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.

CDC Timeline for Covid, from 2019 to present 

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

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) >> 

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)

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 

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. 

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. 

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.

***

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.

Masked bishop.
Photos (c) S.Galleymore

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,

…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.
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.

Read “Omicron’s Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios” >> 

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!

 

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!

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.
“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,” 

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.”
Therein lies the rub.
Just sayin’

“Work together”

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 >> 

***

(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? 

Read more >> 

Good news:

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!)   

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.
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: “’Real alarm’ around the world” as Omicron spreads  (10:29 mins)
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).