Family news: Lots of covid. Sigh.

 we are well. Joy is sleeping in my room because they are removing the termite infested wood and replacing it with a treated termite proof board. Hopefully this will help. Next step: the ceiling below the eaves outside.

There are a lot of rumors of sick people who either have covid, or who think they have covid, or are worried they have covid but are too afraid of catching covid so they won't go to the hospital or be tested.

Some of the elderly are dying of heart attacks and asthma, blaming it on covid. Who knows. We are a small city (that 20 years ago was still a small town) and everyone in the barangay is realated to each other, or knows someone who is related to someone. 

The driver's wife is sick: maybe strep throat which he had two weeks ago. So I gave her an antibiotic and asked if she had covid shot; Yes, But the Chinese shot two weeks ago, and by the way she might be pregnant, so she stopped her weekly Ivermectin prevention tablet.

I said if she gets really sick she might want to go back on the Ivermectin, but not to take any prednisone unless she develops asthma type symptoms. (Ivermectin in pregnancy article here suggests not enough studies, but seems as safe as placebo).

Luckily she still has some of that Ivermectin, because right now the pharmacies are out of stock. (You can buy it there with a doctor's prescription).

Sigh. Many here have not had the vaccine: some because they were afraid, or just didn't get around to it, but mainly because they were lower risk and are only now eligible to get a shot. (because the high risk elders and caregivers and diabetics were given it first).

Not everyone who has mild symptoms want to get tested: they don't want to spend the money (or risk going to the hospitals) to get a test, and of course, if it is positive, they and the family are put into quarantine.

right now, we are in the midst of the delta variant epidemic, so even the good western vaccines don't work on everyone, and of course, a lot of the lower risk folks only got the weaker Chinese shot... but given the chronic malnutrition in the poor, their immune system might not be as strong as elderly in the west.

Something to remember the next time you read about statistics on covid.

The lockdown here is medium, but it is still strict in Manila, which means we can't deliver rice there (so no income for us or employees).

Sigh.

And one of our properties in Manila had a shop in the front, but for a year had few customers: they did change to delivery, but with the cops checking the roads (and you have to have a 30 dollar test to get thru the quarantine police blocks) they think they might have to open their Ecommerce shop outside city limits so they don't have to pay that high price every day to do deliveries.

So that income will also be gone in two months when the contract ends. 

Sigh.

There are a lot of stray dogs because people are throwing out their dogs who they can't afford to feed. The city offers free rabies shots for those who were bitten by stray dogs, but the budget is limited so a few have come here to get help in paying for the shot (7 dollars a shot and three shots).

We are making sure out dogs have rabies vaccine so poor Lukas, the young dog, got his rabies booster today. 

We also have a neighbor's dog hanging around who was thrown out of the home because he had severe mange, so we started feeding him. We can't take him to the vet (he'd probably bite us) so I put some Ivermectin in his food, which is a thirdline treatment for some types of mange. 

He mange has improved, either because of this or because he is better nourished from the cook's meals, and he now is let inside during the rain storm.

The vet is telling us our dogs need a shot for worms. I suspect she means heartworm. But with the limited budget we can't afford it, so hopefully they will just have to live with the worms.

Finally, the elections are coming. 

Manny Pacquiao is running for president, and he will probably win because he is popular.

And our mayor, who can't run for mayor, announced he won't run for governor but for congress. The problem? The present congressperson is from the other political clan... The two clan have feuded before, with shootouts mostly against the present popular mayor. Our area has so many political murders that it has been called the wild west of the Philippines.