October updates

Today’s Covid numbers compared with numbers exactly one year ago:
(Note: worldwide, we’re on the cusp of 5 million dead.) 

Worldwide (Map) 
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 6,690,061,700. That’s 6.6 billion. Amazing.

US (Map) 
October 21, 2021 – 45,161,400 confirmed infections; 729,500 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

News blues

SA recorded 591 new Covid-19 cases and 80 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). 
… Of the new cases, only two provinces recorded more than 100 infections in the past day — KwaZulu-Natal with 129 and the Western Cape with 124. Gauteng was third most affected, with 71. Limpopo had the fewest new cases, with seven recorded. 

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Vaccines for kids ages 5-11 prepare to roll out, according to the CDC’s plan advising states on how to carry it out. 

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Where the rubber meets the road? Stopping the spread of COVID-19 is a great way to help U.S. military families, yet anti-vaxxers don’t see it that way: The Hypocrisy of the Anti-vax Patriot 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>

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Whackidoodle-ism continues
The Lincoln Project: This week in the Republican Party  (2:00 mins)
One would think that, with close to 5 billion dead from a coronavirus on Planet Earth, contradictory humans would re-evaluate their points of view. Instead, too many continue to spew theories suitable only for Planet Whackidoodle:

• End-times radio host says COVID vaccines implant 'an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite' in your body 
• Utah Protesters Claim Hospitals Are Killing People Who Have COVID 
• Current top 10 conspiracy theories 

Healthy planet, anyone?

California’s Dixie Fire is now 90% contained. The fire has burned a total of 963,195 acres, the largest single wildfire in California history.
See how California’s Dixie Fire  created its own weather … 
Tornadoes… 
Fire whirls … 
And atmospheric instability… 
Fires and climate change …  and more on fires and climate change 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Other than continuing to prep my apartment for short-term rental – and respond to interested parties about that – life has been non-eventful. Intermittent rain continues… Pacific Flyway birds continue to arrive in the park and on the bay.
Life is good enough.

Getting tough

News blues

US Prez Biden is cracking down on vax-avoidant  states – finally!

Officials with US OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration - are threatening to assert jurisdiction over workplace safety in three states that haven’t adopted President Joe Biden’s emergency regulation for health care facilities.
South Carolina, Arizona and Utah all have what are known as OSHA state plans. Federal OSHA oversees workplace safety around the country, but states are allowed to handle it on their own as long as they meet minimum federal requirements.
OSHA officials said Tuesday that those three states had missed the deadline to implement the Biden administration’s new rule meant to protect health care workers from COVID-19. If they don’t implement such a rule, the administration will move to revoke approval of their state OSHA plans — which would subject employers in South Carolina, Arizona and Utah to federally run inspections.
Read more >> 

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Variant of the Delta variant?

Delta is the UK's dominant variant, but latest official data suggests 6% of Covid cases that have been genetically sequenced are of a new type.
AY.4.2, which some are calling "Delta Plus", contains mutations that might give the virus survival advantages.
… identified as AY.4.2, this offshoot or sublineage of Delta has been increasing slowly since then. It includes some new mutations affecting the spike protein, which the virus uses to penetrate our cells.
So far, there is no indication that it is considerably more transmissible as a result of these changes, but it is something experts are studying.

Read more >> 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>
(0:35 mins)

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The Lincoln Project: Rudy Giuliani loses it… again… here he is acting out the part of Abe Lincoln to blacklist a Democratic candidate  … then putting his foot in his mouth to be sued by The Lincoln Project . Will this madness ever end?

Healthy planet, anyone?

Rain has finally come to the Bay Area. This, as California records it’s driest year in nearly a century  and Gov. Newsom declares a statewide drought emergency and officials announce that Californians reduced water use an average of 5% in August..
Rain falls only in winter in California and, usually, it’s a gentle rainfall, perhaps windy but seldom accompanied by thunder and lightning. Lightning is an anomaly and, when it occurs, frequently ends up as a spectacular photo on the front page of local newspapers.
Rainfall in Kwa Zulu Natal, on the other hand, usually is accompanied by thunder and lightning. The rainy season has begun there, too.
Water. Life giving.

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Also life giving? A sacred valley. Could it be designated America’s next national monument? If successful, the designation would end a decades-long fight to protect rare swamp cedars — and a key Native American site >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

In Houston, Texas, a new theme for children’s birthday parties: Indoor skydiving….  Shown here, a member of the family checking it out as a venue for grandson’s birthday party with 5 of his friends. Woo hoo!

Tourist

News blues

U.S. throws out millions of doses of COVID vaccine as world goes wanting >> 

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On US and global infrastructure and supply chain management (or lack thereof…)

… the thick layer of irrationality …encrusts our supply chain. It’s beyond the power of any one person to change this anytime soon, but trying to scrape off as many of these encumbrances as possible should be a national priority.
We are experiencing the worst disruption of the supply chain since the advent of the shipping-container era in the late 1950s, driven, at bottom, by the pandemic. A surge in e-commerce, coupled with a labor shortage, helped to create the conditions for a spiraling series of bottlenecks.
Ships are idling waiting to unload their cargo at ports, while containers are waiting at the ports to be shipped further inland, while cargo is waiting outside full warehouses on chassis that aren’t available to use to pick up other containers, and so on. In theory, there are plenty of ships, trucks and other capacity to handle the volume, but not if so much of that capacity is tied up and frozen in place.
… there’s no underestimating the challenge here. Everyone along every part of the U.S. logistics chain is pointing fingers at each other, and everyone deserves some blame, whether it’s the ports, the truckers, the warehouses, the railroads or other players.
Read more >> 

 

One section of supply chain buildup at Port of Oakland, October 16, 2021.

A supply chain joke for 2021.

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The latest information on vaccine boosters
Across the board, from Feds to local clinics, communication – lack of and outright miscommunication? – has been a worrisome feature of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contradictory information continues… but we do the best we can to research and uncover the latest information on how to protect ourselves and our family and friends. The following is the latest – as of this week – on boosters.

• FDA Panel Endorses Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Booster >> 
• So far, 8.8 million Americans have received a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Here’s everything to know about booster doses of all three vaccines.
  Read more >> 
• Should you mix and match COVID-19 vaccines? Experts weigh in. While not yet authorized, small trials suggest some booster combinations are not only safe, they may yield better protection. Read more  >> 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>

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The Lincoln Project : Peaceful Pledge  (0:35 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I recommend anyone become a tourist in her/his home region and/or city.
Yesterday, I was a tourist in one small section of San Francisco, from the ferry building to the downtown half mile of Mission Street, over Market Street via Kearney Street to inner North Beach. Blessed with great weather it was a wonderful trip!

Ferry passing me… not even a thought to stop and pick me up!

 
I misread the ferry schedule and arrived at one of the East Bay ferry terminals early. According to my online schedule, a ferry is due at 10:15. According to the posted schedule at the terminal, there is no 10:15am ferry on a weekend.

Forty minutes later, aboard! On my way to San Francisco towards the Ferry Building.

San Francisco....

Ferry Building Landing with Farmer's Market kiosks.

Iconic Ferry Building, 2021.

Mission Street hosts the leaning towers of the Millennium, Transbay Transit Center, and the Salesforce buildings – with tax payers on the hook to pay for the fix.

Impressive... too bad they're sinking...

San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art – MoMA – seems to have expanded since my last visit, too.

Of my choices – Paul Klee and Ruth Asawa, Alex Calder and other exhibits, I elected for Diego Riviera’s “Pan American Unity” mural. 
I did not visit the Yerba Buena Ctr although I have many memories both attending and being part of presenting events there. Moreover, one memory still haunts: A group of anti-war protesters and protest groups – including Vets for Peace, Courage to Resist – presented a moving protest that entered and then passed YBC gardens. I noticed one woman, perhaps working in YBC garden, take fright at our overt spectacle. She sunk to the ground and began to cry. I do not speak Spanish nor was she interested in conversation. Instead, she ran away, still crying. Clearly, our raucous protest had stimulated unpleasant memories in her.
An example of how wide is human experience, memory, over-focus on one’s own current issue, and lack of awareness about one’s actions can affect others.
San Francisco is full of memories, from the Occupy movement – Justin Herman Plaza and local streets hosted many Occupy tents back in the day (see A Month in the Life of Occupy  and May Day in Occupy Oakland  and many more pictures).
In North Beach, I discovered City Lights books going strong (not shut down as I’d heard. Co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti died  but City Lights goes on… So, too, does Spec’s although it opens at 3pm on Saturdays and I couldn’t wait.
Lunch was a North Beach Special sandwich from Molinari’s – prosciutto, provolone, pickled red peppers and sundried tomatoes. Yum!

Molinari's

I ate half of the huge Molinari’s sandwich in a small park I’d passed through most every day of my life when I worked in the tech industry around Pacific Avenue and the Levi Strauss & Co building, then HQ for that company.
Good times!

One of my favorite North Beach buildings... on Colombus...
owned, or once owned, by Francis Ford Coppola.

My visit stimulated so many memories. I’d find myself stopping at a point, trying to remember what about it stimulated my memory. Sometimes it was simply an area where I’d purchase coffee each morning, sometimes a spot where a US Army recruiting station had operated for a short while, or the building housing a TV studio where I’d been interviewed on my anti-war travels and book ….Crossing Broadway at Columbus and bumping into John Cleese...
I spent more than four hours visiting my past in San Francisco then took the ferry back home. The view leaving The City is as impressive as is the view arriving….

 
Interesting trivia on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge…

508-foot caisson

This 508-foot caisson was thus built from the top down and rammed through 100 feet of mud into bedrock to tower 288 feet above the water. This anchorage contains more concrete than the Empire State Building. 

I’d planned to visit again today, with a friend. Weather forecasters predicted rain so we agreed to go another day. So far, alas, no rain….

Leadership

…the fading art of leadership…[is] not a failure of one party or another; it’s more of a generational decline of good judgment.
“The elites think it’s all about expertise… It’s important to have experts, but they aren’t always right. They can be “hampered by their own orthodoxies, their own egos, their own narrow approach to the world.”
[Conclusion]: “You need broad-minded leaders who know how to hold people accountable, who know how to delegate, who know a good chain of command, and know how to make hard judgements. 

— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid B
by Lawrence Wright  

 Talking about leadership, or lack thereof, remember this "Failure" of leadership?  >>  (2:10 mins)

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Worldwide (Map) 
October 14, 2021 – 239,341,600 confirmed infections; 4,877,540 deaths
July 22, 2021: 191,945,000 confirmed infections; 4,126,300 deaths

More than 6.5 billion vaccinations administered
Track worldwide vaccination rate  >> 

US (Map) 
October 14, 2021 – 44,694,200 confirmed infections; 719,760 deaths
July 22, 2021: 34,226,300 confirmed infections; 609,900 deaths

SA (Tracker) 
October 14, 2021 – 2,914,000 confirmed infections; 88,500 deaths
July 22, 2021: 2,327,475 confirmed infections; 68,200 deaths

News blues

Roughly 36,000 people died from Covid-19 in the United States from July to the end of August 2021. How many could have been saved if the nation as a whole had achieved ambitious, but nevertheless realistic, levels of vaccination?

Read “Lives lost to under-vaccination“ >> 

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Quote:

By the end of 2020, the death rate per 100,000 for the United States as a whole was 134.89; in other words, more than one American died for every thousand people in the country. That was nearly two and a half times the rate in Canada, at 53.98. Only Italy and the U.K. had higher rates than the U.S. among countries most affected by Covid. In the first half of 2020, life expectancy in the U.S. fell by a full year, from 78.8 years to 77.8, the largest drop since the Second World War. By the end of the year, the United States had more cases and more deaths than any other country. The actual tally will never be known, but a retrospective serological study estimated that 35 percent of Covid deaths went unreported. Total deaths increased by 15 percent, making 2020 the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history. The figure that will haunt America is that the U.S. accounts for about 20 percent of all the Covid fatalities in the world, despite having only 4 percent of the population. At the beginning of the pandemic, China’s unprecedented lockdown, compared to the initial halting reaction in Italy, suggested that autocratic systems had an unbeatable advantage in dealing with a contagion like that of SARS-CoV-2. Over time, however, democratic regimes found their footing and did marginally better than authoritarian ones. Advanced countries performed better than developing ones, but not by as much as might have been expected. Due to the high volume of air travel, richer countries were quickly overwhelmed, while poorer countries had more time to prepare for the onslaught. High-tech medical advantages footing and did marginally better than authoritarian ones. Advanced countries performed better than developing ones, but not by as much as might have been expected. Due to the high volume of air travel, richer countries were quickly overwhelmed, while poorer countries had more time to prepare for the onslaught. High-tech medical advantages proved of little use when the main tools for countering the spread of the disease were social distancing, hand washing, and masks. This can be seen in the rankings by the Lowy Institute of the performance of countries managing the pandemic. The top ten countries are:
New Zealand
Taiwan
Thailand
Cyprus
Rwanda
Iceland
Australia
Latvia
Sri Lanka
The United States ranked number 94 out of 98, between Bolivia and Iran. China was not included in the rankings because of the lack of transparency in its testing.
The Pew Research Center surveyed fourteen advanced countries to see how they viewed the world during the pandemic. In Denmark, 95 percent of the respondents agreed that their country had handled the crisis capably. In Australia, the figure was 94 percent; Germany was 88 percent. The United Kingdom and the U.S. were the only countries where a majority disagreed. In Denmark, 72 percent said that the country had become more unified since the contagion emerged. Only 18 percent of Americans agreed with the statement. In every country surveyed, people ranked the U.S. response lowest. And respondents in most countries said that China was now the leading economic power, not the U.S. Each of these categories is a measure of leadership. 
— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
by Lawrence Wright

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>

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“Global supply chain”… the latest buzzwords warning of upcoming trouble. And an opportunity for humans to understand how interdependent are We the People. One link of the chain goes down… and we’re all endangered.
Also known as, “another wake up call”?
Read more >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

… the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.
… But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, puts it.
The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second … the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.
… But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, puts it.
The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.

Read “Climate disaster is here” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Weather people continue to predict rain. Rain doesn’t seem to have heard the predictions. We’re still waiting….
I miss my houseboat.

So many dead...

News blues

Each flag represents an American dead of Covid-19
In D.C., 695,000 Flags—and Counting—Memorialize the Americans Who Have Died of Covid-19. ... Each flag, planted in neat squares on 20 acres of grass just north of the Washington Monument, represents one person who has died from Covid-19 in the United States...
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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>

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The Lincoln Project - and other media
Last Week in the Republican Party…  (2:06 mins)
Dragon of Budapest  (0:55 mins)

Quote:
Italy’s economic experience after the Black Death. “It was a great time to be an artisan… Suddenly, labor was scarce, and because of that, market wages had to go up. The bourgeoisie, the artisans, and the workers started to have a stronger voice. When you don’t have people, you have to pay them better.”
The relative standing of capital and labor reversed: landed gentry were battered by plunging food prices and rising wages, while former serfs, who had been too impoverished to leave anything but a portion of land to their eldest sons, increasingly found themselves able to spread their wealth among all their children, including their daughters. Women, many of them widows, entered depopulated professions, such as weaving and brewing.
“What happens after the Black Death, it’s like a wind, fresh air coming in, the fresh air of common sense,” Pomata said.
The intellectual overthrow of the medieval medical establishment was caused by doctors who set aside the classical texts and gradually turned to empirical evidence. It was the revival of medical science, which had been dismissed following the fall of ancient Rome, a thousand years earlier. After the Black Death, nothing was the same,” said Pomata. “What I expect now is something as dramatic is going to happen, not so much in medicine but in economy and culture. Because of danger, there’s this wonderful human response, which is to think in a new way.” 

 — The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
       by Lawrence Wright

Healthy planet, anyone?

The UN’s main human rights body overwhelmingly voted to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right, and to appoint an expert to monitor human rights in the context of the climate emergency.
The human rights council passed the clean-environment resolution, which also calls on countries to boost their abilities to improve the environment, by 43-0 while four member states – China, India, Japan and Russia – abstained.

Okay. That’s step one. Step two and implementation is a way more difficult job. Let’s see how that goes…. Meanwhile, read the article >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

How do I define luxury? Leaving my vehicle at home and taking the bus to the neighboring town to conduct business by appointment.
During these Covid-conscious days, local transit systems protect bus drivers from potential Covid infection by erecting a see-through Perspex door between driver’s cabin and bus interior.
On the way to town yesterday, the bus driver simply had riders enter the bus through the back door, no charge for riding, no need to pass through the Perspex door.
The bus driver on the return trip informed riders before they entered the bus that it was “very crowded, standing room only” (local high schools had closed for the day and many teenagers were on their way home). Passengers like me, determined to enter the bus, paid the fare then passed through the Perspex door. The bus was, indeed, very crowded – social distancing of fewer than six inches rather than six feet – and if a teenager wore a mask, s/he wore it around her/his chins. A crowded bus ride was still better than driving my vehicle.
My appointment was near an upscale grocery store I’d frequented in the past. Yesterday, I dropped by there, to purchase both lunch – pumpkin/apple soup – and, I planned, a bottle of imported British elderberry juice concentrate. Alas, the store no longer carries elderberry juice concentrate. It does, however, carry British imported Marmite.

Marmite, as any Brit or South African knows, is a viscous, blackish, very salty spread made from Brewers’ yeast. Many not brought up on Marmite “sarmies” (sandwiches) find the substance gross. I admit I’m less fond of Marmite than I once was, particularly when the price of a jar is as jacked up as it is in this grocery store. Marmite in SA is less than half the price in California. Nevertheless, stymied in my desire to purchase elderberry juice concentrate, I opted for Marmite. (Elderberry juice would likely have been more expensive than Marmite, too.) Apparently, Marmite is expensive these days as British breweries shut down due to Covid.
The pumpkin/apple soup was good. I sat on a rickety bench outside the store to eat. Pre-Covid, the store offered customers outdoor tables and chairs. Those are long gone.
My car-free trip into and around town stimulated me to further exploration.
Yesterday was the first time, since my return to California on 28 May, that I had time to explore. Covid changes include shuttered stores and fewer shoppers in the streets, but just as many teenagers doing just what teenagers have always done on busses: rough-house, talk loudly, harassed one another – and never, ever, offer a seat to “seniors” as directed by bus drivers and posted signs.
Saturday I plan to board the local ferry and head into San Francisco, perhaps the Museum of Modern Art, or Union Square and other touristy areas.
Sunday, I’ll head back to San Francisco with a friend, again on the ferry, to explore North Beach.
North Beach was, once upon a time, the gathering place for “Bohemians” - artists, writers, and creatives. Alas, I’ve heard that famed City Lights and other famous bookstore, Spec’s bar, the Condor Club (of Carol Dodo fame) have closed. One of our most beloved local poets, Jack Hirschman,  with whom many of us met each Wednesday night at Spec’s bar, died recently - one month after my mother’s passing. He was 87 years old.
I’ve been away for two years, but I might run into someone in North Beach that I know from that time….

Gear up for COP

News blues

More than 400 international health organisations and professionals, representing two-thirds of global healthcare workers, have signed an open letter calling on politicians to consider the health benefits of climate action ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
“We know that climate change is impacting people’s health, this is increasingly visible around the world. We also know that many solutions to address climate change offer tremendous health co-benefits,” said Dr Jeni Miller of Global Climate and Health Alliance, the organisation which drafted the letter. “The health community is really seeing that if we don’t step up and call for action on climate change, we’re failing the patients and the communities that we care for.”

Read more >> 

Even Pope Francis is worried about political and corporate will, lack of focus, and inaction on climate change. Recently, 84-year-old Pope Francis told lawmakers to get their act together: “We owe this to the young, to future generations….” 

COP 26 information >> 

What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guide and many things you need to know about the Glasgow conference seeking to forge a global response to the climate emergency.

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The Lincoln Project - and other media
Glenn Will Not Replace Us  (0:55 mins)

Quote: Patient Zero, if that person is ever found, will tell us how the current pandemic arose, but the search will also uncover the many ways dangerous diseases emerge. If the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is natural, then we can expect recurrences, as the processes that led to its interaction with humans — climate change, intensive animal farming, the encroachment of civilization into natural preserves, smuggling and consumption of exotic species — have only increased. If the virus was created in a laboratory, for whatever purpose, then it is a reminder that science is engaged in experiments that invite catastrophe with the smallest slip. In either case, Covid-19 is a harbinger.

— The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
     Lawrence Wright

Healthy planet, anyone?

Creative thinking and doing….

In Nigeria, a country heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports, entrepreneur Ifedolapo Runsewe has identified another type of black gold: used car tyres.
She has set up Freetown Waste Management Recycle, an industrial plant dedicated to transforming old tyres into paving bricks, floor tiles and other goods that are in high demand in Africa’s most populous nation.
“Creating something new from something that will otherwise be lying somewhere as waste was part of the motivation,” Runsewe said at her factory in the city of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria.
“We are able to create an entire value chain about the tyres,” she said, holding a paving brick that is one of the company’s best-selling products.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

No longer in the daily grind known as the commute, but I’m busy, nonetheless. More on that tomorrow…

As the world turns...

News blues

The struggle between and among the Covid convinced and unconvinced continues. The people of Anchorage, Alaska (largely unconvinced) were afforded six days to present their concerns about mask mandates – and, turns out, whatever else was on their minds. And a lot was on their minds.
Those focused on mitigating and surviving Covid stayed home to participate via Zoom and social media. 

… people lined up to comment against the ordinance.
Opponents have shown up en masse night after night . Mayor Dave Bronson and Assembly member Jamie Allard, ardent opponents of COVID-19 restrictions and masking requirements, have encouraged comments and engaged in procedural tactics that extend the process.
Mask ordinance opponents on social media encouraged families to bring their children to testify, and many did. A group served pizza to attendees in the entrance to the library.

Fun times!
Read “Anchorage Assembly and mayor battle over proceedings during sixth chaotic night of public comment on proposed mask mandate" >> 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>

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The Lincoln Project - and other media
Package Deal  (0:55 mins)
Not for Sale  (0:25 mins)

After following the pandemic for close to two years, from perspective of a locked down South African and a Californian, Lawrence Wright’s new book, The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid is a good reminder of how We the People arrived at our current state. It’s also a confirmation of media reports from the pandemic’s early days.
Interesting quotes:

During the transition to the Trump administration, the Obama White House handed off a sixty-nine-page document called the “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.” A meticulous, step-by-step guide for combatting a “pathogen of pandemic potential,” the playbook contains a directory of the government’s resources in time of need and is meant to be pulled off the shelf the moment things start to go haywire. At the top of the list of dangerous pathogens are the respiratory viruses, including novel influenzas, orthopoxviruses” (such as smallpox), and coronaviruses.
The playbook outlines the conditions under which various government agencies should be enlisted. With domestic outbreaks, the playbook specifies that “[ w]hile States hold significant power and responsibility related to public health response outside of a declared Public Health Emergency, the American public will look to the U.S. Government for action when multi-state or other significant public health events occur.” Questions concerning the severity and contagiousness of a disease, or how to handle potentially hazardous waste, should be directed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal “Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Is there evidence of deliberate intent, such as a terrorist action? The FBI has the lead. Have isolation and quarantine been implemented? How robust is contact tracing? Is clinical care in the region scalable if cases explode?
There are many such questions, with decisions proposed and agencies assigned. Because the playbook was passed to a new administration that might not be familiar with the manifold resources of the federal government, there are appendices describing such entities as the Surge Capacity Force in the Department of Homeland Security, consisting of a group of FEMA “reservists and others that can be called upon as “deployable human assets.” The Pentagon’s Military Aeromedical Evacuation Team can be assembled to transport patients. HHS has a Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, with the dry acronym DMORT, consisting of “intermittent federal employees, each with a particular field of expertise,” such as medical examiners, pathologists, anthropologists, dental assistants, and investigators.
The Trump administration jettisoned the Obama playbook.”

Another interesting quote…

“January 27 ...  “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.” 

There was an op-ed in USA Today that morning. “I remember how Trump sought to stoke fear and stigma during the 2014 Ebola epidemic,” Joe Biden wrote. “Trump’s demonstrated failures of judgment and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge.” The former vice president cited Trump’s proposed cuts to NIH, CDC, and the Agency for International Development— “the very agencies we need to fight this outbreak and prevent future ones.”

Trump had dismantled the White House team in charge of global health security.”
“And he has treated with utmost contempt institutions that facilitate international cooperation, thus undermining the global efforts that keep us safe from pandemics and biological attacks. “To be blunt, I am concerned that the Trump administration’s shortsighted policies have left us unprepared for a dangerous epidemic that will come sooner or later.”

The Kindle version of this book is available in local libraries.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Plastic products have played significant roles in protecting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread use of personal protective gear created a massive disruption in the supply chain and waste disposal system. Millions of discarded single-use plastics (masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers) have been added to the terrestrial environment and could cause a surge in plastics washing up the ocean coastlines and littering the seabed. This paper attempts to assess the environmental footprints of the global plastic wastes generated during COVID-19 and analyze the potential impacts associated with plastic pollution. The amount of plastic wastes generated worldwide since the outbreak is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes/day. We estimate that approximately 3.4 billion single-use facemasks/face shields are discarded daily as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, globally. Our comprehensive data analysis does indicate that COVID-19 will reverse the momentum of years-long global battle to reduce plastic waste pollution. As governments are looking to turbo-charge the economy by supporting businesses weather the pandemic, there is an opportunity to rebuild new industries that can innovate new reusable or non-plastic PPEs. The unanticipated occurrence of a pandemic of this scale has resulted in unmanageable levels of biomedical plastic wastes. This expert insight attempts to raise awareness for the adoption of dynamic waste management strategies targeted at reducing environmental contamination by plastics generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click to download the pdf version of “COVID pollution: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global plastic waste footprint” >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Life in congested commute lanes continues for another day….
Talking Heads put it right: “ask yourself, how did I get here…?” (3:44 mins)