Speedysnail

Madagasikara Vonjy Maika

Tonga isn’t the only tropical country close to my heart that has faced disaster in recent weeks: Madagascar has been hit first by Tropical Storm Ana and then by Cyclone Batsirai, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Mananjary, on the east coast, was destroyed by Batsirai, as torrential winds and rain caused scenes of devastation and destruction and at least ten deaths. The country has already been hit badly by a prolonged drought fuelled by climate change. Please consider donating to the cyclone relief efforts of the UN World Food Programme, to the famine appeals of CBM and Money for Madagascar, or to the longer-term programmes of Action Against Hunger, Unicef and Small Steps for Africa.

22 February 2022

Two Years On

A country changed by Covid.

The number of global deaths is surging while cases seem to be falling. The pandemic’s true death toll is millions more than official counts.

Some Omicron recoverers deteriorate after about ten days, with severe problems not necessarily related to the airways. Omicron BA.2 is 30%-34% more infectious than BA.1.

Covid brain changes show parallels with Alzheimer’s. Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of Covid: risk and burden increase even in mild cases.

Covid can reawaken ancient virus remnants in human DNA. Past pandemics may have caused Parkinson’s. Is our pandemic the ghost of the 1889 Russian Flu?

Seriously, don’t put yourself at risk of Long Covid.

Some hopeful news: Tracking Long Covid in the blood. Antihistamines provide relief.

20 February 2022

One Month On

Why the Tongan eruption will go down in the history of volcanology.

Tonga’s underwater volcanic eruption triggered nearly 590,000 lightning strikes.

The eruption as seen from 73km away.

First-hand video of the tsunami.

“They didn’t think help was coming”: a month on from the tsunami.

Tonga’s PM counts the mental health cost of the tsunami.

How Tonga is trying to recover from the eruption.

Tonga needs over $90 million to start repairs from the volcano.

Tonga is a reminder that the laws governing undersea cables need modernising.

Tonga suffers its first Covid outbreak after receiving foreign aid.

20 February 2022

Aftershocks

Tonga is dropping out of the global news cycle, but it will be a slow road to recovery for the country.

Read more…

28 January 2022

Too Loud to Hear

More first-hand accounts are emerging from Tonga.

Read more…

23 January 2022

Shockwave

The news of a volcanic eruption in Tonga a week ago threatened to monopolize my attention during a typically busy start of semester; more than news of increasing Covid hospitalizations in the UK, Boris Johnson’s blatant attempts to distract attention from his political plight, Vladimir Putin’s imminent invasion of Ukraine, or Brexit-caused miles-long lorry queues at Dover and Calais. While I was engaging with new students on two different courses and marking and moderating assignments from two more, my mind kept returning to my own postgraduate years, which involved studying and writing about Tonga throughout the 1990s and spending two months there in 1993. Anyone knowing the country will have been taken aback at the sight of the satellite image of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai’s ash cloud.

Tonga volcano satellite image
Taken by the Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8, 15 January 2022.

Read more…

22 January 2022 · 1 Comment

Have Yourself an Isolated Christmas

Self-Isolating Calendar

We had a faint positive lateral-flow test in the family last Saturday and so have to selfisolate until next Tuesday, despite negative PCRs all round and no definitive Covid symptoms (although with Omicron it’s harder to tell). The chance of false positive LFTs is low, so we have to assume this one wasn’t, and Track and Trace want us to isolate either way, even with negative PCRs and multiple jabs. It’s not how we would have liked to spend the week running up to Christmas, but the rapid rise in cases was already putting paid to those plans; everyone here seems to have entered voluntary de facto lockdown in lieu of actual lockdown. The street has been unnaturally quiet all week.

What a fitting end to another difficult year. Looks as if January 2022 won’t be much better either. Hope you and yours can keep safe.

24 December 2021

On a Dark Desert Highway

Omicron, I can’t believe it, I’ve never been this far away from home.

How Covid stays one step ahead of us.

How one scientist concluded that Covid began with a spillover at Wuhan’s wet market.

Why some people pretend Covid doesn’t exist. ICU is full of the unvaccinated.

How protein-based Covid vaccines could change the pandemic.

Pandemic nostalgia.

28 November 2021

Breathing Room

Two weeks ago today I wasn’t feeling quite right, and thought I’d better do a lateral flow test from the kit we’d recently been given, just in case. Within moments I was confronted with this:

My positive lateral flow test result, 7 September 2021

Damn.

Read more…

21 September 2021

The Mask

Masks littering the pavements of Polwarth and Morningside, August 2021.
Typical mid-pandemic sights. Mouseover for more.

Read more...

31 August 2021