February 10, 2022 - 403,000,000 confirmed infections; 5,776,000 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 107,324,00 confirmed infections; 2,354,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,118,400,000
US (Map) February 10, 2022 - 77,265,150 confirmed infections; 912,300 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 27,285,150 confirmed infections; 471,450 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal) February 10, 2022 - 3,631,644 confirmed infections; 96,502 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 1,482,412 confirmed infections; 47,145 deaths
Optimistic post from a year ago, Looking ahead >>
News blues
Polls and surveys taken in the US on Covid-19, even as the Omicron variant crested across much of the United States, indicate the public is getting tired of the pandemic and its resolve to combat the coronavirus is wavering if not outright waning.Read more and see results of surveys >>
New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has taken a strict approach to pandemic protocols, recently said “We have to learn how to live with Covid as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus."
This is the trend in the US now, with blue state governors and state health officials, once vigorously embracing pandemic restrictions, pivot toward loosening restrictions and shifting responsibility to the public.
Read more >>
Even as the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stands by the agency's mask guidelines, emphasizing that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing Covid-19 the CDC weighs updating its messaging around transmission and masking.
Meanwhile, South Africa remains on Alert Level 1 – the least restrictive level. A cloth face mask or “homemade item that covers the nose and mouth” is required when in public places. South Africans, like Americans, however, are getting tired of the pandemic and items covering the nose and mouth are no longer much in evidence. Read more >>
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The Lincoln Project:Pence v Trump (0:42 mins)
McCarthy v McConnell (0:48 mins)
Anti-American (1:10 mins)
And, Randy Rainbow is back: the Tango Vaccine (4:05 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
“Ambitious and concrete commitments”?Up to 40 world leaders are due to make “ambitious and concrete commitments” towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonising shipping and reducing plastic pollution at what is billed as the first high-level summit dedicated to the ocean.Read more about the summit >>
One Ocean summit, which opens on Wednesday in the French port of Brest, aims to mobilise “unprecedented international political engagement” for a wide range of pressing maritime issues, said its chief organiser, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.
“It is essential,” Poivre d’Arvor said. “The climate has its Cop process but there is no equivalent for the ocean, at a time when man’s relationship with the marine world has become more and more toxic, and global heating is causing extreme change.”
Maybe I’m too cynical, but I wish Poivre d’Arvor had not likened this effort to the “Cop process” … a model for how to get world leaders to draw out and prolong the agony of “do-nothingness” in the face of ongoing climate catastrophe.
Let’s hope the “ambitious and concrete commitments” for preserving the ocean includes attention to climate change causing more frequent marine heatwaves worldwide.
Why?
Because corals have adapted to live in a specific temperature range. This means when ocean temperatures are too hot for a prolonged period, corals can bleach and die.
New research published in the journal PLOS Climate found that the future of tropical ecosystems – thought to harbour more species than any other – is probably worse than anticipated.
Read more >>
Back in the land of Eskom and loadshedding . Grrr!
Backstory: South Africa’s parastatal power company, Eskom, began scheduling mandatory loadshedding back in April 2008. Loadshedding – power switched off for up to 2.5 hour increments according to neighborhoods across the nation - is “designed” to allow maintenance periods for power generators, as well as to recover coal stockpiles before the winter (when need for electricity usage surges).
Fourteen years later and whaddya get?
New research published in the journal PLOS Climate found that the future of tropical ecosystems – thought to harbour more species than any other – is probably worse than anticipated.
Read more >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
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| (c) Zapiro |
Backstory: South Africa’s parastatal power company, Eskom, began scheduling mandatory loadshedding back in April 2008. Loadshedding – power switched off for up to 2.5 hour increments according to neighborhoods across the nation - is “designed” to allow maintenance periods for power generators, as well as to recover coal stockpiles before the winter (when need for electricity usage surges).
Fourteen years later and whaddya get?
More loadshedding.
Enough already!
Sunrise: 7:04am
Sunset: 5:43pm
It’s hot, sunny, and muggy in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:36am
Sunset: 6:50pm
Enough already!
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Jet lag’s a bummer! ***
Daylight hours are topsy-turvy right now.
I hear it is warm and somewhat muggy in the San Francisco Bay AreaSunrise: 7:04am
Sunset: 5:43pm
It’s hot, sunny, and muggy in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:36am
Sunset: 6:50pm
