In other news, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) says he will not run for reelection in 2020. He's the fourth GOP senator to call it quits.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have released a proposal to reduce child poverty by paying families up to $3,600 per child over the next year.
Finally, scientists say climate change and global warming may have created the conditions for the coronavirus to spawn from an increase in bat populations in southeast Asia.
The researchers found that, due to changes in vegetation over the past 100 years, an additional 40 species of bat have moved into the region, carrying with them 100 more types of bat-borne coronaviruses. Bats are known carriers of coronaviruses, with various species carrying thousands of different types. Many scientists believe the virus that started the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic originated in bats in southern China's Yunnan province or neighboring areas before it crossed paths with humans. [...]
According to the authors, climate changes such as increases in temperature, sunlight and carbon dioxide, which affect the growth of plants and trees, have shifted the makeup of vegetation in southern China, turning tropical shrubland into tropical savannah and deciduous woodland. This type of forest, the authors contend, is more suitable to bat species.
As I was saying last week, I intended to share what it was like to drop out of hormone replacement therapy for nearly a month. But first, I'll explain how it happened in the first place.
I placed a routine order for more hormones in the first week of December when I still had a little over a month left from my previous shipment. My previous orders did not take that long to arrive so I expected that would be enough time, but then something happened that was entirely out of my control: new coronavirus variants started to appear. World governments overreacted to the new variants by closing their airspace and restricting travel. That meant the overseas flights my orders usually arrived on were halted for weeks. The confusion led to my original order being lost somewhere in Switzerland (no kidding) and I had to arrange a reshipment. I received the reshipment on Thursday of last week.
Now, I rationed what I had left for as long as I reasonably could, taking a pill every other day and eventually every three days, and this debacle did not last long enough to produce any physical changes. But the emotional changes were evident.
It's not something I've discussed at great length with anyone but my closest friends, but I was an emotional trainwreck last year before starting hormone replacement therapy. Those who undergo HRT are warned that it may effect their moods and emotions and it certainly did for me, but it effected me in the best way possible. The month of January was very difficult for me because I temporarily lost the emotional balance that therapy provided me for most of the last year. I can say that at least a few days in recent weeks when I did not write as much as usual can be attributed to me struggling to feel normal.
I'm happy to say I'm feeling much better now and I have enough of my medication to last through the next six months.