Life has become way too complicated...hard to keep up with commitments, commute, and coffee…. Yet, the numbers of infections continue to rise even as more people accept vaccinations.
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise) (0:45 mins)
Abbott’s Wall (0:55 mins)
Sad (0:56 mins)
Ivermectin (1:25 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise) (1:55 mins)
And
Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt “There’s a Battle for Control of MAGA Empire” | Amanpour and Company (18:25 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
An important article with full excerpt from the National Geographic newsletter by By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE executive editor
Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists and government officials have gotten sage advice from a group of people who were already battling a massive threat to public health: climate scientists. From piles of sometimes contradictory evidence to rampant misinformation to mind-boggling denials of established facts, the issues that have plagued COVID-19 researchers and policymakers are starkly like those that have influenced the climate crisis. The pandemic has also laid bare similar issues with equity, access to healthcare, intergovernmental squabbling, and reluctance to embrace solutions that might harm the bottom line.
But while the state of things may seem bleak right now, we actually have a lot to celebrate with COVID-19, in part because the pandemic spurred people to act urgently and drove a lot of innovation. Now mRNA vaccines are not only keeping people out of hospitals, they hold potential for combating a host of other diseases .
More people are saying they will embrace masks as an effective way to prevent respiratory illness beyond COVID-19. And governments and institutions are investigating ways to improve healthcare infrastructure.
So why can’t we learn a few things from COVID-19 to get serious about tackling climate change? That’s what the editors of more than 200 medical journals are asking this week in an article co-published across their pages. “Many governments met the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic with unprecedented funding. The environmental crisis demands a similar emergency response,” the editors write.
And yes, they add, “the science is unequivocal” that climate change is a huge risk to public health. Extreme heat already threatens the health of about 30 percent of the world’s population, according to a 2017 study. Shifting climate zones mean that tropical diseases—many carried by my personal archnemeses, mosquitoes—are pushing into higher latitudes, threatening even more people with ailments such as dengue fever, malaria, Zika, and valley fever. Droughts are making crops harder to grow and less nutritious, while floods create stagnant waters that can carry all sorts of icky infectious agents. Heck, climate change has even been implicated in making seasonal allergies worse
The global response to COVID-19 has not been perfect. But it has shown the world what’s possible when people come together with the resources and the willpower to overcome a deadly challenge. And as the journal authors write: “Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.” All our lives depend on it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Human beings are not well adapted to evolution. We tend, unconsciously, to insist that nothing much has changed, that ‘life goes on…’ (except for the more than 4 million dead from Covid… “Suckers”, Donald Trump would call them). Sure, pandemic; shandemic.
Covid, schmovid.
Masks…social distancing… hand sanitizing…
whatever…
This, despite the obvious and huge changes occurring around us, moment-by-moment.
Evolution. Schmevolution…
I suspect there’s an evolutionary advantage to peoples’ inability to recognize and change as change presses, but I cannot fathom the positive outcomes for such resistant to recognize when change is essential.
Then again,
many humans believe evolution is a hoax, too. and that
dinosaurs existed concurrent to slightly before BCE (Before Christ Era).
And, each day, millions of Americans drive bumper to bumper along utterly congested freeways. My commute offers a firsthand view of this craziness as I participate, too. We know we’re driving the planet and our oceans to extinction with our garbage, our plastics, our carbon monoxide, and our lack of ability to change. Yet we continue.
***
Stories from the Covid clinic frontlines
For the last 3 weeks, I’ve started most days addressing, one-on-one, individuals who’ve decided they need “the booster shot.”
Armed with clip boards loaded with Attestation forms, I respond,
“We’re not doing booster shots yet. As you may know,
the CDC is working out the details of booster shots. For now, we are not offering boosters. We are, however, offering “third dose” shots to immunocompromised people.”
“That’s me. I’m here for that.”
As I hand over the clip board with form and pen, I say, “These are the immunocompromised health issues we’re currently serving…”
I run through the six bullet points, one at a time: current cancer treatment; organ transplant, stem cell transplant, immunocompromised syndromes, HIV treatment, and high dose steroid treatments. The client shakes his or her head at each bullet point… until we reach the end of the list. Then,
“Well, my doctor sent me an email (or phoned me) and told me to get a booster shot.”
“Yes, I understand that doctors’ office admins have been doing that. Unfortunately, we’re administering third doses only to people that fall into one of these categories.”
“Well, I came all the way down here to get my booster.”
“Yes, that is frustrating. Unfortunately, we’re not administering boosters yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks when the CDC
et al officially decide how to administer boosters. At this time, however, we’re administering third doses only to people that fall into one of these categories.” I tap the form.
The client either accepts this information – with good or ill grace – and (muttering his or her displeasure) departs the long line. Or she or he explodes into anger. Facing a stranger’s wrath is not the way I prefer to start my day – especially as this line-filtering role evolved to ensure a positive experience for the many other people standing in our usually long vaccination lines -
and keep healthy our front-line workers.
I hold fast. If the client insists on forcing a “booster”, I say, “I cannot stop you from signing this form and attesting to its accuracy, even as you know it may not be accurate. This signed attestation
will appear on your health record… You decide.”
At that point I depart to assist the next client.
Iran: My Iranian neighbor reports Iran’s “government and mullahs are vaccinating themselves and their families and ignoring the general population.”
Iran’s Covid data, if accurate, shows 5,477,230 infected and 118,200 dead.
India An Indian client at the clinic for this first Covid shot after returning to the US after visiting family in India describes nightmare scenes of Indians dying in the streets of the country’s cities. India’s Covid data, if accurate, is the second highest in the world with 33,531,500 confirmed infections and 445,800 confirmed dead. (US still “numbah One”.)
***
Meanwhile, in the northern hemisphere, yesterday was the fall equinox (spring equinox in South Africa / the southern hemisphere).
Californians officially head towards winter, despite glorious weather. Rain is predicted in the San Francisco Bay Area; none has fallen.
My cookie-cutter days have me arising in the dark, Monday through Friday. By by 6:45am I’ve taken my place in a freeway lane and, with luck, I arrive at work by 8:00am. I run around all day supervising both the Covid and flu clinics (Covid clients served
inside the clinic, flu clients
outside, in their vehicles parked under a drive-through tent. Soon after 5:15pm, I take my place in a freeway lane and, watching my fuel/petrol gauge drop, I head home. (These days, fuel/petrol costs anything from $4.15 to $4.85 per gallon.)
Stress, commuting, and lack of time has me neglecting my exercise regime. Not a good strategy for future health.
Alas, practicality forced my understanding the unfeasibility of continuing to to maintain my houseboat. Of the 2.5 years I’ve owned and paid slip fees for the boat, I’ve lived aboard for only 6 months. My current work commute – in the opposite direction of the marina – plus trips to the marina each weekend to maintain the boat made continued ownership impractical.
Moreover, after my job ends in February, I must return to South Africa (Covid willing) to wrap up my mother’s business.
Further paying slip fees and not living aboard.,br>
Accepting reality albeit with a heavy heart, I sold my beloved houseboat.
The purchaser is a loving son seeking to ameliorate his father’s pandemic-related social isolation yet maintaining his health.
How could I refuse?
***
Among the many vax skeptics and conspiracy theorists are people – one of whom I know and care about – swallowing the anti-bacterial dog and horse de-wormer medication (
not even a viral medication) Ivermectin. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
Fascinating.
Humans. Constantly evolving into an evolutionary ornery and hard to understand critter.
