Steady as she goes

News blues…

President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) . The first 10-plus minute are greetings; scroll to 10:35 mins to begin the speech.
Post-speech commentary: Tough times ahead….
Then, sign up for a webinar on President Ramaphosa’s speech: Unpack the SoNA. 

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How dangerous is South Africa's coronavirus variant? Good overview of coronavirus variants and vaccines …. (15:18 mins)

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Why are vaccines given in the upper arm?
According to Atlantic staff writer Katherine J. Wu,: 

Targeting shots to the deltoid muscle hits a perfect sweet spot for vaccines, distributing their contents quickly, without diluting or destroying the important ingredients. Muscles are rife with blood vessels, which disperse the vaccine’s contents throughout the body and provide a conduit for immune cells to move back and forth from the injection site. They are also naturally chock full of “messenger” immune cells, which can quickly grab hold of the bits of the vaccine that resemble the coronavirus and carry them to the rest of the immune system. This baton pass kick-starts the production of antibodies and other disease-fighting molecules and cells.
Injecting a vaccine directly into the blood would water it down too quickly, depriving immune cells of the opportunity to learn from it. Spiking it into a fattier tissue, such as the buttocks, would slow the process down too much because fat isn’t laced with as many blood vessels, and is also lacking in many of those crucial messenger cells.

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The Lincoln Project 

Blood  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Weekly averages of CO2 levels in the atmosphere 

31 January 2021: 417.12 ppm 

This time last year: 414.50 ppm 

10 years ago: 392.19 ppm 

Pre-industrial base: 280 

Safe level: 350 

Atmospheric CO2 reading from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (part per million). Source: NOAA-ESRL

Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible. 

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Biden's new conservation corps stirs hopes of nature-focused hiring spree:

Nearly a century ago, the US faced unemployment at 25% and environmental woes such as flooding along major rivers and extensive deforestation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to tackle these emergencies simultaneously by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of his New Deal.
Through its nine-year existence, Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” put an impressive 3 million jobless Americans to work. All in all, CCC enrollees planted more than 3bn trees, paved 125,000 miles of roadways, erected 3,000 fire lookouts, and spent 6m workdays fighting forest fires. The artifacts from this ambitious effort – such as trails and structures dotting the Grand Canyon national park or the Pacific Coast Trail – are beloved today.
… Now, as the ongoing pandemic has wrought the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Roosevelt’s public jobs programs are back in the spotlight. As part his recent climate policy spree, Biden announced the establishment of a “Civilian Climate Corps Initiative” that could harness the energy of the very generation that must face – and solve – the climate crisis by putting them to work in well-paying conservation jobs.
After Biden’s omnibus executive order, the heads of the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture and other departments have 90 days to present their plan to “mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers”, a step toward fulfilling Biden’s promise to get the US on track to conserve 30% of lands and oceans by 2030.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Still running around like a crazy lady… and one set of buyers dropped out without making an offer. But… the buyer who has made an offer, and received a counteroffer, will be back tomorrow afternoon … and bring the “money man” with him. There’s still hope of a sale.

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In Howick, my mother still getting stronger….
In California, my daughter visited my houseboat. To cap, I’d purchased an elderly houseboat 1.5 years ago, lived in it for 6 mos, returned to SA to take care of my mother for 3 mos, got locked down, and I’m still here.
I pay marina fees each month yet no one is taking care of my boat while I’m away. Friends who agreed regularly to check in on the houseboat have not done so. Nevertheless, according to my daughter, the boat “looks good; some leaf litter but no damage”.
Yay! Things are looking up….

Vaccine uncertainties

News blues…

Contradictory information about vaccines:
New research suggesting that several Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against a variant first found in South Africa has increased pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration to speed inoculations and enforce basic public health measures like wearing masks.

• Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe disease in a global study, the company said Friday.
  The hotly anticipated findings are the first from a late-stage trial that enrolled 45,000 people across the world. While the shot was 72 percent effective in the U.S. arm of the trial, it fell to just 57 percent in South Africa, where a highly transmissible variant predominates. 
• The coronavirus vaccine by Oxford/AstraZeneca is safe and effective enough to use in adults over the age of 18, the European Medicines Agency announced Friday.
  The European Commission is expected later Friday to rubber-stamp the EMA’s recommendation to formally approve the vaccine in the EU with a conditional marketing authorization. A German scientific committee said Thursday there wasn’t enough data to know whether the jab is suitable for people 65 and over. The U.K. approved the vaccine at the end of December with a temporary emergency use authorization applicable in people over the age of 18. 
• Novavax announced Thursday its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 89 percent effective at protecting against the virus based on preliminary data from a large late-stage trial in the United Kingdom. But the vaccine was far less effective against a variant of the virus first discovered in South Africa, according to data from a small trial in that country, the company said. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Will Joe Biden come through on climate change?

The vision laid out in the actions signed by Biden on Wednesday was transformative. A pathway for oil and gas drilling to be banned from public lands. A third of America’s land and ocean protected. The government ditching the combustion engine from its entire vehicle fleet, offering up a future where battery-powered trucks deliver America’s mail and electric tanks are operated by the US military. 

... Biden’s administration will spur new climate-friendly policies for farmers while also devoting resources to the urban communities, typically low-income people of color, disproportionally blighted by pollution from nearby highways and power plants. In all, 21 federal agencies will be part of a new, overarching climate body. “This isn’t time for small measures,” Biden said. “We need to be bold.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I called a local politician with the reputation of getting this done – an anomaly in this country. He said he’d come to the house at 4:00pm.
He did! Right at 4pm he pulled up at the gate and honked/hooted.
I handed him the letters and photos I’ve carried to the local roads department office, showed him the culverts on both sides of the road, and explained the history of lack of service.
One thing he mentioned that I’d be on board with: a rates/property tax boycott. If enough property owners stop paying monthly rates/property taxes if may get enough attention on the lack of service delivery (culverts, extravagant potholes in every local road, overgrown vegetation, etc.
On the other hand, it may not. This, after all, is South Africa: always expect the unexpected….

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Monday sees us free of the 3-month contract with one real estate agent to sell the property – the “sole mandate.” Suddenly, other agents are interested in seeing the property and bringing potential buyers. Too bad it’s also when the garden, lawns, stream and fishponds are flooded – and the gardener is ill with Covid.
I brought in the neighbor’s gardener to mow. At least the grass will look less unkempt when realtors come over.

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My daily visit with my mother was sad. The Care Center sprays the facility once or twice a week to prevent coronavirus. Residents enjoy morning tea on the lovely verandahs during this time.
My mother was slumped in her wheelchair when I arrived. Other than slumping further, she barely moved. I dribbled tea into her mouth using a syringe.
After this “outing” she was wheeled back in to her room and laid out on her bed. To prevent pressure sores, aka bedsores, she was placed on her side and propped up with pillows.
My proud mother would HATE to be seen like this.
I hate to see her like this.