Arquivo para December, 2021
What to Expect in 2022
31
Dec
There is no quantum leap from one year to another, it is a day of a year
that succeeds on the first day of the following year, although for fiscal and political purposes the last day of the year is for economic and fiscal balances, and the beginning of a new one budget for the coming year.
Traditionally, the first year is also the day of Peace, and in Christian cosmogony the visit of the Magi (non-Christian) who visit the child-God who was born and flee from Nero’s threats is also a reference to dialogue between peoples.
Yesterday was marked by a bilateral conversation between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, requested by the latter, according to CNN, on the agenda although it was said that they are “bilateral diplomatic relations”, there is tension in Ukraine due to the concentration of troops in the country. border and the so-called Bucharest Nine, nine NATO nations (Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
Any advance on Ukraine would mean a NATO response through the Bucharest Nine, but global involvement in the conflict is not impossible, so this dialogue is of fundamental importance to keeping the peace.
Our greatest hope is the end of the pandemic, but we have the threat of the new strain and also of the H2N3 flu whose vaccine is ready and working, so a good vaccination campaign that covers the entire population is essential, now with a view to co- immunity, that is, that all countries have a vaccine available, with the help of the WHO.
The omicron variant advances, however, preventive measures are not being taken, whether due to the depletion of containment forces (the population is tired of the restrictions) or due to the political weakness of governments, or due to a denial, now structural, that advances , since “vaccines don’t work” is partly true, but they limit the severity of infections.
The ecological balance cannot be forgotten, it is necessary to make significant progress in this direction, political change is not enough, it is necessary that they promote structural changes.
With all this, it is necessary to have hope, it is necessary to fight and always have something good in front of us to think, act and show solidarity with those who suffer.
2021 was a year of hope
30
Dec
The start of vaccination against covid 19, the rebalancing of political
forces (Joe Biden took office in the US, Olaf Scholz replaces Prime Minister Angela Merkel after 16 years in power and the recent election of former student leader Gabriel Boric is new Chilean president), show that the shift towards conservatism is contained, but there have been shifts to the right, such as the resumption of the military in Myanmar deposing elected president Aung Suu Kyi.
Although with many agreements and promising news, Belgium for example is going to deactivate its nuclear plants (because they are even dangerous), the environmental imbalance is a theme not only of what happens with the planet’s living vegetation, waters and climate, but mainly natural phenomena that emerge in a dangerous way: active volcanoes, forest fires, storms (recent tragedy in Bahia), magnetic poles and concern with earthquakes and movement of tectonic plates, spatial phenomena for the time being are in the field of fiction and fertile imagination.
Despite the advance in vaccination, we ended the year concerned about the new omicron variant, which is already the majority of cases of infection, worries Europe and has significant progress in other countries, including Brazil, and comes together with a new H3N2 flu that has already has a vaccine, however the omicron variant seems to circumvent current vaccines, even with the 3rd. dose.
Hope persists, although tired of isolation, which had brief moments of relaxation in preventive measures, but caution and resilience are needed.
The end of the year, the holidays and the trend of agglomerations in Brazil are worrying, amid other tragedies such as the floods in Bahia, the authorities seem to have little or no capacity to react and intervene in the face of a possible new wave in the country, the number of deaths that had fallen from the range of hundreds, rose again to 117 yesterday (29/12), and some hospitals are already noticing the increase in the number of cases, the country already has 80% vaccination in the population -target.
The word “hope” seems to be the predominant word to characterize this year, what is expected for 2022 will depend not only on this word but on the use of courageous preventive measures and not just “monitoring” of the situation, which is a delaying measure, which will not prevent infection either from the H3N2 flu or the omicron variant.
Active hope, not just waiting but acting for it to happen, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is to look not only at our past and our origins, but at a promising future capable of building a new humanity, a more just and fraternal world.
Don’t look up: between fiction and documentary
29
Dec
The Netflix film is a fiction, but the style has become similar to a
documentary, and different from other apocalyptic films (“Armageddon” (1998), “Deep Impact” (1998) and “A Friend Wanted for the End of the World ” (2012)) the film “Don’t look up” has a different impact due to the apocalyptic waves that find the public.
The film tells of a professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his astronomy student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) make the discovery of a comet with a short time to collide with the earth, six months, and want to make it. drawing attention from the media that prefers to direct the public to social media media and is little concerned about their own lives, any resemblance to the pandemic is not a mere coincidence, there is a correlation, in particular, of feelings and attitudes.
Things start to change when Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) organizes a media tour to the office of President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her son Jason (JOnah Hill) and also with the help of the Daily Rip airwaves, a program morning hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry) and a race against time begins.
In addition to the extraordinary actors, the film catches attention, and is already quoted for awards, the theme, but it is treated almost like a documentary and this is worrying.
The end-of-the-year messages are usually encouraging and almost always speak of hope for a better year, after two chaotic years due to the pandemic situation, the fiction film should have a fictional character as there are many films of the so-called “catastrophe cinema”, and people always watch it understanding it’s a fiction, but the time and conspiracy theories can collaborate to a film that has a negative impact on the emotions of the viewer.
I remember the last one to watch in this style, which was the Norwegian film Earthquake (2018), in which geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) decides to investigate the Oslo tunnels, where a great earthquake occurred many years ago, and meets Marit (Katherine Thorborg Johansen) who is the daughter of a geologist who died while investigating the Oslo mines.
Both decide, with the imminence of a new earthquake, to save as many people as possible.
The problem is always how to avoid tragedy, of course if possible, so don’t get the vaccine is akin to “don’t look up”.
Both decide, with the imminence of a new earthquake, to save as many people as possible.
The hope should not start from the fact that a tragedy cannot happen, such as an extension or a new pandemic, but the preventive measures that can save, but “Don’t look up” seems more like despair than actually an attempt to avoid further catastrophes, will give you something to talk about.
The innocents and Epistasis
28
Dec
Much was said in an ironic tone about possible genetic variations
due to the pandemic, the phenomenon exists, although it rarely occurs when there is an interaction of genes to influence some characteristic of the species, the classic case was studied by Bateson and Punnett, who studied a type of crest that appears in chickens, and is determined by two independent genes (which is equivalent to two pairs of alleles), of course this is not the case with vaccines, just to clarify the scientific question.
The innocence lies in understanding the virus mutation as capable of inducing or influencing a human genetic mutation, of course our immune system is affected, as studies try to correlate HIV with the omicron variant, but this does not mean any human genetic mutation so far.
However, epistasis has been important to study the omicron variant, in this case the virus and not the vaccine, according to a BBC News report, Professor Ed Feill, professor of microbial evolution at the University of Bath, England: “If the variant has more mutations, this does not mean that it is more dangerous, more transmissible or more capable of evading the effect of vaccines”, and many premature conclusions about this variant do not have a solid scientific basis.
The confusion is that the virus undergoes variations, but it is unfounded to imagine that these mutations affect the human genetic code, says the professor: “as a virus evolves, it can accumulate a group of mutations that, in turn, can create a variant”, “… and to detect the new variants: “ scientists track the genomic sequence of the virus”, and in this case, epistasis studies are essential to detect variants.
American evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom, in a recent article in The New York Times, called attention to the alpha variant that has a mutation called N501Y, which is associated with the capacity for infection.
It is important to understand that the omicron variant is not completely deciphered, precisely because of its number of mutations in its epistasis, which is more difficult to detect and understand: “this opens up more evolutionary space for this”, said Feil in the article, and so the research has to observe combinations that have not been seen before.
Neither innocence to claim that there is some human genetic mutation, nor innocence to claim that the omicron variable is controlled because it offers “less danger”.
WHO has a classification of variants into “concern” and “interest” as per the table above.
Care must continue and the omicron variant
27
Dec
Protocols and care continue to be essential to prevent the transmission
of the coronavirus, this is what any level of government or health officials says, all over the world and also in our country, therefore, all people, including those who are vaccinated, must continue with all individual and collective prevention measures.
The numbers in the country have fallen, although there is already a manifestation of collective and parallel transmission of the new H3N2 flu virus, but cases of community transmission (that which did not come from abroad) of the omicron variant is already manifested in several regions of the country ,
Chosen by Nature magazine as one of the 10 most influential scientists in 2021, Brazilian Tulio de Oliveira was head of the team that discovered the omicron variant, and said that punishments to countries when new variants are identified, such as restrictions and closures on borders, discourage scientists to publish the facts to avoid these punishments.
According to an interview given to a Brazilian portal, Oliveira said that “I think it is important to act quickly and scientific transparency”, he said. “Because this helps prepare hospitals and the world. We have the super transmissible variant, the omicron, but the hospitals were prepared. We are not having the hospitals completely filled, the oxygen has been prepared, so mortality is low,” he explained while denouncing the political influence that can affect scientific dissemination.
Cases are still few, but they can grow, scientists are unanimous in stating that the transmissibility of the omicron variant is large, in Brazil there are 56 suspected cases in 9 municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, in several states such as São Paulo, there are already cases of community transmission, and the alert from the health departments is still small, but they monitor it.
The symptoms are similar to a cold with sore throat, runny nose and headache, but this does not mean that mild covid always occurs, there will be severe cases.
The ability of omicron to bully vaccinates means that there is a greater potential to reach more people than the delta variant, and it is not yet known what will happen to the elderly, most cases in the UK, for example, are under 40 years old.
Christmas gift
24
Dec
In December 1947, right around Christmas, three Bell Telephone
engineers (William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain) invented the transistor (TRANsfer reSISTOR) that revolutionary communication and later computing, also ICs (Integrated Circuits) have as a base the transitor.
The big event this Christmas will be the launch of the James Webb Space Observatory (jwst, James Webb Space Telescope) from the Kourou space base, in French Guiana, at 9:20 am EDT, which will be taken to the Ariane 5 spacecraft. made at the cost of $10 billion, the most expensive space project in history.
What are we going to look for in space, in addition to other puzzles, the origin of the universe in its early stage, and it’s curious why this happens this Christmas, and why it is so special.
Lights decorate cities even in attention with a possible new wave of the pandemic and also a new flu, they light up hope and make us look to the future and to the beginning of our lives, our planet and humanity.
There is no way to escape from utopians, cosmogonies and religious eschatologies, even if we can solve many enigmas, the philosophical question remains: why there is everything and not nothing.
The answer can only be ontological, there is a reason for being and there is a promising future, where there is hope if we return to the logic of Being, of dialogue and of the encounter with the Other.
The message cannot be any other than that which speaks of brotherhood and peace, both not yet fully achieved by humanity, Christmas reopens this hope.
This is the prophecy that Isaiah announces (Is 52,7 when there will be true peace: “how beautiful they are, walking on the mountains, the feet of him who proclaim and preach peace, of him who proclaims good and preaches salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Reign thy God,’” the message that believed in the coming of the Savior, the birth among men of the Messiah.
The lights in the city not only announce this light visible to the eyes, but those that open the heart to friendship and peace (Jn 1:4-5): “in her was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it”, because a tiny point of light already dissipates the darkness, and this is our hope.
May Christmas renew hopes for a possible and sustainable future for humanity, and may justice and peace reign in a new world.
Christmas lighting in Brazil
23
Dec
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro stand out both for their creativity and
tradition, as well as for the investment that largely came from the private sector, for Christmas lighting.
All these two populous cities have scattered lighting and it is possible to take a Christmas tourist tour, so great are the news and curiosities, in São Paulo, for example, Avenida Paulista and countless other avenues: São João and Avenida Brasil, for example , the Vila Lobos park, which received special lighting, but the highlight is the lighting of Ibirapuera, a traditional leisure park in São Paulo, which received special lighting from the lake, which already has a fountain that dances with the waters to the rhythm. the music plays, and the surroundings are lit with more than 200 trees decorated with a million LED lamps.
The special at Ibirapuera this year is the lighting of the lake with a very creative shine and special decoration, highlighted below in the photo above, but the entire park is lit and it is a great highlight in the lighting of the city of São Paulo.
In Rio de Janeiro, all the seafront districts are lit, in addition to special lighting in restaurants and hotels, but the big show is the year-end fireworks at the seaside, financed by the private sector, it was not canceled despite a crisis the flu that Rio de Janeiro is experiencing, in the photo it is possible to see the burning from the image of Christ the Redeemer (also illuminated) from where you can see the fireworks (photo below).
Salvador’s Christmas lighting is also worth mentioning, last year it was a success with more than 1.3 million visitors, in a year of pandemic it is good to remember, with illuminated squares and avenues, some form a true tunnel of lights, with concerts and attractions, including drone performances.
North and Northeast also have several capitals and their attractions, Maceió has been standing out for several years for its Christmas lights, in the south the traditional tourist regions Gramada and Canela (close by), Blumenau and Curitiba stand out.
It is difficult to trace the entire Christmas scene in the country, several cities in the interior have attractions, such as Campos do Jordâo (SP), Petrópolis (RJ) and Monte Verde (MG), the important thing is that there is always an intention and there is always an intention to rescue the spirit. Christmas of love and peace.
Christmas in Lisbon
22
Dec
Lisbon is the Portuguese capital and Christmas there is a special destination for Brazilians, Portuguese was experiencing an explosion in tourism when the 
pandemic hit, a European vaccination champion reopened trade, but these days have returned to days of uncertainty and concern as new sanitary restriction measures
The commercial square is its central point, where there is always lighting with a beautiful Christmas tree (photo 1) and illuminates the triumphal arch (man to King José I), it starts its main street of commerce and restaurants by going to Praça do Rossio, and it gives way to Praça da Figueira, another characteristic and central point.
From the commerce square you have a view of the Tagus river where it connects to the sea, the region called “low Chiado” or simply “downtown” can be climbed via the stairs, the subway or the historic and tourist elevator Santa Justa even the Chiado.
Chiado is the point of an older trade, with its famous Camões square from where you have access to shopping streets and famous bars and restaurants such as the “cantinho do Avilez”, an internationally known chef who makes traditional Iberian food with good taste and creativity, there are many things to see and eat in Chiado, in addition to being a traditional cable car stop (electric as they are called there).
Praça do Rossio and Praça do Comércio are also tram stops, in the case of Praça do Rossio there is also a train station (trains in Portugal), from there you can go to Belém, where there is the famous tower and the traditional “ pastel de Belém”, or go to the most modern part of Portugal, going to Marques de Pombal square by metro or bus (buses, modern trams are nice and comfortable).
Unfortunately, sanitary restrictions are back, both for travel and circulation, so Christmas and New Year tours are limited there too.
Some European cities “illuminated” at Christmas
21
Dec
Many European cities are lit up and decorated at Christmas, there is a wave of denying the Christian feast, but the
atmosphere of friendship and peace remains in many places.
City with strong cultural traits, it is in the north of Switzerland, between Germany and France and therefore with strong influences from both, has approximately 200 thousand inhabitants, being the third largest city in Switzerland, after Zurich and Geneva.
In Swiss Basel, whether in the market market of Barfüsserplatz where is the Christmas Pyramid (photo below), a tower decorated with figures of the nativity scene, around there are several hot drinks kiosks and typical foods such as the Basel Läckerl biscuit and the raclette, other The city’s famous museum is also adorned by the Münsterplatz, with workshops and a tree decorated by the Johann Wanner shop, there is also a skating rink and concerts in the Cathedral.
In Strasbourg, since 1570 there is one where the biggest Christmas markets in Europe, it was even believed that some traditions were born there, such as the Christmas decorations in the half-timbered houses, in the Historic Center with its cobblestone streets (photo above).
In next post more Christmas cities.
New wave pandemic and flu
20
Dec
Europe increased restrictions due to the advance of Covid-19,
the new omicron strain is already prevalent in infections, Denmark banned agglomerations sites and the Netherlands decreed a new lockdown, the United Kingdom is already studying the resumption of movement restrictions and several European countries have resumed these measures.
There are already community cases in Brazil, that is, infections in people who have not had recent trips abroad, but seeing the external crisis, the concern must remain, and the vaccine passport, a source of crisis between the government and the judicial area, is important to maintain a barrier to the spread of the variant, which promises to be fast creating a new pandemic wave.
The H3N2 flu virus is already in 10 states in Brazil, its symptoms are: cough, nasal congestion, fever and muscle pain, but it can be confused with other diseases including covid. responsible for the infection, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, one of the most affected by the flu, there are 20 thousand infections and 5 deaths, Alagoas and Bahia also registered deaths.
Although the flu vaccine does not work for this new strain, it is important to take it because it increases immunity, as they were designed for H3N2, but the variant present in Brazil called Darwin escapes this immunity.
Although there is controversy about these data, they seem exaggerated, the Ministry of Health reported that 67.9 million doses of the flu vaccine were applied in the country, this would represent a vaccination coverage of 71.2% of the target audience of the campaign.
Another recent case that was a crisis between the government and the judicial area is the application of the Pfizer vaccine to children, the least vaccinated part of the population, approved and recommended by doctors. in a legal imbroglio because the STF went into recess.
