Good morning,
Covid And Masks
I am in Florida this week, and am struck by the looks my family gets when we wear masks in grocery stores, or crowded restaurants making our way to our table on the patio. Is it anger or upset that we somehow remind people the pandemic is not over and their vaccination didn’t bring it all to an end? Anyway people largely are not wearing masks and don’t seem to appreciate us doing so.
But the rates of illness are now rebounding in America and it’s because we came here from London we seem to be slightly more aware of whats ahead of everyone. In England the new variant is creating a new wave with average of almost 45,000 cases of covid per day, reported in the U.K. in the past week, an increase of 83 percent from the average two weeks ago. Deaths have risen by 141 percent, while cases in hospitalizations were are doubling every three weeks.
The British P.M. Boris Johnson is in quarantine after his cabinet minister got the virus and while Johnson at first refused to isolate, public anger made him do an about face and stay home. This as England is lifting all remaining Covid restrictions precisely when many health experts say they shouldn’t.
So I am wearing my mask and trying to keep my distance from people because even in the U.S. which suffers from disinformation on the vaccines, and the virus, new cases of Covid-19 in the US, fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, have surged by 70% in a week, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday, to more than 26,300 a day.
Cases were rising in 48 states and stagnant in the other two, the CDC said. Four states, California, Florida, Missouri and Texas, were responsible for 46% of the new cases, with one in five coming in Florida where we get those annoyed side glances for mask wearing. Below I have included a link on the U.S. Surgeon General’s statements about how social media companies are misleading Americans who refuse now to get the vaccine.
Pegasus Project
A leak of phone data suggests human rights lawyers, journalists, activists and dissidents across the globe were selected as for invasive surveillance through their phones.
Their mobile phone numbers appeared in leaked records, indicating they were selected prior to possible surveillance targeting by governmental clients of the Israeli company NSO Group, which developed the Pegasus spyware. NSO Strongly denies the allegations.
This story is just developing and the names of those bugged will shock many with software that allowed their phones to be listened to and activated video and voice recordings. The Washington Post reports Apple iphones were also vulnerable, meaning whatever you say privately in electronic communications is public!
Other News
-extreme weather and flooding has left more than 150 people reported dead across western Germany, with many more fatalities across Europe. Chancellor Angela Merkel says government will work to tackle climate change and rebuild.
-Two athletes have tested positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Village after a team colleague was also infected, officials said on Sunday, raising fears of a cluster just days before the opening ceremony.
-In Lebanon people can’t get money from banks and the currency has crashed.
Have a good morning everyone!
Dana
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-surgeon-general-defends-cdc-mask-change-blames-tech-companies-for-covid-deaths/ar-AAMifcr?ocid=uxbndlbing
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/19/spyware-leak-suggests-lawyers-and-activists-at-risk-across-globe
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-mourns-victims-of-deadly-floods-live-updates/a-58311369
https://apnews.com/article/sports-2020-tokyo-olympics-tokyo-soccer-coronavirus-pandemic-1ae8177bef505404d4cc495fbc8b2c93
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/lebanons-currency-plumbs-record-lows-crisis-deepens-78254500