family news

Joy was sick last month and is now better. But Joy's brother had the same symptoms of asthmatic bronchitis last week, and was put on zithromax and prednisone for it by his doctor after the Chest x ray showed ordinary pneumonia. But now he has a positive covid test, so we continue to worry about him. He does have supplementary oxygen to use as needed, but is not sick enough to go to the hospital.

Which makes me wonder if Joy's bad bronchitis two weeks ago was covid. She didn't get a test.

We had the AZ vaccine last week, so we are good. They saved this for the high risk groups: lower risk groups and high risk who didn't get the shot because they ran out of vaccine got the J&J vaccine (one shot). And Joy got our drivers (who deliver rice to Manila but are in a low risk age/health group) the Chinese vaccine.

The maid claims an elderly lady in town died after getting the J&J vaccine: she was in her 70s so probably not, but rumors will go around again. There is a lot of suspicion about the vaccine here, but most are getting it anyway.

Ivermectin is now forbidden by the gov't... but there is a large underground market for it, and a friend gave a few tablets to Joy in case she gets sick again. 

Ruby had a fit: She said it is probably a fake version and useless, but hey, this is the Philippines so lots of drugs are counterfeit and not up to par. 

The big worry is that the delta varient is in Manila: the vaccines don't stop it completely, but reports say they do prevent you from dying from it. And in the wings: They just tested and found a lamba case in Manila. That one comes from Peru and is scary, but not a lot of good information out there about it. 

more at NPR who is channeling their inner HHGG and just says "Don't panic" 

presumably a lot of the 100 000 people coming into the US have it, but hey, why panic when they aren't bothering to test them all, but are simply spreading them all over the country.

My son reported his (fully vaccinated) wife caught covid by visiting a new grandchild in Texas...

She was vaxxed (she is a caregiver) so was only sick for a week or so and now tests negative.

She caught it because the son in law refused the vaccine and got sick, and gave it to her. Sigh. My son in Florida thinks all the anti vax anti mask types are nuts (and I agree with him). 

So the stories in the MSM point fingers at those evil Evangelical anti vax protesters who are risking death and spreading the disease. 

One problem behind this meme: it's propaganda. Anti vax opinions are more common in the well educated and among minorities.

in the meanwhile, where are all those illegal migrants going? Into local hotels?

But it made me wonder: with such large numbers why haven't they opened up a couple army bases to house them as was done when VietNam fell?

Michael Yon's podcast that I posted yersterday mentions a lot of them have family or friends in the US, so maybe they will be quickly resettled, as were the Cuban refugees in the Mariel boat lift. But it's almost impossible to find good stories that don't have a political bias.

and now the US should expect 100 thousand Afghans on their doorstep in the next few weeks.

Iran, who in the past housed hundreds of thousands of Afghans, will again face an exodus, and will feel obliged to at least accept the Shiite minorities from there, since the Taliban will kill them as infidels. 

And China is there to make nice. Wonder how long that will last.

The dirty little secret is that the Taliban is a product of the Pakistani military, and is mainly a Pushtun tribal group.

strategyPage has background on these groups.

it's not just a US problem: China, Russia, Iran, India, and locals who are not Pashtuns are involved.

and the virus will complicate matters: most of the aid workers will leave and the infrastructure will collapse unless China sends in their help with the Wolf Warrior types to protect them.

Ah but what if Iran pulls back their 50 thousand Afghan mercenaries from Syria to save their fellow Shiites?

and what about Balochastan?

So expect a civil war in the near future.

Afghanistan has been a hell hole and fought over since 2000 BC, but the real problem is that the sight of chaos in Khandahar sends a message to all the bad guys in the world tha Biden is incompetent and won't do a thing to stop them.

and this is bad news Taiwan and for us in the Philippines.