Hiking in the southern section of Shenandoah National Park – A Baltimore oriole sighting – The pace of vaccinations in the U.S. – John Cena kowtows – Reminiscence of China’s recalcitrance with respect to COVID – Evening statistics
I led the hike for the Vigorous Hikers that I scouted on the 8th. Only three members of the group participated, which is rather a pity. The hike is really a quite good one, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. The weather, also, was cooperative: bands of mist periodically wafted over the mountain ridgeline, moderating the heat that prevailed in lower elevations. The hike consists of a circuit via the Brown Mountain, Rocky Mountain, Big Portal Run, Big Run Loop, and Appalachian Trails. The first half of the hike goes through a picturesque river gorge, its rock walls on either side adorned with vegetation. The dry weather of the preceding week favorably affected the stream crossings; the water was so low that it was possible to go through all of them and emerge with dry feet. The section of the AT used for this hike contains numerous overlooks. In some cases the cloud cover prevented us from seeing a great deal but in others the views were untrammeled, particularly of the summits of Rockytop and Lewis Mountain. The foliage is now in full leaf, providing an abundance of shade, with sunlight dappling the trail paths and, in some cases, illuminating the wildflowers with a peculiar incandescence as shafts of light slant through the chinks between the leaves. The hike appealed to other senses besides those of sight. Birds of all different varieties caroled continually as we paced the trails and scents from some of the flowers, and from wild azalea in particular, filled the air with their fragrance.
We had a brief sighting of a Baltimore oriole, the first one I’ve seen in years. I saw them frequently when I was growing up as they often flew past our garden, but as the years progressed my sightings of them continually diminished. Small as such a statistical sampling may be, it is an apt representation of their plight as a whole; the population has declined by 24% in the period 1966-2000. Climate change appears to be the main factor. At such a rate the species may disappear from the area altogether by 2080.
It is official: 50% of all American adults are fully vaccinated. The Biden administration has self-imposed a goal of 70% of adult Americans receiving at least one dose by July 4th. Currently the number of those who have received at least one dose is 61.6%. Regrettably, the pace of vaccinations has slowed as a result of those who are unwilling to receive it. In April, the U.S. administered about 3 million shots per day. The current daily average is now about 1.8 million shots – not negligible but somewhat disappointing. It is not clear why people should object to receiving it. Less than 0.01% of those who have been vaccinated have contracted the disease after vaccination and only 160 have died from it. By way of contrast, flu shots range from efficacy rates of 40%-60%.
John Cena, who plays the brother of Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto in the ninth installment of the popular “Fast & Furious” franchise, gave an interview to Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS for promoting the film. In this interview he referred to Taiwan as a country in its own right. He has since offered an apology to the government of China for making such a reference. This apology is typical of the submission to China that is prevalent in the business world and in Hollywood in particular. It is spectacularly misplaced. Taiwan has been a separate nation for over 70 years. It has a thriving economy, and the average Taiwanese has a great deal more freedom of movement and opportunities for economic advancement than his Chinese counterpart. There is no more reason for Taiwan to resume its former status as a province of China than there is for Brazil to revert to its former status as a territory of Portugal. In Cena’s defense, however, it must be admitted that the United Nations itself is every bit as spineless as he in this respect; it has consistently refused to give Taiwan official representation.
This groveling approach to China generally has had severe ramifications in other respects: one of the reasons that the coronavirus spread so rapidly from China to other nations in the first place was the reluctance of the World Health Organization during the early phase of the pandemic to find fault with Chinese authorities and to issue warnings to other nations about the severity of the disease in late 2019, when the disease could have been more easily contained. Initially, it may be remembered, China downplayed the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, claiming that the government had the virus under control and that there was no evidence that it could be communicated from person to person. The WHO repeated China’s false reassurances verbatim, although behind the scenes various WHO officials were aware that the virus was more serious than reports from the Chinese government would have led outsiders to believe. One of the few preventative steps Trump undertook against COVID was to impose travel restrictions upon Americans to China; and the WHO, instead of promoting this measure, protested against it. Being overly submissive to China has thus already proven detrimental to the health of nations’ populations all over the world; might not their governments consider being a trifle more assertive in future dealings with this country? Official recognition of Taiwan as a separate entity would be an excellent beginning.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 168,495,753; # of deaths worldwide: 3,498,858; # of cases U.S.: 33,944,565; # of deaths; U.S.: 605,181.