Mothers Speak about War and Terror

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Flu season

News blues

Covid has not disappeared “like a miracle” (as predicted by The Donald during his disastrous term). It’s no longer getting much attention, despite the approaching winter months in the US and the confluence of winter flu.

COVID-19 infections have run into an early flu season and an usual surge of respiratory infections in young children to create what some experts are calling a “tripledemic.”
Northeastern University experts explain what is behind the triple whammy, why it’s hitting now— and why next year might not be as bad.
“I think it’s going to be a rough winter,” says Brandon Dionne, associate clinical professor at Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy. “There’s lots of factors at play.”
But chief among them is what experts are calling the “immunity gap,” the lack of regular exposure to viruses that helps rebuild the body’s immune response to individual viruses.
“People were taking all these precautions in the past few years that were really mitigating the spread of all respiratory viruses,” Dionne says.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s been a rough few days post chemo. Mary stayed in bed from Saturday afternoon until today. She was feeling better yesterday but not well enough to spend much time away from bed. Falling over was replaced by “mere” feelings of light-headedness followed by needing to sit down. All accompanied by muscles spasms in her back. These latter likely associated with lack of exercise.
What to do but ride it out?

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Never a dull moment

On war…
Ukrainians use phone app to alert military about incoming drone and missile attacks.

Ukraine has been subject to months of deadly long-range missile strikes, but the attacks have stepped up in the past month as Russia has fired hundreds of cheap, Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones into cities and at Ukraine’s infrastructure.
…
A simple mobile phone app has been developed by Ukrainian volunteers to allow civilians to report sightings of incoming Russian drones and missiles – and, it is hoped, increase the proportion shot down before they hit the ground.
The app, ePPO, relies on a phone’s GPS and compass, and a user only has to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a single button for it to send a location report to the country’s military.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Answer the question, Ron (0:50 mins)
Large Marge (0:58 mins)
Funding Fascism (0:57 mins)
House of Horrors (0:56 mins)
Lip lickin’ liar (0:40 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 25, 2022 (2:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Does the photo below not appear to show two exhausted swimmers taking a well-earned rest against an iceberg? Or perhaps a Jason deCaires Taylor sculpture?
Rather, it is nature doing its thing in the far away ocean. Imagine all the other amazing natural feats we landlocked humans miss each moment.

See more amazing photos >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Chemotherapy session three down the hatch. Well, almost. It’s all over but for the recovery from the session – including yet more drugs, this time to counter nausea. Mary returned from her post-chemo acupuncture session – to address nausea, too – and will lie low for the rest of the day. Best to not push too hard two days after poisons have been infused through one’s system.
The recent session followed the usual protocols although with the addition of infused Emend anti-nausea drug, instead of taking the pill form of Zyprexa. This change added extra time to the session. During the hours of 9am to 2pm, Mary took in more than 5 liters of liquid, from water to Emend to water and pemetrexed to water and cisplatin and yet more water to finish off. By the time she departed the oncology clinic water retention made her puffy from forehead to toes. Today, she’s still puffy though less than yesterday. Now she must contend with nausea.
Moreover, she must continue to imbibe at least two liters of water each day to ensure her kidneys continue to flush the poisonous meds.
Mesothelioma: never a dull moment.
The good news? Only one more session to go – at least that’s what we’re expecting. The post chemo sessions scan will confirm that (or not). Then, she’s free until the next scan in 6 months to track any resurgence.

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Troublesome

News blues

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned about a pair of "pretty troublesome" Covid variants — omicron descendants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 — as the U.S. braces for a winter surge.

And,

People who reported experiencing side effects to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines such as fever, chills or muscle pain tended to have a greater antibody response following vaccination, according to new research.
Having such symptoms after vaccination is associated with greater antibody responses compared with having only pain or rash at the injection site or no symptoms at all….
“In conclusion, these findings support reframing postvaccination symptoms as signals of vaccine effectiveness and reinforce guidelines for vaccine boosters in older adults,”

A team of scientists affiliated with Duke University found that ivermectin does not meaningfully improve the recovery of people with mild to moderate Covid.
“These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” they concluded.
The FDA has warned people against taking the tablets for anything other than their approved use.
Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tyranny (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

On plastics and the myth of recyclable plastics

Just 5% of plastic products are recycled in America and many common items just aren’t able to be recycled at all, according to a damning new study released by Greenpeace USA.
The study estimates the U.S. produced about 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, but just 2.4 million tons of that was reprocessed.
The data compiled by Greenpeace is even more bleak than that released by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2018. The government estimated at the time just 9% of all plastics had been recycled that year, with the remaining 91% winding up in landfills. (At the time much of the country’s plastic was shipped to China and considered recycled, even if it was dumped in a landfill anyways).
Shockingly, the research said no type of plastic packaging in America met the threshold needed to be considered “recyclable” promoted….

Recycling plastic waste fails for a variety of reasons that Greenpeace boils down to: the impossibility of collection and sorting, the environmental toxicity, synthetic compositions and contamination, and a lack of economic feasibility.
There are thousands of different types of plastics with different compositions that cannot be recycled together, let alone sorted. Plastic recycling facilities are likely to catch on fire because plastic is flammable, and living near one poses a huge health risk—take Turkey, which became a new plastic waste export destination after China banned imports and saw an influx of EU waste expose workers and communities to new health risks. Plastics can also absorb toxic chemicals, further complicating recycling efforts and increasing their toxicity. On top of all this, recycled plastic costs more than new plastic because of the aforementioned factors encouraging companies to simply make more instead of pursuing alternatives.

***

More than four months after devastating monsoon floods began in Pakistan, at least 1,500 people have died, and the waters that inundated nearly the entire country have yet to recede. This ongoing emergency is causing illness and communicable disease to spread, and these effects are likely to be much more deadly than the initial catastrophe. “The public health risks are worse, and the death toll could be much higher”....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another foray into battling mesothelioma. Today, Mary's trip to the blood lab begins her third chemo session – and, we hope, her second to last treatment of this round. Why “this round”? Well, the unpleasant truth is, to date, there is no cure for mesothelioma. The asbestos fibers that stimulate, aka cause, the disease never are dissuaded: they simply regenerate. This, because indiscernible microfibers are ready, willing, and able to regrow. It’s the job of the patient and her medical team to stay ahread of new growth. This means that after this round of four sessions of chemo, Mary will undergo a scan to judge the chemo sessions’ effectiveness. If all appears clear in the scan, Mary will be free of scans for the next six months. If anything appears suspicious in the scan, the medical team will suggest next steps.
So, today, blood tests ascertain that Mary’s system is up to the task of another round. If any element of her blood suggests she’s above or below desired “measurements” the chemo session will be delayed until her blood levels are more “workable.” To date, Mary “feels fine” and is preparing for another several days of feeling under par.

“At least my chemo sessions are every three weeks. This gives me enough time to recover between bouts. And I do recover. Yes, my lung/chest feels wooden but I have full movement of my left arm. Indeed, I can almost forget the dire disease and prognosis for … well, minutes… at a time.” At that she chuckles warily and wearily and adds, “Perhaps one of these days, it’ll be forgetfulness for half-hourly bouts of time.”
I can attest to Mary’s fortitude. Yesterday, together, we added a layer of bottom shelves to a set of wooden shelves on my patio. Mary was an active participant in adding this new layer that will house small pots of newly propagated succulents. We’ve added several more rarer-than-usual-for-us cacti and succulents. In general, our philosophy for such plants is “don’t pay money for what’s readily available.” Problem with that philosophy? Some cacti – for examples, Rebutia - native to Bolivia and Argentina, and Lithops, native to South Africa and Namibia. These beautiful plants are not, alas, not “readily available” except by purchase.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Relax, it's Sunday

News blues

Interesting information, from discovering Omicron to how data is and is not used, from Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health >>

***

On war…
Six months of war in Ukraine: photos >>

***

The Lincoln Project:

We've been warning you (0:45 mins)
Daddy (0:57 mins)
Puppies (0:58 mins)
Doug Mastriano Threatens American Democracy (1:15 mins)
Val Demings owns Marco Rubio (1:58 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Just chuggin' along. Mary undergoes another session of chemo next Thursday. We feel and we hope that we are slightly better prepared with two sessions behind us. Moreover, Mary video conferenced with her oncologist last week and they agreed on another strategy to address potential nausea associated with her falling over post-chemo last time around.

Here’s hopin’ this new strategy will improve Mary's pace of healing.

Her oncologist also confirmed with Mary that, as of now we’re expecting two more chemo sessions. That is, she’s half way through this round of chemo. After the fourth and last session mid-November Mary will undergo another scan – likely a CT scan – to evaluate the chemo’s effects and create a baseline to evaluate future resurgences of growth of mesothelioma malignancies.

Want to know more about mesothelioma and surgeries that address it? Link to a recent webinar with the surgeon who performed the P/D on Mary’s left lung >>

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:26am
Sunset: 6:20pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:12am
Sunset: 6:13pm

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Costs of denialism?

Worldwide (Map)
October 20, 2022 – 626,441,100 confirmed infections; 6,573,750 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map)
October 20, 2022 - 97,085,250 confirmed infections; 1,066,600 deaths
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 20, 2022 - 4,024,555 confirmed infections; 102,246 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Post from:
October 22, 2021 “Not much”
October 21, 2020 “October updates”

News blues

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.
….
Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups. .
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.

Read more >>

Gov. Gavin Newsom will end California's COVID-19 state of emergency in February 2023 and surrender the emergency powers he has held for over two years, the governor's office announced this week. What does this really mean?
Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Political ads flood the airwaves as We the People get closer to a nailbiter election. (Each day as I read the news, I CANNOT believe that ANYONE would vote for ANY Republican “policies”. WTF?)
1849 (0:57 mins)
J. D. Vance is an Extremist (0:56 mins)
Even Fox News gets it (1:00 mins)
The Difference Between McMullin and Lee (1:14 mins)
Mike Lee begs, Part 2 (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The SF Bay Area is experiencing wonderful Indian Summer weather. Additionally, it’s a pleasure to walk along the beach with Mary and more wonderful to hear her maturing perspective on the devastating form of cancer that afflicts her. In short, Mary finds the implications on her health – mesothelioma does not reverse, nor it is curable – a “kind of precious gift that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the gravitas that is life and living. Weird to say but I’m more fully enjoying each moment of my life. More weird to say, more people might face similar fates to allow their deeper apprecation of their lives - and the implications of wasting their time on over-emotional nonsense such as vaccine denialism, etcetera etcertera etcetera."
Thank you, Mary.

***

Mary suffers from toxic contamination of asbestos, and subsequent malignancies in her left lung with “some” implication of lymph nodes near her lower trachea.

What is asbestos? A mineral mined that, among other uses, is an effective foil against excessive heat buildup.

What’s its history and is it banned in the US?

In a word, no, it is not banned.

I’ll collect and share pertinent info on this mineral as it becomes available.
Asbestos history and background – and culpability
ProPublica: “Swimming in this stuff”: The U.S. never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price.

As other countries outlawed asbestos, workers in a New York plant were “swimming” in it. Now, in a fight against the chemical industry, the United States may finally ban the potent carcinogen. But help may come too late.

Read more >>

NPR: They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men have come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 6:24pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Enjoying life

News blues

In a [recent interview, Dr Anthony] Fauci urged the US Congress not to be complacent and to resume funding efforts to combat the virus, including the scourge of long Covid, which remains scientifically elusive but understood to hit women and people of colour especially hard.
“It’s a very insidious beneath-the-radar-screen public health emergency,” the chief medical adviser to Joe Biden said, “because it isn’t that you have people who are hospitalized or dying but their function is being considerably impaired and, for reasons that are obvious, that doesn’t attract as much attention as a death rate.”

***

On war…

Russian drone and missile attacks this month have destroyed almost a full third of [Ukraine’s] power stations. The destruction has triggered blackouts across the country, but the grid has remained relatively stable, showing that even Ukraine in a literal war with a superpower can still have better power scheduling than South Africa.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Evidence (0:27 mins)
Two faces (1:08 mins)
Mike Lee begs (0:45 mins)
Ticket (0:59 mins)
Trumperton (0:39 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 18, 2022 (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder – our planet is beautiful. Photos have the power to prove it >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Nine more days of Mary feeling healthy, enjoying her days of exercise, research, and, yes, joy, too. Indeed, so easily does she find putting from her mind that mesothelioma is invading her lung and that chemo is coming up, again, that, today, she forgot to take her maintenance supplementary meds. That’s the right kind of forgetfulness.
Mary is enjoying life, perhaps more than ever....

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 6:25pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:17am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Sunday, October 16, 2022

“Daar lê die ding”

News blues

The Donald and his corrupt shenanigans remain persistent on the news, even to the detriment of Covid (remember how persistent he was about Covid not worth his time and effort to thwart?). Nevertheless, Covid has not “just disappeared” – again, The Donald’s words. Covid is still around.

New offshoots of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that virus experts say appear to spread easily are on the rise in the U.S., … underscoring how the virus is mutating and presenting new risks as it proliferates.
Two of the Omicron subvariants, both related to the BA.5 version that drove the most recent U.S. surge, are called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. They were estimated to represent a combined 11.4% of U.S. Covid-19 cases by mid-October, according to estimates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday.

***

Covid is one thing. The scourge of cancers on the rise may be even more insidious.

A new review of cancer registry records from 44 countries found that the incidence of early-onset cancers is rising rapidly for colorectal and 13 other types of cancers, many of which affect the digestive system, and this increase is happening across many middle- and high-income nations.
The review’s authors say the upswing in younger adults in happening in part because of more sensitive testing for some cancer types, such as thyroid cancer. But testing doesn’t completely account for the trend, says co-author Shuji Ogino, a professor of pathology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ogino says the spike is due to an unhealthy stew of risk factors that are probably working together, some which are known and others that need to be investigated.
He notes that many of these risks have established links to cancer like obesity, inactivity, diabetes, alcohol, smoking, environmental pollution and Western diets high in red meat and added sugars, not to mention shift work and lack of sleep.

Read “A global epidemic of cancer among people younger than 50 could be emerging” >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Time for answers (1:40 mins)
Social Security (1:09 mins)
Protecting the Capitol (1:06 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The post “Living”, earlier this week, promoted the efforts to give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers. This week, Rogelio Luque-Lora of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, writes, “Why I’m sceptical about giving legal rights to animals, trees and rivers.” Read more >>

***

“Making a plan…”
South Africans are a hardly lot and “making a plan” is as South African as is gorgeous scenery and hard work (and, these days, as South African as Eskom’s terrible load shedding). With unprecedented blackouts, South Africans are, despite Eskom's monopolistic grip on the nation, cutting the chord as much as we can and “making plans” by turning away from Eskom in growing numbers.

Reader responses complied by Daily Maverick Community Manager Sahra Heuwel.
Graphic: Rudi Louw

From Daily Maverick’s “How to cut the Eskom chord”, here’s what South Africans say:

“I had to buy an inverter as I am dependent on supplementary oxygen. But the present rate of load shedding doesn’t allow the inverter to recharge fully.”
“We have a back-up battery that currently kicks in to supply us with power for basic needs, which in our case includes a ventilator and medical machines for a severely physically challenged 18-year-old.”
“We have solar and an inverter but not enough to last the night. We have a back-up generator (too). But (we) still rely on Eskom between load shedding to power the house and recharge batteries. We are basically self-sufficient, but not totally. Provided we can get two sets of three hours of Eskom power, we’re okay.”
“I have resorted to using wood for cooking and candles for lighting the house.”
“It’s back to basics. Paraffin is back in use as an alternative. Just for cooking and lights. No electronics.”
“I grew up with lamps and candles in the (Bantustan) Ciskei, so we have reverted back 60 years. I have a small UPS (uninterrupted power supply) connected to a truck battery in order to teach uninterruptedly online. I even use an ancient push-push lawnmower to lessen grid pressure.”

(On topic, “We are a beautiful country but political thugs are dragging us into the Dark Ages” )

And, so, my dear South Africans, “daar lê die ding….” (2:10 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday’s walk along an island gifted Mary and me with a bonanza of watery wildlife. First, crossing a bridge over the flowing tide, we spotted this curious but unafraid night heron:

Next, glittering silver streaks, like lights on a disco ball, attracted our attention: a school of small sardine-like fishies … followed by four large, hungry stiped bass. I’d never seen such large bass.

Moments later, what looked like plastic bag debris turned out, on closer inspection, to be a blue tinted jellyfish! Never seen a jellyfish in these waters before.

Further along on our walk, we noticed freshly blossomed tree mushrooms.

My cursory research did not suggest a name for this particular beauty. Maybe you’ll have better luck searching
This bonanza of peeks into nature should have stimulated us to buy a lottery ticket.

***

Mary and I have a theme song, Gloria Gaynor and “I will survive” (3:14 mins) Thank you, Gloria.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:19am
Sunset: 6:30pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:20am
Sunset: 6:09pm