COVID and excess deaths – An unfortunate cruise ship – Women in Afghanistan and in the U.S. – The cautionary tale of Matthias Rimmi – Evening statistics
We have received reminders recently that it may be premature to declare the pandemic over just yet.
Officially the death toll from COVID is something over 6 million – something under 0.1% of the global population. But this week the WHO announced that the number of excess deaths, for which COVID undoubtedly accounts the greater part, is much higher, possibly as much as 15 million, nearly one in 500. In India particularly, the number of excess deaths is 4.7 million – about a third of the global excess deaths and about 9 times the amount of officially reported COVID-related deaths. Other nations show similar signs of under-reporting of deaths: twice as high as the government’s official tally of COVID-19 deaths in Mexico, about 12 times as great as the official COVID-19 toll in Egypt, eight times as high in Pakistan, seven times as high in Indonesia, three times as high in Russia. In the U.S. the death toll may well be over twice as high as the official number. Although most of the excess deaths were caused by COVID-19 itself, some of the deaths were caused indirectly by the disease: the pandemic has made it more difficult to get medical care for ailments such as heart attacks and treatments such as surgical operations.
The CDC has dropped all warnings for cruise travel, but today a Carnival Cruise Line ship docked at Seattle, with over 200 passengers who have been stricken with COVID. They are now currently strung out in various hotels in Seattle, undergoing quarantine. It is unclear how much of a crisis this situation is: at this point most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic. But it is obvious that the cruise company was unprepared for handling such a scenario. Passengers complained about long waits for meals, not being about to get ahold of medical staff, and not being properly isolated. For my own part, I am ready to take off my mask on an airplane during flight, where the air is continually filtered, but I would not venture on what some have called “floating Petri dishes” while we are still in a pandemic.
This is not a good time to be a woman. In Afghanistan the new government decreed that all women must veil their faces in public. And by “veils” they do not mean those thin light gauzy ones that brides in this country customarily wear on their wedding day, but thick, heavy, uncompromising burqas that cover the entire body from the top of the head down to the feet, with a mesh screen that allows the wearer to see only what is directly in front of her. One can imagine the comfort such garments provide during the summer, where temperatures in many parts of the country average 90 days during July and August. The Taliban government has also closed girls’ high schools and recently introduced rules limiting women’s ability to travel without a male chaperone.
Somewhat closer to home, not only are various states attempting (and in some cases succeeding) to make abortions all but impossible to obtain, but Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court has drafted an “opinion” endorsed by a majority of other Supreme Court justices for overturning the Roe vs. Wade decision that enabled women to have access to abortions. Justice John Roberts denounced in ringing terms the iniquity of those who leaked this draft to the public; about the iniquity of the Supreme Court stepping outside of its judicial function and attempting to legislate on its own, completely bypassing the Senate and the House in the process, he is stricken with silence.
The body of Matthias Rimml, a 35-year-old professional mountain guide from Tirol, Austria, was located on Denali, the tallest peak in North America. He had already acclimated to the altitude by means of recent climbs and, although he had planned to climb Denali “alpine style” (traveling fast with light gear) he still was carrying a sufficient amount of fuel and food for ten days. He began his climb April 27th from the Kahiltna Glacier base camp at 7,200 feet, and his last known call to his friend was on April 30th , when he “reported being tired, but he was not in distress.” It was unclear whether he intended to climb higher or to return to his camp at 14,000 feet.
My cousin recently asked me whether I knew of another mountain climber (a relative of one of his friends) who had also met his death on difficult peak (Snowdonia). This person’s name was not familiar to me, and I explained to my cousin that while I certainly spend much of my time on mountains I am not a mountain climber in any sense of the word. I have gone up several “fourteeners” in Colorado and have been on the Via Ferrata in Italy, but none of these excursions required any special equipment and they never lasted longer than half a day. Still, the story of Matthias Rimmi is something of a warning. He was not a novice who blundered his way into snowy oblivion, but an experienced climber who habitually ascended thousands of meters during a single season. One reason that his body was found relatively quickly was that even though he was ascending on his own he periodically issued bulletins to a close friend, and when that friend heard no check-in calls for a few days, he notified the park authorities. The most likely explanation was that he fell while attempting the steep traverse between Denali Pass at 18,200 feet and the 17,200-foot plateau, a notoriously treacherous stretch of the West Buttress route. He took risks, certainly, but they were controlled risks based upon the experience of many past excursions. It took only a single misstep to result in his death. And I also take risks on some of my hikes – risks that are by no means as daunting as the ones he faced, but risks nonetheless – it is possible that one could end in misfortune if I grow too careless or over-confident.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 516,905,372; # of deaths worldwide: 6,275,649; # of cases U.S.: 83,567,707; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,024,525.