News roundup for Fri, Jun 25, 2021

6 Comments on News roundup for Fri, Jun 25, 2021
Is the Artic getting hotter

Japan is encouraging the EU to bolster itself (and the Indo-Pacific region) militarily against China.

Russia has fired on a UK military vessel in Ukrainian waters near Crimea, and purportedly dropped bombs in its path as well. The UK denies that any warning shots were fired:

California’s ban on assault weapons is not yet overturned as the 9th Circuit appeals court puts the ruling on hold:

There’s a bidding war for warehouse spaces now. Much like the housing market, there’s more demand than property available, and prices are rising steeply.

Ground temperature in the Arctic hit 118 degrees F this week. The corresponding air temperature was in the 80s:

https://twitter.com/blkahn/status/1407408188207607813?s=20

The Western US is about to get very, very hot. Have contingency plans in place for wildfires and excess heat. Don’t work outdoors for extended periods or at all if you’re naïve to working in hot conditions.

Most buildings in the US exist in disaster-prone areas. We already lose billions of dollars on disaster mitigation, and much of those funds go to repair of damaged buildings. With the climate crisis heating up, this pattern could worsen. It’s time to reconsider where we place our buildings.

Teenagers fishing in Long Island Sound save five men whose boat overturned. Quick thinking kids, life vests, and Marine VHF radios were all key to this happy ending.

The world has nearly 180.7 million COVID cases. The world has gained 2.5 million cases in a week. There have been over 3.9 million deaths in total. The US has had nearly 34.5 million cases. Over 618,000 Americans have died. There have been 308 deaths in the last 24 hours in the US. The US gained over 12,100 new cases in the last day. Brazil gained over 72,000 cases in the last day had over 1,900 deaths in that time. India had nearly 1,000 deaths in the last day.

California plans to pay off past due rent to the tune of over $5 billion in bid to ease pandemic-related economic and housing woes. Federal eviction protections have been pushed back until the end of July, but it’s unlikely that federal eviction moratoriums will be extended again.

Cuba’s got a decently effective vaccine, which is good news:

The Delta variant is growing all over the world and is soon to be the dominant variant. Delta accounts for 90% of cases in the UK now, with an R of 1.44. That’s a large enough R that some sort of mitigation measure will have to happen–either reimplementation of lockdown measures or another massive vaccine push. The Delta variant is more transmissible, may be causing more hospitalizations than other variants, and it can spread in seconds, not minutes:

95% of the pandemic viruses circulating in the US are Variants of Concern now:

New York City is bringing COVID vaccines to the home! I wish we did this in all major cities. In fact, I wish we did this in any and every city…

Here’s a potentially useful Texas power outage tracker:

https://twitter.com/srileychronicle/status/1407712201813774338?s=20

 

 

 

 

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
    • Karl Winterling June 25, 2021

      It looks like current vaccines are highly effective at reducing hospitalization due to the Delta variant, but you can still get mild symptomatic disease and spread it to a vulnerable unvaccinated person.

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      • Bed Karl Winterling June 25, 2021

        Hasn’t it also been said that even those with mild symptoms can still experience LongCovid (as it’s called)? In that case, it makes me wonder what the USA is thinking in reopening everything back up even in places with high vaccination rates.

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      • Captain Peanut Bed June 25, 2021

        In the previous News Roundup, Stephanie said that 45% of Americans are fully vaccinated. But I would take a stab at saying that 9/10 of the people I see out in public are not wearing masks. I don’t think that I am in an area with a 90% vaccination rate, but think that many people are just taking off the masks because others are and thinking the pandemic is over. 

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      • EzlyAmuzzed Bed June 28, 2021

        I have also been wondering how well the vaccine works against long covid. Obviously too soon to know, unfortunately. A friend of mine got Covid about a month ago after being fully vaccinated for 3 weeks. Symptoms were bad but not so bad to be hospitalized and symptom-free now, giving me some hope.

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    • Forest June 27, 2021

      I hope the power outage tracker works when the power goes out!

      4 |