{"id":12941,"date":"2021-12-30T22:31:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T06:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12941"},"modified":"2021-12-31T23:39:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T07:39:33","slug":"message-of-the-day-128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12941","title":{"rendered":"Message of the Day: Disease, Human Rights, War, Environment, Hunger, Economic Opportunity, Population, Personal Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 2021, \u201cYear in Pictures<\/em>, December Issue, National Geographic<\/span><\/p>\n

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Our last post was the New York Times year in pictures, as we did last year and before. Now we go to National Geographic Magazine, as we also did last year for its inaugural picures of the year.<\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:<\/p>\n

The 2021 \u201cYear in Pictures\u201d issue, our second, feels very different from the first. Many people have called 2020 their most challenging year ever: a pandemic worldwide, racial and political strife in the United States. Yet well into 2021, problems of all kinds persisted; the political rancor and climate crisis did not abate.<\/em><\/p>\n

As we noted at the end of 2020 and start of 2021, our observation has been that 2020 has not ended yet. It has been an unprecedented time–a time in which time itself has manifested in our human experience in a manner that stands still and moves at the speed of light simultaneously.<\/p>\n

National Geograpic Magazine has done an astounding job of capturing much of this experience. In addition to this piece, it links to numerous others that tell the story of life on earth and of earth in the universe.<\/p>\n

Here it is:<\/p>\n

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2021: YEAR IN<\/span>PICTURES<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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BY<\/span> SUSAN GOLDBERG<\/strong>, EDITOR\u00a0IN\u00a0CHIEF<\/p>\n

PUBLISHED DEC 9, 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 2021 \u201cYear in Pictures\u201d issue, our second, feels very different from the first. Many people have called 2020 their most challenging year ever: a pandemic worldwide, racial and political strife in the United States. Yet well into 2021, problems of all kinds persisted; the political rancor and climate crisis did not abate.<\/a>\u00a0On the other hand, vaccines and other medical advances, along with behavioral shifts, began to rein in the virus and raise spirits. You\u2019ll see that glint of optimism reflected in many of the photographs we chose to represent this whipsaw year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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COVID<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The pandemic put us on a roller coaster in 2021. New vaccines spurred optimism and reopenings, but immunization efforts were plagued by misinformation and shortages. As the rhythms of daily life return, the virus remains a threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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June 21<\/div>\n
TOSAMAIDAN, INDIA<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With a cooler of COVID-19 vaccines in hand, Nazir Ahmed looks for shepherds and nomadic herders in the meadows of Tosamaidan, southwest of Srinagar in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir. In the race to vaccinate against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, health-care workers have gone to extreme lengths to reach remote communities. From Srinagar, it took Ahmed and a half dozen colleagues three hours driving and then walking to reach this isolated spot. They spent four hours searching for people and vaccinated more than 10.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAR YASIN, AP PHOTO<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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May 8<\/div>\n
WASHINGTON, D.C.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Brothers of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity\u2019s founding chapter haven\u2019t truly graduated from Howard University until they complete a half-century-old tradition: a joyous, choreographed stroll. Passersby \u201cstop\u2014they stop!\u2014because they know the culture, the history,\u201d says Travis Xavier Brown (at far right), a 2021 theater graduate. \u201cIt\u2019s a rite of passage.\u201d The pandemic forced Howard to switch to online classes, but as COVID-19 cases fell, the school opted to hold a joint, in-person commencement for the classes of 2020 and 2021. PHOTOGRAPH BY JARED SOARES<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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July 21<\/div>\n
NORTH JAKARTA, INDONESIA<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Relatives pour rose water and offer flowers at a COVID-19 victim\u2019s grave in Cilincing, North Jakarta. Rorotan Public Cemetery opened in March with space for 7,200 plots, but it quickly began filling up as Indonesia suffered a huge spike in cases in July. At the peak, the world\u2019s fourth most populous country saw an average of 50,000 cases a day. PHOTOGRAPH BY MUHAMMAD FADLI<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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OPPORTUNITIES LOST<\/div>\n
New strains of the virus and uneven responses to vaccines delayed the world\u2019s return to normal.<\/div>\n
BY <\/span>BIJAL P. TRIVEDI<\/div>\n
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It was supposed to be a triumphant year, the year we defeated COVID-19<\/a>. Revolutionary vaccines\u2014developed at breakneck speed from genetic technology decades in the making\u2014were rolling out, ushering in the largest global immunization campaign in history. Lockdowns, isolation, masking, and sparsely attended funerals would give way to open borders, family reunions, and rebounding economies. In 2021 life would return to normal.<\/p>\n

What we didn\u2019t know, though, was that the vaccination drive would falter. In the United States, millions spurned vaccines despite a deadly winter surge followed by another in the summer. Scientists making discoveries and adjusting recommendations aroused suspicion. Misinformation and snake oil spread as rapidly as the virus. Vaccines were denounced as a form of government control; masks a violation of personal liberty. In much of the world, by contrast, immunizations were simply, tragically, unavailable.<\/p>\n

As we squandered the opportunity to reach herd immunity, the virus took advantage. SARS-CoV-2 multiplied, yielding countless mutations<\/a>. With each genetic change came a chance for the virus to grow deadlier\u2014to dodge the immune system, infect cells more easily, trigger more severe disease, spread across borders. We were at the mercy of high-speed natural selection.<\/p>\n

Thus began the rise of the variants: Alpha, in the United Kingdom; Beta, in South Africa; Gamma, in Brazil; and then, from India, Delta.<\/p>\n

More infectious<\/a>\u00a0and possibly more lethal than any of its predecessors, Delta swept through the world\u2019s second most populous country with relentless ferocity, overwhelming health-care workers, packing hospitals with feverish, oxygen-starved patients, and sending bodies to crematoria where funeral pyres blazed around the clock.<\/p>\n

By July, Delta was becoming the dominant variant worldwide, and by September, it had pushed U.S. deaths past the toll from the 1918 Spanish flu<\/a>, making COVID-19 the deadliest pandemic in the nation\u2019s history. More than 750,000 Americans had died<\/a>\u00a0by early November. But the coronavirus has hit some communities harder: Indigenous, Hispanic, and Black Americans have died at the highest rates.<\/p>\n

The pandemic laid bare another glaring health disparity, the global vaccine divide: an abundance of doses in countries where people didn\u2019t want them and a shortage, or absence, in those where people did.<\/p>\n

Nine months after the first COVID-19 vaccine was authorized, more than 80 percent of all the shots had been given in high- and upper-middle-income countries. While people in poor nations were still waiting for a first one, wealthy nations were approving boosters for vaccinated individuals.<\/p>\n

The result: Millions around the world have died<\/a>\u00a0from a disease that in most instances can be prevented with a single injection or a two-dose regimen.<\/p>\n

Even as vaccines are distributed, we may never be completely rid of this virus. The four coronaviruses that cause the common cold are endemic, as are the viruses descended from the one that sparked the Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n

Experts say the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus most likely will hang around, evolving and circulating for years. But as people develop immunity, outbreaks will be smaller and the virus will cause less acute illness.<\/p>\n

We will be stuck not only with the virus but also with a little-understood and harrowing legacy: Ten to 30 percent of the hundreds of millions infected may suffer from lingering and potentially debilitating symptoms. So-called long COVID\u2014which includes ailments from brain fog, memory loss, and fatigue to erectile dysfunction<\/a>\u00a0and menstrual changes to loss of smell and taste\u2014will require new treatments and therapies.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, as long as many of us are unprotected, none of us is safe. Unvaccinated people provide a reservoir for new variants to arise. It\u2019s imperative both to persuade those who are hesitant to get a vaccine\u2014which provides greater immunity than getting COVID-19\u2014and to deliver vaccines to even the most remote communities. COVAX, a multinational initiative to make COVID-19 vaccines available everywhere, expects to reach the two-billion-dose milestone early this year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a step in the right direction. But as 2021 showed us, and as Delta has taught us, the virus doesn\u2019t care about our timeline or our rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bijal P. Trivedi<\/strong>\u00a0is a National Geographic<\/em>\u00a0editor and the author of Breath from Salt, <\/em>which chronicles the quest to cure children with cystic fibrosis\u2014and the dawn of personalized medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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