January 30, 2022

In Sky Meadows – The burgeoning opioid crisis – Attitudes towards COVID in Bhutan and the U.S. – Demonstration in Ottawa – Evening statistics

All of those who signed up for the Sherman Gap/Shawl Gap hike that I was to lead today were unwilling to risk driving on the roads in the Front Royal area – all except CB, so he and I joined AD and RH to hike with them in Sky Meadows instead.  The snowfall in this area was somewhat heavier than it has been further east and the trails were covered with perhaps an inch or so of snow.  This circumstance had certain advantages –all of the rocks and mud patches were covered up – but it certainly slowed our gaits a bit.  It is no hardship, however, to linger in such surroundings.  Today was not clear and sunny like yesterday but was full of cloud cover and, although not at all gloomy, had a strange muted, twilight-like quality about it.  The views from the overlooks displayed fields shrouded in snow sloping up gently to blue- and violet-tinted mountains of the range in the background.

The following episode shows how the use of opioids is an ongoing problem.  An unnamed 13-year old boy in Hartford, CT was found dead of an overdose of fentanyl on January 15th, two days after collapsing at Hartford’s Sport and Medical Sciences Academy.  Police searched the school after the student overdosed and found nearly 40 bags of fentanyl in different locations, as well as 100 bags of fentanyl at the student’s home.  Where did he get such a supply of the drug and how was he able to pay for them without his parents noticing?  The answers to these questions are unknown, but it is evident that a massive amount of the drug must be in circulation if a single student, well under age, could lay his heads on so large a cache.

Bhutan has experienced another death as a result of COVID – its fourth during the entire pandemic.  Lotay Tshering, Bhutan’s prime minister – a physician who still conducts surgeries on the weekend as a “de-stresser” from the pressures of office – said this week’s death was “a bitter reminder that we need to do more” and in reacting to the news said that “it felt like a bullet.”  Bhutan has an infection rate of about 0.5% and a death toll equivalent to about 5 per million, one of the lowest worldwide; but its government displays more anxiety about the matter than that of nearly any country.  I wonder what Dr. Tshering thinks of the U.S., with its infection rate of over 22½% and its death toll of over 2700 per million, or of state governors such as Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi, who justifies his thoroughly irresponsible policies with respect to the disease by referring his constituents’ welfare to Heaven and looking upon that tactic as an excuse for completely disregarding their earthly well-being:  “When you believe in eternal life, when you believe that living on this Earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don’t have to be so scared of things.”

Canadian anti-vaxxers have staged a protest in Ottawa, but their methods are not calculated to win the hearts of their compatriots to their point of view.   They waved swastika flags, urinated on the National War Memorial, danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and desecrated a statue of Canadian hero Terry Fox.  To round off the demonstration they harassed police and city workers, stealing some of the food that the latter were taking out to feed the homeless at various shelters.  Police are investigating possible criminal charges against the protestors, although at this point none have materialized. But their antics have caused widespread indignation throughout the country, and they probably have injured their cause more thoroughly than the most passionate advocate of vaccine mandates could have done.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 375,099,572; # of deaths worldwide: 5,681,386; # of cases U.S.: 75,578,076; # of deaths; U.S.: 907,190.