News roundup for Fri, Jul 30, 2021

2 Comments on News roundup for Fri, Jul 30, 2021
Is it true that coffee supply can’t meet demand

Regenerative farming with rotational grazing helps farmers build topsoil and build resiliency. This kind of farming is especially useful when drought conditions dry the soil as it helps retain moisture.

In wargames simulating a battle for Taiwan, the US lost miserably. The Pentagon is not pleased with the results—our typical strategies of aggregating military assets and pursuing information dominance (network access) need serious overhauling. Despite our poor performance in the wargames, we still vow to help Taiwan maintain its independence.

South African riots have left the region in crisis, and unemployment has soared:

Food prices are still rising, coffee supply can’t meet demand, and Big Ag is trying to ramp up production as much as it can:

We’ve got nearly 8,000 firefighter battling fires in Oregon and Washington:

There’s a recall of certain McCormick seasonings secondary to Salmonella contamination.

The Great Salt Lake is at an historically low level. When bodies of water dry out like this, nearby populations can wind up breathing dangerous particulate matter that gets exposed from the lake beds, like arsenic.

We’re seeing a lot of shrinkflation in store goods. Packages are getting smaller and smaller but we’re being charged the same or more for what we get.

Drivers in Atlanta help save an unconscious man still at the wheel on the freeway. They had to break into his car to help him.

The world has over 197.3 million COVID cases. The world has gained 4 million cases in a week. Global case gain continues to rise. There have been over 4.2 million deaths in total. The US has had over 35.6 million cases. Over 628,000 Americans have died. There have been 341 deaths in the last 24 hours in the US. The US gained nearly 80,000 new cases in the last day. There were over 84,000 new cases yesterday. The US is once again leading the world in daily case gain.

There are strong arguments for boosters to prevent COVID breakthrough infections, especially for the elderly. Studies and observational data from Israel show waning immunity from Pfizer vaccines after six months. Pfizer is also advocating for boosters as a means to cull Delta spread.

California and New York City are mandating vaccines for certain government and heath care workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs is also mandating vaccines for employees and health care workers.

Federal vaccine mandates for government employees have just been announced:

The CDC is reversing its recommendations on mask-wearing for the vaccinated. Given the high transmissibility and skyrocketing case growth driven by Delta, masks should be worn indoors in areas with high case numbers–even by the fully vaccinated. Children should also wear masks in those areas and when indoors in schools.

We’ve got to find ways to get more people vaccinated, and we’ve got to do it fast:

If we don’t get Delta under control, there could be new rounds of lockdowns:

 

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.

  • 2 Comments
    • Karl Winterling July 30, 2021

      There isn’t all that much you can glean from the Provincetown data about vaccine effectiveness. You’ll get more breakthrough infections proportional to the population with more people vaccinated. Cape Cod has a reputation for ridiculously wild “sex and drugs” parties over the summer with probably the opposite of social distancing. I never stopped wearing a mask or avoiding crowds in the first place. The much higher viral load might make it easier for fully vaccinated people to spread the virus. It looks like the delta variant is ruthless and unforgiving in its ability to spread while you’re

      Apparently, test positivity was 15% in Provincetown on July 15 and recently went back down under 5%. There were 7 hospitalizations and no deaths.

      I feel like the media tends to report on COVID-19 in a way that makes people panic rather than making them situationally aware, which creates a situation in which people feel that they can’t trust anything that’s reported.

      Masks can help make an outbreak less bad if people start wearing them at the beginning of a spike in cases and keep wearing them throughout the entire outbreak. It doesn’t help anything if people don’t understand what the purpose of masks is and the messaging is vague.

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      • You have some very good intuition Karl. Yes, the media is out to get views and clicks rather than to calmly and educationally make people situationally aware. 

        I would not like to be a politician or scientist during this time trying to educate people to the best of our ability at the time and for them to be patient, cautious, and understanding of any shortcomings as science progresses. There are SO many people out there, and they all think differently from one another. It would be nearly impossible to get everyone on board and doing what is best. Even if there was a 100% chance of death and even being 200 feet away from someone gave you instant infection, there still will be those who think differently, think they know better, and disregard whatever you told them. But we still do the best we can right?

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