Mask Image

In this Global Pandemic, Which Masks Protect You and the Community?

/1 Comment/in /by BeyondKona

Face masks have become an emblem in the fight against the coronavirus, with officials in the United States and elsewhere recommending as the best front line defense to  slow the spread of a deadly and global pandemic.

Protective face masks have become a part of our daily wardrobe, like shoes, there are essential in most circumstances. In this article, BeyondKona will explore which types of masks protect, and to what degree and the level of protection you can expect from different options.

Figuring out what to wear is not easy, and supply options are limited.

N95 and medical masks, which offer the most protection and are heavily in demand. Even if you could your hands on N95 medically designed and FDA approved for such use, with ongoing PPE shortages, N95 medical masks should be reserved for health care workers who are regularly exposed to infected patients.

N95 masks – the gold standard for protection

Mask 1

The N95 is the most recognizable and effective mask. Its name means it can block at least 95 percent of tiny particles — 0.3 microns — that are the hardest to capture. An average human hair is about 70 to 100 microns wide.

These masks, which are designed for single use, are made with polyester and other synthetic fibers, including layers of tangled fibers that act as a filter to make it harder for particles to pass through.

Make sure there are no gaps between the edge of the mask and your skin. This one includes a nose piece that is molded to your face. Many health care and other workers do annual fit tests that check for air leakage and ensure that masks are sized and fit properly. (If you have facial hair, you won’t get a proper fit. They don’t fit well on children, either.)

Some N95s have exhalation valves on the front, which make it easier to breathe. Those masks are often used in construction. A mask with a valve should not be used in areas that are meant to be sterile, like hospital operating rooms, and would not protect others from what you breathe out.

Medical – throwaway (disposable) masks that offer limited protection, and a growing global waste problem

Mask 2

Medical masks come in a few varieties and are less effective than N95s: Some filter as much as 60 to 80 percent of small particles under lab conditions. When worn properly, they can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by catching droplets when you cough or sneeze.

Medical masks are often made out of layers of breathable, paper-like synthetic fabric that is cut into a rectangular shape and has pleats to help it expand and fit more snugly around your face. They are disposable and designed to be used just once.

While they can protect you from large droplets and splatter, their looser fit is partly what makes them less effective than N95s.

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  • Coronavirus waste has become a new form of pollution as single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) floods our ocean.
  • COVID-19 has had a number of unexpected impacts on the environment, curtailing recycling and increasing the use of plastic around the world.
  • Governments need to act now to ensure a green recovery that incentivizes sustainability.

Homemade – reusable masks that can provide limited protection

With medical masks in short supply, many have turned to making or buying homemade ones. Depending on the fabric and how it’s made, a homemade mask can sometimes protect the way a simple medical version does. And any face covering is better than nothing.

Mask 3

A good homemade mask uses a material that is dense enough to capture viral particles, but breathable enough that you can tolerate it.

This one is made of cotton fabric.

You can also use materials like a heavy cotton t-shirt, flannel or a tightly woven dish towel.

Material with a higher thread count — which allows very little light to filter through — will likely offer the best protection.

Various patterns for making a cotton mask have spread around the internet. Look for one that has at least two layers of material, comes up over your nose and below your chin and has secure straps.

Homemade & Fabric Masks with Filters – reusable masks that can provide superior protection

Mask 4

This is another homemade mask, made from 100-percent cotton t-shirts, with a pocket sewn in to hold an additional filter.

We used a coffee filter in this mask. Paper towels have also been tested. One experiment found that two layers of paper towels on their own blocked between 23 and 33 percent of 0.3-micron particles.

People have been experimenting with filtering materials, including air filters and vacuum bags. They can be effective but can present risks. Many are not breathable and may contain harmful fibers that you could inhale.

Also, the average person doesn’t need the level of filtration that these materials provide.

Mask 4a

Whatever filter you use, make sure there is a layer of cotton or a similar material on either side of the filter, like the pocket in this mask.

A mask is effective only if worn properly, fitting snugly from the top of the nose to below the chin with no gaps. Masks should be worn the entire time you are outside, and should not be moved up and down. While no mask is 100 percent effective, it can help keep both you and others safe when combined with social distancing and regular hand washing.

An additional mask information resources are available courtesy of the New York Times:

1)  a complete guide to masks,

2) tips on how not to wear one,

3) what the best materials are for making a mask ,and

4) how to sew your own.

The Great Realisation

A post-pandemic bedtime tale that has captured the hearts of millions

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

The Great Real 2Tomos Roberts, London based filmmaker, released on YouTube, “The Great Realisation”.  It has been viewed tens of millions of times, and since translated independently into multiple languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.

Set in an unspecified future, the poem looks back on pre-pandemic life and imagines a “great realization” sparked by COVID-19.

Roberts tells his viewers about pre-pandemic life — “a world of waste and wonder, of poverty and plenty” — that falls apart when the virus hits, and yet in the end initiates something better: a society in which people are kinder and more mindful, and spend more time outdoors and with their families than on screens or at the office.

It’s a simple rhyming tale which takes on heavy themes — corporate greed, familial alienation, the pandemic — and somehow comes up with a happy ending.

Watch and listen: https://youtu.be/Nw5KQMXDiM4

Tomos Roberts: I kept hearing people say, “I hope things go back to normal.” And I thought, wouldn’t it be even better if instead of going back to normal it went to something that was even better than before? I think that would be infinitely more interesting.

Editorial — Pandemics, Pollution, and Politics

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Pandemics

Three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect humans originate in animals, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it is human activity that multiplies the risks of contagion.

Humanity’s “promiscuous treatment of nature” needs to change or there will be more deadly pandemics such as Covid-19, warn scientists who have analysed the link between viruses, wildlife and habitat destruction.

Deforestation and other forms of land conversion are driving exotic species out of their evolutionary niches and into manmade environments, where they interact and breed new strains of disease, the experts say.

Roger Frutos, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier, said multiple studies have confirmed the density and variety of bat-borne viruses is higher near human habitation.

“Humans destroy the bats’ natural environment and then we offer them alternatives. Some adapt to an anthropomorphised environment, in which different species cross that would not cross in the wild,” he said.

Habitat destruction is an essential condition for the proliferation of a new virus, he added, but it is only one of several factors. Bats also need to pass the disease on to humans. There is no evidence of this being done directly for coronaviruses. Until now there has been an intermediary – either a domesticated animal or a wild animal which humans came into contact with for food, trade, pets or medicine.

In the 2003 Sars outbreak in China, it was a civet cat. In the Mers outbreak in the Middle East in 2012, it was a camel. Scientists have detected about 3,200 different strains of coronavirus in bats. Most are harmless to humans, but two very closely related sarbe-coviruses found in east Asia were responsible for Sars and Covid-19. The paper says future sarbecovirus emergence will certainly take place in east Asia, but epidemics of other new diseases could be triggered elsewhere.

South America is a key area of concern due to the rapid clearance of the Amazon and other forests. Scientists in Brazil have found viral prevalence was 9.3% among bats near deforested sites, compared to 3.7% in pristine woodland. “With deforestation and land-use change, you open a door,” said Alessandra Nava, of the Manaus-based Biobank research centre.

Pollution

A Harvard University study has linked dirty and polluted air to the worst coronavirus outcomes, and it has quickly become a political football in Washington.  Presidential candidates, agency regulators, oil lobbyists and members of Congress from both parties are using the preliminary research to advance their own political priorities — well before it has a chance to be peer-reviewed.

The stakes are high because the study’s tentative findings could prove enormously consequential for both the pandemic’s impact and the global debate over curbing air pollution. The researchers found that pollution emanating from everything from industrial smokestacks to household chimneys is making the worst pandemic in a century even more deadly.

The consequences and public health costs of Air Pollution before COVID-19, associated with elevated exposure to NO2 …

  • Hypertension,
  • Heart and cardiovascular diseases,
  • Increased rate of hospitalization,
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),
  • Significant deficits in growth of lung function in children,
  • Poor lung function in adults or lung injury and
  • Diabetes

A second and collaborating European study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has found that long-term exposure to air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the COVID-19 virus” around the world.

The study looked at COVID-19 fatalities in four of the countries that have been hit hardest by the virus – Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It found that 78% of deaths had occurred in just five regions in northern Italy and Spain.

These regions, the report notes, have the highest concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant harmful to human respiratory systems, while their geography means these areas also suffer from downward air pressure, which can prevent the dispersal of airborne pollutants.

Trump administrations environmental rollbacks will significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.

As economies across the world are halted and millions of people abide by stay-at-home orders in the effort to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19, many are observing similar unintended consequences: cleaner air and water in some of the most polluted cities on earth.

  • Impacts of the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) could contribute to a near 8% drop in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
  • Global energy demand is expected to drop 6% this year, due to both the coronavirus and to countries seeing warmer-than-average winters. That 6% decline is seven times higher than the drop brought by the 2008 financial crisis. Alongside that decline in energy demand, IEA predicted demand for coal could fall by 8%, while oil will also see a downturn. But renewable energy sources may see an uptick in demand.
  • IEA said emissions are likely to rise again once economies reopen and recover, unless countries try to invest in clean energy and renewables. In a tweet, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol called for “structural emissions reductions.”

If you lived through the Nixon years you may have thought you’ve seen it all.  From enemy lists to break-ins. But this current administration has demonstrated there is no limit to massive abuses of power and privilege.

The 21st century Republican party and its leadership, culminating in the actions and events leading to Trump’s impeachment, without consequences, and the obstruction of evidence in due process, speaks to the current system of governance which has broken the checks and balances within the Federal government.

Since assuming power, the Trump Administration has, and is, reversing nearly 100 environmental rules designed to protect the public health and the environment.

Epa Reversals

All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.

At the same time, the Interior Department has worked to open up more land for oil and gas leasing by cutting back protected areas, limiting wildlife protections, and in policy partnership with the EPA, eliminating air and water pollution rules and protections.

The GOP controlled White House and Senate has taken gerrymandering, court stacking, influence peddling and profiting to a whole new level.

Unlike the days of Nixon, Trump and his party have a nation media empire which not only has their backs, but engages daily in misdirection and conspiracy theories and serves as a state propaganda machine the envy of even Russia’s state run media.

In U.S. cable and digital media markets, specifically, that’s influence which translates into effective mind control of the 30% of the population — (their) truth without facts, science as fiction, and serves as a policy feed-back loop for the President of the United States who gets his daily briefings from Fox, not the nation’s intelligence community.

All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.

None of this will change until the GOP leadership is standing in the unemployment line come this November.

An Oily Planet

HAPPY 50th EARTH DAY – Part 1: The Price of Our Oil Addiction

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of “Earth Day”, and a good time to reflect on our progress to protect this island chain we call home.

The first Earth Day was a defining moment in the great American experiment. Twenty million people nationwide — at the time, roughly one in 10 citizens — took part.

Last year the Pew Research Center reported that nearly 70 percent of Americans said the government was not doing enough to protect the water quality of lakes, rivers and streams, or to protect air quality. And this year, Pew reported that, for the first time in two decades, a majority of Americans believed dealing with climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress, a 14-point rise from just four years ago.

Democrats and Republicans worked together to create the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the E.P.A.  Today, the politics of divide and conqueror prohibit that kind of teamwork, which seems all but unthinkable with a GOP controlled Senate.

While research shows that voters’ interest in climate and environmental issues is soaring, it also reveals an astonishing split:  More than 75 percent of Democrats called climate change a top policy priority, while less than 25 percent of Republicans did.

At the core of this political tug of war is the Trump administration’s system wide roll back of environmental regulations governing fossil fuels – from extraction to tailpipe and power plant emissions, stop us if your dare.  The rollbacks range from weakening or eliminating water and air quality protections to climate change, as well as broader roll-back of laws designed to protect the public health, endangered species, and the environment.

Petro PoltiicsIn contrast to the politics of denial, 50 years of climate science and mounting data continues to document the effects of our energy addiction to fossil fuel and the escalating impact to the planet’s climate, ecosystems, and global species (humans included).

It was only a few years ago that energy industry experts believed that renewable energy would never account for than 2-3% energy supply to national grid. By 2018, renewable energy sources accounted for 17% of all electricity generation in the United States.

Progress, yes, but the health and environmental costs from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity continue mount; in FEMA recovery efforts, sea level rise, and public heath costs accountable to polluted air and water, and especially impacting the lives of those in the poorest of communities who live closest to these pollution sources: oil and gas refineries and gas fracking sites.

 

The Petroleum Plutocrats

Between 1970 and 2018, the global consumption of coal, oil and natural gas more than doubled. As hard as it may be to grasp, global fossil fuel demand continues to rise.

Substantial progress has been achieved in technology and cost competitiveness of wind and solar project energy projects versus legacy fossil fuel power plants, and these clean power replacements are proving to be the most cost effective of energy production options for power producers, utilities, and consumers alike. They deliver greater efficiency, are cheaper to operate, and for the general public, environmentally essential towards addressing global warming in their role as energy source replacements for coal, oil, and gas power plants.

With competitive clean energy replacements banging on their door, and a rising global push back from most of the world’s governments as smokestack and tailpipe climate costs continue to rise, for Big Oil …it’s full speed ahead, global warming be damned.  

Major global resource extractors, fossil fuel producers and distributors continue to refine their political calculus, buying favors, and fine tuning their plans for the next 20, 30, 40, even 50 years of operation as the essential component of any energy mix. Their business plans for the future share common themes:

  • extend the global economic dependency on oil, gas, and all fossil fuels as far into the future as possible,
  • deny the facts and scientific conclusions of global warming,
  • obscure the environmental costs and consequences of business-as-usual worst practices, and
  • push ahead, no matter what may come of it.

 

Petroleum Politics – A Global View 

In the 21st century, Exxon and their big oil counterparts have been “given” more than just a free hand (alongside the Russians) to open up drilling operations in the Arctic, they have been handily rewarded for their role in a global melt-down that is now making the transformation of the Arctic Sea ready for it transformation into a giant drilling platform for unexplored riches in oil and gas – environmental protections and climate consequences also be damned.

Rachel Maddow’s recent book, “Blowout”, does an excellent job telling the story of how the world’s richest economic sector, subsidized to the tune of more than $5 trillion dollars annually in global taxpayer subsidies (IMF-World Bank data), manages to leverage its influence and profit priorities across the world’s governments, successfully navigating the geo-political landscape to eliminate all public opposition to their plans and activities, while passing the costs onto the public in polluted waterways, public health and environmental costs, and tax-free operations.

The book wonderfully outlines the winners and losers in game of greed and massive petro profits.

In meanwhile, China and Europe are driving demand for Russian natural gas and oil, and India (the most populous place on Earth) is just now coming into their own as a major importer of oil and gas to meet its growing energy demands of its population and economy. There is no shortage in demand for energy, question is in what form that energy is delivered to consumers. When it comes to the established players in fossil fuels, let the good time roll.

In the past 10 years, first beginning with the Obama administration, and then in the last 3 years under Trump, the US has flipped from a net importer to net exporter of oil and gas. National energy independence is priority most Americans share, but there is a right way and a wrong way to achieve that goal, Trump choose the wrong way for the nation and the planet.

President Trump’s administration also has taken unprecedented action in removing most regulatory limits governing fossil fuels.  A free ride for an industry already associated with massive tax giveaways, as well as environmental and corporate crimes – forgiven, overlooked, and public consequences undervalued.

A glimmer of light in the form of a global agreement, which took years to reach a working agreement, a global agreement designed to face off the greatest threat to humanity and planet of our modern times, the Paris Accord. Signed in 2016, every nation on the planet signed on but two: North Korea and Nicaragua (pillars of democracy and good governance).

The newly elected president Donald Trump’s first priority, once in office, was simple enough. Pull out of the Paris Accord on day one of his presidency, as he did or shortly thereafter – a massive gift to his fossil fuel donors.  The withdrawal of  United States from Paris Accord was more than a Pyrrhic Victory for big oil, it was a global withdrawal of American leadership and a giant step backwards to end humanity’s oil addiction in the fight to address global warming.

Right now you may be asking yourself, cheap oil, humm… but it’s unlikely to last, so you may want to hold off buying that next fuel guzzling SUV or oversize pick-up truck you’ve had your eye before this pandemic hit the fan.  My advice, wait and see just where fuel prices land once the economy recovers – and yes, it’s more a question of when, than if it will recover.

It took a global pandemic to slow things down for a global energy train running at full speed towards the end of tracks.  But it was also just a moment in time for a deeply established 150 year old industry, yet fragile and unsustainable without helping hand reaching out for more public subsidies. So petro guys screamed for government help, and they’re getting it big time – the free money details are still in the works.  With tankers and storage tanks full worldwide, bulk crude prices at rock bottom, they hit the panic button during a momentary glut of the black stuff – just a market function of supply and demand. Don’t weep, this industry has more of (your) money than most governments have in their treasuries.

Trump to the rescue — the prospect of renewed tensions in the Middle East gave crude a lift during a week where prices have struggled to contend with evaporation in demand triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.  Today’s energy market tickers screamed… “oil prices rebounded from net zero price today, when Trump stoked Middle East fears, saying he was ordering US warships to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian vessels if they posed a threat”.  Just one Trump tweet buoyed the high-yield bond market keeping oil investments afloat. But it will take more than a Iranian speed boat or two harassing the world’s most capable and sophisticated navy to upset the fundamentals of supply or demand which determine the price of oil and gas.

From the 1970’s formation of OPEC to today’s supply wars between Saudi Arabia and Russia, producers continue to determine for the most part, the price of oil and gas, and retailers have little say other than to pass on those end user fuel costs to consumers.

Then there is the fundamentals of price fixing by major oil producers which has little to do with demand, and is all about supply.  Like drug dealers, setting the price of fuel based on demand is the roadmap to addiction.  The hidden environmental costs of fossil fuels we pay in other ways, but we’ll pay whatever it takes if our addiction takes the form of fueling our vehicles or running an electric utility, like HECO, dependent on oil to power many of its power plants in order sell their oil-laden electricity to Hawaii consumers.  We pay at the pump and in our electric bill, we pay because we are addicted.

All this goes away, including our addiction with all its economic, environmental and social consequences, once we ween ourselves off of oil.

The politics and corruption of our dirty energy dependency, and its true costs to consumers and the planet, also go away – along with the hidden and added costs to public health care, environmental damage mitigation and restoration, and the transition to a clean, sustainable, and equitable energy economy.  In the end, we pay either as consumers or as taxpayers, or both the cost of our addiction to oil.

EDITORIAL – Coronavirus, and its Earth (Day) Link

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This is the time to consider the linkage between global pandemics and our environment

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading fast, with each day’s headlines rapidly eclipsed by the next.

Why are we fairly good at responding to some crises, yet really not very good at responding to other long term crisis (e.g. climate change)?

A number of psychologists consider the question, while author and climate-activist Bill McKibben asks what can the coronavirus teach us?

The world health data, backed up by scientific studies, has observed that airborne fossil fuel pollution cause nearly 8.8 million deaths each year (globally).

The twin global threats of public health consequences linked to climate and air pollution impacts demonstrate how some communities are far more vulnerable to coronavirus disease than others; thanks to their proximity to pollution sources coupled to the consequences of global warming.  Added into this complex societal impact mix is unequal access to healthcare, work flexibility, and basic infrastructure necessary for environmental sustainability and protections.

Altogether, air and water pollution produce public health costs and consequences for society that far greater than any single pandemic event.

The economic consequences of global warming, projected in the trillions of dollars in losses and added costs to the economy, and coupled to just a 2 degree rise in global temperatures — a human-driven cause and effect, primarily resulting from fossil fuel extraction, production, and the global burning this dirty form of energy.

The link among human-caused global warming, species loss, and the increase spread of more virulent diseases

Air pollution (globally), is primarily fueled by coal, oil, gas-fueled power plants and transportation emissions. Altogether, they directly accounts for millions of deaths annually – while the CORVID-19 pandemic has so far been attributed to an excess of 158,000 in virus-related deaths worldwide (4-18-20).

Coronavirus patients in areas that had high levels of air pollution before the pandemic are more likely to die from the infection than patients in cleaner parts of the country, according to a new nationwide study that offers the first clear link between long-term exposure to pollution and COVID-19 death rates.

In an analysis of 3,080 counties in the United States, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health found high levels of tiny, airborne particles (known as PM 2.5) serving as carriers for the COVID-19 virus, and which were associated with areas with higher cornoavirus death rates — the same size as air pollution particulate matter from diesel emissions.

For weeks, public health officials have surmised a link between dirty air and death or serious illness from Covid-19.

The Harvard analysis is the first nationwide study to show a statistical link, revealing a “large overlap” between Covid-19 deaths and other diseases associated with long-term exposure to fine particulate matter.

“The results of this paper suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to experiencing the most severe Covid-19 outcomes,” the Harvard authors wrote.

Yes, COVID-19 is a global pandemic, but not global extinctionChina Air Polltuion

which is exactly what humans have been engaged in for the past 150 years in extracting and burning fossil fuels on a global scale…

Humans have been engaged in deficit spending of the world’s environmental assets and of the creatures we share those assets with and are being destroyed at an ever accelerating rate for the past 50 years.  All this has, and is, happening without much public thought as to the consequences of this self-destructive path we’re on.   In short, we humans have been acting like there is no tomorrow — well, tomorrow has arrived.

Environmental threats come in all shapes and sizes and most are human-caused and preventable.

As the marco dominant species on the planet, now threatened by a microscopic virus, all this begs one simple  question: shouldn’t we humans re-examine the current planetary trajectory we’ve created by burning fossil fuels, and the effect on planet’s biosphere on which we all depend? 

Most experts believed that once the crisis was over, the nation and its economy would revive quickly. But there would be no escaping a period of intense social and economic pain.

Even as the black plague ravaged Europe and its population during the 14th century, it produced an unlikely outcome, the Renaissance, a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following a dark period of the Middle Ages.

COVID-19 is the deadly period we have all now entered. Governments and the world banking system are scrambling to respond.  Instead, of just throwing money at the crisis, we could be re-prioritizing the world financial system. A change that can enable not only rapid economic recovery, but can be guided to enable a global transition to a clean-energy world economy.

What we need now is new clean energy Renaissance which will produce many more good paying jobs than it will displace, and can be based on proven technological opportunities available today; low-cost, renewable and emissions-free energy sources to power a newly reborn and fully electrified global economy — a transition already underway; but presently at only a fraction of its global replacement potential.

Such a transition would yield social and economic benefits, and in a short amount of time, eliminate those nearly 9 million preventable deaths annually attributed to air pollution.

The economic shift to clean energy efficiency and sustainability could also effectively address the most serious threat our world faces today, global warming (climate change). 

Now is a time opportunity and can be period enlightened solutions which build bridges, not walls, for the stewards of this planet we call Earth.  But, we must do this with the same urgency, energy, and resources of global response we are now witnessing as governments and economies address a single pandemic.   Business as usual is no longer an option for humankind.

Exactly how the pandemic will end depends in part on medical advances still to come. It will also depend on how individual Americans behave in the interim. If we scrupulously protect ourselves and our loved ones, more of us will live. If we underestimate the virus, it will find us.

COVID-19 is a wake-up call for all humanity, and we can take this moment to reflect, consider, act by either starting to live in balance with our planet and ourselves – or –  stay on our current business-as-usual path of biosphere destruction and eventually go extinct.

Beyond Kona Banner Hawaii Turtle

Surfers, Swimmers; the COVID-19 Ocean Risk Factor

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

Hawaii’s beaches remain closed in an attempt to keep people from congregating on the shore and spreading the coronavirus. Recently, there is local talk story circulating about of what happens when you’re in the ocean, and a belief that the ocean’s salt water will purify things, making it a safe haven from the COVID-19 virus.

An atmospheric chemist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. Kim Prather, believes that may not be the case. She has found that …“all the safety assumption behind the rules for six-foot social distancing, especially when you’re at the beach and in the water, do not apply.”

Prather is especially concerned when surfers huddled in a tight pack, positing themselves for the next wave, and placing themselves at potential risk of viral infection. Prather comments are worth considering, after all, she is an expert on how tiny microorganisms get lofted into the air hitchhiking on aerosols.

She warned that the COVID-19 virus can bind itself to microscopic aerosol (airborne) particles which can be transmitted by groups of people in close proximity — not only on the beach, but in the water as well.

Prather says the data indicates viruses can remain alive in saltwater for days, if not months.

Dish soap kills the virus in the same way it breaks down fat baked into a frying pan, yet the same lipid envelope surrounding the virus structure makes it resistant in saltwater. The fatty envelope encasing coronaviruses could float near the ocean surface where waves can whip particles into the air according to Dr. Prather.Wave Wipeout 3

Many known viruses have been swept up into the air from sea spray. The viruses tend to hitch rides on smaller, lighter, organic particles suspended in air and gas, meaning they can stay aloft in the atmosphere longer.

Some evidence shows viruses can remain viable after getting caught in weather currents dispersing microbes across very distant oceans.

Science has already demonstrated that an infection can spread beyond direct contact from contaminated surfaces or through droplets from sneezes and coughs within close proximity to an infected person.

Surf or Swim and Don’t Worry … maybe not just yet

Scientists worldwide are on a fast track to unlock the virus characteristics, yet so far, neither the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor local health agencies have warned that the virus can be spread by ocean spray or coastal breezes.

Jacksonville University’s Dr. Anthony Ouellette, professor of biology and chemistry, sees no need for concern yet.  “No evidence supporting being concerned about water at the beaches. Being concerned about aerosolized COVID is absolutely valid, but I don’t see a good connection of dots here. Not to say, of course, that there is no possibility, but sticking with what I know, I am not concerned.”

Quellette says he’s wary the virus has been detected in sewage, but proper wastewater treatment facilities kill the vast majority of pathogens.

For now, there is little concern until the beach ban is lifted. Until then, scientists have more time to study the novel virus risks before the beaches are open again.

Chimp

After COVID-19, a social climate change

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

David Leonhardt recently wrote in the New York times what he foresees as society’s next phase in a post-pandemic world.  Leonhardt projects four major changes that will define this new norm — changes more profound than any post-911 security changes had on global air travel.

According to Leonhardt, the current evolution of societal norms, beyond social distancing and no aloha hugs or kisses, will be defined by a new “abnormal”.  He predicts that as early as next month, the number of new COVID-19 cases will be greatly reduced across much of the United States, as the first wave of the virus retreats — for more on COVID-19 waves: https://www.beyondkona.com/before-and-after-waves-of-covid-19/

The desire to quickly return to normal  life, which most of us share, will likely be more elusive than most people realize.  The pandemic won’t just disappear, and a return to normal activity (too quickly) would likely spark new outbreaks, especially with a substantial portion of the infected population being asymptomatic during this COVID-19 outbreak and testing, essential in determining who is sick will continue to fail to meet demand on the scale of this natural emergency.

Looking Forward – what can we expect?

  • Restaurants could re-open but with people sitting only at every other table. Offices may reopen — but with workers alternating between on and off days, as has happened in parts of Asia.
  • No large gatherings where people come in close contact, like sporting events, concerts and conferences, could still be a long time off.  “That’s going to be hard,” Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said …“and I don’t know that most Americans have come to grips with that.”
  • Testing — even a partial return to normal life will require tremendous amounts of testing — testing of anyone who develops potential symptoms as well as random testing to know where hot spots are developing. The United States remains behind on testing and will need to continue catching up in coming weeks.
  • Contact tracing. That’s the technical term for tracking down anybody who has come in contact with a person who’s newly diagnosed with the virus.  Some countries are using personal cellphone data, closed-circuit cameras and credit card data to help their tracing efforts. Americans may not be comfortable with that approach — which would mean the American effort could either be less effective or more labor-intensive, or both.
  • Quarantine. Knowing who has the virus isn’t enough, of course. People with new cases must be kept away from everyone else, immediately. What happens when somebody with the virus refuses to be quarantined?  A question whose answer has yet to fully play out in the United States.

People will be impatient to return to their old lives. But here is the cruel reality: The places that return too quickly — and cause new outbreaks — will be the ones that end up suffering the longest periods of social distancing in the end.

Beyond COVID-19 there is the larger truth —  humans are more at risk from diseases (and pandemics) as biodiversity disappears and the Earth heats up.

Our responses to climate change and the coronavirus are linked.  We also live in an age of intersecting crises on a global scale, producing unseen levels of inequality, environmental degradation, climate destabilization, none of which can be effectively addressed when accompanied by new surges in populism, conflict, economic uncertainty, and mounting global health threats.

According to new research published in Nature, December 2019, a healthy biodiversity is essential to human health. As species (marine, terrestrial, and airborne) disappear, infectious diseases rise in humans and throughout the animal kingdom, so extinctions directly affect our health and chances for survival as a species.    https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/humans-are-more-at-risk-from-diseases-as-biodiversity-disappears/

“Biodiversity loss tends to increase pathogen transmission across a wide range of infectious disease systems,” according to Bard College ecologist Felicia Keesing.   These pathogens can include viruses, bacteria and fungi. And humans are not the only ones at risk: all manner of other animal and plant species could be affected.

Biodiversity around the world is declining at a very fast pace, extinction is the new norm

The human population has swelled to over 7.5 billion and our species’ has produced a massive footprint on planet Earth with a devastating impact on mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and marine life.   We’ve driven thousands of species to extinction through habitat loss, over-hunting and over-fishing, the introduction of invasive species into new ecosystems, toxic pollution, petro-chemical agricultural, and the macro element: climate change in the form of global heating.

Many scientists now believe humans are living through a “mass extinction,” or an epoch during which at least 75 percent of all species vanish from the planet.

The current and ongoing extinction event of species (sometimes called Anthropocene) is the direct result of human activity. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates.

Earth has supported life in some form for about 4.2 billion years. The previous five mass extinctions occurred over the past 450 million years; the last one occurred about 66 million years ago, when the aftermath of a massive asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs.

All global crises facing humankind are slowly tipping the balance from sustainability to extinction

Questioning our business-as-usual economic model of the past requires us to rethink our next steps.

  1. The coronavirus pandemic may lead to a deeper understanding of the ties that bind us on a global scale.
  2. Well-resourced healthcare systems are essential to protect us from health security threats, including climate change.
  3. The support to resuscitate the economy after the pandemic should promote health, equity, and environmental protection.

There are, to a certain degree, parallels that can be drawn between the current COVID-19 pandemic and some of the other contemporary crises our world is facing.

  • All require a global-to-local response and long-term thinking;
  • all need to be guided by science and need to protect the most vulnerable among us; and
  • all require the political will to make fundamental changes when faced with existential risks.

In this sense, the 2020 coronavirus pandemic could help us come to grips with the largest public health threat of the century, a human-induced climate crisis.

Many of today’s health impacts have a clear climate change signature, such as the increasing frequency and strength of extreme weather events or the expanding range and spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria or dengue. For others, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the connection with climate change is less clear cut, but to ignore the science and our role in creating many of the problems we face as species could prove fatal to the future of the human race.Ff Pollution

There are common elements that almost all global health shocks have in common:

  • They hit the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest
  • They act as poverty multipliers, forcing families into extreme poverty because they have to pay for health care.
  • Nearly half of the world’s population does not have access to clean water or access to basic health services.

When health disasters hit – and in a business-as-usual scenario they will do so increasingly – global inequality is sustained and reinforced, and paid for with the lives of the poor and marginalized.

…

What better than a global pandemic, which does not discriminate by income, race, religion, or country, and kills, to serve as a better wake-up call for all of humanity. 

Another way to view this historic moment in human history… how many deaths will it take before we all place a stop sign at this present, and most dangerous, 21st century intersection for which we find ourselves? 

One answer, we must prioritize (without delay) planetary stewardship ahead of short term profits for the few. This will require global cooperation and a clean energy economy on the scale of the Paris Climate Accord – before Trump. We can start with:

  • The preservation and conservation of Earth’s remaining environmental treasures from forests to global ocean ecosystems
  • A global security focus on 21st century opportunities essential in the transition to living “in balance” with bounty of our planet Earth, rather than to consuming, polluting, and wasting that bounty.
  • Globally, governments must enable financial and social support recover packages designed not to resuscitate and prop-up unsustainable global economic sectors, such as oil, gas and, coal, but to hasten the transition to a zero emissions global grid and EV transportation fleet.
  • Advancing present day R&D efforts presently engaged in a clean energy transition for both water transport, train a global workforce for emerging and future technologies, and the list goes on.

In short, we can, and should, build on present successes in wind, solar, and power storage technologies to quickly migrate any future prospects of the next global pandemic.   In order to accomplish this, we will need to transform both our social and economic systems, and move beyond the platitudes to actionable results — one which we are as a species, operating in balance with our global ecosystem we call earth. This balance is defined by a global clean (zero emissions) energy economy no longer dependent on the costly (social, environmental, and economic) destructiveness of fossil fuels.

When we eventually come out of the long dark tunnel of the COVID-19 pandemic we can hopefully hold on to that sense of our shared humanity and fulfill the opportunities for corrective change which are all around us.  COVID-19, a tiny virus  The message is clear, if we are paying attention: live in balance with the Earth on which all life depends – or – continue on our current path and suffer self-destructive consequences.

We have a choice, and the time is now.

 

After Pandemic

Coronavirus and Hawaii; resiliency and sustainability are tested

/0 Comments/in /by Tam Hunt, Noel Morin, Contributing Editors

Hawaii, a profile in crisis readiness

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable our modern societies are, particularly in an isolated island state like Hawaii.

We import 99 percent of our transportation fuel from thousands of miles away.

We import about 90 percent of our food, and this amount is declining in recent years rather than increasing.Virus Economy Jpg

Almost all of our consumer, medical, and industrial goods are shipped or flown in, over thousands of miles.

We have only one or two hospitals in the state that can handle certain medical procedures.

Hawaii, as a state, is especially vulnerable to economic shocks, pandemics, as well as a number of the familiar natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, volcanic activity, and earthquakes. And we haven’t even mentioned the exacerbating effects of climate change which are now apparent and will only worsen in the coming years.

We do, however, have feasible options for improving the current state of affairs.

A Focus on Hawaii Island 

The Hawaii County Council environmental and agricultural management committee just two weeks ago voted unanimously to make a relatively small code change that could lead to a revival of the mayor’s Sustainability Action Committee.

Mayor Kim created the committee back in 2007, during his previous term, but never actually stood it up as a working committee.  Thirteen years later, and well past time to stand up this committee, it may finally see the light of day.  County added new code language to its Bill 142, adding the words “climate change” to the list of topics within the purview of the Sustainability Action Committee. This important two-word addition will allow Mayor Kim to finally stand up this important committee and to address sustainability issues explicitly linked to climate change and resiliency challenges.

The Big Island could, in theory, provide almost all of its peoples’ needs with local resources. But being resilient isn’t about manufacturing cell phones or big screen TVs locally — that’s not required or reasonable. Being resilient is more about being able to survive even the worst disasters by having, at the very least, water, food, shelter, medical supplies, energy, and communication needs on hand so that we can, together, weather what storms may come our way.

How long could Hawaii last under our current lifestyle if we were cut off from outside food, oil, medical supplies, and manufactured goods?   

The sad answer is that we’d last less than a week before major societal and economic impacts begin to take hold.

The current coronavirus pandemic has shown us that these kinds of scenarios aren’t impossible. These are the scenarios that we do need to plan for. We need to be resilient and ready for whatever disasters come our way. This means a number of important things:

  • Reducing our dependency on imports, e.g., shifting rapidly to local agriculture, renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal, beefing up water supplies, and shifting away from gasoline and diesel vehicles to zero emissions ground transportation alternatives, like electric vehicles.
  • Future-proofing our infrastructure and housing, e.g., planning for possible future migration from areas that will be inundated by rising sea levels.
  • Creating a culture of readiness through awareness and practice.

Hawaii Island already has a good start with various efforts like the Transportation Hui, coordinated by Riley Saito, the county’s Research and Development Department energy programs lead, which recently completed its shared mobility plan working with the Shared-Use Mobility Center. We also have the County’s greenhouse gas tracking efforts, which recently completed a county-wide inventory of emissions, building on similar state efforts.

Combined with existing disaster preparedness plans led by the County’s Civil Defense Agency, and various efforts to promote local agriculture, there is much work that can be built upon in order to truly prepare our island to be resilient and sustainable.

Transforming our local economies will take smart planning and sustained community dialogue, so that all parts of our communities are on board and understand why these shifts need to take place. Sustainability and resiliency are two sides of the same coin.

By being more sustainable we become more resilient.

Mayor Kim, please, as soon as possible, stand up the Sustainability Action Committee and let it get to work creating sustainability and resiliency plans for the Big Island, working with stakeholders every step of the way.

Tam Hunt is a lawyer and writer based in Hilo, Hawaii, and guess editor to BeyondKona.  Noel Morin is a contributor editor to BeyondKona. With over 27 years of experience in business systems analysis, product management, and leadership roles in companies like Johnson and Johnson and eBay, Noel is also an environmental advocate with a focus on Hawaii’s future, while advancing the state’s electrification of transportation through his role as  president of the Hawaii EV Association.

Virus Economy Jpg

the Country is in trouble … for the Feds, the economy is priority one

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

The House responds with financial help for workers, and the Senate reaches a deal on a trillion dollar Stimulus Package, aka corporate bailout

Virus Aid Dollars

 

 Workers, families, and those in need

Throughout his term, President Trump has chipped away at the social safety net, proposing budgets that gutted housing assistance, food stamps and health insurance for the poorest Americans. When Congress rejected those cuts, the Trump administration enacted rules to make it harder to access federal benefits.

Now, with businesses shuttered, workers laid off, and scores more worrying about buying groceries, being evicted and getting sick, the swelling need for federal assistance has forced even conservative lawmakers to embrace government protections in a series of sweeping aid and stimulus bills.

Last week the Democratic controlled House of Representatives passed a $100-billion-plus Families First coronavirus response package.  The Republican controlled Senate then slow-walked the bill to the president’s desk for signature. Trump signed the bill, expands paid sick leave and family medical leave for tens of millions of workers, with provisions aimed at blunting the economic impact of the pandemic.

“Here we had this ‘strong economy’ and all of a sudden the bubble has burst, and policymakers are scrambling to put into place basic protections other societies have,” said Rebecca Vallas, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

An Economic Bailout – and political tug of war

The Senate proposal, passed early this morning, injects approximately $2 trillion into the economy, providing tax rebates, four months expanded unemployment benefits and a slew of business tax-relief provisions aimed at shoring up individual, family and business finances.

The deal includes $500 billion for a major corporate liquidity program through the Federal Reserve, $367 billion for a small business loan program, $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments.

Partisan Priorities for the Country

It will also give a one-time check of $1,200 to Americans who make up to $75,000. Individuals with no or little tax liability would receive the same amount, unlike the initial GOP proposal that would have given them a minimum of $600.

Republicans accused Democrats of trying to include increased fuel emissions standards for airlines and expansion of wind and solar tax credits, while Democrats homed in on a provision in a draft circulated Sunday that would have blocked nonprofits who receive Medicaid, like Planned Parenthood, from the previous coronavirus package from receiving Small Business Administration assistance under the stimulus package.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in buffer capital for the Treasury Department will allow the Fed to hand out an additional $4 trillion in loans to distressed companies such as U.S. airlines and Boeing, the nation’s leading airplane manufacturer. Their stocks have been hit the hardest in the recent stock market selloff that had erased the gains made since Trump took office.

The Fed loan program, which Democrats bashed as a corporate bailout program and Sec. of Treasury Steven Mnuchin’s “slush fund”  — was one of the biggest sticking points during the late rounds of the negotiations.

Republicans argued the Treasury Department needed $500 billion to help the Fed inject enough liquidity into the economy, while Democrats were enraged over a provision they said would let Mnuchin provide loans and guarantees and then wait six months before disclosing who got the assistance. By Wednesday morning the provision was removed.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) touted that Democrats were able to get “better oversight,” saying “you can’t just … go ahead and give all your corporate executives, based on the back of the taxpayers, free carte blanche.”

Taxpayer Transparency

The deal hammered out by negotiators provides $30 billion in emergency education funding, $25 billion in emergency transit funding and creates an employee retention tax credit to incentivize businesses to keep workers on payroll during the crisis.

It will also provide $25 billion in direct financial aid to struggling airlines and $4 billion for air cargo carriers, two industries that have taken a big hit in the economic downturn.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday were characterizing the direct assistance as “snap loans” instead of grants, to avoid the stigma of the proposal being called a bailout, but that has yet to be determined, how and if the government (taxpayers) would be compensated.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) hailed the legislation as “the largest rescue package in American history.” 

Schumer added a provision to ban businesses owned by the president, vice president, members of Congress and the heads of federal executive departments from receiving loans or investments through the corporate liquidity program. The prohibition also applies to their children, spouses and in-laws.

“Every loan document will be public and made available to Congress very quickly, so we can see where the money is going, what the terms are and if it’s fair to the American people,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

A last-minute fight also developed over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cropped up as an eleventh-hour issue on Tuesday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) said that a deal for a 15 percent increase in funding was taken out of the bill. A boost in food assistance money is a top priority for Democrats and progressives in the House of Representatives.

 

Biohazard

Coronavirus, COVID -19 News Archive

/0 Comments/in /by BeyondKona

BREAKING NEWS

Friday, April 17th, 2020

STAT news reported that severely ill coronavirus patients were responding well to remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug, at a Chicago hospital. The trial involved only 125 people and the preliminary results were not peer reviewed, but it was welcome news, and a possible beginning to a virus vaccine based on science and not politics.

Pill

  • Previously, Remdesivir was given to the first known U.S. coronavirus patient: a man in Washington State who had recently returned from the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, China. And he has made a good recovery.
  • But that patient is, of course, only a single person, and a larger sample size will be needed to determine the drug’s efficacy.
  • Two trials of Remdesivir are currently underway in China: one for severe cases of COVID-19 and the other for mild or moderate cases. Results for both trials are expected in April.
  • Another clinical trial is planned in the U.S., and it will be run by the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That trial will take months to be conducted and at up to 50 sites around the world, testing Remdesivir against a placebo.
  • Remdesivir has been shown to be effective against many other viruses, and some experts are optimistic that it—or similar compounds—may work for the pathogen responsible for COVID-19.

 

 

previously published… March 13th, 2020

UNITED STATES DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY 

Coronavirus expert and Federal government spokesman, Dr. Anthony Fauci  [video] says:

It’s certainly going to get worse before it gets better

Crisis will last for at least several weeks and possibly 2 months or more

  • Corna Virus 1
  • No vaccine or direct treatment currently exists. 
  • U.S. Federal Response — In a stark contrast to many other industrialized nations, the United States preparedness for COVID-19, and testing, has been late, incompetent, incomplete, and only within the last few days has the Virus threat been taken seriously by the Trump administration, in spite of the Virus’ health threat to United States, since December 2019.
  • National and states response to COVID-19 have been hobbled by previous health system cuts from the Trump administration in pandemic preparedness, science, and expert staffing at key levels of the Federal agencies responsible for pandemic preparedness: CDC, DoH, Homeland Security, DoD, and other key Federal agencies — a Federal response infrastructure was established after 9/11, but pandemic preparedness and response capabilities that were enhanced during the previous Obama administration, have since been mostly dismantled during Trump’s tenure as President.
  • One of the main concerns about caring for vulnerable populations amid coronavirus, in comparison to the flu, is that there are no vaccines to fight the new virus, and no drugs to treat those who become infected.  Most epidemiologists agree that an effective and safe vaccine is probably a year or more away, despite President Trump’s claims that he has heard that something could arrive sooner.
  • Present treatment for Covid-19 patients mainly consists of providing fluids, giving medicine to alleviate fever and supplying supplemental oxygen in severe cases, according to a Harvard Health report.
  • Hospitals may soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, ill prepared for what’s coming…
  • As this pandemic grows in the numbers, verified cases and the number of corresponding hospitalizations grow.  The CDC estimates there are only 1 million hospital beds in the United States, and 70% of those beds are already occupied.  Ventilators, essential to hospital treatment of those patients seriously ill from the coronavirus is estimated at only 65,000 units nationwide.
  • More than 1 million of the most vulnerable people to the virus in the United States live in nursing homes, and more than 800,000 people call residential care communities home, according to the CDC.
  • Just last month, Hawaii was bracing for 50,000 to 70,000 cases of flu this year, already complicating preparedness for coronavirus (COVID-19).  Hawaii Now reported in late February that the flu was running rampant at Hawaii health care facilities, according to state officials. A handful of hospitals diverted ambulances on at least one day last week because they were overwhelmed beyond capacity.
  • The expected surge in influenza cases and hospitalizations statewide is complicated by the near simultaneous arrival of COVID-19 in Hawaii.

President Trump’s speech to the nation – March 11th, 2020

  • President Trump’s speech to the nation last night was a belated response to a global crisis. His speech only highlighted an administration engaged in an absence of governance, problem-denial, and misleading statements, and provided little reassurance to the nation from the president that his “crisis on autopilot” policy was working, and will somehow fix itself in time.
  • The 10 minute speech to nation at times sounded more like a rambling campaign speech rather than a assuring statement to nation … we have your back.  Trump mostly highlighted his accomplishments, while presenting a reactive and mostly economic-focused policy to COVID-19, often without reason or factual justification.
  • Trump’s speech highlighted plans for a European travel ban, except for the UK which already has a higher rate of reported COVID-19 cases than 14 other European nations. Vague statements about ramping up national testing for COVID-19 offered little reassurance to an uneasy nation, nor did a proposed temporary tax holiday for certain individuals, companies and industrial sectors of the economy.
  • Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of “The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide,” said in response to Trump’s statements re COVID-19: “One of the huge lessons is: Don’t politicize the communications. You really need credible communicators who people believe.”
  • Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response plan for the nation, counters Trump – March 12th
  • Joe Biden, former vice president and candidate for president, held a news conference today from the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Del., addressing the challenges the country faces, and his ideas for managing the coronavirus outbreak. Biden drew sharp contrasts with Trump, a day after the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office, establishing a preview of what Mr. Biden hopes will be a general election match-up.
  • “Unfortunately, this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration,” Mr. Biden said, “Public fears are being compounded by pervasive lack of trust in this president fueled by an adversarial relationship with the truth that he continues to have.”
  • “No president can promise to prevent future outbreaks,” he said. “But I can promise you this. When I’m president, we will be better prepared, respond better and recover better. We’ll lead with science. We’ll listen to the experts. We’ll heed their advice. And we’ll build American leadership and rebuild it to rally the world to meet the global threats.”
  • “In the difficult days ahead, I know that this country will summon the spirit, the empathy, the decency and the unity needed because in times of crisis, the American people always, always stand as one if told the truth,” he said. “We’ll meet this challenge together. I’m confident of it. But we have to move, and move now.”
  • In his remarks, Biden plan for combating the virus, includes proposals calling for rapidly and vastly expanding national testing for the virus — and tests, he said, should be available at no charge, with the nation moving aggressively to boost hospital capacity and supporting an accelerated push for a vaccine…
  • Bernie Sanders’s COVID-19 response plan for the nation, counters Trump – March 12th
  • Bernie Sanders, also today, provided his own plan for addressing the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak and the steps needed to combat the disease.
  • Senator Sanders called for unity and on the president to declare a national emergency.
  • Sanders said that we (the nation) must face the truth that the number of US casualties from virus may exceed that of World War Two.
  • “If there was ever a time that we were all in this together, the time is now, and must address the virus threat in a bi-partisan effort, led by science and medical experts, not politicians, …if there ever was a time for transparency in government, it is now.”  
  • “Unfortunately, we have an administration that is largely incompetent and that has endangered many Americans…” 
  • Sanders speech excerpt:  https://nyti.ms/2IJcFEs
  • Potential fiscal impacts on Hawaii of COVID-19
  • We are just beginning to understand both the potential fiscal and health impacts of COVID-19 on Hawaii.
  • Visitor fears over the coronavirus (COVID-19) could mean a $300 million revenue loss to Hawaii this year.  The state’s tourism sector is also projected to decline by 10%,  resulting in nearly 6,000 job losses, according to an University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UERO) released this week.
  • Separately, the state’s Council on Revenues projects the state should expect no revenue growth in state taxes in fiscal year 2021, which begins this July 1. They also lowered the projection for the last three months of this fiscal year by 0.3%, or about $22 million.
  • State lawmakers appear unaware or unconcerned as to the evolving economic impact to the state’s budget as they pass a series of spending packages, including over $70 million worth of tax benefits for lower income workers, and another $200 million for developing affordable housing in West Oahu.  State economists expect tax collections to rebound by 2022 and to coincide with a projected (unknown) statewide economic recovery by the end of 2021.

— previously published from March 3rd, 2020 —  Cororavirus World Infection Map

 

Cdc Cornavirus Map 3 4 20

  • As of March 6th, the total number of documented coronavirus cases worldwide has topped 100,000 worldwide, with more than 3,400 deaths attributed to the virus. New coronavirus cases have been trending higher, with the vast majority reported outside of China.  The World Health Organization previous stated on Tuesday, the global case fatality rate is now 3.4 percent.
  • Confirmed U.S. Covid-19 cases have climbed to at least 233. Last week, the U.S. suffered its first two (NY Times report, 3-3-20). As of March 6th, the number has since grown to 14 confirmed U.S. deaths directly attributed to the virus
  • Gov. David Ige declared a state of emergency Wednesday (March 4th) following the disclosure that a cruise ship that carried California’s first coronavirus fatality visited the four main Hawaiian islands last week.  While Hawaii still has no confirmed cases, state health officials are monitoring developments involving the ship that stopped on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island with passengers who may have been previously exposed to the new illness, known as COVID-19.
  • The declaration allows Hawaii to use funds to act quickly in containing the spread of the virus when an outbreak occurs in the islands. The measure allows for “funding flexibility” to buy supplies and equipment and gives the governor authority to suspend any laws that may impede emergency functions.
  • Racing to confront a growing public health threat, the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives resoundingly approved $8.3 billion in emergency aid on Wednesday to combat the coronavirus, just hours after congressional leaders from both parties reached a deal on the funding.
  • The bipartisan package, which includes nearly $7.8 billion for agencies dealing with the virus and came together after days of intensive negotiations, and is substantially larger than what the White House proposed in late February. It also authorizes roughly $500 million to allow Medicare providers to administer telehealth services so that more elderly patients, who are at greater risk from the virus, can receive care at home.
  • The coronavirus will have a greater effect on Hawaii’s economy than initially predicted, with tourism spending expected to decline by 10% this year, according to a new report by University of Hawaii economists.
  • That equates to an estimated $1.7 billion, based on the 2019 figures for visitor spending.
  • The report, released Tuesday by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, is the first major economic research on the local economy produced since the virus’ widening economic effects have come into focus.
  • WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COVID-19
  • No vaccine, cure, or direct treatment currently exists to address COVID-19… 
  • Symptoms of this infection include fever, cough and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. The illness causes lung lesions and pneumonia. But milder cases may resemble the flu or a bad cold, making detection difficult.  Patients also may exhibit other symptoms, such as gastrointestinal problems or diarrhea.
  • Current estimates suggest that symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days after exposure to the virus.
  • How does COVID-19 compare to the flu?
  • While the symptoms are similar, the coronavirus seems to be more deadly than the flu — so far — and more contagious. Early estimates of the coronavirus death rate from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, have been around 2 percent, while the seasonal flu, on average, kills about 0.1 percent of people who become infected.
  • Viral particles are the transmission vehicle of the coronavirus and must travel within mucus or saliva — and they must enter through eyes, nose or mouth to become infected.  While the coronavirus can last on surfaces like tray tables, touch screens, door handles and faucets — one study found that other coronaviruses, like SARS and MERS stay on metal, glass and plastic for up to nine days — a disinfectant on a hard surface, or soap while washing your hands, will kill the virus.  However, most people tend to touch their faces more often than they realize. Doing so after touching a surface where droplets from when someone sneezed or coughed can lead to the virus being passed on.
  • In the new study, researchers analyzed several dozen previously published papers on human coronaviruses to get a better idea of how long they can survive outside of the body. The authors found that these coronaviruses can linger on surfaces for over a week but that some of them don’t remain active for as long at temperatures higher than 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and can also be effectively wiped away by household disinfectants.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced changes that will significantly expand coronavirus tests in the coming days. That will likely uncover many U.S. Covid-19 cases.
  • Will Technology or Common Sense Saves Us – perhaps both
  • Beginning about half a million years ago, the first human beings emerged in Africa, and eventually migrated around the rest of the world in search of game and other sources of food.
  • About 11,000 years ago, certain human beings developed agriculture—a major milestone in human history, and which led to the domestication of animals to assist with agricultural work.
  • As agricultural societies grew they developed immunity to deadly diseases like smallpox. Constant proximity to domesticated animals, combined with increased population density, meant that new germs were constantly circulating in agricultural societies.
  • As a result, these societies became resistant to many epidemics—those who couldn’t survive died off, while those with immunity survived and passed on their immunity to their offspring.
  • The Coronavirus (Covid-19) is an example of 21st century pandemic.
  • As the Covid-19 outbreak continues to spread worldwide by a world that is now physically connected by travel defined in hours, rather than weeks or months. More people, more chances for contract and spreading the virus globally faster, resulting in greater numbers of people across the globe become critically ill faster, while scientists race to find a treatment.
  • Dozens of medicines are in clinical trials in China—and now in the U.S.—to treat the disease, officially named COVID-19. Some are antiviral drugs that are already used to narrowly target other viruses.  Experts say these medications are unlikely to do much against the novel coronavirus.
  • Other drugs being tested—such as the broad-spectrum antiviral Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences—could prove quite effective, some evidence suggests. But only the rigorous, controlled clinical studies now underway will be able to confirm this possibility.  Remdesivir has been shown to be effective against many other viruses, and some experts are optimistic that it—or similar compounds—may work for the pathogen responsible for COVID-19.
  • Pill
  • Remdesivir was given to the first known U.S. coronavirus patient: a man in Washington State who had recently returned from the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, China. And he has made a good recovery.
  • But that patient is, of course, only a single person, and a larger sample size will be needed to determine the drug’s efficacy.
  • Two trials of remdesivir are currently underway in China: one for severe cases of COVID-19 and the other for mild or moderate cases. Results for both trials are expected in April.
  • Another clinical trial is planned in the U.S., and it will be run by the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That trial will take months to be conducted and at up to 50 sites around the world, testing Remdesivir against a placebo.
  • Politics, Blind Faith versus Common Sense and Science
  • In the past few days President Trump has been forced to face a crisis, this one not of his own making.   Last Friday (2/28), as global markets continued to plunge amid growing fears about the coronavirus outbreak, Trump and his allies pulled from a familiar playbook and blamed others for the market slide on the coronavirus (alarmists).  Those directly in their cross-hairs are familiar targets of deflection and blame: the media, and by extension Democrats, blamed for using the cononavirus outbreak as “their new hoax”.
  • Trump can blame others, as he frequently does for problems of his own making, but he cannot hide from the facts that after years of slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services, his Administration has left entire arms of our government underfunded and understaffed, and now as the nation faces a growing global pandemic, the check has come due.
  • Within the administration, there’s strong pressure not to contradict Trump’s line, and when Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, warned that community spread of coronavirus in America was inevitable, the president was reportedly furious — the Administration’s follow-up response, director of the C.D.C. said “she misspoke.”
  • Instead of allowing CDC experts to guide a science based strategy to combat this public health threat, they’ve been silencing experts. Placing the “invisible’ Vice President Mike Pence — an avid science denier — in charge of a public health emergency may very well define, ahead of impeachment, Trump and his administration…
  • From the beginning, Trump minimized the scale of the crisis, portraying it as a purely foreign threat that could be addressed by closing borders. At a Feb. 26 news conference, he claimed there were 15 cases in America, omitting those diagnosed overseas. “The 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” he said. At that time, there had been more than 210 cases confirmed across the country and 12 deaths.
  • Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of “The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide,” said in response to Trump’s statements re COVID-19: “One of the huge lessons is: Don’t politicize the communications. You really need credible communicators who people believe.”