Murmurs from the Springs #3 - Brrr, It's Cold Out There : Tom McDermott

This has been a cold week here in Colorado Springs. Last night the temperature went down to minus 20° C and the ‘high’ of the day reached only minus 4° C. - cold, but not unusual winter weather for Colorado.  We are likely to see still colder days before Spring arrives. The positive side of the story is that the days have been mostly sunny. Taken together with the snow earlier this week makes for beautiful scenery here and up on the mountains just in front of us.

 

Pikes Peak (alt. 4,302 meters).

But there is another reason to predict that Colorado will see colder weather ahead this winter.

Last evening we learned of the first case of the coronavirus variant in the US. This morning we heard of the second and possibly third cases - all located in the town of Simla, Colorado (population 618) just about 40 miles northeast of where we live in Colorado Springs. 

There is little doubt that these cases represent ‘the tip of an iceberg’. None of the cases has a history of recent travel, so they are almost certainly the result of ‘community spread’ from others with whom they came in contact. All the cases so far are among young (20 year old) members of the Colorado National Guard sent to Simla on December 23rd to provide auxiliary staffing at a retirement home there.

Why were National Guard troops needed to fill in at a retirement home? Because 20 of the 34 staff at the home were already sick with COVID-19. In addition, every one of the 26 elderly residents in the home have tested positive for COVID-19 and so far four have died.

What is interesting is that none of the actual residents or staff seem to have the new variant of the disease.  All those who are sick in the home were down with COVID long before the soldiers arrived.  None of the infected young men live in Simla, meaning that they likely brought it from contacts elsewhere. Given their age profile, there is a real likelihood that they brought it from densely populated urban areas like Denver, just 70 miles to the west. 

The news is sending tremors throughout Colorado and the rest of the US today. We are already reaching new heights in the pandemic. Nationally we have had nearly 20 million cases and over 340,000 deaths. There were over 200,000 new cases reported yesterday. There are 124,000 people hospitalized with COVID and hospitals in many areas are turning away ambulances arriving with new patients.

At the same time vaccination is far behind schedule. Of the 20 million people the government had planned to reach by the end of December, scarcely two million people have so far been vaccinated.

The arrival of the new variant in the US was certainly no surprise. Viruses mutate frequently and new more successful variants then overtake older strains. This one was first detected in the UK in September and has spread since then to many other countries. WHO has given the variant the mouth-wrenching name, SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01 - i.e. the first variant under investigation in December 2020. The name 'B.1.1.7' is also used. Let's call it 'Vooey One', for short.

There are separate, equally concerning, variants circulating in South Africa and Nigeria. The variants seem to be much more contagious than the original COVID strain (at least 70% more transmissible). The good news, if there is any, is that none of the variants so far seems to be more lethal in terms of severity of illness or likelihood of death. The other ‘good news’ is that researchers say that COVID vaccine seems to be effective against the variants. However, the key word in the news is ‘seems’. It is still too early to ‘know’ the severity of the variants or how well the vaccines will work as they spread and take hold. 

The arrival of this variant in Simla, a small town already laid low by COVID, illustrates how the pandemic has moved from dense urban areas to sparsely populated rural parts of the US. Simla lies on the western border of the Great Plains which stretch from the Mississippi to the Rockies.  Indeed, all of the Plains states have gone 'red' with COVID in recent months and small farming communities like Simla are among the hardest-hit.

Calling a county or state ‘red´ once meant that it was on the political right, and indeed Simla and its surrounding areas are solid red politically.  One of President Obama’s favorite lines used to be, “There are no red states, or blue states, but only the United States.” Sadly, looking at the US map today, that is true - all states are ‘united’ in their very red status for COVID-19.

Yet the push-back against sensible public health measures continues to be strong throughout the US.  Cries of ´freedom' and 'my right to exercise my personal choice' fill social media and public debate.  At the same time the sheer weight of the numbers ill and dead has numbed many into a fatalist approach of 'nothing I can do about it - if it happens, it happens'.  

Just two weeks ago a church in another small town near Simla held a public meeting to protest current public health restrictions. Over 200 people crowded into the church to hear the speakers denounce the Governor of Colorado and the COVID restrictions imposed by the state government on public gatherings and businesses. The organizer, Maggie Witherbee, said,".... the way they're phrasing this is crimes (sic) against humanity.” One speaker told the group that, "We're taking our country back from government tyranny." The local sheriff, Tim Norton, assured the crowd that he would not enforce the regulations imposed by the state government.

The group has scheduled a second meeting for this coming Sunday, January 3rd. Masks are not required.

Dec 13, 2020 - Meeting in Community Church of Kiowa. 

The speaker is Chennan Clubine-Collins Colorado, 

State Director of Make American Free Again

Note that no one is wearing a mask

The little town of Simla, by the way, had its beginnings in the 1880’s as a center for farmers to bring their potatoes for shipment by railroad. The daughter of a railway official had been reading a book about India, and became enchanted by the name of Simla. The name of its more famous cousin stuck.

Its other claim to fame - a gold medal winner at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin named Glenn Morris lived there. He trained for the Olympics by chasing rabbits through the potato fields. Following his Olympics fame he starred in the 1938 film ‘Tarzan’s Revenge’ - famous, though less famous than the better known star of Tarzan films in those years, Johnny Weissmuller.

Wherever we live - urban or rural - rich country or poor - the threat of COVID and its variants is real. Equally real is the disinformation campaign underway about the dangers of the disease, about masks and social distancing, and about vaccinations. 

We former UNICEF staff need to take every opportunity to ensure that our neighbors, family and friends stay safe, stay healthy, and get vaccinated. We also need to keep arguing for our governments to ensure that vaccines are made available equitably, including for those who are often forgotten - refugees, migrants, the poor, those on the street, and those in prison.

Yes, it's been a cold week in Colorado.   Unfortunately, the weather in Simla, in Colorado and throughout the US is likely to grow much colder this winter.  Spring seems farther away than ever.

P.S. For those who live in warmer climes and think of minus 20 C as cold, it is good to note that a reservoir near us in the mountains here recorded minus 46 C this early this morning (minus 50 F).  So don't worry - we are cozy and warm here and have little reason to complain about nights at a mere minus 20 C.