April 2021

Kenyan farmers say they are being forced to hand-pollinate their crops due to a decline in bee populations from pesticides. Kenya’s insect experts say the chemicals, meant to kill desert locusts and other pests, are killing off bees and other pollinating insects.   Kenyan farmer Samuel Nderitu says he made a good living from his crops for nearly a decade until 2019, when he noticed neighboring farmers spraying for pests.      His crop yields started dropping, says Nderitu, and he’s convinced it’s because the pesticides killed off pollinating insects like bees.     He has since been forced to hand-pollinate the plants.      “It has been quite successful — not 100% though because that’s not natural,” he said.  “The natural one is where the insects transfer the pollen from one plant to another; that’s the most successful one. But now, because the pollinators are not there, we have to help in that process.” 
A 2019 desert locust invasion in east Africa forced Kenyan authorities and farmers into a massive spraying campaign to save their crops.     But Kenya’s International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology says the unchecked use of pesticides is ironically killing off the pollinators on which the crops depend.  ‘’The pesticides are affecting the health of the bees because the pesticides reduce immunity of bees,” says Nelly Ngungu, a research scientist at the center. “Now, aggravating the effects of pesticides, and lack of forage because of climatic conditions, change in climate, all this they reduce the immunity of bees and can eventually lead to bee death and decline in population.’’    Kenya’s agricultural experts are researching pest control options that reduce chemical use.  Agricultural research professor Hamadi Boga says biological control — using predators that feed on pests — is one option.    
 
“The biggest challenge is that biological control works exito, where exito means ‘in the lab.’ It works very well but when you take it to the field, because of rain and other environmental issues, sometimes it’s not quite as perfect,” said Boga. Biodiversity groups are also training Kenya’s farmers on how to repel pests without harmful chemicals that can kill pollinators. The national coordinator of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, Anne Maina, explains.   ‘’We train them on what is called integrated pest management,” she said. “For example, if you find that you have a particular pest that is giving you trouble or disease — how do you plant crops?  For example, even in your kitchen garden, if you are growing vegetables, we encourage farmers to grow them with things like onions, pepper, or pilipili [chili peppers], and these are able to repel some of the pests.”     Kenyan farmers like Nderitu hope to one day attract bees to their farms again.    Until then, he will have to do the pollinators’ work by hand. 
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Kenyan farmers say they are being forced to hand pollinate their crops due to a decline in bee populations from pesticides.  Kenya’s insect experts say the chemicals, meant to kill desert locusts and other pests, are killing off bees and other pollinating bugs.  Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Robert Lutta    
Producer: Rob Raffaele  
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Fully vaccinated people can skip the mask when they get together outside with others, vaccinated or not, according to A person wears a mask while jogging, April 27, 2021, near the Capitol in Olympia, Washington.The only time vaccinated people need to wear masks outdoors is when they are in crowds, like at street festivals, parades, farmers markets or political rallies, for example.Keep that mask handy, however. CDC still says to mask up when you go inside. But do go inside, the recommendations say. Indoor dining, movies, haircuts, religious services, exercise classes, and other indoor public spaces all are much safer for vaccinated people than unvaccinated.Just wear a mask.Why wear a mask indoors if you are vaccinated?”At their best, these vaccines are 95% effective,” said Vanderbilt University Medical Center infectious diseases professor William Schaffner. “I did not say 100%. So, there’s still that small risk that you could yourself acquire the infection.”Even if a vaccinated person does not get seriously ill, there remains a chance that the person could pass the virus on to someone who is not vaccinated.Also, not wearing a mask puts an unfair burden on workers to enforce mask rules.”You can’t expect someone at a store to go around and look at people’s vaccination status,” noted Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.Indoor get-togethers without masks are fine when everyone is vaccinated, as earlier CDC guidelines said.Students at Wyandotte County High School wear masks as they walk through a hallway on the first day of in-person learning at the school in Kansas City, Kansas, March 31. 2021.The guidelines also note that unvaccinated people can walk, run or bike outside without a mask, a recommendation that some experts said is long overdue.”If you’re walking outside and passing someone for a second, even without vaccination, you did not need to be wearing a mask,” said Leana Wen, health policy professor at The George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner. “So, I’m glad that the Biden administration is clarifying that part.””I do still think that their guidance is overly cautious,” she added. “But at least now they are finally differentiating between what it is that people can do once they’re fully vaccinated compared to those who are not.”The updated recommendations give people more of an incentive to get vaccinated, Wen said.The recommendation regarding wearing masks indoors will likely remain until a bigger chunk of the population is vaccinated and the case count comes down from where it is today, in the tens of thousands, Adalja said.The pace of vaccination has slowed, however, from more than 3 million shots per day two weeks ago to about 2.5 million.The people who were ready and willing to get vaccinated have largely done so. Now, the hard work of overcoming hesitancy begins.”The more people who are vaccinated, the more steps we can take towards spending time with people we love doing the things we love to enjoy,” Walensky said. 
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated guidelines Tuesday recommending that fully vaccinated people in the U.S. can now stop wearing masks outdoors unless they are in a large crowd of strangers.The updated guidelines also say people who have not been vaccinated can go maskless when outside alone or with household members, or in small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated people.The CDC recommended for most of the past year that people in the U.S. wear masks outdoors if they are within two meters of each other.The updated guidance is part of the Biden Administration’s initiative to carefully return the country to some state of normalcy. COVID-19 has killed nearly 573,000 people, by far the most in the world.The guidelines were relaxed after more than half of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.
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