The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 7 (507)

Murder hornets, locusts, acid-spitting whip scorpions. What more could we ask for? How about bubonic-plague-toting chipmunks? Yep, they've caused the closure of some of the most popular hiking trails around Lake Tahoe. Evidently, plague in rodents at high elevations is not that rare. If it's caught in time, plague in humans is very treatable. There was a great comment about this on a Facebook page: "Drought, plague fires, and earthquakes. Just another week in California." It will only take a matter of days to clear the area of plague and reopen the trails for hiking.

The Greek synchronized swimming team had to withdraw from the Olympics after four members tested positive. At least 327 people connected to the Olympics have now tested positive, 31 of them athletes. Counts are based on the time period since July 1. The Olympics have been testing people daily, even fully vaccinated ones. Elsewhere in Japan, cases are still surging. New cases have averaged almost 10,000 daily over the past week. To alleviate the strain on hospitals, only the most seriously ill covid patients will be admitted. 

China is experiencing its worst outbreak in months. It now has 144 medium- and high-risk areas, the most since the initial outbreak in early 2020. They are introducing mass travel restrictions. All inter-city coach, taxi, and online car-hailing services have been suspended in medium- and high-risk areas.

Deaths in Africa have risen 80 percent in one month. The WHO director has called for a moratorium on vaccine boosters at least until the end of September. He would like to see 10 percent of the population of every country vaccinated as soon as possible, something made much harder with booster shots diverting vaccine to first world countries.

The FDA is accelerating the timetable to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine by September. They're doing an "all-hands-on-deck approach" hoping that full approval will increase public confidence. Several universities and hospitals, the Defense Department, and the city of San Francisco are expected to issue vaccine mandates once any vaccine is fully approved. Three of every 10 unvaccinated people say they'd be more likely to take a fully approved vaccine. 

Covid cases in children and teens have gone up 8o percent in one month. Most kids with covid recover within a week, but a small percentage experience long-term symptoms. For 4.4 percent of kids with covid, symptoms will last four weeks or longer; 1.8 percent of kids will have symptoms for eight weeks or longer. For adults, 13.3 percent will have symptoms for four weeks, and 4.5 percent will have them for eight weeks. 

In the US, the two demographic groups lease likely to have been vaccinated are White Evangelical Christians and uninsured people under the age of 65. About 14 percent (that's one in seven) of adults say that they will definitely not get vaccinated, a figure largely unchanged since December. Members of ethnic minority groups who had not been vaccinated are more likely to be in a "wait and see" group than the "definitely will not get the vaccine" group.

The large party scheduled to celebrate Barrack Obama's 60th birthday has been cancelled due to concern that it could become a superspreader event.  I expect that Michele and the kids will give him a good, intimate, family celebration. I remember turning 60, though I don't remember anything about a special celebration. Memory cells may start to deteriorate faster between the ages of 60 and 65.