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COVID – week 105 – March 14 – March 20

Weekend – The Seattle Times weekly graph – rapidly declining cases, hospitalisations and death rates. Much discussion of a "second booster" or "fourth shot".

Hong Kong death rates are insane. This from The Economist.

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Friday – Covid in over 70s in UK at record high. After two years, this is the pandemic that everyone is now forgetting.

Thursday – good listen from The Guardian on the coming wave of Covid.

Wednesday – Canada to drop testing requirement for visitors from the US from April 1.

Tuesday – BA.2 is starting to make news. ~100M people in PRC under lockdown or restrictions. Fourth dose (second booster?) will be needed, Pfizer CEO says an annual shot will be needed. I refer back to my comments from 2020. CDC Wastewater Surveillance System shows 1000% jump in Covid DNA in Seattle wastewater.

Monday – "UK should brace for rising cases", meanwhile all travel restrictions dropped in the UK. BA.2 Omicron variant starting to run fast. PRC locks down Jilin province. Concerns that Sinovac isn’t as effective against omicron and variant. Dropped The Guardian from the daily summaries – but no doubt another raging covid wave will force its return.

This time 2021 – another wave passes across Europe, Washington State following closely. 100M vaccinations in 58 days.

This time 2020 – the start of panic buying amidst FUD and calls for rationing.

  The Seattle Times
14 Mar here
15 Mar here
16 Mar here
17 Mar here
18 Mar here
19 Mar here
20 Mar  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

COVID – week 104 – March 7 – March 13

Weekend – call for fourth jab in England, Covid cases rising again. Changchun, PRC on lockdown because of surge of Covid.

Locally – mask mandates end this weekend, many businesses still requiring masks and vaccine proof.

Friday – "one third of US Covid child deaths were from omicron". Hong Kong battling huge wave of Covid.

Thursday – Covid building up again in England.

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Wednesday – vaccination mandates, mask mandates – ending across the US and Europe. Meanwhile Hong Kong, Israel and others are seeing a fifth wave of Covid.

Tuesday – ah – the variants are coming back. "Deltacron" and BA.2 are starting to enter the vernacular. With war taking the headlines, and a weary populous; this could just be "let it run" – which is a disaster for public health, those sheltering, the immune compromised, and anyone with children under 5.

Monday – good read on the coalition of extreme groups forming across the US.

This time 2021 – vaccination and beating the variants. A year into working from home, and it’s the new normal.

This time 2020 – getting into the groove of weekly blogging with daily news aggregation. Restaurants and bars closing, statewide school closures, large gatherings banned.

  The Guardian The Seattle Times
7 Mar   here
8 Mar   here
9 Mar   here
10 Mar   here
11 Mar   here
12 Mar   here
13 Mar    

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

Going Solar – a preamble

When we moved to Issaquah, back in 2008, we moved into a new home. I’ve spent the last 14 years or so researching and tracking the financials, efficiency and availability of photo-voltaic systems. Back in 2008-2010 I spoke at length with several colleagues who had made the early jump, these homebrew solutions came with costs, risks – but happily lots of data.

We are at the point in early 2022 where we have decided to take the plunge and make a major investment in a combined photo-voltaic and battery storage system. This series of blog posts will walk through a lot of our thoughts and decisions, mainly so I can have this for future reference.

COVID – week 103 – February 28 – March 6

Weekend – with war in Europe dominating the headlines, the US and much of Europe seems to have forgotten we’re in the tail end of a pandemic.

Cases are down – but still higher than much of the last two years.

Friday – Hong Kong planning to test all residents, shops rationing some food and medicines.

Thursday – Live coverage from the Guardian looks to be over. Newsroom is focused instead on war in Ukraine.

Wednesday – the end of Omicron is being mistaken for the end of Covid.

Tuesday – the smaller, child sized, shots of Pfizer are less effective. Stops serious illness, but doesn’t prevent infection.

Monday – European war, and the potential for massive global escalation, has given The Guardian newsroom a completely different focus. No daily aggregates from The Guardian in almost a week.

This time 2021 – vaccine rollout well underway; 28M in US with two shots. A great early lead.

This time 2020 – I was in the office, running an architecture design session, no social distancing. All of the talk was about the coronavirus. 2 March 2020 – State Of Emergency declared in Washington State. Work from home officially started on 6th March.

  The Guardian The Seattle Times
28 Feb   here
1 Mar   here
2 Mar   here
3 Mar   here
4 Mar   here
5 Mar   here
6 Mar    

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

Security and access tweaks

Like many other sites, large and small, well known to obscure – I’ve been getting a lot of external and malicious traffic.

Some slight tightening of security, mandating newer TLS versions and cipher suites.