The View from the Hermitage, Day 357

Only one week to the one-year mark. I don't know why, a year ago, I thought things would be finished or at least under control by now. I clearly was not thinking at all clearly about just what a pandemic is. I just checked dictionary.com, though, and the definition of pandemic has nothing to do with how long a disease outbreak lasts, just how widespread it is geographically. The definition of "pandemic" as a noun is given as "disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world." I guess that if a disease is that widely prevalent, it's not going to go away on its own any time soon. 

Masks appear to be one topic of the day. There was a mask burning in front of the Idaho state capitol, led by supporters of XPot. At least a hundred people including kids took part. Interestingly, Idaho has no state mask mandate, though seven counties and 11 cities have local ones. Because of this, a Republican state legislator has introduced a measure that would ban local mandates. Also on the subject of masks, I will bluntly say that not all Southern Republican governors are idiots. Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, says that the Alabama mask mandate will stay in effect until April 9 at the earliest. "Folks. we are not there yet," she said, "but goodness knows we're getting closer."

The non-mask mitigation measure being loosened earlier than it should be is eating establishment occupancy. People can't wear masks while eating, and typically folks eating together sit close to each other for conversational purposes, increasing the probability of viral transfer should one person be already infected. Occupancy limits are being loosened or even ended in Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan. Louisiana, Texas, Arizona (gym occupancy limits are being loosened as well), West Virginia, and South Carolina. California is loosening restrictions on theme parks.

The New Yorker had an article on the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus that I found fascinating. Genetic sequencing work started in New York City in the pandemic's earliest days, March 2020. I had already read that most cases in New York City came from Europe rather than China. The NY strain, though, had a mutation, D614G, that made it more contagious than the virus that had circulated through Wuhan. Nerd alert! What are those mutations all about? I found out thanks to this article. The British variant's key mutation is called N501Y. This means that the amino acid asparagine (denoted by N) is replaced by tyrosine (the Y) at the 501st position of the spike protein. This affects the part of the spike that allows the virus to bind to cells and makes the variant 50 percent more transmissible than the original. New evidence suggests that people infected with this mutation have higher viral loads and remain infectious longer.

The South Africa and Brazil variants have this same mutation. However, they also have an E484K mutation. This means that glutamate (the E) becomes lysine (the K) at the spike protein's 484th position. This mutation diminishes the ability of both natural and vaccine-generated antibodies to bind to and neutralize the virus. Some of the variants discovered in the US also have this mutation, and some UK cases have acquired it as well.

On the non-coronavirus front, a bird not seen for 170 years was spotted in Borneo. Only one museum specimen of the black-browed babbler exists, and it was taken between 1843 and 1848. One was captured in October 2020, photographed, and released. It took a bit of time to officially identify it as a black-browed babbler since some guidebooks listed the babbler as probably extinct. If you know anything about birding (I don't), you can guess that birdwatchers are now primed to travel to Borneo to achieve a sighting and be able to add this rare bird to the lifetime list of birds they've seen. 

Have trouble writing thank you notes? How about gratitude letters? These are slightly longer and generally more meaningful than thanks you notes. Gratitude letters say thanks for something done or said rather than for a thing. Writing gratitude letters appears to be good for a writer's mental health. A study--yes, it was a small one--of 293 subjects divided them into three groups. One group got psychotherapy only. The second group got psychotherapy while also engaging in expressive writing. he third group wrote gratitude letters. Subjects in the third group reported significantly better mental health than subjects in the other two groups even three months after the trial had ended. I may have to give this a try; I can think of a couple people who have said or done something that had a real positive effect on me. 

Yesterday, I mentioned looking for an Instant Pot recipe to try in March. We're having honey teriyaki drumsticks tonight along with leftover rice and a salad. Dessert for The Professor (who has not had a good week on the teaching virtually front) will be a Cadbury fruit and nut bar if the ones I ordered from Amazon for delivery today arrive in time.