Tested

Worldwide (Map)

September 30, 2021: 233,414,450 infections; 4,776,885 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 33,881,275 confirmed infections: 1,012,980 deaths
Total vaccinations conducted around the world: 6,219,646,200

US (Map)
September 30, 2021: 43,361,700 infections; 7.808,100 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 7,233,199 confirmed infections: 206,940 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 30, 2021: 2,898,900 infections; 87,420 deaths
October 1, 2020 – 674,340 confirmed infections: 16,735 deaths

News blues

South Africa returns to Alert Level 1. 

Speaking to South Africans last night, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that as many as 20,000 lives could be saved if the majority of the country's adult population received their Covid-19 vaccines. He pleaded for all citizens to do their bit.
For this reason, the country will embark on a mass vaccination drive which will allow people to receive their jabs on weekends. Ramaphosa, his deputy David Mabuza, and other officials were expected to mobilise communities to take their jabs as the “Vooma Vaccination Weekends” programme kicks off from Friday.
Mass gatherings allowed as Ramaphosa moves SA moves back to lockdown level 1. 
The last time SA was under level 1 was between March and May this year.
Listen and watch President Ramaphosa  (29:30 mins)

***

Kids in the US, from ages 5 to 11, soon could be eligible for vaccine against Covid 

***

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

***

Catching up with The Lincoln Project….
Last Week in the Republican Party  (2:20 mins)
The Fox Virus  (1:20 mins)
Governor Freedumb  (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Last Friday, the drive through Flu Clinic where I work vaccinated 990 clients, from babies 6-months and older to adults and retirees. Today and yesterday, our Covid vaccination clinic jabbed the arms of more than 650 patients each of those two days. That’s a good thing: 990 fewer people with flu this year; more than 1,200 fewer people risking Covid-19.
While holding the positive aspects of vaccination, think also of the waste generated by these efforts (waste that will end up incinerated, in landfill and/or eventually the ocean):
Over 3 days, 990 + 1,200 = 2,200 one-time-use plastic syringes (incinerated… )
Packaging for 2,200 syringes plus dozens of hard paper/soft cardboard boxes of flu vaccine – 10 syringes per box
At least 2,200 cotton balls for swabbing
Plastic packaging for cotton balls
Swabbing antiseptic in plastic containers
2,200 one-time-use band aids
Packaging for 2,200 one-time use band aids
2,200 pairs of rubber gloves for each of 6 nurses. That is, at least 13,200 pairs discarded over 3 days
Packaging for that many rubber gloves (each box holds 25 pairs/50 gloves)
Surgical masks for all staff: 6 nurses, 4 Medical Assistants, 6 to 10 support staff, masks changed several times each day
Additionally, many patients arrive for vaccination either alone in a vehicle or with a spouse and, sometimes, with other family members. Let’s say of 990 clients seeking vaccinations, at least two thirds have more than one person per vehicle (usually SUV or large sedan). That is, 330 to 350 vehicles pass through the tent from 8:30am to 5:30pm each day. That’s a lot of carbon monoxide pumping into the air and captured within the tent where nurses and staff work.
In the SF Bay Area, the hospital system I work for has at least 6 drive through flu clinics and 4 drive through Covid test sites. With the population of the SF Bay Area approximately 7 million, many other companies, from corporate chain pharmacies to grocery stores to independent agencies, offer similar services at similar facilities … all of whom must practice state and federal safety standards. That produces heaps of waste.
Who handles it and how?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Inevitably, the last weeks of commuting to and from work where I run around like a crazy person for 12-hour workdays five days a week, and, on weekends, have been engaged in selling, moving goods from, and bidding farewell to my beloved houseboat – resulted in a dip in my health.
Since I work in a Covid vaccination clinic, I know a sore throat can be one symptom of Covid. While my sense of smell remained intact, I chose to exercise an abundance of caution and called in sick.
My manager suggested I take a Covid test. Accordingly, I found a local test site – a drive-through – of the hospital system for which I currently work.
Covid tests are free but by appointment only. Luckily, I was able to make an appointment within the hour and I drove to the facility’s parking garage where tests are conducted.
I drove my vehicle - an older, 6-passenger automatic transmission van currently loaded to the gills a folded Sea Eagle inflatable boat, a 25 HP outboard motor and an electric trolling motor – to the end of a long line of approximately 30 other motor vehicles looping along residential city streets.
Naturally, I have environmental concerns, including dozens of fossil fuel vehicles pumping carbon monoxide into the atmosphere while idling on a city street, moving at a pace of one vehicle length every several minutes) but I mollified my guilt by alternatively running the engine and switching it off then back on. Neither good for the engine nor fuel efficient.
Twenty minutes later, I entered the garage… again to wait in line, albeit in sight of the Covid swabbers. After offering both “nasal passages” for swabbing, I exited the several story garage and drove home. An experience to remember. These photos – edited for patient anonymity – offer another view of life during the pandemic of ’20 – ’21.

Still in line... but getting closer to the nasal swab....

  

The swabbers in sight....

Any minute now I'll have a swab stuck up my nose....

 

Life in Oakland is not back to normal with venues closed and shows cancelled.

Street scene in Oakland, a wonderfully vibrant and human-size city.

 The good news? Within 23 hours, test results declared me free of virus.

Falling behind

Last day of the 78th week of this darned Covid hassle aka pandemic!
Life has become way too complicated...hard to keep up with commitments, commute, and coffee…. Yet, the numbers of infections continue to rise even as more people accept vaccinations.

 
Worldwide (Map)
September 22, 2021 – 229,708,120 confirmed infections; 4,712,053 deaths 

September 3, 2020 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths

Total vaccinations: 5,981,351,780

US (Map)
September 22, 2021 – 42, 425,400 confirmed infections; 678.815 deaths 

September 3, 2020 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths

 
SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 22, 2021 – 2,886,335 confirmed infections; 86,376 deaths 

September 3, 2020 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths

News blues

Past week’s news:
Finally, almost a year and a half, hints of sanity during an insane time in the life of America. President Biden expands vaccine push with mandates for the private sector  and announces sweeping vaccination and testing requirements for federal government workers, contractors and even private sector employees, as his administration works to fight the spreading coronavirus.

***

The owners of the marina in which I moor my houseboat joined the thousands of mask-free Covid skeptics at Sturgis, South Dakota for a giant FU motorcycle rally. A week later, they were abed, infected with Covid.
Sturgis-associated infections are higher this year than they were last year.. Go figure.
Moreover, the marina is moored on edge of Central Valley where…

Hospitals in California’s Central Valley have been increasingly overwhelmed by the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials scrambling to transfer some critically ill patients more than 100 miles away because local intensive care units are full. 
The San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento area and rural Northern California are now the regions of the state being hit the hardest by COVID-19 hospitalizations on a per capita basis… The regions have lower vaccination rates than in the highly populated, coastal areas of Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

My houseboat is moored in the San Joaquin River, part of this region. With mixed emotions, one over-riding emotion is relief that I’m not living on my houseboat right now.

***

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

***

Catching up with The Lincoln Project….
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise)  (1:25 mins)
Brian Kemp laugh track (0:30 mins)
The Fox Virus  (1:20 mins)
Democracy is under attack  (0:46 mins)

Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise) (0:45 mins)
Abbott’s Wall (0:55 mins)
Sad  (0:56 mins)
Ivermectin  (1:25 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise)  (1:55 mins)
And
Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt “There’s a Battle for Control of MAGA Empire” | Amanpour and Company  (18:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

An important article with full excerpt from the National Geographic newsletter by By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE executive editor

Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists and government officials have gotten sage advice from a group of people who were already battling a massive threat to public health: climate scientists. From piles of sometimes contradictory evidence to rampant misinformation  to mind-boggling denials of established facts, the issues that have plagued COVID-19 researchers and policymakers are starkly like those that have influenced the climate crisis. The pandemic has also laid bare similar issues with equity, access to healthcare, intergovernmental squabbling, and reluctance to embrace solutions that might harm the bottom line.
But while the state of things may seem bleak right now, we actually have a lot to celebrate with COVID-19, in part because the pandemic spurred people to act urgently and drove a lot of innovation. Now mRNA vaccines are not only keeping people out of hospitals, they hold potential for combating a host of other diseases  .
More people are saying they will embrace masks as an effective way to prevent respiratory illness beyond COVID-19. And governments and institutions are investigating ways to improve healthcare infrastructure. 
So why can’t we learn a few things from COVID-19 to get serious about tackling climate change? That’s what the editors of more than 200 medical journals are asking this week in an article co-published across their pages. “Many governments met the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic with unprecedented funding. The environmental crisis demands a similar emergency response,” the editors write.
And yes, they add, “the science is unequivocal” that climate change is a huge risk to public health. Extreme heat already threatens the health of about 30 percent of the world’s population, according to a 2017 study. Shifting climate zones mean that tropical diseases—many carried by my personal archnemeses, mosquitoes—are pushing into higher latitudes, threatening even more people with ailments such as dengue fever, malaria, Zika, and valley fever. Droughts are making crops harder to grow and less nutritious, while floods create stagnant waters that can carry all sorts of icky infectious agents. Heck, climate change has even been implicated in making seasonal allergies worse 
The global response to COVID-19 has not been perfect. But it has shown the world what’s possible when people come together with the resources and the willpower to overcome a deadly challenge. And as the journal authors write: “Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.” All our lives depend on it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Human beings are not well adapted to evolution. We tend, unconsciously, to insist that nothing much has changed, that ‘life goes on…’ (except for the more than 4 million dead from Covid… “Suckers”, Donald Trump would call them). Sure, pandemic; shandemic.
Covid, schmovid.
Masks…social distancing… hand sanitizing… whatever…
This, despite the obvious and huge changes occurring around us, moment-by-moment.
Evolution. Schmevolution…
I suspect there’s an evolutionary advantage to peoples’ inability to recognize and change as change presses, but I cannot fathom the positive outcomes for such resistant to recognize when change is essential.
Then again, many humans believe evolution is a hoax, too.  and that dinosaurs existed concurrent to slightly before BCE (Before Christ Era). 
And, each day, millions of Americans drive bumper to bumper along utterly congested freeways. My commute offers a firsthand view of this craziness as I participate, too. We know we’re driving the planet and our oceans to extinction with our garbage, our plastics, our carbon monoxide, and our lack of ability to change. Yet we continue.

***

Stories from the Covid clinic frontlines
For the last 3 weeks, I’ve started most days addressing, one-on-one, individuals who’ve decided they need “the booster shot.”
Armed with clip boards loaded with Attestation forms, I respond,
“We’re not doing booster shots yet. As you may know, the CDC  is working out the details of booster shots. For now, we are not offering boosters. We are, however, offering “third dose” shots to immunocompromised people.”
“That’s me. I’m here for that.”
As I hand over the clip board with form and pen, I say, “These are the immunocompromised health issues we’re currently serving…”
I run through the six bullet points, one at a time: current cancer treatment; organ transplant, stem cell transplant, immunocompromised syndromes, HIV treatment, and high dose steroid treatments. The client shakes his or her head at each bullet point… until we reach the end of the list. Then,
“Well, my doctor sent me an email (or phoned me) and told me to get a booster shot.”
“Yes, I understand that doctors’ office admins have been doing that. Unfortunately, we’re administering third doses only to people that fall into one of these categories.” “Well, I came all the way down here to get my booster.”
“Yes, that is frustrating. Unfortunately, we’re not administering boosters yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks when the CDC et al officially decide how to administer boosters. At this time, however, we’re administering third doses only to people that fall into one of these categories.” I tap the form.
The client either accepts this information – with good or ill grace – and (muttering his or her displeasure) departs the long line. Or she or he explodes into anger. Facing a stranger’s wrath is not the way I prefer to start my day – especially as this line-filtering role evolved to ensure a positive experience for the many other people standing in our usually long vaccination lines - and keep healthy our front-line workers.
I hold fast. If the client insists on forcing a “booster”, I say, “I cannot stop you from signing this form and attesting to its accuracy, even as you know it may not be accurate. This signed attestation will appear on your health record… You decide.”
At that point I depart to assist the next client.

Iran: My Iranian neighbor reports Iran’s “government and mullahs are vaccinating themselves and their families and ignoring the general population.”
Iran’s Covid data, if accurate, shows 5,477,230 infected and 118,200 dead.
India An Indian client at the clinic for this first Covid shot after returning to the US after visiting family in India describes nightmare scenes of Indians dying in the streets of the country’s cities. India’s Covid data, if accurate, is the second highest in the world with 33,531,500 confirmed infections and 445,800 confirmed dead. (US still “numbah One”.)

***

Meanwhile, in the northern hemisphere, yesterday was the fall equinox (spring equinox in South Africa / the southern hemisphere).
Californians officially head towards winter, despite glorious weather. Rain is predicted in the San Francisco Bay Area; none has fallen.
My cookie-cutter days have me arising in the dark, Monday through Friday. By by 6:45am I’ve taken my place in a freeway lane and, with luck, I arrive at work by 8:00am. I run around all day supervising both the Covid and flu clinics (Covid clients served inside the clinic, flu clients outside, in their vehicles parked under a drive-through tent. Soon after 5:15pm, I take my place in a freeway lane and, watching my fuel/petrol gauge drop, I head home. (These days, fuel/petrol costs anything from $4.15 to $4.85 per gallon.)
Stress, commuting, and lack of time has me neglecting my exercise regime. Not a good strategy for future health.
Alas, practicality forced my understanding the unfeasibility of continuing to to maintain my houseboat. Of the 2.5 years I’ve owned and paid slip fees for the boat, I’ve lived aboard for only 6 months. My current work commute – in the opposite direction of the marina – plus trips to the marina each weekend to maintain the boat made continued ownership impractical.
Moreover, after my job ends in February, I must return to South Africa (Covid willing) to wrap up my mother’s business.
Further paying slip fees and not living aboard.,br> Accepting reality albeit with a heavy heart, I sold my beloved houseboat.
The purchaser is a loving son seeking to ameliorate his father’s pandemic-related social isolation yet maintaining his health.
How could I refuse?

***

Among the many vax skeptics and conspiracy theorists are people – one of whom I know and care about – swallowing the anti-bacterial dog and horse de-wormer medication (not even a viral medication) Ivermectin. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
Fascinating.
Humans. Constantly evolving into an evolutionary ornery and hard to understand critter.

Category of critter

Week 76
Day 535, Thursday, September 9 - Category of critter

Well, the United State continues to lead the world in Covid infections. Amazing.
Worldwide (Map)
September 9, 2021 – 223,101,000 confirmed infections; 4,604,450 deaths 

September 3, 2020 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths

US (Map)
September 9, 2021 – 40,601,000 confirmed infections; 654,600 deaths 

 September 3, 2020 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 9, 2021 – 2,843,100 confirmed infections; 84,327 deaths 
September 3, 2020 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths 

News blues

Finally, some sanity during an insane time in the life of America. President Biden expands vaccine push with mandates for the private sector and announces sweeping vaccination and testing requirements for federal government workers, contractors and even private sector employees, as his administration works to fight the spreading coronavirus.
About time, Mr. Biden!

***

Hospitals in California’s Central Valley have been increasingly overwhelmed by the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials scrambling to transfer some critically ill patients more than 100 miles away because local intensive care units are full.  

The San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento area and rural Northern California are now the regions of the state being hit the hardest by COVID-19 hospitalizations on a per capita basis… The regions have lower vaccination rates than in the highly populated, coastal areas of Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

My houseboat is moored in the San Joaquin River, part of this region. I’m grateful that I’m not living on my houseboat right now.

***

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

***

The Lincoln Project
Sad  (0:56 mins)
Ivermectin  (1:25 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise)  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

An important article with full excerpt from the National Geographic newsletter by By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE executive editor:

Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists and government officials have gotten sage advice from a group of people who were already battling a massive threat to public health: climate scientists. From piles of sometimes contradictory evidence to rampant misinformation  to mind-boggling denials of established facts, the issues that have plagued COVID-19 researchers and policymakers are starkly like those that have influenced the climate crisis. The pandemic has also laid bare similar issues with equity, access to healthcare, intergovernmental squabbling, and reluctance to embrace solutions that might harm the bottom line. But while the state of things may seem bleak right now, we actually have a lot to celebrate with COVID-19, in part because the pandemic spurred people to act urgently and drove a lot of innovation. Now mRNA vaccines are not only keeping people out of hospitals, they hold potential for combating a host of other diseases. More people are saying they will embrace masks as an effective way to prevent respiratory illness beyond COVID-19. And governments and institutions are investigating ways to improve healthcare infrastructure.  So why can’t we learn a few things from COVID-19 to get serious about tackling climate change? That’s what the editors of more than 200 medical journals are asking this week in an article co-published across their pages. 

“Many governments met the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic with unprecedented funding. The environmental crisis demands a similar emergency response,” the editors write. And yes, they add, “the science is unequivocal” that climate change is a huge risk to public health. Extreme heat already threatens the health of about 30 percent of the world’s population, according to a 2017 study. Shifting climate zones mean that tropical diseases—many carried by my personal archnemeses, mosquitoes—are pushing into higher latitudes, threatening even more people with ailments such as dengue fever, malaria, Zika, and valley fever. Droughts are making crops harder to grow and less nutritious, while floods create stagnant waters that can carry all sorts of icky infectious agents. Heck, climate change has even been implicated in making seasonal allergies worse  

The global response to COVID-19 has not been perfect. But it has shown the world what’s possible when people come together with the resources and the willpower to overcome a deadly challenge. And as the journal authors write: “Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.” All our lives depend on it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I still have not acclimated to my new life as a commuter, nor found a way to commute, work a full day, and come home regularly post on this blog.
I’m trying but it’s a learning curve.

***

Currently, people who are medically immunocompromised – suffering from illnesses associated with underperforming immune systems such as cancers, organ transplants, untreated HIV, and high dose steroid treatments – can receive a third dose of a Covid vaccine.
Naturally, people being people, many not suffering such illnesses arrive at the clinic and try to bulldoze their way into receiving this cautionary measure. One of my jobs is to try to explain to the latter category of people the difference between the third dose for the immunocompromised and “booster shots”. 

The simplest explanation? Booster shots are not yet available. 

I repeat the same information scores of times a day – while also performing my “real” duties. A part of me enjoys these glimpses into how the human mind works to bamboozle it’s way into getting third doses. Healthy people know they’re ineligible, but they’re willing to sign their names to Attestations and have false information entered into their medical records – in other words, create proof that they’re liars – simply to get a third dose of vaccine.
These people are the opposite of the people who’d rather take an anti-bacterial horse de-wormer – Ivermectin – than a human anti-viral vaccine.
Fascinating.
Humans. 

A hard to understand category of critter.

Down the rabbit hole

Commuting and working and organizing the vax clinics – yes, clinics, as flu season vaccinations began last week – leaves me little free time to present the planet’s Covid-19 numbers. (Luckily the world doesn’t depend on me, eh?) 

Here are the numbers as of today, compared to 2 weeks ago and to the last day of last year:

Worldwide (Map) 
September 6, 2021 – 220,863,350 confirmed infections; 4,571,200 deaths
August 19, 2021 – 209,892,500 confirmed infections; 4,401,700 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,8040100 deaths

US (Map) 
September 6, 2021 – 39,955,200 confirmed infections; 648,615 deaths
August 19, 2021 – 37,201,600 confirmed infections; 625,150 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths

 
SA (Tracker) 
September 6, 2021 – 2,820,000 confirmed infections; 83,419 deaths
August 19, 2021 – 2,652,660 confirmed infections; 78,694 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths

News blues

Cases are being driver down by vaccinations
About 370.2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered across the country as of Tuesday, according to CNN data About 370.2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered across the country as of Tuesday, according to CNN data. 
An average of 899,462 doses are being administered each day, and 426,311 people are getting their first dose each day. When it comes to booster shots, as of August 13 -- when the CDC endorsed booster doses for certain immunocompromised people -- about 996,000 people had received that third dose.
"We are already getting the benefit of community immunity," Lessler said. "It's not an absolute number but a continuum. We will turn the corner when we reach a critical threshold of immunity and that's when cases will start to go down -- we always get there, either the virus or the vaccine gets us there. But that (community immunity) is still what is going to get this under control."
Even though 25 states have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents and half the United States is fully vaccinated, the country is inching back to winter levels in terms of cases, deaths and hospitalizations. Cases in the United States are averaging more than 159,000 each day, which has not been this high since January.
The country is averaging 1,329 deaths a day, a seven-day average not seen since March. As for hospitalizations, the US seven-day average stands at 100,057, which has not been seen since January.
"There are still a lot of people out there who are susceptible. That's one reason why this has been so bad," Lessler said. "Yes, we have a lot of immunity, and yes, we're in a better place than we were, but there are still huge pockets of susceptible people and those people cluster together. They interact."
With 4 months left in 2021, here's where the US stands with Covid-19

***

The Lincoln Project Pro-Life  (0:56 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party – (reprise)  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone? 

The new Kivi Kuaka project focuses on birds’ ability to hear infrasound, the low-frequency sound inaudible to humans ¬ that researchers believe is the most likely signal birds would use to sense storms and tsunamis. Infrasound has myriad sources, including lightning strikes, jet engines, and the songlike vocalizations of rhinoceroses. Even the Earth itself generates a continuous infrasonic hum. Though rarely measured, it is known that tsunamis generate infrasound, too, and that these sound waves travel faster than the tsunami wave, offering a potential window in which to detect a tsunami before it hits.
There is some evidence that birds dodge storms by listening to infrasound. In a 2014 study, scientists tracking golden-winged warblers in the central and southeastern United States recorded what’s known as an evacuation migration when the birds flew up to 9,300 miles to evade an outbreak of tornadoes that killed 35 people and caused more than $1 billion in damage. The birds fled at least 24 hours before any foul weather hit, leaving the scientists to deduce they had heard the storm system from more than 250 miles away.

Read “Birds Can Hear Tsunamis Way Before They Hit. Scientists hope the ability can be turned into an early-warning system." >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Conspiracy theories continue… and people continue to line up at our clinic for jabs where we, in the Covid’s effects-can-be-reduced Camp, continue to inject vaccine into willing arms.
People, being people – quirky, diverse and diversely quirky – continue to wrestle with, well, whatever is the wrestle-able item of the day. For example, counterfeit Covid cards.
Last week, someone showed up at the clinic with a fake vaccination card. How did we know it was fake? She wanted a Maderna jab. There is no such jab as Maderna. On closer inspection, the card presented other spelling and editorial errors.
Why bother to present a counterfeit card? Who knows? Covid vaccinations are free with few questions asked. Why go to the trouble of making or acquiring a fake card? Who knows? People display all the inexplicable complexities of people-dom.

***

My new life as a commuter severely cuts down on my ability to follow the news. I do not own – nor do I want to own – a television. Living on the beachfront, however lovely, presents internet connection issues. Spending many hours on the freeway to and from work, and many hours at work, means few hours spent at home. I’m unwilling to spend hard-earned dollars on internet service that I’d hardly use. Well, that’s the thought for today. Tomorrow, I may re-think the wisdom of that decision. Having internet at home is convenient. Then again, not having internet at home makes me realize how often, when I do have access at home, albeit squirrelly, I interrupt one online activity for a quick sidebar to review another online activity. That is, frequently I find myself breaking my online focus to explore or research a tangential topic that pops into my head. So, while researching, say, Covid statistics, I think of fires in northern California. Since internet access make it easy, I take a side trip to catch up on fire news, then that topic stimulates another topic, say, the air quality index, then I’m off to read about the rising cases of, say, asthma… then I might circle back to Covid statistics. Or not.
It’s also possible that my forays turn into further forays, and I’ll not return to Covid statistic for hours. Down the rabbit hole….
I love the ability to research on the fly. It’s increasingly challenging to stay focused on one topic.
What does it mean for “us” – people – that this is the wave of the future? Will we lose the ability to concentrate on one issue at a time?
It certainly means more conspiracy theories.
What of young minds? How do young people strengthen their ability to concentrate and stay focused?
Beats me.

When in Texas

News blues

A thought-provoking article written by evangelical pastor

I don't believe in editing information from my daughters, from the churches where I served as an evangelical pastor, from my students or from my family and friends. I never understood when people were unwilling to engage with material that threatened their own point of view. Unfortunately for my fellow Christians, this is a major part of church history and the current Christian culture. This close-minded approach has been on full display during this pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Read “Evangelicals, science and the vaccine: Refusal is built on deep-seated fear” >> 

***

Reporting from Texas on the Houston border with Galveston County, where rates of Covid infection are high, masks are invisible and unprotected people are everywhere. COVID-19 hospitalizations approach a peak in the US as Delta variant spreads. Patients are younger, and disparities across race and ethnicity persist as hospitalizations soar

***

Despite last year’s lessons from the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, a repeat this year: “Sturgis Rally Is What a Vaccine-Era Coronavirus Superspreader Event Looks Like” 
(More below on Sturgis fallout….)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Monkey see, monkey do.
I’m visiting family in Texas, and chagrined as I am to admit it, I’m following local protocol and not wearing a mask every time I venture into the community.
Friday night we went to dinner in a crowded, Texas-style restaurant – that is, large, crowded, full of parents and kids and a busy, crowded, outdoor play area for kids.
This morning, Sunday, we opted for an IHOP for breakfast. Smaller venue but still busy and full of unmasked patrons. Servers and staff wore chin covers rather than masks.
I feel embarrassed by my action – or lack of action. But I am “in touch” with my embarrassment, even have come to terms with it. It’s called “when in Texas do as Texans do”. I pray that I live to regret this attitude.
I plan to be tested for Covid when I return to work on Tuesday.
Testing. Better late than never? Or too late to do anything about it?
Yes, of course, I’m vaccinated, but that does not mean I’m not also one of the stupidly, willfully blind following the stupidly, willfully blind.

Heck, in South Africa, where snow is falling - an extraordinary though not unheard of event - even the snow-people wear masks. 

 Pray for this sinner in Texas (who knows better…)
I should have more compassion for a couple of people I know at the marina where I moor my houseboat. They schlepped their motorcycles to Sturgis to participate in the rally. (See link in News blues section.) I just got notice that they’ve come down with Covid and been abed for the past two weeks.
On the bright side, Hurricane Ida, in its headlong rush for Louisiana, passed by this area of Texas. Lots of lightning and thunder last night and power when down for about an hour in the early hours of the morning, but no further flooding or hurricane mayhem.
Pray for Louisiana, too.

Covid - la vida loca

News blues

With all the conflicting information, conspiracies, and craziness “out there”, you may feel dazed and confused. If so, here’s a view of what to consider believing about Covid-19…. 

What do 203 doctors tell us about what they think Of COVID vaccines… 

And, what’s in a dose?
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is supplied as a frozen suspension in multiple dose vials; each vial must be diluted with 1.8 mL of sterile 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection, USP prior to use to form the vaccine. Each dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine contains 30 mcg of a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) encoding the viral spike (S) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2.
Each dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine also includes the following ingredients: lipids (0.43mg (4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 0.05 mg 2[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 0.09 mg 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, and 0.2 mg cholesterol), 0.01mg potassium chloride, 0.01 mg monobasic potassium phosphate, 0.36 mg sodium chloride, 0.07 mg dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and 6mg sucrose. The diluent (0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection, USP) contributes an additional 2.16 mg sodium chloride per dose. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine does not contain preservative.
See a breakdown of components in all 3 vaccines used in the US:

A close scrutiny of this list shows no sign of aborted fetal tissue, no micro microchips, no Fauci ouchie, no live virus, and no signs of magnetic components - not in any of these vaccines.
Of course, I could simply be naïve in believing what I’m reading, and the conspiracy theorists are 100 percent correct: “the government – aka “they” and “the deep state” – are lying and these ingredients are a smoke screen to “take away our freedoms”, etc., etc., etc.

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The Lincoln Project Pro-Life  (0:55 mins)
DeSantis Lies  (0:25 mins)
Meidas Touch America’s Biggest Loser  (2:16 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Does smoke make it harder for clouds to drop rain and alleviate drought, potentially kicking of a “very scary” feedback loop? 

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Best intentions… or, the helping hand strikes again….
In 2010, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, announced the One Million Trees initiative. The aim? To increase green areas in Dubai through afforestation, while contributing to overall beautification of the city.
It went horribly wrong. Hundreds of thousands of trees died after costly real estate projects thwarted attempts to halt desertification. 

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On Covid and climate we can achieve change – but we’re running out of time 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Thousands of feet over the southwest, cooped up in a fuselage with dozens of others all wearing masks and, for the most part, practicing social distancing. This flight is unlike the first leg of my trip to Texas. For that leg, stopover in Los Angeles, the plane was full to the brim - what I call a flying Petrie dish. I must be nuts to take a Flying a Petrie dish to Texas, the Covid Capital of the southwest. But here I am.
The last weeks have been very busy. I’m semi-moved from my houseboat in the Sacto Delta, semi-moved into my condo on San Francisco Bay, semi-prepared for my upcoming work for California’s upcoming flu season and, after a week, almost fully functional in the Covid vax clinic.
I’ve learned so much about Covid, from the CDC website, hospital training sessions, and documents prepared by the federal government about protocols.
I’m impressed by the overall attention to detail that went into the planning and rollout for vaccinating Americans.
Is it a conspiracy? Well, I suggest that anyone paying attention would recognize that the program is too well-organized for a nationwide, ubiquitous federal (or Fauci or Bill Gates) hoax perpetrated to “take away our freedoms.”
The effort to vax millions of Americans – and the rest of the world – involves millions of workers with amazing training and skills working in concert day and night to ensure We the People have the best chances of success against a virulent virus and emerging variants.
If you haven’t yet, get vaxed. Stories from the front lines:
Last week, third dose vaccinations were made available to immunocompromised individuals. Simultaneously, Pfizer’s vaccine was fully approved and people older than 12 became eligible for vaccination.
Our clinic was inundated with immunocompromised people, some walking independently, some in wheelchairs or on walkers and walking sticks as well as dozens of young people over the age of 12 accompanied by a parent – sometimes two parents - and dozens of people who’d been waiting for the move from EUA (Emergency Use Approval) to full approval before accepting a jab.
A young woman arrived with her mother seeking a second Astrazeneca jab. She’d received her first Astrazeneca shot in India. Turns out the US does not offer that vaccine. Her options: accept either a first Moderna or first Pfizer jab, then return for a second jab of the same vaccine in 28 days.
While every person who takes a jab must remain in the clinic for observation for at least 15 minutes after the jab – 30 minutes if sensitive – we’ve had only 3 people requiring extra care. One woman left after 15 minutes then returned an hour later as she was feeling dizzy and nauseous. I accompanied her to the Emergency department for evaluation. Outcome? Nothing further than her initial symptoms and she was released after two hours of observation. 

One man opted for the J&J vax and, while sitting in the clinic afterwards, was berated by an opinionated and over-solicitous patient who’d opted for the Pfizer vax. “Why did you take J&J? Don’t you know J&J has negative symptoms? You shoulda done xx, like I did…”
Unfortunately, with a stranger kvetching at him, the J&J candidate had a panic attack.
Lesson learned? Keep your opinions to yourself when it comes to which vaccine other people choose.
The third person was diabetic and under-estimated the effect on his blood sugar levels of not eating breakfast. He’d decided he was tough enough to skip breakfast and get his vax. Afterwards, he became light-headed, likely because of low-blood sugar and notthe vaccine. He was medically checked, provided snacks and juice, then opted to go home to recover.
Oy, people!

Next month, boosters will be available to anyone who was vaccinated 8 months ago. I expect we’ll experience more days with lines 500 to 600 people deep.
Our Covid clinic’s future promises 8-hour nightmares exacerbated by the opening of the drive-thru flu clinic. (According to those working the flu clinic in past years, in the first weeks of flu season up to 1,500 people per day arrive for flu shots.)
Yet, I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing with my life.
Working with dedicated people.
Performing necessary tasks in concert with others, all of us doing vital work…
What’s the downside?
Experiences to remember.

Forever?

Worldwide (Map) 
August 26, 2021 – 213,854,000 confirmed infections; 4,463,000 deaths
July 29, 2021 – 196,414,175 confirmed infections; 4,194,100 deaths

 
US (Map) 
August 26, 2021 – 38,222,000 confirmed infections; 632,300 deaths
July 29, 2021 – 34,724,000 confirmed infections; 612,050 deaths

 
SA (Coronavirus portal) 
August 26, 2021 – 2,722,205 confirmed infections; 80,470 deaths
July 29, 2021 – 2,422,155 confirmed infections; 71,431 deaths

News blues

The virus will be around “forever”? Advice on how to live with it  – a compendium of articles from The Atlantic Monthly

COVID-19 is not going away. The virus that causes it is on track to become endemic, like the ones that cause the common cold. You’ll probably encounter it at some point, if you haven’t already. 
That doesn’t mean you should stop taking precautions. We can still buy ourselves time  — time to vaccinate more people and avoid deadly hospital surges. But the virus will be part of our lives in the long term.
“We need to prepare people that [the current wave of cases is] not going to come down to zero,” one psychologist warns…

• The virus itself could still get worse.  “Delta could continue to ratchet up its rate of spread, or it could be ousted by another super-infectious variant,” our staff writer Katherine J. Wu warns. “There is no playbook for evolution.”
• Global inequities could worsen as the virus transitions to endemicity. “The human and economic costs of new diseases are borne by all, but unequally,” the historian Kyle Harper reminds us.
• But eventually, the coronavirus will become a less worrisome part of life.  “When everyone has some immunity, a COVID-19 diagnosis becomes as routine as diagnosis of strep or flu”….

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Deaths Data Shows 80% of South Africans May Have Had Covid 

As many as four out of five South Africans may have contracted the coronavirus, indicating that the country may be one of the world’s hardest-hit nations by the disease, the chief actuary at Africa’s biggest health insurer said.
Emile Stipp, the actuary at Discovery Health, based his calculations on the country’s case-fatality rate and excess deaths, a measure of the number of fatalities compared with an historical average. They are thought to provide a more accurate picture of the impact of the pandemic than the official toll.

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The Lincoln Project The Best of Us  (0:41 mins)
Monster Trump Rally  (1:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Well, I’m snowed under. My new job – at a Covid vax clinic – presents an hour each way commute for 28 miles each direction. Stop and go traffic up the wazoo. Nine hours putting out fires at the job, supervising the vax-ing of at least 200, and sometimes more than double that number, per day.
The staff is truly amazing. Project manager type that I am, this job presents multiple tasks, from big to little – to occupy my busy mind.
I’ve so much to say about the wonderful work – exhausting as it is - and share what I’m learning about Covid-19. There’s nothing secret or confidential about the information. It is available to anyone who knows where to look. That’ll be my role: indicating areas of good information.
I fly to Texas today, but I plan to begin sharing information over the next couple of days.
Tune in for more….