The View from the Hermitage, Day 451

Not a bad day, not bad at all. The terrible noise coming from underneath the car yesterday turned out to be caused by a rod's having slipped out of place somewhere in the front passenger-side undercarriage. It took the shop five minutes to re-attach it. The cost? Free. I guess it counts for something to be regular patrons.

Coronavirus cases rose over the winter, but flu cases did not rise or even, really, appear. Only one child died of flu in the US in the 2020-21 winter, compared with 199 in 2019-20 and 144 in 2018-19. Lock-downs made no difference; states with lock-downs had about the same number of flu cases as states without lock-downs. One theory is that the measures to control coronavirus--masks, distancing, frequent hand-washing, etc.--may have prevented the spread of flu as well as covid. It is also possible that the coronavirus may have interfered with or out-competed the flu. We'll have to see what happens next winter.

The Economist has published its list of the most (and least) livable cities for 2021. There was no 2020 list. The rankings depend on factors measuring stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The South Pacific is looking pretty good right now. The top ten cities are, from best down, Auckland, Osaka, Adelaide, Wellington-Tokyo tied, Perth, Zurich, Melbourne-Geneva tied, and Brisbane. As for the least livable cities, the bottom 10 are, from better to worst, Caracas, Douala (Cameroon), Harare (Zimbabwe), Karachi, Tripoli, Algiers, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Lagos, and Damascus. 

Experts are warning that people refusing to get vaccinated against covid are "extremely vulnerable" to the Delta variant. Delta is dominant in the UK and spreading throughout the US. I don't expect such a statement to have much of an effect on the vaccine-denial crowd. If the vaccine isn't going to work, it doesn't matter what variant it goes up against. 

To the north, Canada will in July start relaxing quarantine protocols for fully vaccinated citizens and residents returning home from abroad. Those entering the country now are required to quarantine for 14 days. If arrival is by air, those returning must also stay at designated hotels until they test negative. The first step in the relaxation will be that fully vaccinated people currently permitted to enter Canada will be able to do so without staying in the government-authorized facilities. 

A new covid outbreak in Guangzhou, China is apparently fueled by the Delta variant. As part of the response, the government tested almost the entire 18.7 million residents in three days. Some neighborhoods are totally locked down with testing being the only allowable reason for going out. The current theory is that the outbreak grew out of a cluster of eateries. Each infected person has infected more other people than in any previous Chinese outbreak. China is demanding that travelers from dozens of countries spend two weeks in employer-supervised quarantine before flying to China. Once there, they must spend at least two, sometimes three or more, weeks quarantined even if they are fully vaccinated. A positive test means additional days or weeks in isolation. 

In Germany, participation in various types of indoor social activity or personal care requires a negative rapid test no more than 24 hours prior. It's not hard to get tested. There are 15,000 pop-up testing centers across the country, with over 1,300 in Berlin. There are also do-it-yourself test kits available at assorted retail locations. People who have been fully vaccinated do not need to present a test result. Those who have only been partially vaccinated still require testing, though. 

Quickies: The US will purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer to share with Covax. Two hundred million doses will be delivered this year with the rest to come in the first half of 2022. Malaysia's ICUs are all at capacity. Eight in 10 adults in the UK are likely to have covid antibodies through either vaccination or previous infection. A pharmacist in the US will spend three years in jail after pleading guilty to trying to spoil hundreds of Moderna doses because he was skeptical about them. Portugal is slowing its relaxation of restrictions after an increase in covid cases. Last summer, 20 percent of Americans surveyed said they had trouble sleeping due to the pandemic. Ten months later, 60 percent reported insomnia, while 50 percent reported that the quality of their sleep was much worse. This is due in part to disruptions of routines as work/school vs. home distinctions become fuzzier. Less physical activity is also an issue.