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Liz Bickel | all galleries >> Nature: Multiple Galleries >> Sunrise to Dark of Night: Multiple Galleries >> Moon > Ghost Moon 8-22-21
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22-Aug-2021 copyright Elizabeth Bickel

Ghost Moon 8-22-21

The 18th Full Moon since the Pandemic Changed Our World

“The August Full Moon was at its fullest on Sunday morning, Aug. 22, 2021, at 6:02 a.m. CDST.
This Moon appeared full for about 3 days around this time, from Friday night through Monday morning, making this a full Moon weekend. As the third full Moon in a season that has four full Moons, this will be a Blue Moon by the older definition.”

“The first recorded use of "Blue Moon" in English dates from 1528. The Moon will not actually appear blue in color. Speculations on the origin of the term include an old English phrase that means "betrayer Moon" or a reference to rare events, such as when dust in the atmosphere makes the Moon actually appear blue. Since the 1940's the term "Blue Moon" has also been used for the second full Moon in a month that has two full Moons.”

“In many traditional lunisolar calendars, full Moons fall in the middle of the lunar months. This full Moon is in the middle of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar and corresponds to the Hungry Ghost Festival. The seventh month of the Chinese calendar is the Ghost, on which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out to visit the living.” NASA

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Today in COVID-19 History

The US Surgeon General just issued a "Deeply Concerning" Warning
about "the alarming numbers" of COVID-19:

"The average of new cases is now more than 151,000 a day. That's up more than a thousand percent from June and children now make up 18% of new cases. That's almost one in five."

The Surgeon General also said FDA’s Full Approval of the Pfizer Vaccine is Expected Tomorrow.
Hopefully, that will convince more Americans to take the vaccine and help put an end to the pandemic that is ravaging America.

The U.S. is currently grappling with a surge of new COVID-19 cases as the Delta variant has made its way into unvaccinated communities such as ours. Even with vaccines now protecting some of the population, unvaccinated (by choice) Americans have made it possible for Delta to flourish. As a result, hospitalizations across the US are now at a breaking point. COVID is once again as bad as it was back during the crisis in January. Sadly, if more people had gotten properly vaccinated, this all didn't have to be. Americans could have now been very, very close to the end of the dark tunnel of this pandemic.

But here we are instead. Because of the vaccine hesitant, no end to the pandemic in the USA seems to be in sight. The virus still has plenty of hosts to allow it to flourish. At this moment in time, even some of the vaccinated can be infected by the overwhelming amount of COVID that the unvaccinated have caused to circulate. The vaccines are good, but not 100%. Therefore, what-the-unvaccinated-do, effects all of us. With each new case among the unvaccinated, there become the possibility of the virus to mutate again into perhaps something even worse than the Delta variant; which is in itself far more contagious and dangerous than the original wild strain of COVID. This is all such a sad story that didn't have to be. The unvaccinated, unmasked people of the country are keeping the pandemic going.

How many more full moons will we see before life normalizes? How many more full moons will "safer at home" be needed for those who want to protect themselves? How many more full moons before Americans stop getting critically ill from this now relatively preventable virus. How much more death and Long COVID will the USA experience?

I really thought with the full moon back in April, the USA was on the way out of this nightmare... I was wrong. Those, who refuse to take the life saving vaccines or wear masks, are keeping the nightmare going.

Nikon COOLPIX P900
1/500s f/8.0 at 357.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
Tom Munson24-Aug-2021 20:23
Beautiful capture, Liz. I agree with everything you said about Covid.