The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 357 (857)

There was more news than usual this morning, meaning I left some items on the screen rather than the page. All that fell to the wayside when I saw the announcement that POTUS tested positive for covid. I may have mentioned here in the past my concern that if Uncle Joe (he wasn't POTUS when I first worried about this) got covid and had an ICU-level case or, gasp, passed to the great beyond, a certain EX-POTUS now living in Florida and New Jersey would crow to the heavens about how he was a stronger and better man having survived covid himself. Never mind that he was sicker than he claimed and got multiple treatments not to mention a ride around the crowd to wave. So far, POTUS is said to be having only mild symptoms--fatigue,runny nose, dry cough--and is working from the residence. He started taking Paxlovid as soon as the positive result appeared. As I recall, EX-POTUS also worked while in the hospital. I am sure those blank pieces of paper required a lot of his attention. 

People are wondering where POTUS got infected. Saudi Arabia? Israel? The halls of the White House? Does it really matter? It's not as if covid from location A versus location B means different treatments. I expect that this will be a continuing news story for as long as POTUS tests positive and for possibly more than a few days after he tests negative. So far Dr. Biden is testing negative; I expect she will likely test positive in the next couple of days. But who knows. Covid seems so fickle at times.

Taking a break, let me wish My Mom a happy 90th birthday. Four score and ten. She has seen the Great Depression and a myriad of other notable economic events. One world war, a police action in Korea, the Vietnam War (it's called the America War over there), not to mention various conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. She went from the old hand telephone to cell phones, and while she has never had a smartphone, she explores the WWW from a ChromeBook and uses email. She got her second covid booster yesterday, and made it through a case of covid in the pre-vaccine days.

And now back to the coronavirus. In China, 247 million people were under full or partial lockdown in 31 cities last week; this week, that would be 264 million people in 41 cities. There are 2,000 tourists stranded in a beach resort town. As long as they let them use the beach, being stranded in a beach resort town doesn't sound half bad. Since July 6, at least 10 different Omicron subvariants have been identified in China.

Cases are surging in Australia. So far, the government is not reimposing any restrictions. The government policy is apparently "living with the coronavirus."

Five countries--Columbia, Paraguay, Iraq, Kosovo, and North Macedonia have moved to Level 3 of the CDC's travel advisory. Level 3 represents the riskiest countries. 

The pandemic is giving birth to a new division in the Department of Health and Human Services. What has been called the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response will become its own operating division, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. This will be a new federal agency on a par with the CDC and the FDA. It will be responsible for crucial health logistics including oversight of the Strategic National Stockpile and contracting for and distributing vaccines in an emergence. 

Finally, there's been the coronavirus, monkeypox, and Marburg fever. Now, a New York resident has tested positive for polio, the first reported US case in almost 10 years. What can I say? You be careful out there.