Let's start with the Olympics in general and condoms in particular. In 2016 in Rio, 450,000 condoms were distributed via vending machines in the Olympic Village with signs advising "Celebrate with a condom." Tokyo will be distributing the condoms as athletes leave to go home. In general, the Japanese are not happy about the Olympics happening. Kaori Yamaguchi, a member of the Japanese Organizing Committee and a bronze medalist in judo in 1988, noted, "We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot stop even now. We are damned if we do and damned if we do not....The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important." For a country famous for consensus and uniformity, the Olympics are pretty much a slap in the face of the overwhelming feeling the Games should not be held. A political scientist at Tokyo's Sophia University described the situation thusly, "It's a bit like a gambler who already has lost too much. Pulling out of it now will only confirm the huge losses made, but carrying on you can still cling to the hope of winning big and taking it all back."
Experts in the US say that the Delta variant could cause "full-on resurgence" in the coming months, and could result in over 3,000 deaths per week even with a 75 percent vaccination rate. Delta is forecast to account for 90 percent of cases in the EU by the end of the August. India has designated the Delta Plus variant as a variant of concern.
College students are starting to react to the vaccine mandates put in place at so many colleges and universities. Eight Indiana University students--two incoming freshmen, two incoming sophomores, and one each of senior undergraduate, incoming first-year Law, MBA, and doctoral candidate--have filed suit in US District Court claiming the vaccine mandate is in violation of the 14th amendment and state law. Six of the eight have received exemptions from vaccination on religious grounds.
Let's have an intermission on covid stuff and look at the most expensive cities in the world in 2021. The rankings are based on the cost of housing, food, transportation, and 200 other items in comparison to the prices in New York City. Here we go, most expensive on down: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; Hong Kong; Beirut; Tokyo; Zurich; Shanghai; Singapore; Geneva; Beijing; and Bern, Switzerland. There were no countries from the Americas in the top 10. New York City, the highest us city, was 14th. Los Angeles was 20th, and San Francisco was 25th.
Back to covid but still ranking, this time in terms of seven-day cases per 100,000 people. The top (as in low numbers of cases) five are South Dakota (4), Vermont (5), Connecticut (7), Maryland (7), and Nebraska (7). The bottom five are Colorado (48), Wyoming (51), Arkansas (54), Utah (64), and Missouri (76). South Dakota at peak covid had 160 new cases per 100,000 people each day. The four cited here is per week.
The US has fully vaccinated over 45 percent of its population. The whole world has fully vaccinated just 10 percent of its population. By continent, the percents for fully vaccinated are North America (30), Europe (28), South America (11), Asia (8), and Africa (less than 1). Somewhat by continent, the doses given per 100 people would be North America (95), Europe (60), Asia (35), Latin America and the Caribbean (34), Oceania (19), and Africa (3). I'd love to see those single digits become double ones and continue up from there, but I'm not going to get too optimistic that it will happen.
On the travel front, how about Airvnv, and that's not a typo. Guam is inviting travelers to Visit and get Vaccinated. Participating government-approved hotels are selling package deals including accommodations, meals, airport transportation, covid tests, health monitoring, and two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of Johnson & Johnson. Travelers will get tested at home before leaving and will quarantine for seven days on arrival in Guam with the first vaccine dose given on the second day there. Clearly, this is not going to be cheap. The hotels being used run from $150 to $350 per night, with the covid measures adding an extra $880. For Pfizer or Moderna, a traveler could be there for two to three weeks. The UAE are preparing a similar program.
On the resolution front, I realized that I had not yet done June's Instant Pot dinner. Perusing an Instant Pot cookbook, I offered The Professor a choice of Mexican, Indian, or Italian. He chose Italian so sometime in the next week I'll be making Penne Bolognese. I'll post a review here once we've tried it.
No comments:
Post a Comment