SUNDAY THOUGHTS

I ended with a rainbow yesterday, so today will start with a spiritual one:

From the New York Times, all the important news of the day and week:

On Saturday, Naomi Osaka defeated Jennifer Brady, becoming the first woman to win each of her first four Grand Slam finals in more than 30 years. Brady, appearing in her first final, went down fighting. Roughly one year since the first known coronavirus-related death was reported in the U.S., an unfathomable toll is nearing — the loss of half a million people. As of Sunday, the pandemic death toll was 497,403, higher than in any other country. More Americans have died from Covid-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined. Nationwide, nearly half of Americans would refuse a shot if offered one immediately, polls suggest. Vaccination skepticism is even higher among Black and Hispanic people, white people without a college degree, registered Republicans and lower-income households. When will we reach herd immunity? Use our interactive tool to see how factors like the rate of vaccinations can affect how fast we get there. Democrats, who control the House, are preparing to approve President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan by the end of the week, with the Senate aiming to soon follow with its own party-line vote. The continent-spanning storms showed that American infrastructure wasn’t ready for climate change. Extreme weather is placing growing stress on a system that was built decades ago under the expectation that the environment around it would remain stable.   The Senate will begin hearings this week to confirm Merrick Garland for attorney general. This is a colored photo of Mars, sent by the Perseverance rover: This is my contribution. About vaccinations, the problem is that the medical profession and media have totally confused people, sort of like that graphic to the right.  While safer to be over careful in this transition period, our feds have nevertheless intimidated minorities and challenged Trumpers about inoculation.  In a perverted way, some of this resistance is the detritus of the Trump effect.

In time, much of the above will sort out, but to accelerate the process while anticipating the worst, my thought is that President Joe Biden should immediately announce the creation of a national vaccination passport card, with photo, necessary for anyone to enter certain venues, like sporting events, buses, trains, subways and planes by the end of the year.  By the end of the year the vaccination rate should be in the range of 90%.  If that is insufficient, extend the ban to other locations in government control.  But President Joe Biden must do this now!  

What about people entering from foreign countries?  Biden needs to convince the United Nations and rest of the World to similarly comply, but this is something they need to do anyway.  In many ways this would simplify the passport system internationally used today, for this information can be stored in your smart phone or credit-type card.  As it will take time for this system to become universally adopted, entrance can also be allowed by showing proof of being immunized, taking a 15-minute antibody test or passing a fast-COVID-19 test at the arriving airport.

For most it is just about exactly one year since you started quarantine last year.  On this sparkling Sunday (it is sunny in Honolulu), you can count your blessings, for being able to just read this blog, for you are alive and relatively well.  

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  Of course, the odds of your surviving COVID-19 in the USA were 652 to 1.  The chances that you would have avoid dying this year were 128 to 1.  In other words, if you had passed away, the odds were 5:1 that it would have been from something other than this virus.
• The World COVID-19 survival rate was 3103 to 1.  Yup, you would have been much safer if you lived away from the U.S.  
• China?  310,467 to 1.  With a grand total of 4636 COVID-19 deaths, after starting this all, China is now #84 in the world in pandemic deaths.
• Taiwan?  2,649,383 to 1.  With a population of 24 million, they had 9 COVID-19 deaths.
• Thailand?  842,318 to 1.  It is now #114 in total number of COVID-19 deaths.   Exactly a year ago Thailand was #2 to China in COVID-19 cases.  Here is an excerpt from my blog of that day (I was flying from Phuket to Chiang Mai):

Then it got worse, for the person who sat between us had a mask on and was coughing.  I tried to do as little talking to him as possible anyway, but we then found out he was visiting Phuket from CHINA!  How did he get into Thailand, we asked, for people from there are not allowed in.  He said something about the laxness of flying in from a small airport in his country into Phuket.  While most in the plane wore masks, except me, every few seconds someone in the plane coughed.  Hope these were the ones wearing a mask.  Nevertheless, I had a beer with macadamia nuts while everyone was coughing around me.  Seemed like I was the only one eating.

In those days there was no Dr. Fauci warning us to wear masks.  I was more like Donald Trump and not particularly concerned about this looming pandemic being a threat to me.  But unlike that dastard, I did quickly change my attitude, and am now just over three weeks from having taken my second Moderna dosage.  To live a long life, it's important to overcome your own stupidity  Certainly, I do feel blessed to be able to take this photo of Honolulu a few minutes ago to the right.  On February 21, 2019 I could have been eaten by a tiger:

Let me close with one of the more fascinating links I have ever seen.  You might need to activate the page, by clicking on it.  Then click on any green dot to hear a radio from that location.  In that lower-left box, click on EXPLORE or SEARCH to open up a whole new world of choices.  Find San Francisco, for example, and you can click your way to 89 different stations from that area, or New York City for 202 stations.  There is a feature where you click on the heart symbol to save that station and form your own list of favorites.  There is a London station (under Weird Stations, find Birdsong Radio) that only plays a bird singing, or one from Switzerland (also under Weird Stations for Ambi Nature Radio) that plays ambient nature to put you to sleep.  You'll bookmark this page and play with it for the rest of your life.

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