The blueberry pie is cooling while the apple pie bakes. I decided to go for a two-fer. The blueberries and three of the apples (honeycrisps) came from Whole Foods; three apples (ambrosia) came from My Brother's visit with two of his sisters-in-law yesterday. My Brother will take pieces of both to our mom tomorrow. This morning, our mom asked one of the staff to take some photos of the three of us. In all honesty, I can't remember the last time we took a group photo. In the tenor of the times, we did the first photo masked.
We also did some unmasked.
Having these taken was the highlight of the day and made me happy.
On the covid front, Russia and Eastern Europe continue to struggle to handle surges. Russia set another record for deaths in one day, 1,123, making the official-but-likely-undercounted death toll 233,898. There were 36,582 new cases. Poland had 8,361 new cases in one 24-hour period compared to the previous day's 6,265. Hungary just recorded 3,125 cases compared to 1,668 one week ago. The Czech Republic's cases almost doubled in one week, hitting 6,274. Finally, Bulgaria recorded 6,813 new cases in 24 hours. Such numbers are why the WHO's emergency committee says that the pandemic is "far from finished." Or as I like to put it, no one is safe until everyone is safe.
Elsewhere internationally, New Zealanders stranded in Australia are going to new lengths in order to get home. Right now, the country is controlling the number of people who can enter the country, and anyone coming in must quarantine for 14 days. The new means of going home is sailing for 10 days across the Tasman Sea, a "notoriously perilous" body of water. The trip takes 10 days, which can be counted as part of the 14-day quarantine. They must also test negative for covid. The Facebook group Trans-Tasman Transits has been formed to help coordinate the process.
Covid was the eighth leading cause of death for children ages five through 11 last year. Children are "at least as likely" to be infected as adults, but the infection in children is more likely to go unnoticed. How the childhood vaccination program will be is anyone's guess. Among other age ranges, the vaccine booster rate now exceeds the rate for first shots. The CDC has also suggested that some immunocompromised people may benefit from a fourth shot six months after their third. There are not guidelines for this yet, so people should consult their doctors.
Some people with lasting covid symptoms are filing for disability, something complicated by the fact that the definition of "long covid" is far from clear. An example is a 31-year-old woman who had covid in April 2020. Since then, she sleeps 15 hours a day, has to stop in grocery aisles to catch her breath, and lapses in and out of consciousness at times. She has had all sorts of medical tests, with the results coming back normal every time. Another complication is that some people claiming to have long covid cannot produce results showing that they tested positive for covid at some time in the past. There is still so much about the coronavirus we do not know and, honestly, may never know.
1 comment:
Nice family pic. Glad ypu were able to get together and have someone take it for you.
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