#endemics

[davidtngbotany]

Meet a stately endemic - the Grey Satinash (Syzygium gustavioides)

Meet the gargantuan Grey Satinash (Syzygium gustavioides), one of the largest species of endemic Syzygiums one will find in the Wet Tropics. In my time in the Wet Tropics, I have had the rare privilege of seeing this both in flower and in fruit in the canopy, while doing research and plant collections up in the Daintree Rainforest Observatory canopy crane, some 25-30m up in the canopy. That…

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[scottpartridge]

An Illustration of #Seychelles #endemics for @ics_seychelles including Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher, Seychelles Sunbird Seychelles Swiftlet, Seychelles Kestrel, Seychelles Warbler, Seychelles White-eye, Seychelles Bulbul, Seychelles Fody, Seychelles Black Parrot, Seychelles Blue Pigeon, Seychelles Scops Owl, and Seychelles Magpie-Robin. 

[arthropooda]

Updated red list raises red flags for Sri Lanka’s birds, especially endemics - The Angry Army

COLOMBO — When Uditha Hettige started out doing field excursions in 1990, in search of Sri Lanka’s rich bird life, he would visit Bodhinagal

COLOMBO — When Uditha Hettige started out doing field excursions in 1990, in search of Sri Lanka’s rich bird life, he would visit Bodhinagala Forest Reserve in the country’s west each week.

Overnighting at a nearby school, he recalls just how common it was to hear the call of species like the Sri Lanka frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger) and to encounter the endemic green-billed coucal (Centropus chlororhynchos) in home gardens close to the forest.

“But the forest now has receded by about a mile compared to what it was three decades ago and now I hardly find a frogmouth even within the forest,” Hettige, considered Sri Lanka’s leading wildlife tour guide and a member of the Ceylon Bird Club (CBC), tells Mongabay. “The green-billed coucals are only found closer to the forest,” he adds.

He says he’s observed this kind of transformation in most of the ecosystems he now visits, giving an indication of how habitat loss and forest degradation are impacting birds.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

World moves forward cautiously 2 years into COVID pandemic

Gillian Flaccus, Christopher Weber, and Terry Tang at AP, via NewsNation Now:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — With COVID-19 case numbers plummeting, Emily Safrin did something she hadn’t done since the pandemic began two years ago: She put her fears aside and went to a concert.

The fully vaccinated and boosted restaurant server planned to keep her mask on, but as the reggaeton star Bad Bunny took the stage and the energy in the crowd soared, she ripped it off. Soon after, she was strolling unmasked in a trendy Portland neighborhood with friends.

Two years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, changing the world overnight, relief and hope are creeping back in after a long, dark period of loss, fear and deep uncertainty about the future.

“Everyone was supposed to be vaccinated or have a negative test, and I said, ‘What the heck, I’m just gonna live my life,’” Safrin said of her concert experience. “It was overwhelming, to be honest, but it also felt great to be able to just feel a little bit normal again.”

The world is finally emerging from a brutal stretch of winter dominated by the highly contagious omicron variant, bringing a sense of relief on the two-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic.

It was March 11, 2020 when the WHO issued its declaration, driving home the severity of the threat presented by a virus that at that point had wreaked havoc primarily in Italy and China. The U.S. had 38 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 1,300 cases nationwide on that date, but reality was starting to sink in: Stocks tanked, classrooms started closing and people began donning masks. In a matter of hours, the NBA was canceling games, Chicago’s huge St. Patrick’s Day parade was scuttled and late-night comedians began filming from empty studios — or even their homes.

Since then, more than 6 million people have died globally, nearly 1 million in the U.S. Millions have been thrown out of work, students have endured three school years of disruptions. The emergence of the vaccine in December 2021 saved countless lives but political divisions, hesitancy and inequality in health systems have kept millions of people around the world from getting inoculated, prolonging the pandemic.

The situation is improving, however.

Hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 have plummeted 80% in the last six weeks across the U.S. since a mid-January pandemic peak, dropping to the lowest levels since July 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Case counts have followed the same trend line to the lowest counts since last summer as well. Even the death tally, which typically lags behind cases and hospitalizations, has slowed significantly in the last month.

In its latest pandemic report, the WHO said infections and deaths are down across the globe, with only one region — the Western Pacific — seeing a rise in cases. The Middle East and Africa saw cases drop by 46% and 40%, respectively.

Another positive: The omicron wave and vaccinations have left enough people with protection against the coronavirus that future spikes will likely require much less disruption to society, experts say.

Nowhere is the shift in the pandemic more apparent than in the nation’s hospitals, where critical care units were overflowing with desperately ill patients just months ago.

[....]

Mask mandates, vaccine requirements and other COVID-19 measures are being eliminated everywhere. The last statewide mask mandate in the U.S., in Hawaii, will end in two weeks.

But health experts are also urging some caution.

Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious-disease physician and epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said it’s certainly good news that the U.S. seems to be at the tail end of a peak. But he cautioned against any victory declarations, especially with the potential of another variant lurking around the corner.

“We have new variants emerge and those new variants fuel large waves, epidemic waves,” Ko said. “The big question is, are they going to be as mild or less severe as omicron? Are they going to be potentially more severe? Unfortunately, I can’t predict that.”

In Portland, people are heading back to movie theaters, concerts and gyms after a long, dark winter and bars and restaurants are filling up once more. Safrin said many customers are telling her it’s their first time dining inside in months.

Two years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. At that time, COVID-19 mainly impacted Italy, Japan, China, South Korea, and Iran, and cases really began to explode in the USA.

In the US and throughout the world, lives began to be upended in all aspects (if it wasn't already the case at that point, esp. Italy), such as school, work, religious activities, socialization, dining out, and sports, as closures and capacity restrictions were enacted. Mask mandates, social distancing, and later vaccine mandates were added to the COVID mitigation toolbox during the last 2+ years.

The night of March 11th, 2020 was when it became obvious that COVID was something that can't be ignored in our lives, as Oklahoma City Thunder player Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID that led to the NBA suspending the remainder of the 2019-20 season and actor Tom Hanks testing positive for it. The following day, March 12th, 2020, all the sports leagues in the US that had their seasons followed the NBA's lead to postpone their seasons.

Two years later, COVID-19 remains a pandemic, but the trends are moving towards making COVID-19 an endemic, as mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and other COVID mitigation measures have mostly elapsed or are in the process of doing so in the USA.

See Also: CNBC: Covid was declared a pandemic two years ago and now we’re finally moving on — but public health experts say it’s not over

[justinspoliticalcorner]

California ends mask mandate with 'endemic' virus policy

This week the state of California lifted its mask mandate for the vaccinated. It is the latest move in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “endemic” policy, a new approach to the coronavirus pandemic, emphas…

Char’Nese Turner and Alex Caprariello at NewsNation Now: 

(NewsNation Now) — This week the state of California lifted its mask mandate for the vaccinated. It is the latest move in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “endemic” policy, a new approach to the coronavirus pandemic, emphasizing on prevention and quick reactions to outbreaks.

“This is exactly what people are going to be asking in the next few weeks: Are we in a new phase? How do we live with this disease without living in fear?” Newsom said.

The next phase of California’s COVID-19 response shifts away from crisis mode. Instead, the state is readying itself to living with the virus long-term, it includes maintaining stockpiles of masks, vaccines, test kits and therapeutics to fight any future waves.

The plan calls for a continued emphasis on efforts in vulnerable and underserved populations that have experienced disproportionately high death rates. And it includes new education, including “myth-buster videos” to fight misinformation and disinformation and help interpret ever-evolving precautions for a confused public whiplashed by safeguards that seemingly shift by the day and vary across county lines.

It relies on continued testing sites including in schools, more over-the-counter virus tests, building and tracking strategic stockpiles of testing kits, surgical and K95 masks, hospital gowns and gloves and ventilators to help the most seriously ill breathe. In coordination with the federal government, it calls for a first-in-the-nation study of the pandemic’s direct and indirect long-term impacts on both people and communities.

[...]

Schoolchildren in California are still required to wear masks indoors, but that may end soon. The governor said he will announce an update in 10 days.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kiran Stacey at Financial Times:

The US is heading out of the “full blown” pandemic phase of Covid-19, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said, as he predicted a combination of vaccinations, treatments and prior infection would soon make the virus more manageable. 

 Dr Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times he hoped there would be an end to all pandemic-related restrictions in the coming months including mandatory wearing of masks. In his most optimistic comments about the trajectory of the pandemic since the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Fauci outlined a scenario in which local health departments would lead the response to the virus rather than the Biden administration. 

 Fauci said: “As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of Covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.” 

 Asked when restrictions might end, he said he hoped it would be “soon”, and agreed with the suggestion it was likely to happen this year. But he warned local health departments could reintroduce measures temporarily if outbreaks were detected in the community.

Fauci’s comments added to a growing sense of optimism among health officials across the developing world that the Omicron variant may herald the end of the most damaging phase of the pandemic. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been one of the most cautious voices in the US on the pandemic and frequently contradicted Donald Trump when he felt the former president was playing down the risks of the virus. 

 More than 900,000 people have died in the US of Covid-19. While the country’s daily death toll remains close to record levels, new infections have begun to fall rapidly, following similar declines in countries such as South Africa and the UK.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times that after nearly 2 years of the COVID pandemic impacting all facets of life, the USA is moving out of the "full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19" and towards where COVID is endemic.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Fauci Says It's Not Clear Yet Whether Omicron Will End Pandemic

Achieving herd immunity from COVID-19 is more complicated than it is with other diseases, warned the White House’s chief medical adviser.

Lydia O’Connor at HuffPost: 

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that he hopes the omicron variant of the coronavirus will soon make COVID-19 a more manageable endemic disease, but that it’s simply too early to know for sure.

People who recover from infections increase their immunity to the disease, but the White House’s chief medical adviser said the threat of new variants tempers optimism that omicron will help bring about herd immunity in 2022.

“It is an open question as to whether or not omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for because you have such a great deal of variability with new variants emerging,” he said on a virtual panel for the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda conference.

“I would hope that that’s the case,” he added. “But that would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response of the prior variant.”

Bringing the spread of COVID-19 down to endemic levels would mean the virus has a “non-disruptive presence” but isn’t completely eliminated, Fauci said. However, he said the coronavirus has an “extraordinary capability of mutating,” and immunity from exposure and current vaccines wanes over time.

“We’re dealing with a very complicated situation here that makes our classic definition of herd immunity very elusive,” Fauci said.

Dr. Fauci stated it is too early to determine whether the Omicron variant is a sign of COVID becoming endemic.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

COVID-19 is not endemic yet, WHO says

The World Health Organization is pushing back on Spanish officials who want the European Union to treat COVID-19 as if it’s reached endemic status.

Tom Negovan and Bobby Oler at NewsNation Now:

(NewsNation Now) — The World Health Organization is pushing back on Spanish officials who want the European Union to treat COVID-19 as if it’s reached endemic status.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants the EU to treat the virus like other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu, and ease off the daily life disruptions and endless statistics.

But Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, says “we’re still a way off” from endemicity because the virus is still unpredictable.

COVID-19 cases in Europe rocketed upward to close 2021. The numbers doubled to 7 million in just two weeks.

The discourse across the Atlantic mirrors talking points heard in the United States.

“We can’t forget that most of the problems we have today are due to the fact that there are still some unvaccinated people,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said. He’s been under fire for making vaccines mandatory for people older than 50.

In the U.S., experts seem to agree co-existing with COVID-19 is our reality. The question is what that means.

“We still know and understand that vaccination provides protection against those most severe cases — against hospitalization, severe disease and death,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson with the University of Kansas Health System.

Lizzie Stephens, an American athlete living in Spain, said people there are getting back to their daily lives, but still wearing masks and getting vaccinated.

From the 01.11.2022 edition of NewsNation’s NewsNation: Rush Hour: