The View from the Hermitage, Day 357

Only one week to the one-year mark. I don't know why, a year ago, I thought things would be finished or at least under control by now. I clearly was not thinking at all clearly about just what a pandemic is. I just checked dictionary.com, though, and the definition of pandemic has nothing to do with how long a disease outbreak lasts, just how widespread it is geographically. The definition of "pandemic" as a noun is given as "disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world." I guess that if a disease is that widely prevalent, it's not going to go away on its own any time soon. 

Masks appear to be one topic of the day. There was a mask burning in front of the Idaho state capitol, led by supporters of XPot. At least a hundred people including kids took part. Interestingly, Idaho has no state mask mandate, though seven counties and 11 cities have local ones. Because of this, a Republican state legislator has introduced a measure that would ban local mandates. Also on the subject of masks, I will bluntly say that not all Southern Republican governors are idiots. Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, says that the Alabama mask mandate will stay in effect until April 9 at the earliest. "Folks. we are not there yet," she said, "but goodness knows we're getting closer."

The non-mask mitigation measure being loosened earlier than it should be is eating establishment occupancy. People can't wear masks while eating, and typically folks eating together sit close to each other for conversational purposes, increasing the probability of viral transfer should one person be already infected. Occupancy limits are being loosened or even ended in Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan. Louisiana, Texas, Arizona (gym occupancy limits are being loosened as well), West Virginia, and South Carolina. California is loosening restrictions on theme parks.

The New Yorker had an article on the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus that I found fascinating. Genetic sequencing work started in New York City in the pandemic's earliest days, March 2020. I had already read that most cases in New York City came from Europe rather than China. The NY strain, though, had a mutation, D614G, that made it more contagious than the virus that had circulated through Wuhan. Nerd alert! What are those mutations all about? I found out thanks to this article. The British variant's key mutation is called N501Y. This means that the amino acid asparagine (denoted by N) is replaced by tyrosine (the Y) at the 501st position of the spike protein. This affects the part of the spike that allows the virus to bind to cells and makes the variant 50 percent more transmissible than the original. New evidence suggests that people infected with this mutation have higher viral loads and remain infectious longer.

The South Africa and Brazil variants have this same mutation. However, they also have an E484K mutation. This means that glutamate (the E) becomes lysine (the K) at the spike protein's 484th position. This mutation diminishes the ability of both natural and vaccine-generated antibodies to bind to and neutralize the virus. Some of the variants discovered in the US also have this mutation, and some UK cases have acquired it as well.

On the non-coronavirus front, a bird not seen for 170 years was spotted in Borneo. Only one museum specimen of the black-browed babbler exists, and it was taken between 1843 and 1848. One was captured in October 2020, photographed, and released. It took a bit of time to officially identify it as a black-browed babbler since some guidebooks listed the babbler as probably extinct. If you know anything about birding (I don't), you can guess that birdwatchers are now primed to travel to Borneo to achieve a sighting and be able to add this rare bird to the lifetime list of birds they've seen. 

Have trouble writing thank you notes? How about gratitude letters? These are slightly longer and generally more meaningful than thanks you notes. Gratitude letters say thanks for something done or said rather than for a thing. Writing gratitude letters appears to be good for a writer's mental health. A study--yes, it was a small one--of 293 subjects divided them into three groups. One group got psychotherapy only. The second group got psychotherapy while also engaging in expressive writing. he third group wrote gratitude letters. Subjects in the third group reported significantly better mental health than subjects in the other two groups even three months after the trial had ended. I may have to give this a try; I can think of a couple people who have said or done something that had a real positive effect on me. 

Yesterday, I mentioned looking for an Instant Pot recipe to try in March. We're having honey teriyaki drumsticks tonight along with leftover rice and a salad. Dessert for The Professor (who has not had a good week on the teaching virtually front) will be a Cadbury fruit and nut bar if the ones I ordered from Amazon for delivery today arrive in time.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 356

I'm taking a pass today having taken three long walks with The Family Dog and Son #1, made significant progress on repairing Son #2's quilt, and chosen my March pie. Yes, that took a while. There were so many to choose from, but I finally decided on a chocolate peanut butter pie with a graham cracker crust.I still need to select an Instant Pot dish. That may be on tonight's to-do list. I'll let you know tomorrow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 355

Coronavirus vaccines are all over the news right now. Australia had been hoping to score doses from Europe, but that's not sitting well with some European countries. Italy has blocked the export of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses, and France may do the same. I wonder if Australia will join the number of developing countries that currently have no access to vaccines. Three countries that won't openly get vaccines are Tanzania, Turkmenistan, and North Korea. Those countries share little or no information with WHO; North Korea has openly said that they have had no cases. Houston, we may have a problem when it comes to future international travel.

Given Australia's travel restrictions, its citizens cannot engage in a practice sweeping the US, vaccine tourism. People are gaming the vaccination system by going to states with looser restrictions on who can get vaccinated when. Some 30,000 people have gone to Ohio. Over 82,000 have been vaccinated in Florida, and that doesn't include part-time residents. It's not vaccine tourism, but I know several people who have driven over an hour to another city in Virginia in order to get vaccinated. The Professor got his first shot here in town last night; he'll get his second, again here in town, in four weeks.

And there are still plenty of people who aren't going to make any effort to get vaccinated. A poll taken on February 26 found that 55 percent of Americans had already been vaccinated or wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible. The remaining 45 percent were split about evenly as definitely won't get vaccinated and will wait and see before deciding. Another poll found one-third of Americans saying that they will not get vaccinated. Surprisingly, only 92 percent of doctors at the Mayo Clinic have been vaccinated. You would think that all of them would be, right? As a Mayo spokesperson noted, "Doctors are human beings." So much for herd immunity, I guess.  

The San Diego Zoo had eight lowland gorillas test positive for covid early in 2021. As a result, they have given an experimental vaccine to nine other great apes, five bonobos and four orangutans. If approved, the vaccine could also be given to mink, cats, and dogs, the other animals known to contract the virus. 

Dr. Fauci has donated his personal 3D model of the coronavirus to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He made the donation during a virtual ceremony to present him the Great Americans Medal. In my humble view, he deserves a lot more medals and will probably get some. 

In non-pandemic news....

Dr. Seuss books have taken over the Amazon bestseller list. So far I have been unable to find the one I know we had and the one I think we had. They were not with the many other kids books on one of the bookcases. It is quite possible, perhaps probable, that they are in a box in the garage that has not yet been brought inside. Before we had our basement finished, a lot of books went into garage storage. 

New Zealand has been hit with three more earthquakes. The closest one registered 7.3 on the Richter scale. The other two measured 7.4 and 8.1.

The Economist has released its 2021 Glass Ceiling rankings, comparing countries on their parental leave, political representation, share of women in management and on corporate boards, the number of GMAT exams taken by women, and the cost of child care. Five of the six highest ranked countries were Nordic: Sweden was tops, followed by Iceland, Finland, Norway, France, and Denmark. Canada was 11th on the list. The US scored poorly on parental leave and political representation and landed in 18th place. I was surprised that the cost of child care was not cited as another factor hurting the US.

Finally, and possibly most interesting, the oldest known wild bird in history, a 70-year-old Laysan albatross named Wisdom, has hatched another chick. She was first banded in the year of my birth, 1956. The chick hatched on February 1 at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge where more than one million albatross return to nest each year or, in Wisdom's case, every two years. The father of the chick was Wisdom's long-term mate Akeakamai. Albatross find mates through a dance ritual. They mate for life, only seeking a new mate when their previous one has died. If 70 seems a ripe old age for bearing young, only two animal groups have an extended lifespan after their fertility ends, primates and whales.  

It's Mexican curbside for dinner tonight. Other than getting vaccinated, The Professor has had a most trying week and needs guacamole and a margarita.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 354

Progress against covid-19 appears to have stalled. In the past week, the US averaged just under 65,000new cases per day, unchanged from the week before. Before that, we had six weeks of double-digit declines. Mississippi and Texas are ending mask mandates and opening all businesses at their full capacity. It's interesting then that Mississippi had the largest increase last week over the week before, at 62 percent. It was the only state to have a growth rate over 50 percent. Nine states plus the District of Columbia had increases between 10 and 50 percent: South Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Maine. The other states were either the same or lower, with Virginia being one of the states where the case rate was declining. Many European countries are either keeping or tightening their lockdowns. The WHO has cited a resurgence of cases in Central and Western Europe and a rise of new cases in several Western European countries. I guess they know something we're in many cases ignoring. 

There is a silver lining to Texas's ending its mask mandate; businesses are allowed to keep the ones they impose. So far in Texas, Target, CVS, Starbucks, and Kroger will continue to require that anyone inside their store wear masks. Albertson's will encourage customers to wear masks while requiring them of employees. Alabama will keep its mask mandate in place for another month, until April 9.

Although the biggest factor in the covid death toll is age, the second largest is body weight. Covid death rates continue to be high in countries with more overweight people such as the UK, US, and Italy. Covid death rates are 10 times higher in countries in which more than half the adults have BMIs of more than 25, the point at which normal becomes overweight. The US is 8th on a list of countries ordered by decreasing percentage of overweight people. The top six are Belgium, Slovenia, the UK, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Portugal. Whenever I see BMI, though, I have to remind myself of its drawbacks. Both The Sons are considered overweight according to BMI, but their weight resides in muscle tissue not fat.

As noted above, the biggest factor in covid death rates is age; seniors account for 81 percent of covid deaths. Despite that, half of seniors here in the US have yet to get even one vaccination. This includes 36 percent of those over 75 and 54 percent of those 65 to 74. While seniors have received vaccinations at far higher rate than the general population, that half have not yet gotten even one shot surprises me. I know that around here, seniors were the first group vaccinated along with front-line health care workers. Pretty much everyone I know over 75 has gotten at least one shot, and most have gotten two. Most of those people, though, have Internet access and are able to get themselves to the site at wihch the vaccinations are being given, two factors whose lack might deter someone from getting the shot.  

Mother Nature is getting seismically antsy again. Besides the volcanoes in Iceland, Indonesia, and Italy, there has been a plethora of earthquakes of late. One of strength 7.3 (according to New Zealand scientists) or 6.9 (according to the US Geological Survey) struck 11 miles north of the island at a depth of six miles. Tsunami warnings were issued, though I have not heard that any have happened. Yesterday, a 6.2 earthquake rocked central Greece. And on February 27, there was a 7.1 earthquake nine miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. What comes next? A super-early start to hurricane season? An abnormally active tornado season?A late-season blizzard or perhaps a derecho? Only Mother Nature knows, and so far, she's not talking.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 353

As reported yesterday, Texas and Mississippi will be ending mask mandates and opening businesses up to capacity, prompting POTUS to remark that "the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking." I'm thinking that that comment might be insulting to Neanderthals who probably had a much stronger survival instinct that the governors of the two states in question. What those states are doing is a bold move givern that both are still in the top 10 states in terms of deaths per capita. Word on the Interwebs is that Ohio and Louisiana will be following suit. I do not see this ending well and truly hope my last remark is proven to be in error. 

The Professor gets his first shot at CVS Drugstore tomorrow. Today he got the official email from the local health district telling him he can make an appointment at one of their vaccine clinics. He decided to stick with CVS. I doubt that they would vaccinate me with a leftover dose given that I'm sure they have a waiting list of people meeting the current 65 and over criterion. I'll get some reading in at least while hoping that The Family Dog who has not really been left alone in the last year behaves at home.  

I haven't done much news crawling today, having devoted too much time to the issue of why the green backing fabric I ordered for Son #2's quilt repair has been sitting with FedEx in Memphis for over a week. I gave up trying to speak to a real human after 45 minutes on hold. I put the phone on speaker and left it on the table so that I didn't have to crane my neck to hold it against my ear. I finally learned, this afternoon, that the package is "in transit to the delivery site." The only problem with that statement is that "in transit" could mean "sitting in Memphis" on its way from Colorado to Virginia. I finally filed a claim asking for my money back. I'll look into ordering it from Joann Fabrics and seeing if it's available for local pickup.

I learned that loss of the sense of smell is termed "anosmia" and that anosmia due to covid does not develop over time but instead happens instantly. One person described the sudden loss of smell as suddenly encountering a bad smell. The absence of odor was that unpleasant. I would ask my mom about her loss of smell except that she did not notice it until other people would comment on smelling her microwave popcorn; she had not missed her sense of smell at least as far as the popcorn was concerned. 

A few quickies I did manage to work into my news crawl. Qantas is starting mystery flights out of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. A flight begins with breakfast in the terminal at 7:00 am and returns in the early evening. Destination? That's the mystery part. The cost is $577 economy class and $1,230 business class. Dolly Parton got her first covid vaccination, a shot of Moderna, the vaccine whose development was helped by a $1,00,000 grant from Parton to Vanderbilt University. She even sang before the shot, substituting "vaccine" for "Jolene" in one of her songs. A volcano in Iceland may erupt at any moment. It is not expected explode in such as way as to hamper air travel; however, lava from an eruption might block the highway from Reykjavik to Keflavik Airport. An Indonesian volcano is also much more active than usual, and even Mt. Etna has been putting up some impressive fire shows.

Corn chowder is on tonight's menu, and it's time to get chopping!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 352

Just when I thought I'd figured out what to write here--or at least how to start today's post--a news notification pops up that Texas governor Greg Abbott is removing the mask mandate and, as if that was not enough, opening everything 100 percent effective March 10. His exact words were "It is now time to open Texas 100%. COVID has not suddenly disappeared. But it is clear from the recoveries, from the vaccinations, from the reduced hospitalizations, and from the safe practices that Texans are using, that state mandates are no longer needed." He did leave a loophole that if hospitalization rates exceed 15 percent hospital bed capacity for seven days, county judges may add local mitigation measures, but it is not clear that reinstating mandates would be required or just optional.

Like, wow! Really? I guess he didn't read yesterday's blog post with comments from the CDC and WHO directors that we should not reopen things prematurely. He may be one of the CPAC attendees who gave South Dakota governor Kristi Noem a standing ovation when she mentioned the many times Dr. Fauci had been wrong. Are the safe measures he mentioned the reasons why all those rates have gone down? If that's the case, what's going to happen in April or May after several weeks of unsafe practices? 

A new poll shows Americans as more hopeful and less frustrated, stressed, or worried than a year ago. Another poll suggests that the most vaccine-hesitant demographic is white Republicans. Neither of those findings surprises me. I wonder, though, if many of those white Republicans will be less vaccine-hesitant now that their leader, XPot, has admitted to having been vaccinated. Anything that gets more people willing to be vaccinated is fine by me.

China and Russia are practicing vaccine diplomacy that I don't think we are at least not yet. China has provided vaccines to 20 countries in  South America and Africa and plans to send them to at least 40 more. Even so, the Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that more that 85 poor countries will not see widespread immunization until 2023. The WHO's emergency services director has said that it is "premature" and "unrealistic" to hope that the virus ends in 2021, though vaccines could help us "accelerate toward controlling the pandemic." If we can get those vaccines to where they need to be, that is.

I've read various reports of what has been called long covid, a condition in which some symptoms or aftereffects of covid don't stop. It evidently affects children as well as adults, which to me is pretty frightening. The article I read said that in the UK, 13 percent of kids under the age of 11 and 15 percent of kids aged 12 to 16 reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed covid infection. In one case a 45-year-old fitness instructor and her daughter are still experiencing multiple symptoms since getting infected a year ago. One support group, Long Covid Kids, reports 1,700 kids with long-term symptoms. 

Moving away from covid to political correctness, six Dr. Seuss books are no longer being published because they contain racist imagery. Of the six, I've only heard of two and may well have copies on the basement bookcase holding most of the kid books. Those two would be And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo. I'll have to clear the boxes from in front of the bookcase and see if I can find them. The four unfamiliar ones are McElligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat's Quizzer.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 351

XPot came out of the woodwork yesterday to speak at CPAC, on the stage shaped pretty much exactly like a rune found on the uniforms of Hitler's SS, a rune representing racial purity. As expected, he hinted at running for President again in 2024. Various Republicans, when asked if they would support him in 2024, have given less than straightforward responses. Moscow Mitch McConnell for one said that he would support the nominee of the Republican party but did not specify who he thought that person might be. Bill Cassidy, one of Louisiana's two Senators, said, "If we idolize one person, we will lose." Again, no names were named. I will offer a positive comment about XPot's remarks. He said that "everyone" should get vaccinated against covid-19, a remark that basically surprised the hell out of me.

Listening to or reading the remarks of some people who should know, I'd say we're at a crossroads of sorts in terms of the novel coronavirus. The CDC director says, " at this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country." The WHO director says, "We need to have a stern warning for all of us: that this virus will rebound if we let it. And we cannot let it. If countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response." Finally, from the WHO's emergency expert, "the issue is of us being in control of the virus and the virus being in control of us. And right now, the virus is very much in control."

On a related note, global infections rose last week for the first time in seven weeks. At least a second African country has received vaccine via WHO's Covax program. Little by little, as long as we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by reopening too soon. (I type this as I am thinking of states or entities that are reopening too soon.)

Continuing on a less than optimistic thread, FEMA has issued a list of foreseeable events that could take us as a nation past the breaking point. 

Earthquakes. A 9.2 on the Richter scale earthquake is quite possible in the Pacific Northwest. There could also be serious quakes on the San Andreas fault in California or the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the border between Arkansas and Tennessee. And as long as we're on earthquakes, Iceland had more than 10,000 earthquakes of varying intensities in the last five or six days. That is one every few minutes. Most have been on the spit of land on which Reykjavik sits. No fatalities and no damage, so far, but then Iceland is prepared for crap like this.

Extreme Solar Flare. Such an event could cause an electromagnetic storm that would wreak havoc with electrical systems. If you thought what happened in Texas not too long ago was bad, this could be much worse.

Cyberattack. We've already been attacked in a major way once (that we know of) by Russia according to the intel folks. 

Hurricanes and Wildfires. They happen every year and seem to be getting worse every year than they were the year before. 

In other words, there are catastrophes out there that will strike us, and probably when we least expect them. We have been warned.

Finally, a couple of other random facts to take the edge off the preceding downers, the first one being a covid fact. Gila County, Arizona, outside Phoenix, has gotten to the point at which any resident over 18 can walk into a clinic without an appointment and get vaccinated against covid. Petaluma, California has voted to outlaw gas stations. I do not know if the regulation has a grandfather clause for existing stations, but I would think it would have to. It's National Women's History Month. Finally, if you're in Des Moines, Iowa, there is a pizzeria selling a 16-inch, Fruit Loops pizza for $20. The pizza is topped with cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, vanilla icing, and Fruit Loops. If you're into sweets, it actually doesn't sound that bad if you take out the mozzarella cheese. 

We will not be having Fruit Loops pizza for dinner tonight. I think it will be a breakfast for dinner night with eggs, pancakes, and vegetarian bacon (the only kind we have on hand). We haven't had breakfast for dinner in too long a time.