Chasing the Virus

Posted on by Thor

Scientists keep trying to keep up with the rapidly changing COVID-19 virus but it keeps mutating faster than they can develop new and more effective vaccines. With the rise of BA5 which can better evade immune protection, we could be facing a perfect storm. Travel over the July 4th holiday rose back to pre-pandemic levels. About 2.5 million people went through airport security check points. It was the largest travel weekend since the start of the pandemic.  With transmission levels high, large numbers of people traveling, and shifting attitudes about the pandemic, and the BA5 which has been shown to increase hospitalizations in several countries around the world. The pandemic is not done with us.

Vaccines seem to always be a step behind the virus. Boosters are becoming less effective against avoiding infection. Anti-vax misinformation has lead to vaccine uptake in the United States being lax at best. 90 million doses of vaccine have been thrown out in the United States because it went unused or expired. Variant specific boosters will likely never keep up with the fast COVID mutations. By the time a BA5 specific booster is developed there will likely already be a BA6 and BA7 variant that will completely change the playing field.

When first introduced the vaccines seemed like the ultimate solution. However with the rapid mutation of the virus it seems protection from infection may only last several months at best. Waning immunity and immune evasion are causing a continual rise in hospitalization. Chasing variants is not the solution. The dogs of science will never catch that rabbit.

 

The Houdini Escape Virus

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The Omicron BA5 variant is a Houdini Escape Artist. When people got infected they might be frightened for a moment but when they recovered, they let out a sigh of relief and thought they were done with the virus. The same happened for folks who became “fully vaccinated”. Once vaccinated people thought they were done with the virus and returned to life as normal. BA5 has changed the playing field. Re-infections are not only more common but they are happening on a scale never before imagined. It is estimated that there are over 100,000 new cases daily and that is likely an under count since at home testing and people getting infected and simply not reporting their infections make an accurate count impossible. About 300 people continue to die every day which is like 3 commercial airline crashes every day. This level of death seems to becoming acceptable for most Americans.

The original Wuhan strain of the virus was very deadly because it infected people’s lungs leaving people like fish out of water gasping for air. The Omicon variants which might have evolved by infecting mice proved to be less deadly because they only infected the nose and throat, and not affecting the lungs as much. BA5 has taken a step back, becoming similar to the original Wuhan virus and settling deep into peoples lungs. Multiple re-infections are resulting in people getting more serious outcomes. Even mild infections and re infections are resulting in long bouts of Long COVID which can be debilitating. Only time will tell if it is truly more deadly.

The BA5 variant which is now dominating in the United States is the worst possible version of the virus to hit the United States yet. This virus’s ability for immune escape means those with past infections and those who are vaccinated can and will become infected. On top of immune escape the virus is the most contagious variant to date. It is close to becoming the most contagious virus ever, second only to the measles.

Since vaccines are becoming less effective against prevent COVID infections, it is reasonable to assume the hospitalizations and deaths will also be on the rise. I track hospitalizations daily, and they are indeed on a steady rise. Despite this basic health safety precautions have been abandoned and our nation is unable to adjust to the changing playing field.

“The superpower of BA.4 and BA.5 is, if you had Omicron in January, you’re still going to be susceptible to getting BA.4 and BA.5. It’s the escape artist of COVID, the Houdini, because the spike protein looks so different, even (compared) to BA1. The front guards, the antibodies, are not recognizing it,” Chin-Hong told KRON4 on July 5, 2022.

Still Life Demo

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I did a quick still life demo with one of my virtual Elite Students. The goal was to gather a few items from the room and organize them into some sort of still life tableau. I am teaching seven day a week this summer so my work is bouncing all over the place depending on the student’s needs.

This is a painting of a bottle of port, a bit of garlic and a coffee pot that I have never seen used. I figured the Eiffel Tower might add an international flair. The goal wasn’t to create a finished painting but to demonstrate how to block in the large masses of a painting.

The COVID series is still happening but at a much slower pace. I have to steal an hour here and there just to research and keep up with the state of the pandemic. The highly transmissible BA5 variant is spreading like wildfire infecting those who were infected before and those who are vaccinated. The country is “done” with the pandemic which allows for plenty of spread for the virus.

Maintaining six feet of distance used to be the golden rule but now you can get infected just by walking past someone both inside and outside. BA 5 is the second most infectious disease known to man. My standard since the start of the pandemic has been to maintain 4 head to toe bodies lengths between myself and the next person. That is about 22 feet. That standard is impossible to maintain with people stopping to look over my shoulder as I sketch, so I am always wearing a cloth mask outside and a KN95 held in place by my cloth mask inside. I am always the only one masked and that is just fine.

On Your Feet

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Pam, her niece and I went to a final dress rehearsal for On Your Feet at the Garden Theater in Winter Garden, Florida. This exuberant show is about Gloria Estefan‘s rise to stardom from her humble beginnings in Cuba.When Gloria met Emilio Estefan her life changed forever. He saw her raw talent and his tireless salesmanship built the Miami Sound Machine group into an international sensation. Gloria had other career goals, but her Mima and Emilio convinced her that she was born to be a singer. He Mima said it best, “This is what you’re meant to do. You just don’t know it yet. Why write all these beautiful songs if no one gets a chance to hear them?”

I had no expectations going in to the show and I was blown away. There were some stellar singing voices in the cast and by the end the cast literally had the audience of volunteers who attended, dancing in the aisles.

I didn’t know much about Gloria Estefan’s life prior to the show, but the basic theme of her life and career is that you can always choose to rise up despite what others might tell you. Never accept the limitations other impose in “your best interest.” A career as a creative involves endless faith that someday people will recognize the value in what is created.

I welled up at several points in the show as Gloria sang about the loving support of her Mema, and when fans wrote in loving support of Gloria though troubled times. These moods could quickly swing to joyful song and dance that had me dancing in my seat as I sketched.

All theater staff were masked but very few in the audience were masked. I am fascinated with peoples half hearted masking attempts. The guy in front of me had his mask off as he spoke to others in the audience and then he put his mask back on to watch the show. Needless to say, Pam, her niece and I had our KN-95 masks on for the whole show.

On Your Feet runs through July 31, 2022. Tickets range from $17 to $32. The program is online should you like to learn more about the cast and crew. Trust me, this is an amazing night of theater. The July 20 and 21, 2022 performances are canceled due to a positive CIVID-19 test among the cast or crew.

Crealde Thumbnails

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After several classes on perspective and composition, my Sunday morning Crealde School of Art Urban Sketching students are tasked each class in creating a page of thumbnail sketches that offer a visual tour of the campus. I often do a brief set of my own as I wander the campus and offer notes for each student. In this case I just worked in back and white to demonstrate how to cut up the image into a set of large simple dark and light shapes. In one sketch I was demonstrating that the sidewalk and grass can be very much the same light value since they are both illuminated by very bright sunlight.

The challenge of the exercise is to try and make it look like you are walking along the paths and the same objects might appear small and then larger as you approach them. Students also find that the much smaller sketches can be completed faster since large washes of watercolor are not needed to cover the sketch. Much smaller puddles of wash are easy to add with the pointy tipped water brushes many students have in their kit.

The other basic lesson is that a light object will show up best if there is something dark behind it and a dark object will appear best if there is something light behind it. These thumbnails basically use just 3 values, black, white and grey. That is all that is needed to get a sketch to jump off the page.

Crealde Urban Sketching First Class

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At Crealde School of Art we started a new series of Urban Sketching Classes on Sunday mornings. I have kept the first two classes outside. Surprisingly the class is full with nine students. My first lessons are about using perspective when drawing on location.

The first assignment is for the students to draw a tent out behind Crealde. Everyone stayed under the back awning crowded together, so I decided to sit under the tent to give them one person for them to include in their sketch.

I shared each stage of this sketch as it was completed and also gave each student sketch notes to help them with their sketch in progress.

One other student wore a mask and I wore mine outside since I would get close to student to offer notes and suggestions. My mantra throughout was for students to make a mess. I certainly made a mess of this sketch which was done in an ancient sketchbook filled with tissue paper. Since my attention was focused on the student, I didn’t take any time to focus on details.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Grace Church

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Grace Church was initially organized in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Street, on the current site of the Empire State Building. Under rector Thomas House Taylor, who began service at the church in 1834, the decision was made to move the church uptown with the city’s expanding population.

The church is located at 800–804 Broadway, at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the south-southeast. The church, which has been called “one of the city’s greatest treasures”, is a French Gothic Revival masterpiece designed by James Renwick, Jr., his first major commission.

The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1843 and the church was consecrated in 1846. Grace Church was designed in the French Gothic Revival style out of Sing Sing marble, and vestry minutes from January of that year break down some of the expenses for building a new church—including items ranging from the cost of the workers from Sing Sing state prison who cut the stone to the cost of the embroidery for the altar cloth.

The church originally had a wooden spire, but under the leadership of the rector at the time, Henry Codman Potter, it was replaced in 1881 with a marble spire designed by Renwick. The interior of the church is primarily constructed from lath and plaster. The marble steeple had its lean fixed in 2003.

Like Trinity and the First Presbyterian Church, Grace Church spun off new congregations by building chapels elsewhere in the city. Its first chapel was on Madison Avenue at East 28th Street, built in 1850. The congregation became the Church of the Incarnation in 1852 and built its own sanctuary, and the chapel, which is no longer extant, was renamed the Church of the Atonement.

Grace Church is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City, and the entire complex is a New York City landmark, designated in 1966 (church and rectory) and 1977 (church houses).

Smokey Jay’s BBQ

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I have an advanced Urban Sketching student I am working with and we meet each week at Lake Eola. Last week we sketched the farmers market where everyone sits under the huge live oak tree.

We discovered that the Lake Eola Farmer’s Market closes down about 2:30pm and we were still in the midst of the sketch as tents were taken down and vendors packed up.

Despite this, we decided to once again sketch the street vendors dishing out plenty of BBQ to the mask less crowds.

While we were sketching this week it started to rain just as I was starting to put watercolor washes over the sketch. Last week it also threatened to sketch and we bolted with the crowds as soon as the winds picked up.

This week, we held our ground. I packed away my sketch in my art bag and decided to wait until the rain stopped. The weather radar on my phone made it seem like the storm would be very short lived. As the rain became torrential, people crowded under window and porch awnings. The pine trees we were under were actually pretty good cover so we moved closer to the trunk and waited. The rain eventually did let up a bit and I painted a huge puddle of blue in the foreground before the rain became worse and forced me to once again close the sketch book.

Since we were already soaked through to the bone, it made no sense to seek cover. It was actually quite refreshing getting soaked. As we continued to debate if it might be possible to complete the sketch, the vendors started packing up. Where we were seated was where the vendors would stack up their dismantled tents so that settled it, we would have to move on. The assignment then became to complete the sketch and make it seem like a torrential summer shower had not thrown a wrench into the creative process. If this sketch looks like a royal mess, that is because it is a royal mess.

Alien Things

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North Korea claims that “Alien Things” are to blame for it’s COVID-19 “Fever” Outbreak. South Korean activist for years have flown balloons across the border which distributed pamphlets that were critical of Kim Jong Un. The dictator is furious that this activity was never stopped. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in North Korea, the activists have been airlifting masks and pain killers to its suffering northern neighbor.

Kim Jong Un claims that people who touched one of these balloon care packages became infected by COVID-19 and spread it to the rest of the nation. The CDC has pointed out that COVID-19 is spread through aerosolized particles. Though infection through touch is possible is is far less likely. At the start of the pandemic I was using antiseptic wipes to disinfect all incoming groceries but that practicewas pushed to the wayside due to the more recent findings. A mask is far more important that wiping down groceries.

A far more likely reason for the vast spread of the virus in North Kora would be the Military parade superspreader event held by Kim Jung Un for promote his missile program. North Korea has reported some 4.7 million cases of “The Fever” among it’s population of 26 Million. Since the dictator wants to save face, that number is obviously under reported.

North Korea is a nation that is completely vaccinated and therefor very susceptible to the worst possible outcome from the fast spread of the virus. President Joe Biden and Covax have offered to airlift in vaccines by Kim Jung Un claimed that the North Korean Epidemic Prevention Center had everything under control. The health Ministry is clueless and has done nothing to protect citizens. News of the horrific outcomes has been downplayed by the Communist regime. We may never know just how many people suffered needlessly and died.

North Korea’s Epidemic Prevention Center claimed that an 18 year old soldier and a kindergartner came into contact with “Alien Things” in the town Ipoh near the southern border. They later tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The nation has stressed that anyone who finds “Alien Things” must notify authorities immediately so that the objects can be safely removed.

By laying blame of “Alien things” flown across the border, the agency hopes to ease public complaints about the absolute failing of the nation to handle the health crisis while also echoing past complaints about the balloon aid program. When West Berlin was cut off by Communists Russia after WWII, a comprehensive airlift program was initiated to help the citizens of that city.  South Korea in a much smaller way was trying to offer assistance to it’s besieged neighbor.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Community Synagogue

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Although German Protestants were a minority in contrast to their Catholic co-ethnics, German Lutheranism had earlier roots in New York, dating back to the colonial era. Saint Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1857 in a Greek Revival style. It exists today as the Sixth Street Community Synagogue/Max D. Raiskin Center after thirteen Jewish women purchased the building in 1940.

This former Lutheran Church is part of one of the most tragic events in New York history. On June 15, 1904, the St. Mark’s congregation sponsored a boat excursion on the General Slocum steamer which caught fire on the East River. With over 1,300 victims, this maritime catastrophe remained the deadliest single-day event in New York City’s history until September 11th, 2001. In 1906, on the northern side of Tompkins Square Park, a memorial fountain was dedicated to the victims of this catastrophe.

The General Slocum was a side wheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. This was the worst maritime disaster in the city’s history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways. The events surrounding the General Slocum fire have been explored in a number of books, plays, and movies.

The building stood empty for years until it was brought back to life by a group of Jewish visionaries in November, 1940. The Community Synagogue has been a hub for intellectual, religious and social activity. The synagogue originally served a bustling, immigrant population within New York’s Yiddish theater district.