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Notice in California:

Get notified when it’s your turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine. If you’re near San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego, you can also schedule your appointment.

Everyone in California will have an opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But our vaccine supply is limited right now. So we’re starting with the groups who are at highest risk, like people with a high chance of exposure and people 65 and older. Are you eligible? 

News blues…

As Americans struggle to survive an out-of-control pandemic and clean up after Trump (the White House), and the Trumpies’ mess of the federal government, Trump’s second impeachment commences. Historical moments:
Lead House Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin presents graphic video timeline of Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol (13:13 mins)
Conclusion of House Manager Raskin’s emotional appeal to Senate on Day 1 of impeachment trial  (8:36 mins)

***

Calendar it:

• President Ramaphosa will address the nation tomorrow night, Thursday, at 7pm.
• Register for the Webinar: Unpacking the SoNA

The 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 11 February 2021-
Theme Following up on our commitments: making your future work better will reflect the devastation the coronavirus pandemic has on almost every sector of the South African economy and on ordinary people’s lives.

***

The Lincoln Project: 

The case against Donald J. Trump  (0:50 mins)
Branded  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Pollution from power plants, vehicles and other sources accounted for one in five of all deaths in 2018, with fossil fuels causing 8.7m deaths globally in 2018. 

Guardian graphic. Source: Harvard University.
Deaths attributable to exposure to
fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
generated by fossil fuel combustion

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A good friend from California has been perseverating for months about Covid-19. He has some health vulnerabilities, so he’s extra cautious about protecting himself, his family, friends, and neighbors.
Sometimes, I’ve wondered if he has been, well, just a bit over the top: he refuses to enter grocery stores, instead ordering online, driving to the store where assistants deliver groceries directly into his vehicle’s trunk/boot and, back home, sanitizing all purchases. During his daily walk around the neighborhood, he berates other walkers who don’t wear masks….
This friend’s health care provider warned that they’d not dispense vaccinations until at least late summer, 2021. Then, a miracle! My friend heard via the online grapevine that the State of California has opened vaccination sites in Los Angeles, San Jose (“Silicon Valley”) and San Francisco. What’s more, one could make appointments for two-dose vaccinations.
He drove for more than an hour and reached San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center well before his 9:30am appointment. He was immediately attended to, and he processed out of the facility by 10:15am.
Yay! California! Yay, Biden administration! Yay, the resurgence of bureaucratic competence in the United States.
Now, to bring down the rate of infection and death.
Currently, the US is more than twice the rate of infection and death than its closest competition: 26+ million in US, 10+ in India (and India has twice the population).
Competence counts!

***

Yesterday I visited TOPS, the alcohol off sales store. I purchased a bottle of grapefruit flavored rum – with my homemade mint syrup I look forward to an occasional mojito. I also purchased a bottle of (cheapish) tequila. Now I seek an easy to make but delicious margarita mix recipe.
Things are looking up!

Forward momentum!

News blues…

New variants raise worry about COVID-19 as scientists discovered a new version of the virus in South Africa that’s more contagious and less susceptible to certain treatments.

Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests.
How long immunity lasts from natural infection is one of the big questions in the pandemic. Scientists still think reinfections are fairly rare and usually less serious than initial ones, but recent developments around the world have raised concerns.
In South Africa, a vaccine study found new infections with a variant in 2% of people who previously had an earlier version of the virus.
In Brazil, several similar cases were documented with a new variant there. Researchers are exploring whether reinfections help explain a recent surge in the city of Manaus, where three-fourths of residents were thought to have been previously infected.
In the United States, a study found that 10% of Marine recruits who had evidence of prior infection and repeatedly tested negative before starting basic training were later infected again. That work was done before the new variants began to spread, said one study leader, Dr. Stuart Sealfon of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
“Previous infection does not give you a free pass,” he said. “A substantial risk of reinfection remains.”

Let’s be careful out there, people. Wear your mask, keep your distance, ventilate your facility, sanitize your hands…

***

The Lincoln Project on the cusp of Trump’s second impeachment:
Convict   (0:55 mins)
Now This: Trump's Impeachment Defense, Debunked   (4:33 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Big Business squirms as Biden tightens climate regulations. Corporate America has made bold pledges to fight climate change, but it's resisting government efforts to hold it to them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

First the good/bad news: My mother is looking a lot more perky. She’s still very weak, can hardly speak, and, sitting in her Laziboy chair, can slowly move her hands and legs. Nevertheless, a Care Center staff person phone me yesterday afternoon to report that dear old stubborn mom had tried to climb out of her Laziboy and had fallen – again! This time, however, no bones broken and no discernible damage done.
What to say?
Stubborn is as stubborn does!

***

Our gardener returned to work yesterday. He’s a mere shadow of his former “bonny” – that is, plump – self. In two weeks he lost at least 20 pounds/10kgs. Moreover, he claims he did not have Covid. Rather, the doctor suggests he may have an ulcer, or a similar stomach ailment.
He set about weeding … something badly needed and not too taxing.

***

Looks like we have a buyer for the house!
The third person who saw the house on the first day it was advertised, made a reasonable-enough all-cash offer. (The first couple that saw it made an unreasonable offer. I refused it and they didn’t make a counteroffer.)
Another party inspected the house yesterday and appear interested. Ironically, if they purchased, they’d create a medical step-down facility. They’d offer elderly folks a place recuperate with their pets and the ability to garden. Nice idea. Perhaps I could check my mother in…
Now to work out the nitty-gritty details.
Seems the concept of “as is” doesn’t mean much here. There’s talk of me having to erect a fence around the only section of swimming pool that doesn’t have a fence…and other annoying fixes.
Time will tell.

Normalcy?

News blues…

South Africa suspends AstraZeneca vaccine drive as “the AstraZeneca vaccine appeared effective against the original strain, but not against the variant…” 
Same news, different angle: The roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine to South Africa’s health workers has been temporarily halted following results showing low efficacy against the South African variant of the coronavirus.

South African health workers will now receive the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine, after the Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, on Sunday 7 February announced a major shift in the country’s vaccine roll-out.
The shift was necessitated by the publication of what the lead investigator in the Oxford/AstraZeneca trial, Professor Shabir Madhi, said were “disappointing results” showing that the vaccine did not work well against the South African variant of the coronavirus. 

***

Sleep more! The coronavirus can cause insomnia and long-term changes in our nervous systems. But sleep could also be a key to ending the pandemic.

…several mysteries of how COVID-19 works converge on the question of how the disease affects our sleep, and how our sleep affects the disease. The virus is capable of altering the delicate processes within our nervous system, in many cases in unpredictable ways, sometimes creating long-term symptoms. Better appreciating the ties between immunity and the nervous system could be central to understanding COVID-19—and to preventing it.

Read >> The Mysterious Link Between COVID-19 and Sleep 

***

COVID 19 is a name for a mystery doctors are unravelling  (12:25 mins)(Particularly interesting information for medical technophiles.)

***

The Lincoln Project
Chicken (0:25 mins)
Don’t be distracted   (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

An excellent idea from citizens and residents of planet earth to citizens and residents of planet earth….

A Paris court has convicted the French state of failing to address the climate crisis and not keeping its promises to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
In what has been hailed as a historic ruling, the court found the state guilty of “non-respect of its engagements” aimed at combating global warming.
Billed the “affair of the century”, the legal case was brought by four French environmental groups after a petition signed by 2.3 million people.
“This is an historic win for climate justice. The decision not only takes into consideration what scientists say and what people want from French public policies, but it should also inspire people all over the world to hold their governments accountable for climate change in their courts,” said Jean-François Julliard, the executive director of Greenpeace France, one of the plaintiffs. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mother’s mounting a comeback! My mother was much improved yesterday! Both eyes were open, she had more muscle control of her head and neck – that is, she held up her head and looked around – and, while still weak and slow, she moved her legs around more than I’ve seen her do in several weeks. There’s life in the old girl yet!

***

Our gardener makes a comeback today, too. During our phone conversation yesterday, we agreed he’d return to work and we’d both keep in mind that he’s recovering, and that he’d take it slow.
What he’s recovering from is still a mystery. He insists he did not have Covid-19, that “the doctor said his lungs are clear” … yet he has suffered debilitating fatigue and body aches.

***

I’m happy to report that my deep sleep pattern is improving. Generally, I suffer “jet lag” while I’m in South Africa. I chalk it up to travel 14,000 miles, a change in hemisphere, seasons, water, and food.
I’m usually only in South Africa for up to three months and my regular sleep pattern resumes when I return to California.
Covid pandemic, frail mother, etc., changed all that and I’ve suffered a sleep deficit for months. Last week, a friendly “organic” over the counter medication ended that regime. For the past few nights, I’ve slept from 7 to 8 hours each night.
Luxury thy name is sleep!

“Sunday morning coming down”

© Joe Heller, hellertoons.com

And, an oldy but goody: Sunday morning coming down (4:30 mins)

News blues…

To booster shot with second vaccine or not to booster shot with second vaccine? That is the question...  particularly among experts in the now-notoriously vaccine skittish US of A.

Initially it looked like the efficacy after that one dose ― and before the second ― was about 50%. But that figure included everybody who got sick during that three- or four-week interval, and most had gotten sick in the first few days. Most likely, they encountered the virus either right before or right after getting the vaccine, before it had time to take effect.
Within 10 to 12 days after vaccination, enough time for the immune system to respond to the vaccine, incidence of disease fell sharply. Extrapolating from that, researchers concluded that efficacy from one dose was a lot higher than 50% after a few weeks, once the immune system had time to react.
That got some experts wondering: Why don’t we just give first shots to as many people as possible now, and then circle back to the second shots at a later date, when the supply is more plentiful?

Read >> “Delay Second Doses? A Guide To The Latest COVID-19 Vaccine Debate” 

***

More on good news on Covid vaccine…  (3:50 mins)
And, “The vaccines that could stop Covid-19” 

***

Meanwhile, in South Africa,

…the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines begins rolling out to provinces this week [along with] a massive security plan involving armed guards, unmarked police cars and satellite tracking ... kicked into gear to prevent the precious cargo falling into criminal hands.
SA's first vaccine could be administered as soon as Wednesday, according the health department. Bio-pharmaceutical company Biovac will this week start sending trucks across SA to deliver the cargo…. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Way to age!

When Jon Sanders left Australia on his latest circumnavigation, which was to raise awareness about microplastics, there was no coronavirus
Like many people, 81-year-old Jon Sanders gets up and makes himself a coffee each morning. Instant, two sugars, milk. It’s a conventional start for a man who lives anything but an ordinary life.
Sanders this week became the oldest person to sail single-handedly around the world – a voyage to raise awareness about plastic pollution and one plagued by coronavirus at every port.
On 31 January, nursing cracked ribs from a night strapped into his bunk after giant waves engulfed his boat off Tahiti, the octogenarian sailed his old 39-foot yacht, the Perie Banou II, into Western Australia’s Fremantle Harbour, notching up his 11th solo navigation around the globe.

Read >> “Anything but ordinary: the 81-year-old who has sailed around the world 11 times” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Over months last year, starting in winter, I made six large 50kbg bags of compost. Having access to an elderly concrete mixer made all the difference to what is usually back-breaking work. From kitchen scraps to leaves, pond weed, saw dust, wood ash, anything organic, went through my four step composting process: kitchen waste collected in a bin near the kitchen went into an aerated bin near the compost pile for a couple of week, then mixed into the compost pile, then into bags, then titrated with other ingredients into the concrete mixer, then churned, then stored in large sacks.
After some weeks, I spread fresh compost in the garden, or continued to store the rest to use “next spring.”
That stored compost is beautiful: dark, organically aromatic, and chock-a-block with earthworms. I’m amazed at what nature wrought (along with a concrete mixer and a determined composter).
I’m now in the process of moving batches of the bagged compost to the small, manageable garden of my new home. The six original bags are way too heavy for me to move alone, so I divided each bag into 4 smaller bags. Two batches have been delivered and, today, I’ll deliver the last batch of 4 smaller bags to my new garden.
Hadedah ibis regularly visit that garden hunting for earthworms.

***

Load shedding is back! Power was off for first two hours of this morning. That was an easy one to live with - I was asleep. The next phase, from 8:00 to 10:30 am, is less manageable. 

Grrrrr, Eskom….

Progress?

News blues…

Dr Fauci on virus variants, including South Africa’s variant (7:03 mins)
… and a comment on conspiracy theories and theorists  (4:03 mins)

***

How accurate are official Covid death tolls? Of concern in South Africa: “not all hospitals and provinces provide the same level of accuracy, the data cannot be verified.”

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) publishes the number of excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 regularly, but many people try to explain it away by saying it is due to the lockdown, and not unreported Covid-19 cases.
Analysis of excess death figures in South Africa indicates that far more people were infected and died from Covid-19 than the official figures suggest. Covid-19 mortality to the week of 17 January 2021 is most probably in the range of 111,227 to 133,128, rather than the reported 34,828, three to four times more than the official data.
Based on these revised Covid-19 mortality figures, Professor. Alex van den Heever, chair of social security systems administration and management studies at the Wits School of Governance, estimates that the true level of Covid-19 infections may range from around 6 to 9 million, which is significantly higher than the reported 1.3 million.
…
Two basic theories are used to explain the deviation:

• that the deaths could be directly due to SARS-COV-2 infections and the resulting disease, Covid-19 or
• that they are collateral deaths that could be indirectly linked to Covid-19, due to reduced health service access caused by lockdowns and delayed treatment, because people are scared of infection or they are told by hospitals to stay away to make space for Covid-19 patients.

Read >> “6 to 9 million is the ‘true level’ of SA Covid-19 infections – expert” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Back in December, Apple Inc. faced lawsuits of about $217 million in several European countries seeking over misleading claims about the battery life of older iPhones, particularly the iPhone 6 series.

The lawsuits mirror U.S. cases over claims that the company misled consumers about iPhone battery power and software updates that slowed the performance of the devices. The Cupertino, Calif., company last month agreed to pay $113 million to settle a case with multiple U.S. regulators. Meanwhile, customers are seeking approval from a U.S. court for a class-action settlement that could be worth as much as $500 million. 

Generally not someone who endorses lawsuits as a means of redress, I am heartily on board with this one. (Not that it helps me in any practical sense.)
I’m now having to charge my iPhone 6 SE every hour or two. Along with all the other burdens – very ill mother, dealing with realtors to sell her property and her household goods (including a mountain of elderly tools and an elderly vehicle) a gardener with Covid and an overgrown garden amid a hot and wet summer, moving my own property to a new home, etc., - not trusting my communication device to communicate is one burden too many.
Buying a new iPhone lite – “the cheaper" $300-or-so version in the US – costs about R12,000 here – that’s more than $800! Yes, I could turn to an Android phone – I have access to an Android right now – but I use the iPhone to communicate easily with friends and family in the US who prefer iPhone features over Android (FaceTime, etc.). Little did I realize, when I purchased my (recycled) iPhone 6 SE several years ago, that I “bought into” Apple and iPhone. True, I should have realized realized the choice was a rerun of the PC/Apple choice of the 1980s. I bought into MSDOS and I’m still a user of PC over Apple.
I’m of the old school: someone who believes – contrary to current reality – that devices and other items “should” be interchangeable and last longer than one season of use. 

Grrrr to out-of-control consumer culture (aka, littering culture)….

***

My mother was slightly better during yesterday’s visit. She looked through both eyes, tracked what I way saying and responded with nods or shakes of her head, and fidgeted in her Laziboy to denote discomfort with her position. She’s too weak to move herself into a more comfortable position and I’m not strong enough to effectively move her. But I took it as a good sign that she seeks more physical comfort. Two staff members assisted in moving her. Progress?

Don’t worry, be happy

© Gary Larsen, The Far Side

News blues…

Covid news of the day:

• "We have uncontrolled viral spread in much of the world," says Adam Lauring, an infectious disease physician and virologist at the University of Michigan. "So the virus has a lot of opportunity to evolve." 
  Read >> National Geographic’s “Why some coronavirus variants are more contagious — and how we can stop them,  
• Coronavirus Antibodies Last For 'At Least 6 Months' For Most People A new study shows 88% of people retain COVID-19 immunity for longer than previously thought. 
• SA coronavirus vaccine rollout plan 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Is recycling enough? 

***

I appreciate succulents, too, but…

A woman strapped nearly 1,000 succulents and endangered cacti to her body in an attempt to smuggle them into New Zealand. And she’s done this at least twice. This time she was sentenced to 100 hours of community work, the country's biosecurity ministry said. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

We had 3 – count ‘em, 3! – potential buyers visit the house yesterday.
The first couple loved the place, particularly the large and varied gardens. They returned later in the afternoon with their son, a builder who could evaluate cost of further work, two adult daughters and two grandchildren. They’d purchase the property to live and garden.
The second potential buyers was, as we might say in the US, “all hat and no cattle,”: lots of talk, some of it far removed from buying the property, and lots of offers of potential “deals” – some, ditto, far from the subject at hand.
The third potential buyer, also very interested, seeks an income generating property. He and his father, both builder/developers, would create 3 separate living spaces to rent.
My preference would be the first family. They’d do the garden justice. I’d love to show them where I’d created the compost pile, recycled the freezer to create a mini-greenhouse, and how to discourage the invasive cats claw creeper.

Today, will be – I hope – a less frenetic day. I can visit my mother, report the latest happenings to her, and, perhaps, arrange a way for her two grandchildren to fly from Jo’burg to visit her. That would have to be cleared with the Care Center’s one visitor per day per resident Covid policy.

“Mutant variants”

Worldwide (Map) 
February 4 – 104,367,000 confirmed infections; 2,268,000 deaths
December 31 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,8040100 deaths

US (Map) 
February 4 – 26,555,000 confirmed infections; 450,680 deaths
December 31 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths

SA (Tracker)  
February 4 – 1,463,016 confirmed infections; 45,344 deaths
December 31 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths

News blues…

News from US on Covid variants and hybrids, aka “mutant variants”  – scroll to minute 18:26 – of 37:50 mins. Dr. Celine Gounder says, “this is absolutely not the time to let down your guard. You need to double down on the masking, the social distancing, the sanitizing, the good ventilation, the sticking to your ‘household bubbles’…”
Finally, after a year of Trump and Trumpie nonsense and total lack of a concerted effort to quell the pandemic, it feels like the Biden administration is getting a handle on things. (Remember Trumpisms such as “like a miracle it will disappear”, “hydroxychloroquine is a cure all”, “inject light into the body”, and “swallow disinfectant”?)

***

© 2021 Joe Heller - Hellertoon.com 

After 37 years on the road, Greyhound and Citiliner, South Africa, are going out of business, ostensibly because of Covid-19 restrictions:

“Declining passenger numbers and poor regulatory compliance in the bus passenger industry has resulted in both our brands - Greyhound and Citiliner - incurring significant losses for several years,” said Unitrans Passenger in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“The impact of Covid-19 regulations limiting inter-provincial travel and coach occupancy levels, and the closure of the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders have exacerbated the situation," it added. 

(In the US, Greyhound - some of us call it Groundhog - continues to ply the highways and bi-ways.)

***

With the launch of the electronic vaccine data system (EVDS), health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday his department would do its best to make the vaccines available. 
During a public health webinar chaired by Mkhize on Covid-19 inoculation, he said about 34,000 health-care workers had already registered on the data system for the vaccine.

***

The Lincoln Project:
The Squalid  (2:45 mins) In which they introduce the Band of “Shitrumpets”…
Ouch!  (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A recent UN-backed report states the vicious circle of cheap but damaging food is biggest destroyer of nature:

The global food system is the biggest driver of destruction of the natural world, and a shift to predominantly plant-based diets is crucial in halting the damage, according to report by the Chatham House.
Agriculture is the main threat to 86% of the 28,000 species known to be at risk of extinction. Without change, the loss of biodiversity will continue to accelerate and threaten the world’s ability to sustain humanity, the report states.
The root cause is a vicious circle of cheap food, where low costs drive bigger demand for food and more waste, with more competition then driving costs even lower through more clearing of natural land and use of polluting fertilisers and pesticides.

Read >> “Plant-based diets crucial to saving global wildlife” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Big day coming up: today, one set of potential house buyers arrives at 10am, another set at 12 noon, and a third set at 4:30pm. We’ve gone from zero viewers in 3 months under the sole mandate scenario to 3 sets in one day with another 2 sets waiting in the wings.
A bonanza!
I brought in a fresh and more determined realtor, one feeling the financial pinch brought on by Covid.
Let’s pray at least one of these sets makes an offer.

With all this going on, I'm not sure how I’ll fit in a brief visit to my mother today. The Care Center has been liberal with my daily visits – although I’ve stuck to their morning visiting hours and not expected special treatment.
Other good news: the swimming pool opened yesterday. I’ll take advantage ... tomorrow….