Many meetings – A winery hike – The defeat of the “born alive” measure – Grinding down of Afghan women – Increase of vaccinations and boosters – The zero-tolerance policy in China – Evening statistics
“Is it not a pleasure to greet guests from afar?” as Confucius observed in his Analects. And the distance can be in time as well as space, especially as the events of the pandemic have cut across so many types of social interaction. Today I went with LM and others on a winery hike, and the members of the group included PF, whom I have not seen for months. She and her husband have moved to the Front Royal area, and in addition the opportunities for meeting on group hiking events have been limited. And while our group was hiking in Sky Meadows, I ran across SM, who, among other things, was responsible for my joining Wanderbirds in the first place. We were co-workers on a project many years ago (in 1999, in fact) and when we discovered our mutual interest in hiking she directed my attention to the club, which I had not known about before. It was very gratifying to see her again; I do not believe that we have had an opportunity to meet since the beginning of the pandemic.
The hike went up the Piedmont Overlook, which we normally do not cover during our standard Wanderbirds and Capital Hiking Club hikes, and it offered somewhat clearer views that those of the Paris overlook, which is becoming overgrown. Afterwards we went to the Blue Valley winery, where we ate and drank together for nearly two hours. We sighted a Baltimore oriole, the first that I have seen in many a long year. They were fairly common in the neighborhood where I grew up until a certain time – some time in the late 1960s – when they suddenly became much rarer. I am not sure why this should be the case; they are not endangered, as far as I know.
In a victory for women’s rights (not to mention safety), the “born alive” measure proposed in Montana has been formally defeated. The measure, which was deceptively innocuous in its wording, was in fact a thinly-disguised device for throwing obstacles in the way of medical practitioners to administer abortions. The voters of Montana were sufficiently astute to see through the intent of this measure, and in effect told the state administrators to mind their own business in such matters.
In a crushing defeat for women’s rights, the government of Afghanistan has banned women from attending gyms and visiting public parks. At this point Afghan girls are prevented from attending middle school and high school, while all Afghan women are restricted from most fields of employment and are required to wear clothing from head to foot whenever they appear in public.
“Commemorate Kristallnacht – treat yourself to more soft cheese and crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!” Such was the message that KFC sent out to amazed Germans yesterday, the 84th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass in which Nazis led gangs in the torching, vandalizing, and ransacking of Jewish shops, businesses, and synagogues across Germany. It would appear that the message was computer-generated, automatically attaching itself any time that a significant anniversary is mentioned in the headlines. Nonetheless, social media experts in Germany said that they were astounded that the company had no checking mechanism to pick up on the blunder. The majority of Germans look upon the Hitler era as a profound embarrassment and disgrace (or proclaim that they do, at any rate), but perhaps even the most right-wing among them would regard eating Kentucky Fried Chicken with cheese as a very odd way of celebrating the Nazi regime.
More than 5.6 million COVID vaccine and booster shots were administered in the past week, the highest seven-day total in the U.S. since January. Most of them were bivalent boosters, designed to combat the most virulent Omicron strains. COVID cases and hospitalizations have come down over the past several months, which has led the White House to stress not allowing it to dictate daily life, even while still regarding it as a serious threat. “After 20 months of hard work, the pandemic no longer controls our lives. It’s still a concern, but it no longer controls our lives,” Biden said in a news conference yesterday.
China, by way of contrast, has been more cautious, to put it mildly. Places in which even only a few cases have materialized are abruptly locked down, sometimes for very long periods. In the city of Ruili, which is close to the Myanmar border, residents spent a total of 119 days barred from leaving their homes during the period from March, 2021 to April, 2022. Mandatory testing has been so frequent that infants have been swabbed six dozen times by their first birthdays. Officials have the authority at any given time to instruct people not to leave specific districts, compounds, or residences. They are empowered to lock compound and building doors, and to construct gates or walls around residences with little or no notice. Officials may also require people to transfer to a quarantine facility. Travel – even internal travel – has been greatly hampered. Beijing in particular is difficult to enter, even for those who have negative test results. Visitors from outside the country are subject to quarantine for ten days. The U.S. Department of State advises American visitors to carry a two-week supply of water, food, and medication, because whenever an area becomes locked down, groceries, deliveries, and public transportation may be unavailable. Even so, COVID has been rising slightly in the country. China reported 10,729 new infections on Nov. 10, compared with 9,005 a day earlier. China counts symptomatic and asymptomatic cases separately; 1,209 cases on Nov. 10 were symptomatic and 9,520 were asymptomatic, while 1,185 cases were symptomatic and 7,820 asymptomatic on Nov. 9.
Today’s statistics as of 10:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 639,313,342; # of deaths worldwide: 6,611,644; # of cases U.S.: 99,859,908; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,099,856.