes, with other family members. Let’s say of 990 clients seeking vaccinations, at least two thirds have more than one person per vehicle (usually SUV or large sedan). That is, 330 to 350 vehicles pass through the tent from 8:30am to 5:30pm each day. That’s a lot of carbon monoxide pumping into the air and captured within the tent where nurses and staff work.
In the SF Bay Area, the hospital system I work for has at least 6 drive through flu clinics and 4 drive through Covid test sites. With the population of the SF Bay Area approximately 7 million, many other companies, from corporate chain pharmacies to grocery stores to independent agencies, offer similar services at similar facilities … all of whom must practice state and federal safety standards. That produces heaps of waste.
Who handles it and how?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Inevitably, the last weeks of commuting to and from work where I run around like a crazy person for 12-hour workdays five days a week, and, on weekends, have been engaged in selling, moving goods from, and bidding farewell to my beloved houseboat – resulted in a dip in my health.
Since I work in a Covid vaccination clinic, I know a sore throat can be one symptom of Covid. While my sense of smell remained intact, I chose to exercise an abundance of caution and called in sick.
My manager suggested I take a Covid test. Accordingly, I found a local test site – a drive-through – of the hospital system for which I currently work.
Covid tests are free but by appointment only. Luckily, I was able to make an appointment within the hour and I drove to the facility’s parking garage where tests are conducted.
I drove my vehicle - an older, 6-passenger automatic transmission van currently loaded to the gills a folded Sea Eagle inflatable boat, a 25 HP outboard motor and an electric trolling motor – to the end of a long line of approximately 30 other motor vehicles looping along residential city streets.
Naturally, I have environmental concerns, including dozens of fossil fuel vehicles pumping carbon monoxide into the atmosphere while idling on a city street, moving at a pace of one vehicle length every several minutes) but I mollified my guilt by alternatively running the engine and switching it off then back on. Neither good for the engine nor fuel efficient.
Twenty minutes later, I entered the garage… again to wait in line, albeit in sight of the Covid swabbers. After offering both “nasal passages” for swabbing, I exited the several story garage and drove home. An experience to remember. These photos – edited for patient anonymity – offer another view of life during the pandemic of ’20 – ’21.

Still in line... but getting closer to the nasal swab....

  

The swabbers in sight....

Any minute now I'll have a swab stuck up my nose....

 

Life in Oakland is not back to normal with venues closed and shows cancelled.

Street scene in Oakland, a wonderfully vibrant and human-size city.

 The good news? Within 23 hours, test results declared me free of virus.

Equinox

The past winter – my first in South Africa in decades – I recorded daily sunrise and sunset schedules.  
July 1, 2020 the sun rose at 6:53am and set at 5:11pm.
Today, September 22, 2020 the equinox, the sun rose at 5:45am and will set 5:54pm.
Fiat lux. (“Let light be made,” aka “let there be light”.) 

Perhaps We the People need more balance in how we pay attention to micro- and macro-cosms? An Equinox of Daily Living?

News blues…

Trump's Total Failure: Francis Ford Coppola On His Old Classmate  (4:40 mins)
It’s not an exaggeration to say the political struggle in the US is for the very soul of the nation. What kind of nation – therefore world – will emerge after the election? It really is up for grabs.
For decades, Americans took our version of democracy for granted. Many didn’t bother to vote or to struggle against the authoritarian direction Republicans slowly instituted. 

Let's pray it's not too late. After praying, let's get out there and work for a better outcome. 

Healthy futures, anyone?

First, the bad news: “I lived the climate crisis every day of my childhood. This November, I'll vote on it.”
And the “we’ll get to it sooner or later” news: Botswana says it has solved mystery of mass elephant die-off.
 Now the good news, aka, “who-knew?” news: the sacred giants of the dung-beetle world  

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The Lincoln Project:

It’s critical we defeat Trump and Trumpism in November. His enablers in the Senate are just as guilty for aiding and abetting this criminal administration as Trump himself.
Let’s ensure South Carolinians know: It’s America, or Trump.
Lindsey's lack of integrity once before, and now, thanks to you, his race is a dead heat as voters are now finally recognizing the extent of his cowardice.
To ensure Lindsey’s defeat, we have to expose his depravity — and we’re using his own words to do it:
“I want you to use my words against me...You can say 'Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.'"
Lindsey Graham can not, and will not, stand up for principle—or even his own word.
He has abandoned his duty and neglected South Carolinians, all while cowering to Trump and his cruel, antidemocratic agenda.
Once Trump entered the White House, Lindsey’s fidelity to his principles—and his oath—vanished.
Time and time again, Donald Trump has proven to be horrifically unfit and dangerous—and at every turn, Lindsey has done nothing but give Trump cover, accommodate his corruption, and evade any accountability.
Lindsey is petrified at the threat of a Trump tweet. Let’s remind him who he answers to.

Accountable  (0.25 mins)

Is Jamie  Harrison the guy who can vote Lindsey Graham out?  (5:35 mins) 

It’s up to you, South Carolinians. To quote Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, “Make it so.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Back in July, I posted the beginnings of a saga involving my mother’s long term domestic worker’s son, a lay about, make-no-effort-to work drunk. Miffed at being dislodged from his comfy spot his mother had organized to bum off my elderly mother, I had him ousted, legally. Nevertheless, his mother – my mom’s domestic worker - continued surreptitiously to let him enter and exit the property each night. After security cameras showed this, I locked the upper gate and kept the only key. Thwarted and in a drunken rage, he threatened to kill, rape me, etc. (he’d served prison time for rape). I had him served with a restraining order. When his mother departed her job and this area last week, I expected he’d leave with her.
Alas, “best laid plans,” etc., etc. The saga continues: yesterday, I learned he’s still here, somewhere in the village.
Why?
Who knows? Not on my account, I hope.
His mother sends him money for food.
I informed our security service so they’re aware I’m still under threat of physical harm.

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Oakland, California lies on San Francisco Bay, adjacent to Alameda, the delightful island city I lived in for the last 20 years. When I’m not in KwaZulu Natal, I work in Oakland, too.
Architecturally, Oakland is fascinating: art deco buildings interspersed with modern, postmodern, Chinese, and everything in between.
Recently, a friend wrote me about this city:

Did you know all of Downtown Oakland is completely shut down? From Jack London Square [the waterfront] all the way to about 21st Street almost all the shops are boarded up in covered up with Black Lives Matter murals. It's wild! You can't smash any more windows because there aren't any Windows left to smash. I look at it as a rebellion against corporate repression. They left standing a couple of the smaller shops, but obliterated all the banks, the CVS, the Walgreens, Target - virtually anything that looks look like a chain store - is gone. There would be no reason for anyone to go to downtown to shop for anything because there's nothing there. For whatever reason, what's left of Jack London Square is still intact. It's just all along Broadway that is decimated.“

I’ve an ongoing project photographing changes in rural and urban environments, both in my small part of KZN and in California, including Oakland. Before I departed California in January, I and a friend spent the afternoon walking Downtown Oakland and Chinatown while I photographed most recent changes. So much has changed there - driven by the tech industry (Uber, for example, headquarters in Oakland) - that we got lost in Chinatown.

These photos – none of which are mine – show the area over time. 
Now? Photos taken during Black Lives Matter protests:
Set 1.  

Set 2.

I see these photos and remember the times I’ve spent in Oakland, working, enjoying city life, sightseeing, and protesting - the invasion of Iraq, the ongoing war and trauma to American troops and Iraqi civilians, etc.

I miss it. 

I want to be there.