Tripledemic

Oh, great. We've got another new word to describe the hardship of the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic. Tripledemic.

"Tripledemic" refers to the overlap of three viruses going around in elevated numbers right now. There's Covid-19, now entering its fourth year; good old-fashioned flu; and now an oldie-but-goodie that's surging this year, respiratory syncytial virus— more commonly known as RSV.

The CDC is urging mask usage, particularly in the hardest-hit parts of the country. Those are the counties classified as High Community Levels of Covid-19. The area where I live, Santa Clara County, California, is in the High tier. Update: CDC page with Covid-19 Community Levels map.

It's unlikely this warning will make any difference. The CDC can "recommend" and even "urge" masking all it wants, but little's going to change. President Biden himself announced over a year ago now that Covid-19 is "over". Around half the country made that decision for themselves long before that. Oh, I wear my mask in public indoors places. So does Hawk. So do many of our personal friends. But even here in politically progressive Silicon Valley, overall masking in indoors public spaces has fallen below 20%.

Gas Under $4! (Barely)

The past few days there has been gas under $4/gallon in the SF Bay Area. It's at Costco, of course. Costco undercuts the cheapest independent stations in the immediate area by about $.30/gallon usually and undercuts the national-brand-name stores by double that. But still: sub-$4 gas! I took a picture at the pump when I filled up on Saturday.



Yeah, it's under $4 by the tiniest possible amount, one-tenth of one cent per gallon. But still: sub-$4 gas! It's only 10 weeks ago gas was over $6 and running toward $7. Gas hasn't been below $4 in my town, even at Costco, since pandemic days in 2020-2021.

Update: a few days later the price dropped 10 cents per gallon. So now it's under $4 by more than a hair's breadth!

Please Remain Calm: Three Go Forth

In the climax of Chernobyl miniseries episode 2, "Please Remain Calm", scientist Khomyuk has warned lead scientist Legasov that his plan to put out the nuclear fire in the open core has a fatal flaw. The water tanks below the core are full, not empty. The core will remain hot even as it's buried with sand and boron (in an attempt to stop it from spewing radioactive material into the air). If the core melts down through the concrete and steel pad to the water tanks, it will flash all that water to steam, causing an explosion potentially big enough to damage the other three reactors at the plant. The water needs to be drained out of the tank. Fast.

The rub? The control systems in reactor #4 were all broken by the explosion, so the valves to drain the tanks need to be opened manually. They are underground, in an area flooded with radioactive water, in the dark. Three plant workers familiar with the layout need to go down there to open the valves. It's believed that this task will be fatal, due to radiation exposure— but is necessary to prevent a tragedy that could kill and injure vastly more people.

Watch on YouTube

Link: YouTube video (2:18)

In the HBO miniseries, three workers volunteer. The clip above shows them responding to a gruff speech by Shcherbina, appealing to national pride to put the wellbeing of the country ahead of one's own life. One by one, they stand. "Ananenko." "Bespalov." "Baranov," they announce their names.

It's disputed whether the men actually volunteered. One eye-witness account holds that they were volun-told. "It's not like you could say no," the witness quipped.

The episode ends with the three men descending into the bowels of the plant. They're wading through chest deep water. Their Geiger counters are clicking like mad. Then one man's flashlight dies, followed shortly by the other two. The episode ends with all three left in the dark, the only sounds being their frantic breathing over the rapid clicking of the Geiger counters.

This cliffhanger ending is one of the reasons we stayed up until 2am to binge-watch all 5 episodes in one sitting.

Next in this series: Those Accents, Tho!