Citizen Cartwright

Omicron variant giving us practice being comfortable with uncertainty

"Our brains perceive ambiguity as a threat, and they try to protect us by diminishing our ability to focus on anything other than creating certainty,” says an article from The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

So, since we have to wait for experts to analyze the new variant, here are seven ways to cope with the uncertainty, from Greater Good. 

 

Some of the latest articles on omicron:

 

In technical paper, WHO assesses omicron variant’s overall global risk as ‘very high’

Differing approaches around the world hindering response to omicron variant

New variant a cause for concern but not panic, Biden says

Omicron brings coronavirus vaccine inequity ‘home to roost’

Also in the news

Barbados removes Britain's Queen Elizabeth as head of state, becomes a republic

 

Human Rights Watch: Promised Afghan amnesty hasn't stopped retaliation against former police, intelligence officers

 

Senate Republicans delay votes on defense authorization bill

Federal judge blocks Biden vaccine rule for health workers in 10 states

Supreme Court denies Massachusetts hospital workers’ appeal of vaccination requirement

 

AP: Health concerns increase near Texas gas drilling sites as state makes it difficult for localities to fight emissions

 

Twitter Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal to take over as Jack Dorsey steps down

 

Bacterial ink reproduces itself and can be 3D-printed into living architecture

 

Vox: How to do the most good possible when donating to charity

 

KHN: Why you can’t find cheap at-home coronavirus tests

What we know and don’t know about the omicron variant

It likely will take weeks to determine how infectious this new coronavirus variant is and how well vaccines work against it, says The Associated Press.

 

Some previous variants, such as the beta, initially alarmed scientists but didn’t end up spreading very far, AP notes.

 

Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are planning to test an artificial version of the omicron variant against their vaccines, says The New York Times.

 

Moderna and Pfizer also plan to test whether booster shots will bolster the immune system enough to fend off the new variant. 

 

Pfizer says its scientists “can adapt the current vaccine within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant” that eludes the immune system.

 

Moderna says it can update its current vaccine in about two months and have clinical results in about three months if necessary.

 

The World Health Organization on Sunday urged countries not to impose flight bans on southern African nations because of concerns over the omicron variant.

 

The U.S. ban on travel from South Africa and seven other southern African countries starts Monday.

 

South Africa’s government says the country is being treated unfairly because it has advanced genomic sequencing and could detect the variant quickly, and it’s asked other countries to reconsider their travel bans.

 

Richer countries, having already hoarded vaccines for much of 2021, now are penalizing parts of the world they starved of shots in the first place, some scientists say.

Also in the news

Israel, Iran broaden cyberwar to attack civilian targets

 

Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna amid muted hopes

 

As China speeds up nuclear arms race, U.S. wants to talk

 

U.S. releasing oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve in coordination with other countries to cut gas prices

 

Interior Department's report on oil, gas drilling is mostly silent on climate change

 

Local news outlets could get $1.7 billion in aid in House-passed Build Back Better bill

 

Supreme Court to hear 'most important abortion case in decades,' which could undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade

 

NYTimes: GOP cements hold on legislatures in battleground states Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia

AP: The ‘big wave’ of misinformation targeted at Latinos

 

Some states replacing ‘dehumanizing and derogatory’ terms for immigrants in statutes

 

Community systems offering alternative paths for solar growth

 

Researchers trying to produce potato resistant to climate change

NASA spacecraft on mission to test asteroid defense concept

 

NYTimes invites you to vote on the best book of the past 125 years

 

Carrie Meek, pioneering African American former congresswoman, dies at 95

Note to readers

I’m grateful to be sharing this journey with you, dear readers. See you next on Monday, Nov. 29.

 

(And my special gratitude to the reader who alerted me to two items that are running in today’s “Also in the news” section.)

Yes, this is a holiday to be grateful, but what about that Pilgrim part?

It's the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving.

 

And as they have since 1970, indigenous people and their allies will be gathering in Plymouth, Mass., to commemorate a National Day of Mourning.

 

So, since this blog is about being an informed citizen, let’s take a look at an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s American Indian Museum on the National Mall titled "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations.”

 

The exhibit "documents the history of treaty making between American Indians and the United States, from the days of the early republic, when treaties were considered by both sides to be serious, diplomatic agreements based on the recognition of each nation’s sovereignty, to the U.S. government’s use in the 19th century of coercive treaties to dispossess Native Americans of their lands, to the 20th century, when Indian Nations successfully fought court and legislative battles for federal recognition of their treaty rights,” the museum says.

 

I hope you have a chance to watch these videos from the exhibit:

 

"Nation to Nation" exhibit introduction, 4 minutes

"The 'Indian Problem,'" 12 minutes

"Sovereign Rights, Sovereign People," 5 minutes

Also in the news

U.S. listed as a ‘backsliding’ democracy in report by Stockholm-based think tank

 

Biden sticks with Powell as Federal Reserve chair, nominates Brainard as vice chair

Harris announces $1.5 billion investment in healthcare workforce in underserved communities

 

Justice Department to pay $130 million to Parkland shooting victims over failure to probe tips about gunman

 

Alex Jones, Roger Stone subpoenaed by House Jan. 6 panel

 

Kansas Legislature passes bill with expanded vaccine exemptions; Democratic governor says she’ll sign it

Sean Parnell, Trump-backed Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, suspends campaign after losing custody battle

 

Wired/Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting: How Amazon’s retail platform has failed to protect your data

 

Consumer Reports: Your herbs, spices may contain arsenic, cadmium, lead

 

How coronavirus shots for kids help prevent dangerous new variants

House passage of Biden’s $2 trillion bill — and its special climate significance

The legislation passed on Friday could be "as transformative as any since the Great Society and War on Poverty in the 1960s, especially for young families and older Americans,” says The New York Times.

 

And “what ultimately emerges in the climate part of the bill will have a lasting impact on America and all its neighbors on Earth,” says The Associated Press.

 

The vote was 220-213, with every Democrat but one backing the bill, and unanimous Republican opposition. The bill now goes to the Senate, where changes are certain.

 

Let’s focus for the moment on what the $555 billion in the bill for clean energy means for the U.S. pledge at the Glasgow climate summit.

 

If the bill passes, the United States likely will fall 5 percent short of Biden’s target of cutting in half the amount of carbon dioxide the country is emitting by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, AP says, citing researchers at Princeton University and elsewhere.

 

If the bill isn’t passed, the United States likely will fall short of its emission-cutting promise by 20 percent, according to the academic modeling.

 

With that broken promise behind it, it would be harder for the United States “to convince countries like China and India to follow through on their climate commitments,” says Zeke Hausfeather, an energy analyst at the Breakthrough Institute research center.

 

At Glasgow, Bangladesh climate negotiator Quamrul Chowdhury fought, as he has for years, for the United States and other big polluters to make the fast, big cuts needed to keep his and other low-lying countries above water.

 

“In your domestic legislation, if it is enshrined, that will help,” Chowdhury says.

 

The AP article notes that "the sharpest U.S. climate swing of all was by the Trump administration.”

 

But AP also notes that “scores of Republican lawmakers in Congress are stepping forward now to lay claim to a middle ground on climate, between Trump and Biden.”

 

In my observation, this is a significant move for Republicans, especially in these polarized times. Here is the caucus’ description of itself and its roster of more than 70 House lawmakers.

 

Finally, House passage of the bill shows the legislative skills of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who got the bill through the House with almost no margin for error.

 

Here is a summary of what’s in the House-passed bill, from The Associated Press.

Also in the news

Protests in Europe as coronavirus restrictions return

 

Scientists mystified as Africa avoids coronavirus disaster

 

NYTimes: How the U.S. lost ground to China in race for clean-energy metal in Congo

Biden to nominate 2 new members of U.S. Postal board in potential first step toward removing DeJoy

NASA seeking ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon

Wildfires have killed up to a fifth of giant sequoia trees in the past 2 years

U.S. opens coronavirus boosters to all adults, urges them for people over 50

 

GOP embracing natural immunity as a substitute for vaccines

The rise of firefighter trauma in the American West

"With climate change fueling lengthier wildfire seasons and mega-blazes devour forests and rural communities, researchers have documented increasing mental health struggles among those on the front lines,” says a Reuters special report.

 

The article focuses on Cal Fire Battalion Chief Miguel Watson, who fought the 2018 wildfire that burned nearly every home in Paradise, Calif. — including Watson’s mother’s and his brother’s  — and killed 85 people.

 

I grew up in a suburb of San Francisco and never have been to Paradise. But my father was a commercial real estate broker who spent much of his time driving through Northern California assessing ranches and other properties. He found Paradise to be so beautiful that it was his dream to live there. So the devastation of Paradise is particularly meaningful to me.

 

The U.S. Forest Service, which has more than 10,000 professional firefighters on its payroll, tells Reuters it's begun overhauling its mental health services for wildland firefighters this year. 

 

It says it's hired a nationwide contractor for counseling that has “trauma trained clinicians” with experience working with law enforcement and firefighters.

 

Here is an article on the ways climate change is impacting wildfires in the West, from NASA.