Cast Off Fear

"The past can be intoxicating. It can draw you in, create the illusion that things were better, that you were happier, your experiences were richer back then. It can also debilitate you…holding you back from even another attempt at happiness."

--Ellie in 'The Last Letter From Your Lover'

______

Early morning. I was standing in the kitchen waiting for water to boil for my first cup of coffee. I spotted a bird outside. It had been flying west when it stopped to perch on the highest branch of a young plum tree out front.

The skinny shoot it landed on swayed and buckled for a moment under its weight. The bird shifted to one foot in response. 

The branch resumed its fragile place as the highest point around after its visitor resumed her flight.

***

It's not often that I get to choose as the top headline of the day an item from a small paper like the Half Moon Bay Review, but today is one of those special days. 

The article was written by Scott Balsitis, who lives in the nearby community of Moss Beach, and is a  viral immunologist and vaccinologist who has served on a fellowship at the CDC studying pandemics. He is also the father of two young children.

He's as concerned as any of us about Covid's return and the delta variant, but he is one of the comparatively few commentators with the expertise to evaluate the actual data.

"Fear is a bigger threat to us now than COVID," he writes, "and it’s time to move on."

Here are a few of the many salient points from his essay:

• "Delta could still give vaccinated people a cold some fraction of the time, but so do a few hundred other viruses that we don’t organize our lives around."
• "Unless your child has a high-risk medical condition, it is more dangerous to drive your kid to and from school than it is for them to get any variant of COVID."
• "Fear has a cost. Suicides easily outnumber COVID deaths in children 17 and under, who experienced a wave of isolation, anxiety and depression last year."
• "One in three of our kids will meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder by adulthood. Maintaining a prolonged fear state is unhealthy for them, and it’s unhealthy for the rest of us too."
• "It’s not possible to say that masking, social distancing and quarantines are necessary for our safety and not incur adverse consequences, because the message is that existing normally in the world is too dangerous."
• "People who already struggle in our economy lose their incomes when people are afraid, and poverty drives myriad negative health outcomes."

[NOTE: Thanks to my always brilliant daughter Sarah Tiglao for turning me on to Balsitis's excellent piece.]

***

It would be difficult for me to over-emphasize the importance of the wisdom contained in Scott Balsitis's article -- a wisdom I've been struggling to reach myself in my essays over the past week.

Isolation and the pure fear of connecting with other people is a far more toxic disease than Covid could ever be, even at its worst.

The elderly people I met in assisted living were right all along -- we're all going to die anyway, so that isn't the issue. At the same time, taking all prudent measures to avoid spreading this fiendishly infectious virus to the vulnerable among us made sense too.

I'm glad we wore masks, maintained distance, stayed home, avoided gatherings, worked remotely, schooled our kids remotely, got vaccinated and took all of the measures to do our part over a long, long period of time.

We did the right thing -- back then.

Now the right thing is the polar opposite. We need to get out there, resume our lives and live now as it matters. Because it does.

Don't like your job? Change it.

Need a change of scenery? Move.

Want to chase a dream? Do it.

The time to cower in fear has passed. Any remaining risks from Covid are so low as to be negligible. (Caveat: Of course the immunocompromised should be much more cautious than the rest of us.)

You can't know what wonderful things await your escape from captivity unless you choose to fly.

Just like the bird I glimpsed this morning heading west.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Now, risks of further isolation are worse than COVID (Half Moon Bay Review) 7/28/21 <https://www.hmbreview.com/opinion/matters_of_opinion/now-risks-of-further-isolation-are-worse-than-covid/article_3f02540e-efcf-11eb-b48d-837249cc878e.html?fbclid=IwAR3B6egCeAswtmevAVRjLgjmZRh79bLXlPrQbbED7ytDn3CeLK9Ee1wkPLw#tncms-source=signup>

* WHO calls for moratorium on booster vaccine shots through September, citing global disparity (WP)

* New York City Will Require Vaccination for Indoor Activities (AP)

* Indonesia surpasses 100,000 deaths amid new virus wave (AP) 

* Most unvaccinated  Americans believe coronavirus vaccine poses greater health risk than the disease, poll finds(WP) 

* China orders mass testing in Wuhan as COVID outbreak spreads (AP) 

* Biden Has Blunt Words for Republican Governors on Vaccines: ‘Get Out of the Way’ (NYT) 

* When delta strikes: Latest coronavirus surges grow faster, hit record heights in Louisiana, Florida (WP)

* Hot, gusty weather could mean explosive fire growth in West (AP)

* Masters of Desert Survival, Can Saguaros Survive Wildfires? -- Fires accelerated by climate change, along with invasive plants and urban sprawl, threaten the saguaros, a keystone species of the Sonoran Desert and a celebrated symbol of the Southwest. (NYT)

* Crews From Alaska To Puerto Rico Are Trying To Control The Bootleg Fire (NPR)

* NOAA's revised hurricane outlook sees more storms in 2021 Atlantic season (Reuters)

* Virtually all emperor penguins doomed for extinction by 2100 as climate change looms, study finds (WP)

* Costa Rica eyes permanent ban on fossil fuel exploration and extraction (Reuters)

* Temperatures are expected to reach triple digits in lower mountain ranges and valleys in Southern California. This in turn has prompted the National Weather Service to warn that fire risk is elevated. (LA Times) 

* Vast wildfires in Russia's Yakutia set emissions record - monitor (Reuters)

* Huge California fire grows as heat spikes again across state (AP)

* The Dixie Fire — burning across more than 253,000 acres of Plumas and Butte counties — is only 35% contained and threatens more than 7,000 structures. On Tuesday, the Plumas County Sheriff's Office issued a mandatory evacuation order for the east shore of Lake Almanor as firefighters battled the growing blaze. (SF Chronicle)

* Mediterranean has become a 'wildfire hotspot', EU scientists say (Reuters)

* To Save A Huge, 24-Armed Sea Creature, Scientists Become Loving Foster Parents

--  A mysterious disease is killing off the West Coast's enormous sunflower sea star, so researchers have launched an ambitious effort to breed this species in captivity. (NPR)

* This year’s summer of climate extremes hits wealthier places (AP)

* Tourists, residents evacuated by boat in Greece as wildfires rage (Reuters)

* The Biden administration issued a new eviction moratorium after progressive lawmakers turned up the pressure as protections for millions of vulnerable renters lapsed over the weekend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new order targets counties with elevated rates of COVID-19 infections and will last for 60 days. [HuffPost]

* Aetna Implements Policy to Restrict Access to Cataract Surgery (California Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons)

* Biden Says Cuomo ‘Should Resign,’ as Sexual Harassment Findings Emerge (NYT)

* Cuomo Faces Call for Impeachment; Biden Urges Him to Quit (WSJ)

* Should Gov. Andrew Cuomo be impeached, or choose to resign, New York's Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul would be next in line and would become the state's first woman to hold the position. (NPR)

* Is This Finally It For Andrew Cuomo? (New Yorker)

* China Wants Manufacturing—Not the Internet—to Lead Economy(WSJ)

* Iranians fear new bill will restrict internet even further (AP)

* Taliban Commander Was Released From Prison Last Year, Officials Say (WSJ)

* Blasts and gun attack rock Afghan capital (Reuters)

* The Secret Japanese Gym Where Simone Biles Trained for Her Olympic Comeback (WSJ)

* Osama Bin Laden Biography Goes Inside Al-Qaida Leader's Final Hideout  (NPR)

* Evenhanded Oatmeal Packaging Won’t Say Which Cooking Method Preferred (The Onion)

***

"Summer Wine"

Song by Nancy Sinatra

Written by Lee Hazlewood

Strawberries, cherries and an angel's kiss in spring

My summer wine is really made from all these things

I walked in town on silver spurs that jingled to

A song that I had only sang to just a few

She saw my silver spurs and said let's pass some time

And I will give to you summer wine

Oh, oh summer wine

Strawberries, cherries and an angel's kiss in spring

My summer wine is really made from all these things

Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time

And I will give to you summer wine

Oh, oh summer wine

My eyes grew heavy and my lips they could not speak

I tried to get up but I couldn't find my feet

She reassured me with an unfamiliar line

And then she gave to me more summer wine

Oh, oh summer wine

Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring

My summer wine is really made from all these things

Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time

And I will give to you summer wine

Mmm-mm summer wine

When I woke up the sun was shining in my eyes

My silver spurs were gone, my head felt twice its size

She took my silver spurs, a dollar and a dime

And left me cravin' for more summer wine

-30-