New York Times. June 25, 2021. Coronavirus stuff.

June 25, 2021

An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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The New York Times

By Jonathan Wolfe

Israel will reinstate an indoor mask mandate next week as the Delta variant spreads, Haaretz reports. Across Africa, the Delta variant is driving a third wave of the virus, experts say. Doctors in Indonesia were vaccinated with Sinovac. Some still died. Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.

A look back

As we head into this summer weekend, let’s pause a moment to take stock of how far the U.S. has come. While many of us are busy planning vacations, reconnecting with family, or even making new friends, it can be easy to forget that this moment didn’t always feel guaranteed.

For a reminder, I dug into our archive of reader responses from the early days of the pandemic to see how much things have changed.

The comments were collected from March 2020, when we still knew very little about the virus. Some people still didn’t believe the threat was real. “If the C.D.C. says there have been between 29,000 and 59,000 seasonal flu deaths in the USA this year, and coronavirus has killed (only) around 1,700 people, then what’s the big hype?” one reader asked.

But in the days the followed, readers’ worries poured in. You reported wiping down mail and shopping carts, avoiding public spaces and frantically cleaning every surface in your homes.

“Convinced that general recommendations to washing hands and not touching the face are inadequate, we wash our faces with soap more than once a day — with emphasis on applying soap on eyelids (eyes shut, of course) as well as inside nostrils (using little finger) and around our lips,” wrote Basil R. Bhan, from Schenectady, N.Y.

I had forgotten about the obsessive need many of us had to touch base with friends and family, until I came across a comment from Melissa M. Weiksnar from Buffalo, N.Y.

“Another phenomenon of these days — has anyone coined “check-in fatigue”?” she wrote. “Loving everyone checking in on each other, but sometimes an emoji(s) or just-a-few-words reply may need to suffice for an otherwise longer response — and that’s OK!”

Within days, we began receiving comments from people like Cesar Chavez, who continued to work in New York, even as it shut down. “I am one of those considered essential, I come every day to my job wondering if today will be my last,” he wrote. (In a recent follow-up email, he said his family avoided infection, and he was glad to see New York finally reawaken. “We might get slapped down but we get up like an old prize fighter that never heard the bell.”)

Other readers began pandemic projects, or rearranged their homes, or enjoyed home-cooked meals. But in the solitude of lockdown, it didn’t take long for things to get a little weird.

“After dyeing my own hair, I’ve also seriously considered giving my dog a red mohawk,” Audrey Cho wrote from Mill Valley, Calif.

It took a few days for us to get our first report of an illness from a reader, but on March 29, Thomas “T.J.” Aitken told us about his wife, Sarah.

“I posted a string of photos and documentation on Facebook as my wife got sick,” he wrote. “The fear in the responses was palpable.” (T.J. told me this week that he and his wife, who are over 65, both had Covid, and still have mild lung issues, but they have been vaccinated.)

In the months that followed, we would receive many more reports of illness and many deaths. More than 10,000 of you also shared your moments of joy, as well as of frustration, anger, resignation and more recently — hope.

We’d like to say thank you for sharing your stories with us over the past 15 months. And whether you’re in lockdown, self-isolation or beginning to emerge from the stress of the pandemic — please, keep us posted.

Worries about Delta Plus

Even as the Delta variant takes hold across the world, virologists are starting to worry about an even newer and potentially more virulent version of the coronavirus, known as Delta Plus.

Delta Plus is a sub-lineage of the highly contagious Delta variant that has spread rapidly through India, Britain, the United States and other countries. But the new variant carries a spike protein mutation that is also found in the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa, which virologists say could make it more transmissible.

Officials are particularly concerned that Delta Plus could usher in another surge of the virus in India, which is just beginning to emerge from a devastating second wave.

Because this particular variant has been discovered only recently, scientists have limited information about it. But they have begun to speculate about its ability to spread.

“It is most likely capable of dodging immunities,” said Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University in Sonipat, India. “That is because it carries all symptoms of the original Delta variant and also from its partner Beta variant.”

Vaccine rollouts

A Pfizer official in Israel said that the company’s vaccine is effective against the Delta variant, Reuters reports. Louisiana, where the inoculation rate lags significantly behind the national average, is among the latest states to open a cash lottery for those who get shots. Some Olympians from Britain say they don’t want vaccines. In Los Angeles, 99.8 percent of the Covid deaths in the last six months were among unvaccinated people, KTLA reports. The Supreme Leader of Iran got his first dose of a homegrown coronavirus shot, Reuters reports.

See how the vaccine rollout is going in your county and state.

Want to share The New York Times with your friends and family? Invite them to enjoy unlimited digital access to our journalism with this special offer.

What else we’re following

Zeynep Tufekci, a contributing opinion writer for The Times, took a deep dive into what we know about the origins of the pandemic.

The Atlantic argues that while the mRNA vaccines are exceptional, the shot from Novavax may be even better. On Saturday, Celebrity Cruises will be the first cruise line to resume sailing from a U.S. port. The Wall Street Journal explains why vaccinated athletes are testing positive. A writer for The Times eulogizes the “walktail,” which is once again illegal in New York City.

What you’re doing

I went to an acoustic music camp the second week of June. Most everyone had been vaccinated, and on the last night of the camp, at the big finale music jam, we were all singing together at the top of our lungs. There was so much dopamine being generated in that room, with no fear of infection. I realized I had not done that for 19 months. I came home on a high and with gratefulness for the vaccine. Life is almost feeling normal. — Bess Crider, Waynesville, N.C.

 

I'm adding this to my list of favorite chess quotes.

My name is Thabang. I love to play chess.

Pretoria, South Africa

Member since June 29, 2018

https://lichess.org/@/DzzD

I'm adding this to my list of favorite chess quotes.

Sphesihle Londuthando

Trying my best to be a good player

FIDE rating: 600

Durban South Africa

Some good news for the gravedigger business.

New York Times

The number of confirmed cases is growing faster than ever as new hot spots emerge around the world.

The pandemic is ebbing in some of the countries that were hit hard early on, but the number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide, with more than 100,000 reported each day.

Twice as many countries have reported a rise in new cases over the past two weeks as have reported declines, according to a New York Times database. On May 30, more new cases were reported in a single day worldwide than ever before: 134,064. The increase has been driven by emerging hot spots in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Over all, there have been more than 6.3 million reported cases worldwide and more than 380,000 known deaths. More than a quarter of all known deaths have been in the United States. But the geography of the pandemic is changing quickly.

The increases in some countries can be attributed to improved testing programs. But in many places, it appears that the virus has only now arrived with a wide scope and fatal force. Here is a look at some of the countries where the number of new cases has been doubling every two to three weeks.

The death toll in Brazil, Latin America’s largest country, passed 30,000 on Tuesday, when officials reported 1,262 deaths, which was the nation’s highest one-day total. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly minimized the threat, said, “We are sorry for all the dead, but that’s everyone’s destiny.” Brazil now has more than half a million known cases, second only to the United States.

But it has no health minister: Two were forced out in less than a month after they balked at expanding the use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug promoted by President Trump and subsequently Mr. Bolsonaro that has not been proved effective against the virus. And despite the growing number of cases and hospitals that are close to capacity, businesses have started reopening in major cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Manaus and Vitória.

Peru has more than 170,000 confirmed cases, despite taking the virus seriously early on. The president, Martín Vizcarra, ordered one of the first national lockdowns in South America. Though the official virus death toll stands at around 5,000, Peru had 14,000 more deaths than usual in May, suggesting that a growing number of people are dying at home as hospitals struggle to handle a flood of cases.

The pandemic provoked an exodus from Lima, the capital, as people unable to work fled by bus, and even by foot, to family farms. It is widely expected that the number of new cases and of deaths will continue to rise in coming weeks as winter nears and the economy slowly reopens.

For months, Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, seemed to avoid the worst of the pandemic. In early March, Egypt confirmed 45 cases on a Nile tour boat in the area, among both crew and passengers. But recently the number of cases there has been rising significantly, reaching 27,536 on Tuesday.

The recent death of a young doctor, who was denied treatment for Covid-19 at an overwhelmed hospital, ignited a revolt by members of the medical staff. They said the government had failed to provide adequate protective equipment and training to front-line workers.

With more than 35,000 confirmed infections, the most in Africa, South Africa still has a growing number of new cases, despite enacting a strict lockdown in March that included a ban on the sale of tobacco and alcohol. The prohibition was lifted this month even though the total number of cases continued to rise.

Bangladesh now has 55,000 known cases, and its troubles were compounded last month by Cyclone Amphan, a deadly storm that tore through communities under lockdown.

This week, the country reported its first death from Covid-19 in a refugee camp: A 71-year-old Rohingya man died May 31 while receiving treatment in an isolation center. His death raised fears about the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who, after fleeing Myanmar, live in camps with tightly packed tents and shacks.

Gravediggers at the Vila Formosa cemetery in São Paulo, Brazil, last week.Credit...

Image

This is from a Cape Town, South Africa, website. It's about Christian assholes.

Religious brainwashing of children is child abuse.

2014-07-07

Many will have seen those clips of preacherman conman Benny Hinn touching (knocking down) stupid gullible people on the forehead so they fall over backwards. This supposedly heals whatever ails them and releases the demons within.

I don't care if cretinous adults go along with this nonsense as if it is normal behaviour and believe that it works? People are free to believe in the ridiculous and stupid and to throw their hard earned cash at Hinn and company to fund their private jet-setting lifestyles.

But now a truly disturbing video has emerged on YouTube of little children Being "Saved" at Christian Revival. It is terrifying to watch children being treated the same way.

If you have the stomach for it then just watch this video of tiny children being "saved" for Jesus.

youtube.com/watch?v=B6Zoq7tEbh4 (THE VIDEO DOESN'T WORK)

Most of the impressionable children play along with an attitude of, “You touched my head, so I am supposed to fall backwards? Okay if that’s what everyone else is doing I’ll do it too.”

Amusingly, at the 1:20 mark a little girl (must be the brightest of the lot) simply refuses to play. She's not falling backwards for anyone. The preacherman spends a good 20 seconds try to get her to fall over before moving along to a more impressionable child.

This is the most dangerous and pernicious aspect of religion and is straight forward child abuse that stunts the child's intellectual development and ability to think freely. It is an appalling indictment of the parents that permit their children to be mistreated and brainwashed in this way.

Unless something is done to fix the human-caused global warming problem, the human apes and many other species will be wiped out.

Santa Claus Day, December 25, 2019, it's going to be 55 degrees (12.77 Celsius) in northern Illinois. That's impossible. It's supposed to be below freezing with lots of snow.

I'm not complaining about the very nice warm weather but obviously this planet is fucked up. Human-caused global warming is real.

These days South Africa is having a terrible drought and Australia has an out of control fire problem.

Meanwhile, here in Idiot America, we still have millions of morons including President Fucktard Trump who are global warming deniers. They think all these problems are normal and humans had nothing to do with it.

If we don't replace Trump with Mike Bloomberg then the human race is going to get wiped out.

Zero humans would be good for this planet but I prefer staying alive.

Human-caused global warming

Australia is on fire and it's out of control.

In Greenland, the ice sheet is melting.

"If the Greenland Ice Sheet melted, scientists estimate that sea level would rise about 6 meters (20 feet). If the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, sea level would rise by about 60 meters (200 feet)."

In South Africa there is a terrible drought.

"The drought has continued into 2019, as multiple regions in Southern Africa have seen significantly reduced levels of rainfall. A report from FAO noted that, while rainfall had picked up in late December 2018, several areas within the region were suffering from a severe drought and accompanying effects."

In northwestern Illinois where I live the temperature is 46 degrees (7.7 Celsius) instead of the usual 20 degrees (-6.6 Celsius) or colder. In other words, the climate where I live is wonderful. However, the farmers complained about too much rain in 2019.

There's going to be a lot of problems and it's going to get worse every year.

China is a big part of the problem, as is the United States (thanks President Trump) and Brazil (thanks President Bolsonaro).

YouTube - Elephant throws away litter into a trash can.

Here in Idiot America, our assholes like to throw their stuff out their car window including in front of my house. Every day I go out there and I find cigarette butts, junk food, and other garbage. I have to carry their crap to my garbage can.

Walking home this morning from a farmer's market I saw a lady picking up garbage in front of her house. I said, "People like to throw their stuff out their window." She said, "They sure do, don't they."

The human apes in Idiot America are uncivilized. They could learn a few things from elephants.

"CCTV shows the elephant wander through the back garden of a house in Greater Kruger national park, South Africa, before it spots some empty cans that have been left on the grass. After it made a beeline for the litter, the elephant delicately sucks the cans up one at a time using its trunk, before using one of its feet to help drop it into a nearby bin."

Some wonderful news from South Africa. Lions ate a fucktard poacher. All poachers need to be killed. The time for being nice is over with.

New York Times - Rhino Poacher Killed by Elephant and Eaten by Lions, Officials Say

By Christopher Mele

April 7, 2019

A man suspected of being a rhino poacher was killed last week by an elephant and his remains devoured by a pride of lions at a South African park, officials said.

Rangers at Kruger National Park and other searchers found only a human skull and a pair of pants, the park said in a statement dated Friday.

Four of the dead man’s accomplices were arrested, the authorities said.

The man’s accomplices told his relatives that they had been in the park to poach rhinos on Tuesday night when he was killed by an elephant, according to the local authorities.

A search party, including rangers on foot and members of the park’s air wing, searched the area that was described by the family but could not find the body because light was fading, the statement said. Searchers found the remains on Thursday morning.

The managing executive of the park, Glenn Phillips, offered his condolences to the family of the dead man, who was not identified.

“Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise,” he said in the statement. “It holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that.”

Mr. Phillips said it was sad to see the daughters of the man “mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains.”

Kruger National Park advertises itself as offering “an African safari adventure of a lifetime.” At nearly two million hectares, it is the largest national reserve in South Africa, according to its website, which added that it was home to animals such as lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards and African buffaloes.

Last July, rangers and police officers said that as many as three men suspected of being rhino poachers had been killed by lions at a South African game preserve.

Rhino horn is worth about $9,000 per pound in Asia, driving a lucrative and illicit trade. It is a prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and is considered a status symbol.

“It’s one of the most expensive wildlife products on the illegal market and that’s why these poachers go after it,” Michael Slattery, founder of the Texas Christian University Rhino Initiative, said on Sunday. “The current prices for a rhino horn are anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 a kilogram. They are seeing dollar signs. It is more expensive than gold and cocaine, so the demand is driving these poachers.”

South Africa is home to about 20,000 wild rhinos, more than 80 percent of the world’s population. About one-third of the animals are owned by private breeders.

Since 2008, more than 7,000 rhinos have been hunted illegally, with 1,028 killed in 2017, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs.

The poachers can get more money if they can deliver a complete rhino horn, but to get a full rhino horn they have to kill the animal, Professor Slattery said. Poachers drug the rhinos and then use a machete to “hack away at the face,” he said. The rhinos then bleed to death.

A rhino horn, which is made of 100 percent keratin, or the equivalent of compressed hair, provides no health benefits to humans.

Still, people grind up the horn and use it in a drink in a misguided effort to reduce fevers and cure hangovers, among other things. Rhino horns are also sometimes given as gifts, Professor Slattery said.

“That equation pretty quickly tips over to these animals disappearing before our eyes,” he said.

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

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The same thing happened in 2018:

New York Times - Lions Eat Men Suspected of Poaching Rhinos. Some Saw ‘Karma.’

By Kimon de Greef

July 6, 2018

CAPE TOWN — In the cold hours before dawn this week on a South African game reserve, a dog began barking. It was a special breed of Belgian sheepdog, and its job was to listen for poachers.

The dog’s handler, trained to guard rhinoceroses, could hear a pride of lions in the distance. He decided it was a false alarm. But that Monday evening, rangers came across the remains of men suspected of being poachers.

“One of our guys found what he thought was a soccer ball,” Nick Fox, the owner of the private game reserve in Eastern Cape Province, said on Friday. “It turned out to be a skull.”

The next morning, rangers and police officers said that as many as three men suspected of being rhino poachers had been killed by lions in an area densely packed with thorn bushes.

“There was nothing we could do before that,” Mr. Fox said. “It was getting dark — too unsafe to be on foot.” He added, “Once lions have taken down a human, you cannot be on the ground with them.”

To get to the remains, the rangers had to shoot the lions with darts to knock them out.

The men killed had been carrying a high-caliber rifle and an ax for chopping off the horns of the animals they planned to hunt, Mr. Fox said. They also had food to last several days — “mostly bread,” Mr. Fox said — and wire cutters for getting through fences. His estimate of three victims was based on counting their clothes and shoes.

Rhino horn is worth about $9,000 per pound in Asia, driving a lucrative and illicit trade. It is a prized ingredient in Chinese traditional medicine and is considered a status symbol.

South Africa is home to about 20,000 wild rhinos, more than 80 percent of the world’s population. About one-third of the animals are owned by private breeders. Since 2008, more than 7,000 rhinos have been hunted illegally, with 1,028 killed in 2017, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs.

Capt. Mali Govender of the Eastern Cape police service confirmed the deaths and said that the remains had been sent for forensic testing. But she said it “was not possible to speculate” how many victims had died.

Of the rifle recovered from the scene, which had been fitted with a silencer, Captain Govender said, “You don’t take a pellet gun to a game farm.”

People suspected of being poachers have been killed by lions in South Africa before. In February, a man’s mauled body was found in a reserve near Kruger National Park.

Mr. Fox, who established his game reserve, called Sibuya, in 2003, said there was “virtually no poaching at all” in the Eastern Cape until 2010, when suddenly it became a “serious problem.”

A single rhinoceros was poached in the Eastern Cape in 2007, according to the province’s environment department. In 2016, poachers killed 19.

“There are more poachers now, and they are very well equipped,” Mr. Fox said. To protect the rhinos on his property, he said, he had set up an antipoaching unit with guards, dogs and patrol vehicles.

“You literally need to have your own private army now,” he said, estimating the cost to him at more than $73,000 a year.

He would not confirm how many rhinoceroses were on his farm, heeding a nationwide moratorium on publicizing the numbers. In March 2016, he lost three rhinos to poaching, he said.

“It’s devastating when that happens,” he said. “This time, there’s a huge sense of relief.”

According to Annette Hübschle, a researcher at the University of Cape Town’s Center of Criminology, rhino poaching has been expanding from Kruger National Park, in northeastern South Africa, because of militarized antipoaching crackdowns.

“You now have traveling poaching gangs,” Dr. Hübschle said, adding, “Rhino horn has huge value, so even low-level poachers can make a lot of money.”

“Selling a single horn can exceed the yearly income of most rural people,” Dr. Hübschle said.

The Eastern Cape is South Africa’s poorest province, with a gross domestic product of less than $3,700 per capita. The unemployment rate here, including people who have given up looking for work, exceeds 45 percent, significantly higher than the national average.

“Behind poaching there’s a bigger story of structural inequality,” Dr. Hübschle said. “People were chased off their land during colonialism and apartheid, losing their customary hunting rights and tenure. Today, many local communities experience some trickle-down from poaching, while attitudes are generally negative towards private game owners and protected areas.”

Responding to the death of the men, some residents saw a moral lesson. Annamiticus, a wildlife crime advocacy group, wrote on its website that “a gang of rhino killers apparently received a dose of their own medicine.” On social media, many users saw it as “karma.”

“Whenever the death of a poacher is reported, there’s this horrendous outpouring,” Dr. Hübschle said. “People seem absolutely delighted at the death of local people.”

Julian Rademeyer, a project leader of Traffic, a nonprofit group that monitors illegal wildlife trades, and the author of “Killing for Profit,” about rhino poaching in South Africa, said: “It is doubtful that these deaths will deter other poachers. The middlemen will simply up the price they are prepared to pay, and more young men will line up to kill or die.”

February 11, 1990 was a very happy day in South Africa.

Wikipedia - Nelson Mandela Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory and became President.

Leading a broad coalition government which promulgated a new constitution, Mandela emphasised reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. Economically, Mandela's administration retained its predecessor's liberal framework despite his own socialist beliefs, also introducing measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services.