The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 114 (614)

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address 158 years ago today. In high school, possibly ninth grade, the Gettysburg Address was one of the things we had to memorize, another being the Preamble to the US Constitution. I only remember the first part of the Gettysburg Address now, but re-reading the speech just now jogged a few memory cells. I've visited Gettysburg twice, and it was meaningful both times. It offered me the means of seeing how a battle happened, who attacked whom from where and when. I would not hesitate to visit again should the chance arise.

So, coronavirus news. It appears to be quite possible that patient zero was a vendor at the Wuhan market who became symptomatic on December 11, 2019. An analysis of the cases recorded before an alert was sounded showed half of them linked to the market, a place roughly the size of a soccer field. Most of the symptomatic cases were linked to the western section of the market where, and I have no idea how important this factoid was or is, raccoon dogs were caged. 

If you've wondered why there do not appear to be covid surges in Africa, you are not alone. Scientists are somewhat mystified by how Africa can be doing better than the US or Europe but without vaccines or other resources. Fewer than six percent of the people are vaccinated. Still, for months now WHO has been describing Africa as "one of the least affected regions in the world" in weekly reporting. Some ideas as to what's going on there include that the population is younger, with an average ago of 20 compared to Europe's average age of 43. There is a much lower rate of urbanization there, and people spend much more time outdoors. 

Another possibly relevant point is that covid patients with high rates of exposure to malaria are less likely to suffer severe disease or death than patients with little exposure. With Ebola, more malarial exposure means more serious Ebola. One theory is that malaria's effect could be to "blunt" the immune system's going into overdrive when the coronavirus infection strikes. In general, community health workers in Africa are experienced in dealing with outbreaks in general. The chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh offers, "I think there's a different cultural approach in Africa, where these countries have approached COVID with a sense of humility because they've experienced things like Ebola, polio, and malaria." A doctor in Zimbabwe gives a warning we should take note of here: "Complacency is what is going to destroy us because we may be caught unaware."

Austria will begin a nationwide lockdown on Monday. The lockdown will last until December 12, though the situation will be reassessed 10 days in. Austria has also issued Europe's first national vaccine mandate with a start date in February 2022. Over the past seven days, there have been 990 cases per 100,000 people.

Almost 40 percent of business travelers who before the pandemic used to travel at least three times each year say they'd never do it again. If such a decrease were to happen, it would have a huge effect on the economy. It already has had some effect. In 2020, US company spending on travel dropped 71 percent. Leisure travelers should start wondering and worrying about their costs going up to help offset the loss on the business side.

Finally, over one million people in the US are still missing their sense of smell after having had covid. The last time I asked her, my mom was one of those. And the governors of Connecticut and New Mexico say that they don't consider a person to be fully vaccinated against covid without a booster. According to the CDC, only 17 percent of adults have gotten one. When boosters started, the entry questions required to visit the facility in which my mom lives no longer included one to the effect of "are you fully vaccinated?" I guess they wanted to avoid confusion. I'll let you know if that question comes back.