"Monkeypox" be gone!

News blues

A group of scientists from Africa and elsewhere are urging the scientific community and world health leaders to drop the stigmatizing language used to differentiate monkeypox viruses, and are even advocating renaming the virus itself.
In a position paper published online, the group proposed abandoning the existing names for monkeypox virus clades — West Africa and Congo Basin — and replacing them with numbers, saying the current names are discriminatory.
“In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing,” the more than two dozen scientists wrote.

Read more >> 

Beyond a name change, and as authorities say the outbreak is containable and poses a low risk to the general public, here are ways to protect yourself and others from this potential new whatever-it-will-be-called scourge >> 

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Returning to Covid…
According to experts, the current Covid-19 wave in the U.S. is noticeably different than past ones — and might even be the start of our "new normal." Here's why >> 

…and in China, Beijing warns of 'explosive' COVID outbreak while Shanghai conducts mass testing - “connected to a bar” - and to contain a jump in cases tied to a hair salon. 

Read more >> 

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On war – and culture war

Ukraine: destruction in pictures >> 
The dire truth is that Kyiv’s fighting strength is stretched, and even Russia could benefit from a pause in fighting.

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Cynical comic relief – and a question: Could real life in the form of his past and the country’s present be catching up with The Donald? He’s spent a lifetime getting away with egregious financial behavior. Is that beginning to change?
Recently, Memphis City Council Member Martavius Jones stated, "[Trump's] notorious for not paying [his bills]."
Jones and other “Memphis politicians object to police escort at an upcoming Trump rally, citing unpaid bills. They do not want Memphis eating the costs of the rally >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A slowed down Sunday. Baking healthful bread rolls, eating well, walking, walking, walking….

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Heat wave across much of the US and the SF Bay Area is overcast:
Sunrise: 5:46am
Sunset: 8:31pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:50am
Sunset: 5:07pm

Humans. Gotta luv ‘em

News blues

Midnight Sunday, June 12, sees an end to the requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US. This, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention begins a "new phase" of the pandemic:

"Widespread uptake of highly effective Covid-19 vaccines, the availability of effective therapeutics, and the accrual of high rates of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity at the population level in the United States" have all helped lower the risk of severe disease and death, the CDC said.
… That means flights departing to the US from a foreign country at or after that time no longer have to present a negative test result or documentation of recovery in the past 90 days from Covid-19. … Foreign arrivals to the US will still need to be vaccinated. The vaccination requirement for foreign arrivals has not changed.
The CDC also continues to recommend wearing masks in indoor public transportation settings but masks are no longer required.
The rule change applies to air travel. Land border and ferry port arrivals are unaffected by the rule change...

Read more >> 

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“An ongoing outbreak of monkeypox was confirmed in May 2022,
beginning with a cluster of cases found in the UK.
The first recognised case was confirmed on 6 May 2022 in an individual
with travel links to Nigeria, but it has been suggested that cases
were already spreading in Europe in the previous months.”

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A pox on vile and greedy monkey business: 

US Attorney in New Jersey said Paul Andrecola, 63, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to one count of "knowingly distributing or selling an unregistered pesticide in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), one count of wire fraud, and one count of presenting false claims to the United States."
… Buyers included a medical clinic in Georgia, a police department in Delaware, a Virginia fire department and "numerous" US government agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs….

Read more >> 

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Monkeys vs hamsters? “Cocoa Krispies-loving hamsters could be key to cracking long COVID” >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Cheney to Republicans (0:30 mins)
Carnage and chaos  (0:45 mins)
And they came  (0:41 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Animals are vital to the functioning of the biosphere in innumerable ways. Their interactions with plants, fungi and microbes sustain the conditions on which we, along with all other life, depend. For example, the great whales that sit at the pinnacle of marine food webs are linked to some of the most fundamental processes that shape conditions in our world. They eat other marine creatures, including krill, and in the process take nutrients from deeper water to be released via their faeces into the ocean, where they fertilise blooms of planktonic algae.

Read “Our entire civilisation depends on animals. It’s time we recognised their true value” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Tales from the bus. The bus ride to work in the early morning – few passengers - stands in sharp contrast to the bus ride home in the afternoon. 

The morning ride’s colorful character is an elderly masked lady who croons in Chinese. Before she offboards at 28th Street, she carefully uses slivers of newspaper to touch anything: the stop pullcord, the stop button, handrails…. While her crooning is disconcerting, I admire her vigilance against infection.
The afternoon ride home is a marvel of views into the diversity of human expression. 

Recent examples:
One elderly lady strenuously objected at any opportunity to the bus schedule. Fiercely, she’d pull her mask away from her face, scream that the bus was “40 minutes late”, then release her mask to pop back in place over her mouth and nose. So coordinated was this pulling and popping that it appeared a well-honed behavior.
Another elderly lady  boarded the bus shouting a variety of political slogans she’d updated for the current moment. My favorite? “No nukes! No fentanyl!”
Oh, we have grumpy bus drivers who say little that’s not, well, grumpy. We have determinedly happy bus drivers who yell out “have a good day” each time passengers disembark. 

We also have passengers who are kind to other passengers. One man hopped off the bus before it departed the stop to retrieve another elderly woman’s purse (why so many elderly ladies?). She’d forgotten it on the street in her haste to board the bus carrying a huge bag of groceries.

Riding the bus: a niche world expressing human peccadillos.
Gotta love it!

Phish food

Worldwide (Map) 
June 9, 2022 - 534,061,700 confirmed infections; 6,306,200 deaths
June 10, 2021 – 174,500,000 confirmed infections; 3,759,200 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,8040100 deaths

US (Map) 
June 9, 2022 - 85,324,615 confirmed infections; 1,010,800 deaths
June 10, 2021 – 174,500,000 confirmed infections; 3,759,200 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
June 9, 2022 - 3,971,000 confirmed infections; 101,397 deaths
June 10, 2021 – 1,713,000 confirmed infections; 57,320 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths

Posts from:
June 10, 2021, “Renewings” 
December 31, 2020, “TGIO” 
Day 77, June 11, 2020, “Embers, ashes, and flames” 

News blues

Subvariants spread while the administration takes away $10 billion from existing pandemic funding, half of which will go to finance updated vaccines — when those become available — and the other half will pay for treatments, including the Pfizer drug Paxlovid.
Read more >> 

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In South Africa, Gauteng has the majority of the new Covid cases (32%) followed by the Western Cape (23%), Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (11% each), Free State (7%), Mpumalanga, (5%), Northern Cape and North West (4% each), and Limpopo (3%).
There were 85 new hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, bringing to 2,285 the number of people now admitted in hospitals with Covid-19.
Read more >> 

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Covid infections continue, but humans pay less attention to the data. Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University & Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center continue to provide expert insight. Learn more from a recent Q&A, “The Future of the Pandemic Initiative” 

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Monkeypox is of increasing concern – more than 1,000 cases outside of Africa , but what is it? (1:40 mins)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that new genetic sequencing data indicate there are at least two distinct monkeypox outbreaks underway outside Africa — a surprise finding that one official said suggests international spread is wider, and has been occurring for longer than has been previously realized.
Three of 10 viruses the CDC has sequenced from recent U.S. monkeypox cases — two from 2021 and eight from 2022 — are different from the viruses that have been sequenced by several countries involved in the large outbreak that is spreading in and from Europe.

A pox on monkeypox! Read more >> 

On war – and the Culture War

Photos and news from Ukraine battle fronts >> 

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According to US Congress’s House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), if “everyone had just prayed more, 19 children and two teachers might not have been massacred by a gunman in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school last month.” 

Yes, “thoughts and prayers continue”… >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
It’s not a joke  (0:20 mins)
Make up your mind (1:15 mins)
Mark Meadows unlocked  (1:30 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - June 7, 2022  (2:22 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Sometimes ice cream is the only antidote to the craziness “out there”. 

My fav? Phish food.

Covid schmovid

News blues

Move over, Covid pandemic… for war, crazy politicians, guns, shootings, massacres, more crazy politicians, looming famine, outrageous inequality, scorched earth tactics….
We’re living in a world gone mad, falling apart at the seams, heading towards calamity.

***

On war

“Russian … using scorched-earth tactics” >> 

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The Lincoln Project: Retire  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Recent posts have mentioned the murders of noisy crows in the park near my home. (“Squawk-fest”  and “Keep the bribes comin’" ). Turns out crows have a very legitimate reason for squawking: they’re baby-sitting. 
Talking about birds, check out these Australian budgies  and English parakeets.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Linda, a woman I met by chance last Sunday, revived my flagging respect for American womanhood. That sounds pompous – or worse – but, in general, I find American woman not prepared (as opposed to unprepared) to carry large rocks around a garden.
I was out walking when I spotted Linda, not a young woman, placing rocks the size of watermelons, one by one, around the building’s entryway lighting system.
We chatted and I commented on her hard work. She explained that she’d dug the rocks out of a back section of her apartment building, piled them in the wheelbarrow, and pushed the heavy load to the front of the building with the aim of beautifying the entryway.
Amazing.
I commented on how unusual it was to see an American woman doing such hands-on work. (It’s the kind of thing I do – love to do – in South Africa. Here, my apartment dwelling lifestyle disallows such gardening.) Linda explained that she’d once been married to a Ukrainian gardener and they’d worked happily in the gardening business until he’d died. (Gardening hadn’t killed him, cancer had. Alas.) During that time of her life, she’d learned about – and how to use – her physical strength.
Linda. A gal to admire.

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SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:47am
Sunset: 8:29pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:49am
Sunset: 5:07pm

Summer's here

News blues

Remember the ivermectin-as-savior-against-Covid craze? During the years 2020 through 2021 that I spent locked down in South Africa, the use of ivermectin as antidote to Covid was widespread. That was the period before vaccines became available, but continued after vaccines were introduced, too. Many people swore – and still swear – by this anti-bacterial medication used to de-worm animals. 

Alas, recently, “the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) terminated its [ivermectin] controlled access programme with immediate effect after seeing no credible evidence to support a therapeutic role for ivermectin in Covid-19”  >> 

I suspect the pro-ivermectin folks will ignore and disbelieve the “no credible evidence” data and continue to seek out the med. Some will blame Bill Gates… or George Soros… or Dr Fauci … or “pedophiles” … or Democrats … for the lack of evidence. 

Such is the state of the human mind these days.

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On war – and the Culture War

According to Jillian Peterson an associate professor of criminology at Hamline University, and James Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University, [American] mass shooters overwhelmingly fit a certain profile … which means it’s possible to ID and treat them before they commit violence.

Their findings, published in the 2021 book, The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic, reveal striking commonalities among the perpetrators of mass shootings and suggest a data-backed, mental health-based approach could identify and address the next mass shooter before he pulls the trigger — if only politicians are willing to actually engage in finding and funding targeted solutions.

If only…. 

The lives and safety of our children and grandchildren depend on "if only...."

Read more >> 

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Photos from 100 days of war in Ukraine >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Think again  (0:33 mins)
Two Faced Elise  (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Enjoy murmurations >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Summer began in the United States this week. May 31st is both a public holiday – Memorial Day – and recognized as the beginning of summer. Appropriately, the public park next to which my apartment resides, is hosting the first of many gatherings. Today's gathering includes microphones and music although today’s musicians sound like they’re having more fun fooling around than presenting polished voices. I'm enjoying it anyway. Laughing, out of tune singing, more laughing, the sounds of kids running around… 

Ah, welcome summer.

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:47am
Sunset: 8:27pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:47am
Sunset: 5:07pm

Mood iodine

Worldwide (Map) 
June 2, 2022 - 531,473,220 confirmed infections; 6,298,100 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 171,746,400 confirmed infections; 3,693,300 deaths
June 5, 2020 - 6,635,004 confirmed infections; 391,180 deaths

US (Map) 
June 2, 2022 - 84,540,520 confirmed infections; 1,008,150 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 33,308,000 confirmed infections; 596,000 deaths
June 5, 2020 - 1,872,660 confirmed infections; 108,220 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
June 2, 2022 - 3,960,450 confirmed infections; 101,219 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 1,669,300 confirmed infections; 56,610 deaths
June 5, 2020 – 40,792 confirmed infections; 850 deaths

Post from June 3, 2021, “Bliss, sort of” 
Post from June 5, 2020, “Covid-19 lost in the shuffle” 

News blues

America is averaging about 94,000 new cases every day, and hospitalizations have been ticking upward since April, though they remain much lower than previous peaks.
But Covid cases could be undercounted by a factor of 30, an early survey of the surge in New York City indicates. “It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,” said Denis Nash, an author of the study and a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health.

Read “We’re playing with fire” >> 

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The Lincoln Project: Pay attention  (0:59 mins)

War: incompatible with a healthy planet

Vietnam. US military. Iraq. Veterans. PTSD. And now Ukraine Yet another lesson on the devastation visited upon our planet's environment by war Exploding chemical plants have become a frightening reality for Ukraine’s citizens since Russians invaded their country. This is just “one example of the staggering toll that war is taking on the nation’s environment. Rockets are polluting the soil and groundwater; fires threaten to expel radioactive particles; and warships have reportedly killed dolphins in the Black Sea.”

Read more  >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Today, a break in the monotony of my workday routine (bus to work … work, work, work … bus back home… ): I experience my first computer tomography procedure, aka CT scan, the updated version of CAT scan when I accompanied a friend.
The odd part of CT scans? Iodine is pumped via IV into client’s vein to allow the scanner to capture/scan “anything untoward”…. My brain muddled iodine with indigo and I imagined my friend's blood tinged with a lovely shade of blue. Alas, that wasn’t to be as the iodine used in CT scans is colorless.
Riffing off iodine, I remembered and have been listening to Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo”. 
All’s well that ends well….

Whadya mean reinfection?

News blues

This Covid graph shows your chances of reinfection within nine months

Aubree Gordon, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, …estimated each person would catch Covid again around every three years.
She said: “Barring some intervention that really changes the landscape, we will all get SARS-CoV-2 multiple times in our life.”
This is roughly in line with how often people become reinfected with flu viruses and the seasonal colds which make a reappearance every winter.

Read more >> 

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Efforts to update Covid vaccines can't keep up with changes in the virus. New variants appear to be even more immune-resistant than the original Omicron strain, raising the possibility that even retooled vaccines could be outdated by the time they become available this fall >> 

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On war

Photos from the front lines in Ukraine >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Donald Trump Visits The NRA  (1:12 mins)
The Republican Army  (1:15 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - May 31, 2022  (2:02 mins)
Doug Mastriano is Dangerous  (0:58 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The Bramble Cay melomys became the first mammal lost to the climate crisis >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Ditto: Bus to work … work, work, work … bus back home. Walk, walk, walk… it’s sunny and breezy out along the bay.
The murder of crows assaults my hearing. But what would I – and the beach, the bay, the environment – do without them? They belong here. Same as I do.