News Roundup for Fri, Jul 2, 2021

6 Comments on News Roundup for Fri, Jul 2, 2021
Are vegetables grown in the US nutritious

Our topsoil is poor and our carbon dioxide levels are high, and this makes for food that is less nutritious than it used to be. It’s not an old wives’ tale, it’s true:

Oh, Canada!

Hundreds of people have died in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Canada during this week’s incredible heat wave:

It’s not just the PNW and Canada suffering from extreme heat this week—Pakistan is broiling, too. Folks in Pakistan were coping with 126 degrees F weather and few with air conditioning. These conditions are especially deadly when humidity is also high because sweat can’t evaporate to cool people.

July 4th could be a disaster for folks in the PNW and for those states in drought conditions:

Gas stations are running low on fuel just before the July 4th holiday, and prices are quite high—the highest they’ve been in 7 years. Gas is close to $6/gallon in some parts of Los Angeles. Gas stations are reporting spotty outages in the PNW, Northern California, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio.

Walmart is creating its own brand of discounted insulin. Walmart states it knows that close to 1/3 of diabetic patients are not receiving treatment, and the steep cost of insulin is often an obstacle to care. Their brand of insulin is at least half the cost of other brands when paying out of pocket.

Teviston, California has no water. 700 residents of that town are trying to cope with triple-digit heat without water in their taps. The problem? A broken well that supplied the whole town. Water is being shipped in the form of bottles, multi-gallon containers, and tanker trucks. It could be weeks before their water is restored.

Experts in Asian geopolitics are concerned with China’s aggression and its ascendant influence and military powers:

We can add New York to the list of states struggling to stop power outages:

The city of San Jose, California wants gun owners to pay yearly gun taxes and carry liability insurance for gun ownership.

The world has nearly 183.3 million COVID cases. The world has gained 2.6 million cases in a week. Global case gain has been linear (more or less) for a number of weeks in a row. There have been nearly 4 million deaths in total. The US has had nearly 34.6 million cases. Over 620,000 Americans have died. There have been 308 deaths in the last 24 hours in the US. The US gained over 15,100 new cases in the last day. Brazil and India are second and third in the world in terms of daily case gain and daily deaths.

In good news for Canada, they’re vaccinating like crazy:

EMS workers are burned out because of COVID. Stress, fatigue, and staffing shortages in rural areas are still ongoing, but in general EMS agencies have weathered the tide.

Bangladesh is back in lockdown as Delta rages:

Older adults in the UK will be offered a 3rd vaccine dose to help give more protection during the winter. Older adults, particularly those over 80, produce less of an immune response to vaccines than younger people:

We know cats and dogs can get COVID from their owners. But can people get it from them? Maybe.

Delta might be the dominant strain in the US as soon as this week.

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.

  • 6 Comments
    • M. E.Contributor July 2, 2021

      First, I love your blog and it brings me back to “The Prepared” again and again.  I’m finding that it also stresses me out!  Always a list of very scary things (legitimately so). My psychological health would be grateful it if future posts could end on a high note – perhaps teasing out an example of where somebody being prepared paid off, or how a city DID anticipate and intervene before a problem got out of control. I’d welcome having a dose of inspiration along with the terror.   🙂 

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      • Hardened M. E. July 2, 2021

        Good point; there’s definitely an emotional impact from the nature of our mindset.

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      • Carlotta SusannaStaff M. E. July 2, 2021

        Thanks for the feedback. We definitely feel the mental health strain of keeping tabs on this stuff, too. Just in the last few weeks we’ve made an internal goal to include more positive stories. Eg. As you said, perhaps a story where a good samaritan helped someone.

        We’ll keep looking, and of course the community is welcome to share positive news too! Unfortunately it’s not as easy to find as the abundance of bad news.

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      • Nothing but good news at https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org

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    • Hardened July 2, 2021

      “Brazil and India are second and third in the world in terms of daily case gain and daily deaths.”

      Does this mean we’re still leading the world in these horrifying metrics?

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      • Stephanie ArnoldContributor Hardened July 2, 2021

        I meant to say that India and Brazil were second to the US in total cases. In terms of daily case growth, it changes from day to day. India is leading the world in daily case growth today (47K), with the UK in second today (27K), followed by Indonesia and South Africa. All of those countries I just listed are experiencing big gains with Delta. 

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