Fight the power

News blues

What to know about Covid’s BA.5, the “more transmissible” variant >>  (7:30 mins)

***

Moving from Covid to cancer, will a proposed cancer tax go anywhere in the US?

It has been 50 years since President Nixon declared his War on Cancer. There have been incredible strides made in terms of survivorship, mainly due to improved treatments and earlier detection, but rates of new cancer – including a disturbing rise in pediatric cancer incidences – remain alarming. So, yes, we have and will continue to get better at treating cancer. Biden already has $1.8bn lined up for his cure-related Cancer Moonshot goals of scientific discovery and data sharing. But we also urgently need to get better at preventing cancer from happening in the first place.
… President Joe Biden’s mind when, earlier this month, he shared plans to reduce the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years – a lofty goal for his Cancer Moonshot program.
To succeed, Biden needs a radical new approach. We’d like to propose one: a cancer tax.
The idea has solid precedent. There are already taxes on products known to create health problems, including a federal cigarette tax and sugary drink taxes. Think of a cancer tax like a carbon offset – corporations pay for the harm they inflict.
…Proceeds would be used to fund prevention, the most neglected element of cancer initiatives. Treatment gets about 97% to 98% of all health-related spending in the United States, while prevention gets a piddly 2% to 3%. But to end cancer as we know it, it is critical that we stop it before it needs a cure.
Prevention is not anti-cure. It’s complimentary – a one-two punch. While the science behind cancer treatment is truly astonishing, it’s equally remarkable how little we understand about why cancer occurs. Risk factors like genetics, age, and lifestyle all play a role, but how they combine is often unclear. Environmental factors, including the massive increase in the number of cancer-causing chemicals we all come in contact with every day, are clearly part of the equation. Most people aren’t even aware of these exposures, though many can and should be prevented – or at the very least reduced.

Read “If we want to fight cancer, we should tax the companies that cause it” >> 

Naturally, this era being out-of-control late-stage capitalism, “we” – the US legal-political-corporate decision makers - will never crack open the Pandora’s Box of taxing cancer-causing companies. I mean, holy s**t! Where to begin? If we can’t persuade the Donald Trumps (paid $750 tax in 2016 and 2017), and the Jeff Bezos, Elon Musks, Warren Buffets of the world, to pay taxes, how can We, the people, persuade corporations to do so? 
(Moreover, let’s recall it was Senator Joe Biden who got “us” into the endless trap of school loans  that hang around the necks of too many Americans attempting to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” 

On war and culture war

Cry, the beloved country! South Africans enjoy mimicking other countries’ cultures. But, pleeze, South Africans, do not mimic America’s culture of mass killings.
Alas.
“At Least 15 Killed In South Africa Bar Shooting.” Police say they are investigating reports that a group of men arrived in a minibus taxi and opened fire on some of the patrons at the bar shortly after midnight Sunday. 

Read more >> 

***

Oh, man, Russia. 

What to say? 

My original intention vis-à-vis sharing news of Ukraine was simply let pictures tell 1,000 words of Russia’s invasion of and terroristic acts towards Ukraine and Ukrainians.
The time has come to include words about this international crime. Moreover, truth-seeking Russians within Russia apparently have difficulty accessing actual news, as opposed to propaganda pushed by Putin’s power structure. Plus, according to analytics, this blog is attracting readers from within Russia. I’m happy to provide a modicum of what’s reported outside of Russia about Putin’s invasion masquerading as a “special operation.”

At least 15 people were killed and two dozen more are feared trapped after Russian Uragan rockets hit a five-storey apartment block in Ukraine's Donetsk region, local officials said as rescuers picked their way through rubble.

Read “Death and devastation as Russian rockets hit Ukraine apartment block…” >> 

***

Not much of a rap music fan, I nevertheless appreciate the lyrics and intention of “Fight the power”… Listen, enjoy, and think about >> (4:40 mins) 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A month ago, while walking the neighborhood, I met Linda . I’d been impressed with her hard work, a woman older than me placing large rocks in the garden of a building she manages. We’d struck up a conversation that day and, when my passing by coincided with her gardening, we continued talking.
Busy with Mary and her recent diagnosis, Linda had fallen off my radar and I’d not seen her for more than two weeks.

Then, walking with a friend and pointing out Linda’s hard work in her garden, he pointed to this note I'd not seen.

As she requested, I called Linda. We met, as arranged, in her garden. I introduced my friend, Andy. Linda introduced her husband, Hugh, to us. 

We conducted a lovely visit over greenery and rockery. Turns out, her husband, once an avid rock climber, is now an avid sailor. (Around here, there’s more water than rock faces and Hugh adjusted accordingly.) 

I mentioned to Hugh that I’d sold a houseboat last year, after Covid interrupted my liveaboard plans. I mentioned, too, my intention to purchase another houseboat. “If I do, and you’re interested, Hugh, you can teach me to pilot it through the Delta.”

Hugh is interested.
Woo hoo! A (wo)man with a plan!
Next part of this woman’s plan: My bestie Mary overcomes her health challenges and soon, we’ll all be aboard grilling lunch, leaping into the water, enjoying life.

The modern world

Healthy planet, anyone?

With my best friend struck down by a deadly contaminate, I fluctuate between fierce anger, intense fear, and a desire “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
This quote first appeared in the 1902 book Observations by Mr. Dooley, by Finley Peter Dunne (1867 – 1936).
Dunne’s Mr Dooley is a fictional Irish bartender critical of just about everybody:

“Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.”

I intend to further explore Mr Dunne’s and Mr Dooley’s literary exploits, and - as I grapple with the overwhelm of current reality – I go one further on Dooley's view of newspapers: I heap blame on SNS - social networking sites - too.  
Future posts will explore this topic of SNS yet, assigning blame to SNS, I simultaneously appreciate SNS. Keying into Dr Internet’s search engine, “quotes about afflicting the comfortable” , after all, introduced me to Dunne and Dooley.
What to say? Life is tough. Even assigning blame is complex. Indeed, assigning blame is one of today’s toughest tasks. That is, if one seeks nuance. I do seek nuance. I’m uncomfortable thinking I’ve a handle on “the one and only truth.”
But the truth hurts.
Here’s yet another terrifying truth and yet another warning of the state of our beleaguered planet:

We cannot ignore biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is the variability that exists among all living organisms, between different species, within species including genetic makeup, and in wider ecosystems. Billions of people rely on wild species for food, clean water, energy, income and health and wellbeing. Annually, crops worth up to £480bn are pollinated by a variety of wild animals, and an estimated 4 billion people depend on natural medicines for their healthcare. These vital ecosystem services are fundamentally based on a healthy environment, and this requires biodiversity. Losing biodiversity leaves species and ecosystems less resilient to challenges such as invasive species or pests, meaning there is an increased risk of whole populations being wiped out and destabilising the entire ecological network. Nature is a finite resource, and human self-interest alone should determine that biodiversity must be protected.
Alongside overexploitation, humans are driving biodiversity loss by destroying, polluting and fragmenting habitats across the globe. Many of the UK’s important peatlands, which provide a home for rare species such as the hen harrier, have been drained for agricultural use. The Amazon rainforest is being cleared to such an extent that it may be near a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover.

Read more “We’ve overexploited the planet, now we need to change if we’re to survive” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Community entities such as stalls at farmer’s markets that disappeared during the height of the Covid pandemic are slowly reappearing.
Yesterday, legal business took me to Oakland on farmer’s market day.
What joy!
This photo shows the outer edge of the market located on streets of four or five city blocks. Vendors presented lush in-season local produce, assorted nuts and nut butters, breads and baked goods, an array of cuisines in to-go boxes, even spectacular orchids. (These sorely tempted; I didn’t succumb.)
I walked through the market to the lawyer’s office where, sticky-taped to the front door, I read this message addressed to United Package Service. I share it here as a humorous reminder that others share my current state of mind: “What lousy service. That’s the modern world for you.”

Coping - but just

News blues

As we’ve shared all this week, Covid cases are on the rise. Now, mask mandates may make a comeback.

Cities across the United States might be urged to bring back mask mandates as the new Omicron subvariants continue to spread.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that Omicron's subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are expected to make up a combined 70.1 percent of the COVID variants in the country as of July 2, Reuters reported. Both of the sublineages made up 52 percent of the variants in the U.S. during the week of June 25.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School said in June that new data suggests that the Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 seem to be more vaccine-evasive than previous subvariants among the fully vaccinated and boosted and those who were previously infected. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is still deemed as an effective way to protect against the virus.

Read more >> 

(Groan! Does this mean another round of whackidoodles out in force in public again, spreading the virus as they complain about mask mandates?)

***

Humor amid the horror: Good lines…

As America devolves into a sprawlier version of Hungary, let’s capture and celebrate creative lines:
Not my personal fav in terms of his worldview, David Brooks, of the New York Times, nevertheless produced an apt description vis-à-vis The Donald: “We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.”
Read The Atlantic’s “The most pathetic men in America” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
AZ Gubernatorial  (2:16 mins)
Boris  (1:25 mins)
Star  (0:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

As introduced on July 4th, post “Oh, the irony,”  asbestos is an environmental health menace. Like other environmental poisons, asbestos is stealthy, until it’s not. Then it’s a ghoulishly efficient and relentless killer.
And… We the People are set to endure yet another variety of human-manufactured toxins to bedevil our children and our children’s children.
Meet Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Perfluorooctyl Sulfonate (PFOS) and Other Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs), known collectively as PFAS.
At a recent meeting of the Advisory Restoration Board – RAB that I’ve served on for more than a decade - representatives of the companies “cleaning up” the former US Naval Base, Alameda, alerted community members to the huge until-recently unrecognized problem our community faces with PFAS. These chemicals are widely distributed on the former base, as well as in waterways surrounding the base.
Environmental contamination is not unusual for US military bases – anywhere in the world. For other posts on this topic, see “Consequences”  and “Play ball”  and “It’s perfectly safe, it just kills plants” )
More on PFAS:

PFAS are a class of chemicals used since the 1950s to make thousands of products repel water, stains and heat. They are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t fully break down, accumulating in the environment, humans and animals. Some are toxic at very low levels and have been linked to cancer, birth defects, kidney disease, liver problems, decreased immunity and other serious health issues.

Read more >> 
US EPA explains PFAS >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s been a rough couple of days. My bestie looks the way she usually looks, perhaps a trifle more introspective - yet her left lung is contaminated with asbestos. (We refer to "him" as The Squatter - who has invited all his relatives in to share the bountiful free rent.)
This time next week she’ll have been sliced and diced, ribs spread, lungs scraped, and put back together again.
Terrifying!
Slowly but surely, we’re coping with this new reality.
As if we don’t have enough going on, someone, who knows who, crawled under my Honda and stole the catalytic converter.
This is nothing new for other unlucky residents in our town. Such thefts are reported every week, if not every day. Apparently, spending a couple of minutes under someone else’s car to rip off the catalytic converter is a quick way to make a few hundred bucks. In my case, my vehicle was parked in my parking spot in the so-called secured parking lot in the so-called secure complex.
So much for security.
On the plus side, it’s a beautifully sunny and breezy day here on the San Francisco Bay shoreline.
Pelicans, Canada geese, crows, cormorants, California gulls, Least Terns, ground squirrels, and others all having a great time. 

 On my iPhone, I captured this stilt singing in a local pond. 

Stilt aria

So plastic

Worldwide (Map) 
July 7, 2022 - 522,200,200 confirmed infections; 6,344,300 deaths
July 8, 2021: 185,236,000 confirmed infections; 4,005,000 deaths
July 30, 2020: 17,096,000 confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths

US (Map) 
July 7, 2022 - 88,241,700 confirmed infections; 1,019,110 deaths
July 8, 2021: 185,236,000 confirmed infections; 4,005,000 deaths
July 30, 2020: 17,096,000 confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
July 7, 2022 - 3,995,800 confirmed infections; 101,850 deaths
July 8, 2021: 2,112,340 confirmed infections; 63,100 deaths 
July 30, 2020: 471,125 confirmed infections; 7,498 deaths

Post from:
July 8, 2021: “Refugees” 
July 9, 2020: “Pestilence, thunderstorm, and a locust” 

News blues

The “bad” Covid news:

[The] omicron subvariant known as BA.5 now comprises a majority of U.S. COVID-19 cases, according to data released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The data is a sign of the rise of the highly transmissible subvariant, which has prompted concern about a new increase in cases.
BA.5, along with a related subvariant known as BA.4, has mutations that have shown an increased ability to evade the protection from vaccines and previous infection.

• BA.5 now makes up 53.6 percent of U.S. cases, according to the CDC.
• BA.4 makes up another 16.5 percent, putting the two together at around 70 percent of infections.

The “better” news:
New vaccines coming: The Food and Drug Administration last week advised vaccine makers to target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in updated vaccines they are preparing for this fall.
The sobering news:
An infectious disease expert at New York University stressed that people should not wait for the updated vaccines to be available to get a booster shot.
“The updated vaccines won’t be available until October at the earliest,” she wrote. “That’s 4+ months away. That’s a big window of risk.”

***

Data: Shiels MS, Haque AT, Berrington de González A, Freedman ND.
Leading Causes of Death in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 2020 to October 2021.
JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 05, 2022.
Chart: Axios Visuals
Click to enlarge.

According to a new review of death certificate data in JAMA Internal Medicine, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021, accounting for 1 in 8 lives lost.
The virus exacted a huge human toll even after vaccines became widely available and indirectly affected other causes of death like heart attacks and strokes, in part by discouraging some Americans from seeking care.
The National Cancer Institute study found COVID-19 trailed only heart disease and cancer among the leading causes of death between March 2020 and October 2021.

• The virus last year was the first and second leading cause of death among people ages 45–54 and 35–44, respectively.
• Deaths among those 85 and older dropped during the period studied, likely because of targeted vaccination efforts.
• There was a downward age shift in the distribution of COVID-19 deaths in 2021 compared with 2020, possibly driven by higher vaccination rates.

The true toll was, in all likelihood, significantly higher. Some COVID-19 deaths were misattributed to other causes. And the analysis didn't cover the Omicron wave of late 2021 and early 2022.

Read more >> 

On war

Citizens’ Images of Potential War Crimes in Ukraine Flood the Internet, but Might Not Hold Up in Court 

***

The Lincoln Project: Last week in the Republican Party - July 5, 2022  (2:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Supreme Court strikes at environmental issues:  “According to the court, the EPA has the authority to regulate individual plans, but not to make more sweeping efforts to regulate carbon emissions – that has to come from Congress. The court’s decision follows the expanding logic of its so-called “major questions doctrine.” The doctrine states that the Supreme Court can strike down regulatory action of “vast economic and political significance” if Congress did not specifically delegate a rule-issuing agency to issue that regulation.”

***

© M. Wuerker, Politico

“Climate change is here and happening regardless of whether a tiny, extremist minority wants us to do something about it,” a White House official said of the decision under condition of anonymity. “This decision is shocking in its impact even if it’s not surprising.” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Took the day off from work to hang out with my bestie, Meso Mary. She’s remarkably upbeat for someone with a cloud of unknown outcome hanging over her head. 
Since mesothelioma is a rare diagnosis, particularly for women, Mary and I are working with assorted mesothelioma support groups. The law firm with which we’re working most closely turns out to have on board Erin Brockovich, the subject of the Oscar-winning film, Erin Brockovich  (2000). I doubt we’ll have direct contact with Erin, but it’s good to know she’s in our corner – or we’re in hers….
Mary and I have begun carefully combing through Mary’s history to understand where and how she may have encountered free floating asbestos. I predict we’ll narrow it down to a few possibilities and, in the process, deepen our already depressing understanding of how companies duck and dive to avoid responsibility for the damage they cause – too often knowingly. I’ve spent many a day interviewing people cheated out of what they’re due from such corporate antics, but as emotionally hard as that has been, it's more emotionally draining to have a beloved person struck in this way.
Draining. And infuriating. (Read Richard Power’s novel, Gain,  for a view of lives affected by corporate wrong-headedness.)
What to say?
One step in front of the other, and focus on what matters: truth and love and appreciation.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 5:54am
Sunset: 8:34pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:54am
Sunset: 5:14pm

Oh, the irony

© Dave Granlund, USA Today

Today, US Independence Day 2022, our posts become more complex. We’ll continue sharing the back-and-forth of the Covid pandemic while also focusing on another aspect of the ongoing degradation of our planet: toxic contamination. Specifically, we’ll follow the effect of toxic contamination on one human being.

To back up: Regular readers understand this blog’s fundamental assertion about the Covid pandemic: shrinking wilderness and environmental destruction equate with increasing risks of pathogenic spillover from animals to people >> 
But what of other contaminants around us?
What of the companies that know/knew their products are/were toxic, yet continue to pedal those products to unwary customers?
Stay tuned.

News blues

On the Covid front: Stay safe this Independence Day – as Covid presents We the People yet another, yet more contagious variant >> 

***

Meet Meso Mary and “wat-the-kek”
I met Mary, my bestie, in my first week of high school. Like me, she’s a South African transplant living in California.
A month ago, Mary complained that her hip was sore. Generally not a fan of what she calls “trivial pursuits” – including “unnecessary medicine” – Mary took my advice (she called it “nagging”) and visited her personal doctor to request an x-ray. During her appointment, May 27, 2022, Mary mentioned that her usual yoga poses – including downward facing dog and the cat – made her cough, “just short, dry coughs but it’s new….”

He said, “Since you’ll be there for hip and spine x-rays, I’ll order a couple of chest x-rays, too.”
A day after the x-rays, Mary took a phone call from the hospital’s Chief of Surgery who said, “Your chest x-rays show anomalies. Let’s go ahead and order another round.”
The Chief called again after the second set. “The results of your recent scan show nodules on the pleura, the lining of your left lung. You also have fluid buildup. Let’s biopsy the large nodule and perform a pleurocentesis" [aka thoracentesis or pleural effusion].
He asked, “You’re not feeling discomfort or pain in your chest, shortness of breath?” 

Nope, Mary reported she felt fine, well, except for the pulled muscle across her left shoulder blade… “from swimming too much - or not swimming enough,” she laughed.
A day later, the Chief called again: the biopsy indicated malignancies, “likely a form of lymphoma. A small chance it could be mesothelioma although that’s so rare, I doubt it.”
“So rare” or not, two days later, Mary was diagnosed with epithelial mesothelioma.
The subsequent PET scan indicated no metastasizes – no cancerous nodules infesting other organs.
Oh, the irony.
Over decades, both Mary and I have engaged what we call World War against Toxic Contamination - Environment and Creatures, WWaTCEC or, as we say, “what-the-kek.” (No, this is not a non-profit or money/donation-responsive agency; it’s our small inside “joke” as we engage the world’s garbage - of all sorts.) 

Mary. A healthy, intelligent woman, unflinchingly committed-to-the-planet’s-health, exercises, eats nutritious foods, recycles plastics and junk (even as she knows she’s “wishcycling” since 85% of single-use plastic items isn’t actually recycled ) has incurable lung cancer due to the toxic and wide-spread material, asbestos.
Mary has agreed to share her journey here, with me at the keyboard.
Together, we’ve progress from “WTF?” to “Let’s fight like hell to root out the origin of this disease in your lungs. We’ll fight even more fiercely than we’re fought other “wat-the-kek” skirmishes!
Mary’s up for it. 

Her fighting name: Meso Mary.

***

The Lincoln Project: Our country  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

What to know about asbestos and asbestos exposure:

Asbestos are fibrous, naturally occurring hydrated silicates that have long been mined and used for their fire-retardant and insulating properties as construction materials. Asbestos can be found in amphibole and serpentine forms..[with] … amphibole fibres originally believed to pose less risk, but these fibres were then linked to increased rates of mesothelioma .

Dr. Montague Murray first recognized the negative health effects of asbestos in 1899. However, dust control legislation for mines was not enacted in North America until 1971. In the intermediate years, mining and use of asbestos increased dramatically by 120-fold, peaking upon the enaction of legislation in 1971, and decreasing exponentially until the present. The current decreases in the rate of mining are due to public health concerns and to the progressively more restrictive standards placed upon the level of asbestos dust allowed in mines, from 5 fibres/cm3 in 1971 to 1 fibres/cm3 at present. Although the global levels of asbestos mined have decreased significantly, Canada continues to be one of the world’s leading producers. 2.4 × 105 tonnes were mined in Canada in 2003, which accounted for much of the world’s production of asbestos. Read more >> 
… 

South Africa and asbestos:
Although South Africa officially banned the use, processing and manufacturing of asbestos-containing products in 2008, past exposures from decades ago eventually raised the country’s incidence of mesothelioma to one of the highest rates in the world.
Out of the six types of asbestos minerals used commercially, South Africa has mined three on a large scale: amosite, chrysotile and crocidolite. While South Africa has used asbestos domestically for a variety of different purposes, the vast majority of its mined reserves were exported to other countries.
South Africa was the third largest asbestos producer in the 1970s, behind Canada and the USSR. The nation was once a global leader in the production of crocidolite and amosite, supplying approximately 97 percent of the world’s crocidolite and practically all of the world’s amosite.
The asbestos mining industry in South Africa reached its peak in 1977 when it employed 20,000 miners and achieved an output of 380,000 tons. Exports began to decline soon after, as evidence of serious health complications prompted countries around the world to enact restrictive legislation on asbestos use.
Between 1910 and 2002, South Africa mined more than 10 million tons of asbestos. The last of the nation’s asbestos mines ceased production in 2001 and closed down the following year. South Africa outlawed all types of asbestos by 2008, but the once-lucrative industry has left the environment polluted. Asbestos exposure risks continue to threaten the well-being of South Africans to this day. Read more >> 

As we’re learning, mesothelioma is the result of asbestos exposure, with some people more prone. Exposure can happen from repeated use of asbestos -for example from asbestos-contaminated consumer products such as talc. (Looking at you, Johnson & Johnson.) Asbestos in the workplace, homes, schools, military structures and naval ships also leads to dangerous exposure. Mesothelioma cancer develops decades after asbestos exposure occurs because it takes time for asbestos fibers to cause the damage that leads to cancer.
How Mesothelioma Develops

• A person inhales or swallows microscopic airborne asbestos fibers.
• The asbestos fibers become lodged in the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or heart.
• Embedded fibers damage mesothelial cells and cause inflammation.
• Over time, tumors form on the damaged mesothelium, leading to mesothelioma.

People most at risk of developing mesothelioma cancer handled asbestos for a prolonged period or were exposed to large amounts of occupational asbestos. Secondhand exposure is also common, especially among the spouses and children of people who worked with asbestos.

Welcome to the  journey....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I mentioned to a friend my daily walk on the beach and my admiration for local flocks of pelicans. My friend responded with this:

A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?”
                   ― Dixon Lanier Merritt

I decided to orate these magnificent lines to my feathered friends while they're snacking on edibles carried in on the flow tide.
Alas, nary a pelican, not a single one, on the water or roosting on the pier.
Likely because it’s 4th July holiday and too many people on the beach. Or the man with the baritone voice singing Star Spangled Banner at 7:30am scared them off. 

It’s highly unlikely they took off because word got out that a Crazy Lady aimed poetic intentions their way….  

Right?

Yet another journey

News blues

In the US, Covid 19 information – even misinformation - has been supplanted by other pressing news such as recent presentations by the January 6 Select Committee and the unraveling of the US Supreme Court. The UK’s Guardian, however, continues to present Covid info, even if that news is increasingly dire:

During May and June two new variants, BA.4 and BA.5, progressively displaced the previous Omicron subvariant, BA.2. They are even more transmissible and more immune-evasive. Last week a group of collaborators, including me and a professor of immunology and respiratory medicine, Rosemary Boyton, published a paper in Science, looking comprehensively at immunity to the Omicron family, both in triple-vaccinated people and also in those who then suffered breakthrough infections during the Omicron wave. This lets us examine whether Omicron was, as some hoped, a benign natural booster of our Covid immunity. It turns out that isn’t the case.
We considered many facets of immunity, including the antibodies most implicated in protection (“neutralising antibodies”), as well as protective “immune memory” in white blood cells. The results tell us it is unsurprising that breakthrough infections were so common. Most people – even when triple-vaccinated – had 20 times less neutralising antibody response against Omicron than against the initial “Wuhan” strain. Importantly, Omicron infection was a poor booster of immunity to further Omicron infections. It is a kind of stealth virus that gets in under the radar without doing too much to alert immune defences. Even having had Omicron, we’re not well protected from further infections.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Last week in the Republican Party - June 28, 2022  (2:15 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Sydney, Australia, struggles with unprecedented flooding – and portends “our” future.   But, don’t worry. “Someone” will come up with “something” to prevent climate catastrophe. (Just not the US, or its corporate-supported political parties or its Supreme Court.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A shake-my-head-in-disbelief moment: Donald Trump, Jr., someone I avoid due to his, well, pathetic cluelessness. Yes, I “feel bad” that he has Don Sr., as a father, a “lifestyle” that encourages his weaknesses, is saddled with substance addiction, and has no idea of what a fool he appears. He’s a lethal combination of stupid, unconscious, human embarrassment, and weak and rotten character. Put succinctly in others' words, Donald Trump, Jr., “Where white power and white powder meet.”  Or, my version, Donald Trump, Jr., “Where white power, white powder, and white matter" meet.”

Then, there are human beings that are the opposite of lil’ Don.
Meet my best friend, Mary. Or, as she wants to be known, Meso Mary.
On May 27, 2022, Mary visited her doctor to discuss an old injury that wasn’t responding to chiropractic treatment. After her doctor ordered an x-ray, Mary mentioned she’d noticed one or two short, dry coughs when her daily yoga exercises compressed her chest (e.g., downward facing dog, cat…). 

Her doc said, “Since you’ll be there anyway, let’s get x-rays....”
A day after the x-rays, a thoracic surgeon called and requested Mary have a CT scan, referencing “anomalies” on the chest x-rays.
Tomorrow, Independence Day – aka 4th July – in the United States, is a good day to introduce Mary and accompany her on an unexpected journey.

Grim

News blues

© Michael Ramirez/Creators  @ramireztoons
Commentary on the divisions facing the United States…
Click to enlarge.

Apologies to readers for the grim nature of content shared in this post. Problem is… grim trends on our planet are the current name of the game. 

Trends are grim. Trends are real. Trends reflect the realities that face the planet’s creatures – you, me, and all the animals, plants, insects, sea- and water creatures, all of us
Grim indeed.
The Covid pandemic has simply highlighted how ill-prepared “we” are to both comprehend and deal with these trends.
On the subject of Covid, scientists are closer to understanding the neurology behind the memory problems and cognitive fuzziness that an infection can trigger >> 

On war – and culture war

As the US veers from democracy to fascism, Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, deconstructs a two-minute video that was shown at Trump’s public appearance on Jan 6 and that helped incite the Jan. 6 rioters.

IMHO, this is an important presentation that clearly points out the symbolism and tropes employed to tweak anybody inclined towards Trumpism, “Stop the Steal,” Qanon, MAGAworld, etc.
Watch – and learn! >> (18:30 mins) 

PS: I’m reading Jason Stanley’s book How Fascism Works and can attest to its readability. It’s not pompous nor aimed at the professorial and pontificating classes. It’s a book for ‘regular’ folks with curiosity and a desire to understand.

Ukraine – photos of war, death, destruction >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

The US Supreme Court voted to curb the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions. This comes amid a period of increasingly extreme weather around the world. More than 40 million Americans were under heat advisory last week.
Kristie Ebi has been researching the health risks of climate change for decades and warns of the rise in “Mass Casualty” events as a result of climate change >>  (17:15 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

When the s**t hits the fan, I pull on my socks and athletic shoes and go outside to enjoy the awesome surroundings. I appreciate the luxury of 1) having the socks and shoes to pull on, 2) living modestly on a public park on the beach, 3) having the physical ability to get outside, 4) the understanding and sensitivity to recognize what will be lost unless our so-called “leaders” discover and appreciate such luxuries, too. (I won’t hold my breath. It breaks my heart.)