Scariest Thing I've Seen Today

Bellingham, Washington. 

I mean, does this virus ever go away fully?  Probably not.  If a solid 20 percent or so of Americans truly believe this nutso stuff, then they'd probably rather die then admit they're wrong.

Where We Are

Trying to explain to a Korean friend why so many Americans are refusing free, safe vaccines.

It's because for some people the vaccine represents, basically, government and science working. Working really well, actually.

They would (literally!) rather die than admit that.

— James (@wetcasements) September 19, 2021

Perpetual Forehead Slap

Americans are the biggest fucking babies in the world.#scientifictweet #objectivetweet#accuratetweet

— James (@wetcasements) August 5, 2021

Are We The Baddies?

No, the Republicans haven't "turned" on vaccination.  They still hate things like science and expertise and empiricism in general.  What's happned is that more folks are (rightfully) willing to say what needs to be said -- if you aren't immunocompromised and haven't gotten the (free, easy to get) shot/s yet, you're the fucking asshole, not us.

Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and the rest of Red America writ large is going to be awash in preventable deaths this coming fall and winter.  No tears will be shed over in this part of rural-ass Bellingham.

Getting The Pfizer Pfshot

I'm getting my second and final shot this Friday.  It's hard to believe last March of 2020 I was in Daegu and preparing to teach my college classes online.  My adult classes were cancelled for one semester, then taught again in person with masks and appropriate social distancing for the second.

I'm glad the health authorities have done a good job here in America (I'm shocked that South Korea is actually behind the U.S. when it comes to getting shots in arms) but my overwhelming feeling is just one of plain tiredness.

Granted, providing fulltime care for my Dad isn't really doing much to find me new wellsprings of energy either.

But he's gotten his shots (months ago) and I'll be done this Friday.  Given the rapid increase in climate-related issues, I'm guessing our next "100 Year Virus" will come in about five or ten years.

Good times, as always.

And apparently I qualify for a single marijuana joint in Washington State.  If I didn't live with my Old Man I'd definitely take them up on it.

I think the last time I smoked pot was in Charlottesville in 2002 or so.

Shot! Shot! Shot!

I got my first Pfizer shot yesterday at a local pharmacy.  They had a good set-up, and were very friendly.  The nurse who actually gave the shot was excellent, and obviously a pro.

That's it.  My sister is visiting right now, and that's part of the reason I scheduled my shot for now, a bit later than the rest of the civilized world I take it.  I woke up this morning and while my shoulder is stiff, I didn't have any fever or chills or anything like that.

I guess it's a good thing that this horrible, 100-year virus might go out with a whimper rather than a bang.  Then again, I don't live in India or Brazil.

How It's Done

My former home of Daegu, South Korea, was the first city outside of China to be hit by the coronavirus.  It all went down February of last year, 2020.

On the one hand, that sucks.

On the other hand, South Korea is arguably the one country you'd want to be in during a public health emergency:

"South Korean officials made a plan. They needed to test as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, to figure out how bad the outbreak was. Then they had to find out who might have come into contact with the infected people. And they needed all of those people — both the infected and the potentially exposed — to isolate themselves to prevent the virus from spreading any further.

It was a three-step protocol: test, trace, and isolate. And it worked. Within a week of Patient 31’s diagnosis, the country was performing the most Covid-19 tests in the world; it implemented perhaps the most elaborate contact tracing program anywhere; and it set up isolation centers so thousands of patients could quarantine.

As other countries saw their outbreaks spiral out of control, measures like these helped South Korea keep Covid-19 in check. On March 1, South Korea had about 3,700 confirmed cases; Italy, the first hot spot in Europe, had 1,700 and the US had just 32 cases, though its dismal testing meant the virus was likely spreading unsurveilled. By the end of April, Italy had topped 200,000 cases; confirmed cases in the US were already above 1 million. South Korea still had fewer than 11,000. Adjusted for population, South Korea’s first wave of coronavirus cases was about one-tenth as big as that in the United States."

This is what happens when you have an excellent public health system, leadership that is interested in keeping the infection rate low, not personal ego, and a public that is usually willing to go along with mask and distance protocols if it means the greater good of ending the outbreak is served.

South Korea had all of this, plus a very technology-friendly culture.  Within days everyone, including dumb foreigners like me, were getting multiple text messages a day telling us the specific locations of stores, restaurants, or subway stations where an infected person had been present.

The only Americans who think our health system is the best in the world are the ones who have never left the country.

Wear 'Em If You Got 'Em

Erik Loomis over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money makes an interesting point about masks -- now that we're turning the corner, at least in America, how long will people continue to wear masks?

There are plenty of anecdotes on Twitter regarding people who've observed mask rules who haven't even had a common cold for over a year.  (I'd be one of those people -- I haven't been sick for at least 16 months now.)

Further, you have countries like South Korea and Japan where mask-wearing when you're sick is culturally encouraged.

Sure, there are plenty of anti-mask dick-heads out there.  Fuck 'em.  If they want to catch colds or flu or even COVID, that's fine with me.  (Maybe not so fine for their children or grandparents, but oh well.)

Grocery stores?  Airplanes?  Hotel lobbies?  The Post Office?

Yeah, I think I'll be wearing a mask for the rest of my life, and happily so.

"We pray"

Not an easy read by any means, but Kate Clanchy on caring for two elderly parents:

"My father and I get out the advance decisions again. They are so clear. 'In the event of an infection I want to avoid heroic interventions', 'I refuse treatment with a ventilator', 'I do not want my life prolonged if the alternative is permanent nursing care'. But she didn’t have those documents with her, because she was going to the day ward. She had completed full medical attorney documents for me, but I couldn’t be there to advocate for her, because of Covid. And now she has been put on a ventilator, for her operation, and when I call the ICU they say she is stuck on it, she can’t breathe on her own. They don’t know if she will ever come off it, but if she does, they say, she will live a very limited life in a nursing home. 'We must hope she dies,' says my dad when I put down the phone. My parents are devout atheists: they believe there is no God and therefore we must live well. So do I. We pray.

Then I start scanning my mother’s documents and emailing them through to the ICU. It seems an especially hard thing to do just then, in January 2021: when the whole country is absorbed in the effort to save the lives of people like my parents, when the national psychodrama is focused on getting an elderly person on to a ventilator, not off it. I’m worried the doctor will think I am a murderer."

I have a lot to say.  I have nothing to say.  This whole piece is worth your time.

Two things -- this stuff is hard, economically, emotionally, and even sometimes physically.

Second, while I can't speak for the U.K., here in the U.S. it's difficult not to resent the fact that I am somehow harming my future professional opportunities by doing the economically sensible thing and taking care of my dad -- as if any "resume gap" is worth more than the wellbeing of people you love and who need help.

We've inherited a mercenary economic system that frankly doesn't care much for older folks, nor for the people who look after them, professional or otherwise.

And to think, my family is miles ahead of other ones in terms of available resources.

This shit is hard even if you have planned for it.

COVID Shots For the Old Man

A few weeks ago my sister set my Dad up for his first COVID shot down in Everett, Washington.  It would have been a one hour drive and while that might not sound too bad, you have to understand that even a 15 minute trip into town is a Very Big Deal for him, and wipes him out for the rest of the day.

Through a mix of luck, a friendly visit from my Dad's wonderful neighbor, and some begging on my part we finally got him set for his first dose (Moderna) this Saturday at a local community college.

So, the good news is he'll get his first shot.

The bad news is that it took a fair amount of gnashing and wailing and stress to get this much done.  My sister has spent hours on the phone, on hold, to no avail.

If there's a larger point here, it's don't be afraid to mention your circumstances (Dad is almost 100) and don't expect any progress unless you're talking to a live human being.

The Whatcom County website was a total bust, but staying on hold (after getting cut off twice) and quickly blurting out that my Pop is a nonagenarian did wonders.

Be persistent.  Realize that the layers of websites and apps are CYA bullshit.  Getting someone's ear is the only way forward, as of now.

What Me Worry?

When the aliens finally land and take over they'll be most interested in figuring out how America, a nation based mostly on white supremacy and a whiny, burning sense of entitlement, ever got as far as it did:

"At least seven people have died in connection to a coronavirus outbreak that continues to sicken people in Maine following a wedding reception held over the summer that violated state virus guidelines, public health authorities said.

The August wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket is linked to more than 175 confirmed cases of the virus, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

Maine authorities have identified overlaps between the wedding reception and outbreaks elsewhere in the state. An employee of the York County Jail attended the wedding, Maine CDC officials have said. Maine health officials have also said an outbreak at a Madison rehabilitation center, which is the site of six of the seven deaths, is connected to the wedding because an employee of the facility lives in the same household as a person who attended."

You get to a point where even Darwin would blush. 

Food Fight

"Sin taxes" on booze and cigs are nothing new, but more countries (like Mexico) are expanding them to things like fatty snack foods:

"The Gulf coast state of Tabasco passed restrictions on the sale of sugary bottled drinks and high-carbohydrate snacks this week, less than two weeks after the southern state of Oaxaca became the first to do so. Legislators in several more states have introduced similar bills, all of which forbid merchants from selling 'junk' food to minors unless their parent or guardian is present and approves.

 

In the northern state of Chihuahua, Rep. Rene Frias introduced a bill 'to guarantee our children and youths a healthier diet and to fight obesity and excess weight.' The bill has not yet been voted on.

 

In Mexico City, the country's largest retail market, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier this month 'we are working with legislators to see if it is feasible to get similar legislation in Mexico City.'

 

Some of the measures also would ban vending machines from dispensing such foods and prohibit their sale in or near schools.

 

The issue has come to a head with the coronavirus pandemic with Mexico having the third highest confirmed Covid-19 death toll in the world, trailing only the United States and Brazil. The government revealed that among the 57,774 Mexicans who have died, high blood pressure and obesity were the chief underlying conditions that may have complicated the disease, with diabetes a close third."

South Korea might be doing better with regard to comorbidities than Central and South America, but obesity is a growing problem here.

(Advanced Conversation posts are ones that I use in class with my adult conversation students.)

"children who do not necessarily have access to the internet"

As the coronavirus continues to rage globally, people are forced to adjust to hard times.  In Kenya, church pastors are taking to "balcony churches":

"The balcony church started when a Sunday school teacher at the cathedral delivered a service to children on their balconies to entertain them while they were stuck at home. The service was a success, and the teacher enlisted Machira’s help to spread this mtaani – 'in the neighbourhood' in Swahili – Sunday school. While All Saints Cathedral has been providing online services for young people, Machira says the mtaani helps him reach more of them.

'This Sunday school mtaani allows us to do ministry to children who do not necessarily go to church,' said Machira. 'And children who do not necessarily have access to the internet.'

Soon after its first Covid-19 case was announced in mid-March, Kenya closed down schools. 'You’ll find children being confined in their houses from the time they wake up till the time they go to bed,' said Machira, who has three children himself. 'It’s been a difficult time.'”

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, but local, bottom-to-top initiatives like this one provide some optimism.