The View from the Hermitage, Day 347

I can't say if Tiger Woods was the lead story this morning since CNN's New Day was already in progress when The Professor turned on the TV for background while he did some morning stretching. Woods was the above-the-fold highlight in the Sports section of this morning's Washington Post. Once the media rush over the accident and his injuries has cooled off, the PGA is going to be in trouble at least as far as its television audience goes. Go they will without Tiger Woods to watch. Ratings go down when he is not playing or otherwise involved in a tournament. My mom, for example, will watch any tournament in which Tiger is playing, but is pretty lackadaisical about any other tournament, though she is now developing an interest in a couple other golfers.

The World Health Organization's COVAX program has begun shipping vaccines to developing nations. Ghana yesterday received 600,000 Astra-Zeneca shots. Obviously this will not be enough even for everyone, but it is a start. Here's hoping the deliveries grow and proceed smoothly.

On the variant front, a not-yet-peer-reviewed paper calls the recently discovered California variant "a variant of concern warranting urgent follow-up investigation." The variant is not dominant in California, making up over half the cases in 44 counties. A variant discovered in New York also merits further investigation after claims that it might weaken vaccine effectiveness. We must not get complacent and forget that viruses are a formidable opponent.

An interesting age effect has been found in children infected by the coronavirus. Children ages 6 to 12 are more likely to get Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Children under 6 or over 12 are more likely to get acute covid-19 without any MIS-C. I last had biology or health classes in high school, but I wonder with no foundation if it's a hormonal thing. So many other physical differences tied to age are, that it seems logical that could be the case here. 

I recently canceled our family membership in one of the local fitness centers. We had not been there since the pandemic kicked off in March 2020 but have been paying the membership fees to keep employees we knew there employed. Neither The Professor nor I will feel comfortable in a gym for some time (years?) to come, so I pulled the cancellation plug. This morning I read an article about covid transmission at gyms. Fitness center outbreaks in both Chicago and Honolulu have been linked to carelessness about masks and symptoms. One example, from Honolulu, is frighteningly illustrative. A 37-year-old fitness instructor ended up linked to 21 infections. Hours before his symptoms first appeared, he taught a spin class to 10 people. Neither he nor the students wore masks. All 10 were infected, and one had to be hospitalized. Among the 10 was a  46-year-old man who worked as a fitness instructor elsewhere. Twelve hours before he tested positive, he led several small kickboxing sessions with a total of 11 people. Ten of those people got covid-19, with one going to intensive care. It probably comes as no surprise that masks are now required while exercising. 

On the whole, though, numbers are tending better. In general, they're back to what they were before Thanksgiving and the multi-holiday surges. Only four states--Idaho, New Hampshire, Washington, and Wyoming--saw case increases in the past week. And probably because of masking, distancing, and hand-washing, this is turning out to be the lowest influenza season in 25 years. Thanks to a worse virus, our yearly viral visitor is getting stomped.

Finally, in the interest of health, it is now possible to get performance beer. Yes, beer with added electrolytes is now being marketed.