2020/2021 have not been good years for things in general. In addition to the concerns that the entire world has, I’ve lost about half my house plants. Why? The reason has been a lot of weird “not normal” circumstances that I haven’t encountered before in a lifetime of plant growing.

Now, this 3 year old Poinsettia has suddenly sprouted “white something” on the new, developing leaves. At first, I feared “mealybugs”. However upon closer inspection, the “white stuff” doesn’t look like the mealybugs I’ve seen on other plants in the not too distant past. Instead, it almost looks “organic” like a part of the plant… But maybe it really is just some sort of insect infestation at an early stage. These days, nothing really surprises me. Things that should be normal haven’t been “normal.” Whatever is going on is different than anything I’ve seen before.

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US COVID Friday Update

“The coronavirus variants circulating globally are projected to become more dominant in the United States by the spring.

The emergence of coronavirus variants is a ‘wake-up call,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House news briefing on Friday. Multiple variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 are circulating around the world, including the B.1.1.7 identified in the United Kingdom, B.1.351 in South Africa and P. 1 variant in Brazil. ‘When these variants were first recognized, it became clear that we had to look at, in vitro in the test tube, whether the antibodies that were induced by the vaccines that we had available would actually neutralize these new mutants,’ Fauci said.” CNN

All three documented COVID mutations (plus the original "wild" strain) are now in the USA and circulating.

“Dr. Anthony S. Fauci warned Friday that new clinical trial results from Johnson & Johnson, showing that its vaccine is less effective against a highly infectious variant of the coronavirus circulating in South Africa, were a “wake-up call.” He said the virus will continue to mutate, and vaccine manufacturers will have to be “nimble to be able to adjust readily” to reformulating the vaccines if needed.”
NY Times

The country reported 164,665 new confirmed cases and 3,872 deaths in just the one, single day of 1-29-21. That is what "plateauing" looks like. Things have been worse and are predicted to get worse again.

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Above plant in the photo update: I still have no idea of what is going on with this Poinsettia. However, I’ll be keeping my eyes open to try to determine if I need to spray or to trash another troubled house plant. I hope that I don't have to resort to either, but this NOT NORMAL.