Last Thursday I walked the Tongariro (Alpine) Crossing
with my partner. Actually, it was my third time, having also
enjoyed that beautiful volcanic walk in 1979 and 1990. This
was my first time with a mobile phone in my pocket. My phone
assured me that the 19½ kilometre walk took me 39,000
steps; 2 steps per horizontal metre on average, compared
with the 1½ steps per metre that I do when walking around
the block at home. The Crossing has more steep bits –
and many more vertical steps! – than the (not well
maintained) footpaths of Glen Eden.
Despite its
length, The Crossing is accessible to people of reasonable
Written By: advantage - Date published: 11:18 am, February 7th, 2021 - 42 comments
No good citizen in their right mind would want to see democracy further eroded in the United States of America. Cold cash and mercantilist in all levels of political process have lowered – shall we say Trumped – how the United States is perceived internationally. President Biden set out his thoughts for the world to consider yesterday.
New Zealand is one of our closest friends and partners. The unbreakable bond we share was established when the first US Consul to New Zealand was on hand to witness the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840.”
In other words, perhaps, the coronavirus virus uses long-term infections as a mutational testing ground. While inside one person, they can try out all these different combinations of mutations and figure out, through trial and error, which ones are best at evading the immune system or helping the virus become more infectious.
Nothing new and textbook virus evolution. However, the leap to the last sentence is not and is not the most likely outcome, rather the opposite, in my opinion, and very poorly worded.
And this process is likely happening again right now, worldwide, in other immunocompromised patients. Eventually, these new variants could mutate again and create even more dangerous forms of the virus.