In international news, the Olympic torch has begun its run through Japan to arrive in Tokyo for the opening ceremony in July. I may actually watch a bit of the Games to see what they look like with no or only Japanese spectators. I will likely not watch anything like gymnastics that I do not consider a sport, but I have been known to watch swimming or track and field.
The Suez Canal stuck ship saga continues. They are bringing in Dutch and Japanese teams to help in getting the Ever Given ungrounded and re-open the canal. It isn't going to be easy. The ship is one of the largest container ships in the world; it weighs 220,000 tons and is 400 meters or roughly a quarter of a mile long. I loved the way that Peter Berdowski, the CEO of a Dutch dredging company, described the situation:
"It's like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship; tugboats and dredging of sand."
Upon hearing this Son #1 reminded me that they sometimes explode beached whales that have died rather than haul the body out to sea. It's just easier that way. The person I would hate to be right now is either of the Egyptian pilots on board to help guide the ship through the canal. Their careers as pilots may have come to a screeching halt. It must have been a hell of a wind and sand storm to push a ship that large that far out of alignment.
In more national news, tomorrow CSPAN will start coverage of the 2024 presidential race. I feel like a crotchety old biddie remembering that in my younger days, the presidential race really didn't start until January of the election year.
In slightly-related-to-the-pandemic news, the Grape Nuts shortage is over! What? You did not know there was such a shortage? Yeah, neither did I. Due to supply chain constraints and high demand (more people working from home means more people eating breakfast at home), the cereal shelves were bereft of Grape Nuts. Some people paid over $100 for one box. By way of apologizing for the shortage, Post will reimburse anyone who paid more than $10 for a box up to a total of $115. You do need receipts to prove your claim.
In the past week, covid cases rose in 19 states, one of which was Virginia, and declined in 14 states. Michigan was the winner (or would that be loser?) showing an increase over 50 percent. On the other end, Arizona and Nevada showed 45 percent lower. The fact that the case rate in Virginia was increasing albeit only slightly makes me wonder a bit about the lessening of attendance limits at certain events.
AstraZeneca has released new data that it says shows their vaccine in highly effective. The found a prevention rate of 76 percent using all 32,000 people in the trial. Why they released the earlier figure of 79 percent efficacy based on only 141 people I do not know. Was it someone accidentally releasing info not meant for release but once it's out there, you have to act on it? I have no idea. Sweden has re-started giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to people 65 and older. They say that the link between the vaccine and the development of blood clots cannot be ruled out for younger people, but the vaccine appears safe for seniors.
Florida has been vaccinating people by age group. Next week they will start vaccinating anyone over 40. They expect to be vaccinating anyone over 18 by early April. I managed to get an appointment for my second Pfizer shot. It's a few days past three weeks from my first one, but that's no biggie. It will be nice to start on my list of things I've been putting off dealing with such as arthritis in my thumbs.
Internationally, Brazil is in its worst days of the pandemic. Hospitals are near collapse, and daily death totals are at record highs. Perhaps more concerning, it is the young people who are getting more seriously ill and dying at a higher rate. On March 20, 2020, their head of state echoed XPot (that's our ex-president for any new arrivals here who might not have figured that out on their own), saying "...and soon it will pass." One year later, they've passed 300,000 in total deaths and are seeing about 3,000 each day. Only the US under XPot has suffered greater losses.
Russia has started production of its third vaccine even as phase three trials for that vaccine continue. The new vaccine is CoviVac and follows Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona. Which of the three Vladimir Putin got or supposedly got is not known. At least one pundit thought it strange that there are no photos of Putin's vaccination. He seems to relish excuses to take his shirt off, and wouldn't this have been a good one?
1 comment:
I did know about the shortage of Grape Nuts, one of the places I hang out has a thread for hidden shortages. Pet food of various sorts has been a source of woe, here my friend with a picky dog bought nine month's food. The rest of the family can be flexible but the dog will only eat what she will eat.
My mother gets her second Pfizer shot tomorrow, eleven weeks after the first. Mother in law had hers eleven weeks and six days after the first. I'm certain mine will be twelve weeks which puts me at the beginning of May. I'll be able to get my hair cut by then but not eat out or visit a museum because they will still be shut. I'll be released from captivity in about two weeks, what's kept me home all this time is not the risk to me but the risk I pose to mum.
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