News roundup for Fri, Aug 6, 2021

8 Comments on News roundup for Fri, Aug 6, 2021
Has renewable energy in the US has officially outpaced coal and nuclear energy production

Renewable energy in the US has officially outpaced coal and nuclear energy production. Half of the renewable energy produced in the US comes from solar and wind and the other half from hydroelectric sources. Renewables make up about 21% (and growing) of US energy production. Most energy production comes from natural gas now.

Turkey is reaching out for international help in fighting out-of-control wildfires. Turkey has no firefighting planes. Turkey, Greece, Spain, and Italy are experiencing extreme heat. The fires in Turkey have reached a coal-driven power plant, causing evacuations.

The Oroville hydroelectric dam has shuttered production for the first time as water level has fallen too low:

Drought, heat, wildfires, and storms have culled cattle and destroyed crops in Mexico and multiple US states:

Bangladesh is at serious risk of climate-related calamity:

The DOD formally acknowledges that climate change is a national security risk. The DOD supports the growing use of renewable energy to combat climate change risks.

Biden and the CDC have issued a new, temporary eviction moratorium after the previous federal ban lapsed. The new moratorium will last until October 3rd.

Federal unemployment aid for gig workers could lapse in September. Millions would be impacted.

An elderly man who has lived off-grid for decades has been forced from his home by arrest, followed by a suspicious fire that happened in the context of a legal battle over his right to be there. He did not own the land he was on, sadly, and the law is not likely to be in his favor.

The world has over 201.6 million COVID cases. The world has gained 4.3 million cases in the last week. There have been nearly 4.3 million deaths in total. The US has had about 36.3 million cases. Nearly 632,000 Americans have died. There have been 530 deaths in the last 24 hours in the US. The US gained over 107,000 new cases in the last day. There were over 113,000 new cases yesterday. The US is once again leading the world in daily case gain.

The Lambda variant is something to keep an eye on:

We’ve hit a good milestone—70% of the US adult population has gotten at least one jab.

China is initiating mass COVID testing in Wuhan as cases rise once again. Multiple large cities are taking mitigation steps as well. 1.6 billion doses of vaccine have been given in China so far. There’s panic-buying again in Wuhan.

Schools and universities are reversing lax mask policies and some are having to revert to online courses as cases rise precipitously in the US:

The WHO doesn’t want countries to give boosters when so many around the world have had none. In terms of disease prevention and pandemic cessation, Tedros is probably right:

US white-tailed deer have been infected with the pandemic pathogen in large numbers—40% have antibodies. It’s frightening to have large animal reservoirs of this disease, both in terms of potential pools for reinfection and in terms of variant risk.

Burned out clinicians are walking off the job as COVID cases overwhelm hospitals once again.

Stephanie Arnold | cosmicpixle

Stephanie Arnold is an advanced practice psychiatric nurse and a doctoral candidate in UA Tuscaloosa’s DNP program. Stephanie moonlights from time to time at UCLA teaching mental health nursing. She also likes making cold-process soap.

  • 8 Comments
    • Hardened August 6, 2021

      Woo, another bumper crop of news!  Well to lighten the mood a little I learned recently that deers’ immune systems kill Lyme disease in ticks when the ticks bite them.  That’s pretty cool and maybe COVID won’t get enough of a foothold in them to mutate.

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      • RandomPNW Hardened August 7, 2021

        is that lyme disease information new? link? 

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      • Hardened RandomPNW August 7, 2021

        It’s not new information.  Ticks get Lyme when they bite infected white-footed mice.  They bite deer at the end of their lifecycle at which point the Lyme is killed in the ticks by the deer, the ticks lay eggs, and then die. 

        Here’s a reference for you: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11191897/

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    • Karl Winterling August 7, 2021

      I think the scientific consensus is that COVID-19 will eventually become endemic with a lower rate of spread because of people having some degree of immunity and an exhausted mutation cycle, but an area can still get cases to nearly zero if it can implement control measures correctly and stick with it. The hope is that vaccines can hold out until we reach an equilibrium like that

      But if the virus or a variant ends up efficiently transmitting in a Human -> Animal -> Human cycle then it’s pretty hard to predict what will happen with mutations.

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      • Stephanie ArnoldContributor Karl Winterling August 7, 2021

        I had hoped so much that we would out-vaccinate it and stop the spread. I hoped we could defeat it. I don’t like the idea of endemic COVID.

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      • Vaccines are politicized because California repealed its law allowing parents to claim religious exemptions from getting their kids the MMR vaccine before enrolling them in public school. IIRC, anti-vaxxers “migrated” to Orange County because it was a nice place to live, there’s a balanced representation of Democrats and Republicans, and local policy is more libertarian-ish. One subset of anti-vaxxers is religious conservatives and another is “health-conscious” progressives. The fact that the issue isn’t really an ideological partisan issue makes concerns seem more reasonable than they really are.

        I’d say the concern over keeping large electronic databases with information about people is more reasonable because I don’t trust that the government won’t abuse its power. But hey, getting vaccinated meant I have one less problem to worry about, at least for now. What’s infuriating is I’ll talk to vaccine skeptics and realize that I’m more distrustful and paranoid on some issues than they are, except that distrust and paranoia is based on factual information. Not to get political or go after public sector workers, but the government has done a lot of questionable stuff in the past that’s now uncontroversial public knowledge.

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      • Hardened Karl Winterling August 8, 2021

        “What’s infuriating is I’ll talk to vaccine skeptics and realize that I’m more distrustful and paranoid on some issues than they are, except that distrust and paranoia is based on factual information.”

        Haha, this!

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      • Greg P Stephanie Arnold August 9, 2021

        The hopeful good news is that while COVID will become endemic, it SHOULD mutate into something more like the common cold.   Just have to hang on and hope for the best right now…while continuing to prep!

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