Heart, lungs, kidneys

News blues

Research reveals

Damage to the body’s organs including the lungs and kidneys is common in people who were admitted to hospital with Covid, with one in eight found to have heart inflammation,
Previous studies have revealed that fewer than a third of patients who have ongoing Covid symptoms after being hospitalised with the disease feel fully recovered a year later, while some experts have warned long Covid could result in a generation affected by disability.
Now researchers tracking the progress of patients who were treated in hospital for Covid say they have found evidence the disease can take a toll on a range of organs.

Read more >> 

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On war…

Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment fighter and photographer, documented the siege of Ukraine’s Azovstal metalworks. Before his capture he posted his pictures on social media, asking that they be shared as widely as possible. This is some of his work showing the realities of life during the battle >> 

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The Lincoln Project: Mean Girl  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Consultant to Shell Oils says Shell "blatantly doesn’t care" about climate change >> 

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The entity named Dear South Africa  solicits comments from South Africans regarding assorted bills under consideration. I track Dear South Africa; I even comment on it at times. This time it is soliciting comments on a climate change bill to "respond to a long-term, just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy and society for South Africa in the context of sustainable development,  and to provide for matters connected therewith." More information on the bill.

Here are a handful of comments from South Africans - copied exactly, no edits, not even corrections of spelling - from the public comment section :

 
Comment: What will happen to members working in coal's mine. SA must not allow foreign policy to dictate terms for us in the mean time their stock piling coal from SA. Wake up SA before is too late.
Climate change is a natural cycle in earth, don't let the western world pass on their carbon emissions use onto us thats their problem not ours we don't have a carbons emissions problem our industry and vehicle count per capita is way much lower than any other country in Europe Asia and America, don’t get dragged into this debate.

 
Comment: Climate change is a load of crap. It’s just another way for this thieving ANC government to get their hands on more hard earned cash from the people of SA.

Comment: This is a vast subject to try put in ashort paragraph. However let's start at home. Municipal dumps.: There are no longer orange bags delivered which results in no separation of plastics from homes. This results in tons of plastics not going for recycling. Municipal dumps could be running waste bio mass recycling plants. Producing by products such as Bio Diesel lpg gas , Bio Char from garden cuttings, and powering the energy grid with co2 emmission free power which is produced by the turbines that generate power from the lpg gas produced by the waste to fuel plant. So simple . Go look what Denmark is doing. Our Sewage plants are outdated, we could cut their footprint dramatically and get methane free LPG from them that also produces power for the power grid, thousands of free Mega Watts , organic fertilizer, and clean water. Once again we sovfar behind. Just these two points alone produces thousands of jobs , earn money for the government and produces low cost bio diesel from plastic and rubber by utilizing pyrolysis plants. Low cost co2 free lpg , with energy free power reducing our energy costs and cutting co2 emissions by 100%. We need to wake up and invest in what works . Not solar panel farms that are going to cause huge headaches to recycle lead acid or Lithium iron batteries when the have reached the end of their life cycle. We could be producing bio plastics that is fully degradable in days of dumping produced from sugar beet, we could be planting sugar beet and harvest crops four times a year through proper crop rotation and revitalising our polluted farms from harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The information is all out there but no one wants to see it.

 
Comment: It is so sad, but any new proposition made by the government (whether good or bad) I am immediately sceptical about. I TOTALLY support us taking responsibility for climate change and we MUST address it - but HOW will it be implemented? Will all coal-sourced energy be closed? Where will these people get work? Will it be the small percentage of taxpayers who again have to foot the bill and the others can do whatever they want? RESPONSIBLE government with well-informed wise decision making with integrity is what we need. Please!

 
Comment: Taxing the people to change the climate is absurd...

Comment: I do not believe that it it has been well-thought through and can not support the current government to implement this important action : will the funds allocated be used correctly or will it be spent in a corrupt way . Most importantly how will the system be policed when out of line findings happen.

Comment: 
corruption !!!!!!!!! .
Corruption !!!!!!!!!!! .
CORRUPTION !!!!!!!!!!!! .
CORRUPTIONNNNNN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .

Comment: Over the years we have seen very little effect from this mythical monster. But, if you want to put the blame on something, then the animal farming industry is the largest culprit - larger than fossil fuel burning. Stop people eating (so much) meat and you will have a far cleaner environment. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/22/eu-farm-animals-produce-more-emissions-than-cars-and-vans-combined-greenpeace.

From these comments, I learn that everyone is an expert and that We, the People have not a hope in hell of getting ourselves, our families,  and our friends out of the death spiral we are in. Depressing, ain't it?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Perfect climate here on the bay… The south and east parts of the US are beginning to sizzle, but SF Bay Area is perfect, hovering around mid-70s F (mid-20s C)…that is similar to the temps in KZN these days:
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:52am
Sunset: 8:18pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:41am
Sunset: 5:10pm

Time "to do" more?

Healthy planet, anyone?

Recently, NASA data scientist Peter Kalmus, chained himself to the entrance doors of the JP Morgan Chase building in Los Angeles and explains why inaction on the climate crisis pushed him to chain himself to an LA bank – and why trusting in the ‘people in charge’ is so dangerous.
Kalmus explained,

[I have] this mounting feeling that I need to do more. I have a sense of desperation, because of the wide gulf between what the science says society needs to do and how it feels like everything is heading in the opposite direction. World leaders and people not understanding that we’re in an emergency.
Then the question comes to me, if I’m sitting with the science every day, and I want to protect my kids and young people and non-humans, what do I do? I’ve been on this 16-year journey trying to answer that question, and civil disobedience seemed like something good to try. I’m ashamed to say that it took me this long.

Read more >> 

I, too, have "this mounting feeling that I need to do more". Alas, my imagination doesn't extend to what I can do that's actually effective. I make small efforts: recycle, try to avoid using plastics (totally impractical in today’s world), reuse disposable masks, avoid shopping for extraneous “stuff”, live lightly, and educate myself on many dismal issues – poisoned oceans, rivers, air, space, and, yes, the nature of “people”.
There once was a time I’d join assorted groups protesting assorted issues (predominantly working with anti-war and peace groups). I quickly learned these groups of people are as confused, back-biting, mono-focused, and, yes, ultimately as self-destructively boring as most other groups of people.
It’s depressing to grasp that “people” are the problem, that “people” are ultimately “navel gazers” incapable of stepping out of entrenched patterns of thinking. Me included. I try to get on board with others’ thinking, but quickly revert to gazing at my own navel when I recognize the circular nature of “our” thinking and our views.
I’ll go out on a limb and say: beyond thinking and writing about the "issues", NO ONE knows how to face, never mind constructively and collectively address, the dire situations facing our planet. 

Yes, we “see” countries struggling with climate-related catastrophe, yes, we see unilateral military invasions of sovereign nations, yes, we see fossil fuel companies making billions of profit dollars as their CEOs push clearly destructive policies and actions and block generative policies, and, yes, we vote for politicians financially supported by fossil fuel companies to go along with such policies.
But what to do that's effective?
What did Peter Kalmus do after he chained himself to the entrance doors of the JP Morgan Chase’s building?
He packed up and went home.
Oh, sure, news outlets followed him home. Oh, sure, he’ll found a non-profit company to “feel” he’s contributing.
Then what?
Perhaps Peter Kalmus will be The One to break through the “noise” and “save the planet.”
I hope so.
But I doubt it.
And there’s the rub.

Meanwhile, 
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:53am
Sunset: 8:17pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:40am
Sunset: 5:10pm

Squawk-fest

News blues

NPR examined COVID deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which most Americans could find a vaccine if they wanted one. Those living in counties that voted 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.26 times the death rate of those that went by the same margin for Biden. Counties with a higher share of Trump votes had even higher mortality rates.
The scale of the preventable loss of life is staggering. According to a recent analysis by Brown University, nearly 320,000 lives nationwide could have been saved if more people had chosen to get vaccinated. The Brown analysis also shows a partisan split in how those preventable deaths are distributed. States that went most heavily for Trump – including Wyoming and West Virginia – have among the highest rates of preventable deaths, while states that voted heavily for Biden – such as Massachusetts and Vermont – had among the lowest.

Read more >> 

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Healthy planet, anyone?

Otters unite!
I’m physically far from the KZN stream, but my idealistic plan to reintroduce otters into the waterway  continues ... It is good to know other places and countries are looking to free the water, too. European countries are onboard:

More than 1m barriers - dams, weirs and other river obstacles - are estimated to exist on Europe’s rivers, with many built more than a century ago. At least 150,000 are old, obsolete barriers that serve no economic purpose.
[These] block fish migration routes, often leading to the loss of breeding areas and reduced numbers of species such as salmon, sturgeon, trout and eel, which affects the wider biodiversity of ecosystems, including species ranging from eagles to otters. Free-flowing rivers also transport sediments and nutrients.
[Now] at least 239 barriers, including dams and weirs, were removed across 17 countries in Europe in 2021, in a record-breaking year for dam removals across the continent.
Spain’s Pao Fernández Garrido, project manager for the World Fish Migration Foundation, who helped produce Dam Removal Europe’s annual report, said, “An increasing number of governments, NGOs, companies and communities are understanding the importance of halting and reversing nature loss, and buying into the fact that dam removal is a river-restoration tool that boosts biodiversity and enhances climate resilience. We’re also seeing lessons being learned from previous dam removals, new countries kickstarting removals, and new funds, including crowdfunding.”

Read more >>

Unfortunately, back in the ye olde country, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Bay is going dry >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The Bay Area will heat up over the next days. Parasailing and parasailers showing signs of taking to the waters again. I captured this yesterday.

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A murder of crows had a loud, 10-minute long squawk-fest in the trees outside my apartment at 4:00am this morning. What, someone wet the nest?

 
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:53am
Sunset: 8:17pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:39am
Sunset: 5:11pm

California dreamin'

News blues

North Korea – an ongoing tragedy with Omicron, no vaccines and a woefully underequipped health sector >> 
US – Covid infections up, waning immunity from vaccines and past infections and fewer people masking >>
Spain, Portugal, UK, and Canada report … monkeypox >> 

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On war…

Ukraine – photo essay >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Russian Rand Paul (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

What South Africa terms “loadshedding”, the US terms “rolling blackouts”.
North American Electric Reliability Corporation NERC, a regulating authority that oversees the health of the US’s electrical infrastructure, says in its 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment that extreme temperatures and ongoing drought could cause the power grid to buckle. High temperatures, the agency warns, will cause the demand for electricity to rise. Meanwhile, drought conditions will lower the amount of power available to meet that demand. 
South Africa is the world’s 13th-biggest source of greenhouse gases, with about two-fifths of its output coming from Eskom, the country’s electrical power parastatal. Eskom is in trouble (FYI: Kusile power plant) apparently incapable of managing the grid with loadshedding continuing across the nation. By March 2022, South Africans experienced the equivalent of 31 days and nights in the dark. Moreover, by March, SA’s National Treasury had extended 560.1 billion rand ($35 billion) of guarantees to state companies, with Eskom accounting for about 79% of that.
Recently,

A group of the world’s richest nations offered South Africa debt guarantees as part of a proposed $8.5 billion deal designed to cut the nation’s reliance on coal for power generation, people familiar with the talks said, potentially resolving one sticking point in the negotiations.
The guarantees would enable South Africa or companies such as state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to borrow money needed to close down coal-fired power plants and enable the generation of renewable energy, one of the people said. The people asked not to be identified as the talks aren’t public. Such an arrangement would alleviate pressure on the South African government to guarantee any debt Eskom may need to fund its transition to renewable energy….

Read more >> 
This kind of offer is an all-around risk, for the lenders, for the company, for residents. It practically begs for corruption – and South Africa’s powerful and political show no shame in enriching themselves and their families by taking advantage of such offers. On the other hand, viable alternatives are few and far between….

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Photo essay – capturing the climate crisis >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My first, post-jet-lag day off and lots of catching up to do. Better hop to….

Long Covid

Worldwide (Map) 
May 19, 2022 - 525,259,500 confirmed infections; 6,283,350 deaths
May 20, 2021 – 164,620,000 confirmed infections; 3,413,350 deaths

US (Map) 
May 19, 2022 - 82,951,400 confirmed infections; 1,001,300 deaths
May 20, 2021 – 33,026,300 confirmed infections; 587,870 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
May 19, 2022 - 3,908,100 confirmed infections; 100,870 deaths
May 20, 2021 – 1,621,370 confirmed infections; 55,510 deaths

Post of May 2020, Filling gaps
Post of May 2021, Still waiting… 

News blues

Since the early days of the pandemic, the Bay Area has been seen as a model for how to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.
The region instated the nation’s first stay-at-home orders in March 2020 and has since consistently seen lower levels of transmission than its southern counterparts. Today, the Bay Area has one of the country’s lowest COVID-19 death rates.
But over the past few weeks, the region has been getting a different, and less welcome, kind of pandemic attention.
The Bay Area has emerged as the state’s latest COVID hot spot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among California’s 58 counties, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda currently have the highest rates of COVID transmission….
On Friday, health officers from 11 counties in and around the Bay Area warned of a new swell of cases fueled by highly contagious omicron subvariants.

Read more >>

How big is the latest U.S. coronavirus wave? No one really knows. This, as the highly transmissible omicron subvariants spread and governments drop measures to contain the virus – inevitably resulting in less data about infections >> 

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Long Covid, aka Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, COVID Long Haulers
Acute COVID-19 usually lasts until 4 weeks from the onset of symptoms.
Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is defined as persistent symptoms that are 4 weeks or longer from the onset of symptoms and not explained by an alternative diagnosis. This is the point beyond which replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 has not been isolated.
PASC is divided into two categories:

• Subacute or ongoing symptomatic COVID-19: symptoms and abnormalities present from 4 to 12 weeks (about 3 months) after an acute COVID-19 infection
• Chronic Post-Acute COVID-19 syndrome: symptoms and abnormalities persisting 12 weeks (about 3 months) or longer after an acute COVID-19 infection and not attributable to alternative diagnosis.
• In the post-acute period following COVID-19 infection, it appears that at least 10% of COVID patients report having symptoms beyond 4 weeks after acute illness.
• Early data suggest a higher likelihood of PASC symptoms among older individuals ≥ 60 years. However, children and young adult survivors can also experience Long COVID symptoms at one-year post-acute infection. In one study, 20% of suspected Long COVID cases occurred in adults ages 18 to 34 with no chronic medical conditions.
• Individuals with co-morbid chronic health conditions (two or three) and those who had experienced severe disease (including hospitalization) are more likely to have persistent symptoms up to 1 year after onset of acute infection. However, it is recognized that people with mild disease can also experience lingering post-acute COVID-19 sequelae.
• Health outcomes including mortality rate among individuals with PASC are not fully understood. One study looked at 12-month adjusted all-cause mortality and found a significantly higher risk of death among patients hospitalized with severe disease, compared to COVID-19 negative patients and those with mild disease.
• At this time, it is unclear how vaccines and therapeutics for acute COVID-19 infection will impact the clinical manifestations of Long COVID. Further studies are needed.

Key Point: Post-acute Sequelae of COVID appears to disproportionately impact older individuals and those who identify as female. Those who identify as African American may be at higher risk too.

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On war…

Ukraine – photo essay of medics battling to save lives >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Remember Buffalo (1:48 mins)
He learned it from Laura  (0:20 mins)
He learned it from Tucker (0:17 mins)
Goodbye Madison  (1:44 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - May 17, 2022  (1:48 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Working for a living sure gets in the way of living…
One more day – I work 4 days – and I’ll own my own time again - for at least 3 days. Something to look forward to. The good news is that the temperatures will rise this week – alas, so will the fire danger.

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SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:14pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:38am
Sunset: 5:12pm

Dark matter

News blues

Covid and its tribulations relegated to bottom of the news – best way of handling the reality that the “powers that be” have lost the plot.
In the hospital’s central office for doctors – my current location during the work day – one doctor jokes he was at a wedding in New Orleans and, so far, a third of attendees have come down with Covid. He’s testing regularly, expecting to do that same.
I, in the meantime, will go for my second booster today. It’s free, I’m in the hospital already, and Covid is around. For the first time, I’m expecting I, too, will contract it. May as well avail myself of the more vaccine – lessen the effects and try to avoid Long Covid.

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© Zapiro, zapiro.com

Escom/Eskom sePush app informs me that loadshedding stage 2, 3, even 4 is about to start, then that loadshedding is suspended, then that it is pending, then that it in process…. In other words, the app is (almost) as uninformative as the electrical supply is unstable. So far, this year, a total of the equivalence of 31 days in South Africa without electricity.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha explained that since Saturday evening Tutuka, Camden and Majuba power stations each experienced a breakdown on one of their units.
Mantshantsha said, “we currently have 2,094MW on planned maintenance, while another 17,640MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”
… Mantshantsha ended his statement by reminding South Africans that “load shedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid,” and appealed to the nation to help limit the impact of load shedding by using electricity sparingly by switching off all non-essential items, especially between 5am and 9am and 4pm and 10pm.
… On Wednesday morning, Eskom announced that Stage 4 would be implemented from 9am and continue until 5am on Friday. Thereafter, load shedding will be lowered to Stage 2 until 5am on Monday, 14 March.

Moreover, “Stage 4 load shedding was implemented on Wednesday morning to prevent Eskom’s diesel and pump storage dam supplies from reaching ‘critically low levels’. Should it run out of diesel and water supplies, South Africans could face Stage 6 blackouts, the power utility warned.”

CEO André de Ruyter said in a state of the system briefing on Wednesday afternoon, “I think it’s important to emphasise that we should not accept load shedding and the lack of generation capacity as the new normal.
“While it’s been going on for 14 years now, we need to take urgent steps to address load shedding.”
This year to date we’ve had 32 days of load shedding compared with 26 days of load shedding in close to the same period last year.
As of the end March 2022, Eskom’s Energy Availability Factor — the amount of energy generation a plant is capable of supplying to the grid — was at 62%, below their target of 74% for the financial year.
The most urgent issue to be addressed is that Eskom needs at least 4,000 megawatts (MW) of additional generation capacity to serve the country’s energy demand.
It needs the space to take some of its units off for planned maintenance. Until this capacity is met, the risk of load shedding remains.

This is also a ubiquitous problem of corruption and theft. “A sophisticated crime syndicate – in cahoots with Eskom officials, police and trucking companies – is stealing fuel by exploiting a design flaw at the Kriel Power Station in Mpumalanga. And it all has to do with a weighbridge on the wrong side of a gate.
In March, amaBhungane revealed how armed gangs were stealing fuel from buried pipelines owned by Transnet. >> 

Life goes on

News blues

Covid has moved off the “front pages” of most news outlets. Now, in the US, Ukraine’s attack by Russia tops the news, followed by the ongoing political slugfest between Republicans and Democrats. (As usual, no-holds-barred Republicans beat spineless Democrats into a stupor, but I digress….)
Britain’s Guardian News reports,

For every 100,000 residents, 291 [Americans] have died from Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Among the 20 worst affected nations, only two other countries – Brazil and Poland – have higher mortality rates per 100,000 people.
Deaths directly attributable to Covid-19 are only one measure of the pandemic’s toll. Deaths from drug overdoses hit a record high in 2021, killing at least 100,000 Americans. Chronic conditions such as heart disease, hypertension and dementia have contributed to the number of “excess deaths” – a number which includes other ailments exacerbated by the pandemic, as well as those deaths caused directly by Covid-19. This number crossed the one million threshold in mid-February.
The extraordinary toll has set the US apart among wealthy, peer nations, exposing inequality, a unique and fragmented health system, and polarized politics – all of which likely made the crisis worse, researchers said.
…the disproportionate likelihood for people of color to lack the same quality housing, employment and healthcare access as white Americans – are well known and documented. Such disparities are the “intended or unintended consequences of policy decisions”….
…“The US has been experiencing worse health outcomes for some years now. Life expectancy in the US is the lowest of any high income country”….

Read more of this depressing reality of Life in the United States in 2022  >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Thank you, Jen  (2:06 mins)
What was that, Elise?  (1:35 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday’s walk included a lovely and unexpected meeting of a liveaboard couple in a local marina. Both recently retired, Sally and Darrel have lived aboard for more than 30 years, most of those years in this marina. For all those years, they’ve cared for and taken pride in the marina's liveaboards' communal garden.
Two years ago, the harbor master decided the garden must be shut down due to increasingly rough paving posing a danger to the public (therefore exposing the marina to lawsuits).
Sally and Darrel stepped in and, spending their own money, began upgrading the garden. Yesterday, the proud couple told the story accompanying each plant and garden accessory, from the large beds of fragrant roses (each representing one year of Sally’s life – 66 roses) to New Orleans carnival beads draped around the neck of a mermaid sculpture, to the baker who donated a shelf of potted succulents.
What I referred to as “an altar of small treasures” in my post is no more. It had been designed as a “fairy garden” but never quite reached its goal. The space it left behind will allow an expanded welcoming area that I look forward to watching grow.
I was so caught up in the couple’s stories and the garden, I forgot to take photos. One photo I’m determined to take will show two meticulously pruned pines that Darrel and Sally planted decades ago. Back then, the pines were designed as throwaway Christmas saplings in small festively decorated pots. Today, a couple of mature trees form a centerpiece and provide shade for visitors on hot days.
This garden is the essence of community: everything belongs, everything has a story and a history, all is shared, and liveaboards and visitors alike enjoy the nurturing space.