Christmas morning and the sights are bright.

Santa came in his sleigh last night.

He came with a whoosh and a ho-ho-ho.

He came with a monarch and a no-no-no.

"Don't let them get extinct," he said with a shout.

And that's what endangered species are all about. 

(Read what the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation wants you to do to help save the monarch, Danaus plexippus, from extinction) 

In the year 2020, COVID chased us out of our work places and out of our fun places.

So we dutifully covered our faces to cover all the bases, washed our hands to meet all the demands,  and kept our distance to continue our existence.

But wait...we did NOT socially distance from the insects. 

The bees buzzed, the butterflies fluttered, and the praying mantids did what they do best--ambush their prey (much to some folks' dismay).

But let us not stray....

They say that Santa Claus this year looks like...um...The Grinch. 

Does Santa look like The Grinch? Maybe, in a pinch.  But on Christmas Eve we always scan the horizon for that familiar sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer--and led by No. 9, a beaming reindeer with a red nose.  (But they've never been willing to pose.)

COVID may have chased us out of our work places and out of our fun places, but don't let The Grinch steal Christmas. It's not his to steal. Let us heal.

Merry Christmas! And stay safe!

We were saddened to learn of the passing Sunday, Dec. 20, of agricultural icon Richard "Rich" Rominger, 93,  former  Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the President Bill Clinton administration, and former Secretary of the California Department of Agriculture in the Gov. Jerry Brown administration.

He succumbed to a heart attack at a restaurant in his hometown of Winters. "He collapsed at the restaurant as he was arranging to buy meals for donation to needy families every week,"  Linda Delgado, his former executive assistant at USDA, told AgriPulse. “With great humility, humor and brilliance, he set the example of how to live a life of grace, generosity, kindness, and deep respect and care for fellow humans, food, agriculture and the planet."

In 2016, Rominger and his wife, Evelyne Rowe Rominger, both alumni of the University of California, Davis, received the UC Davis Medal, the university's highest honor.  "Rich and Evelyne Rominger have given generously to UC Davis of their time, talents and resources,” said then acting chancellor Ralph Hexter.  “Their loyalty and passion for seeing students flourish and their alma mater grow and prosper is an inspiration for all of us in the Aggie family.” The UC Davis Medal, first presented in 2002, singles out individuals for their extraordinary contributions to the university. 

We remember when the couple visited the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, on Picnic Day, April 17, 2015. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and UC Davis professor of entomology, greeted them and showed them around. 

Kimsey recalls Rominger as "a big donor to the campus, super supportive and involved." He served as a Regent for the University of California, and was a member of both the UC Davis Foundation Board and the University of California President's Advisory Committee on Agriculture and the Environment.

We also remember seeing Rominger, circled by friends, at the 2015 California Agriculture Day at the State Capitol. His presence illuminated the event.  

Born in Woodland, Rich was a fourth-generation farmer, highly respected and greatly admired. After serving as the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, he headed back to Winters to continue farming on his family's 6000-acre spread and to continue serving as a strong supporter of U.S. agriculture. The Rominger family produces such crops as almonds, walnuts, tomatoes, rice, sunflower seeds, wheat, corn, safflower, wine grapes, grape rootstock, oat hay and onion seed.

Accolades are pouring in. Ria de Grassi, former director of federal policy for the California Farm Bureau Federation, remembers him well, especially as "a friend of the pollinators," including honey bees. Rominger received both the California Farm Bureau Foundation's Distinguished Service Award and the California State Fair's Agriculturalist of the Year Award. "Rich was not one for a fire and brimstone approach to leading the way," de Grassi told us. "He was a deliberative thinker who lent his name and reputation carefully to causes and innovations in agriculture. He wasn't hasty, but was quickly decisive with the intel he gleaned. And when Rich spoke, he punctuated his actions for others to take note.  This is perhaps most evident in the fact Rominger Brothers Farms in the last 20 years installed several miles of native plants in field-border hedgerows to benefit pollinators and to enhance the riparian corridor."

Cong. John Garamendi, D-CA, a close friend of Rominger, posted a fitting tribute on his Facebook page on Dec. 21.  "I called Rich's cell phone this morning. He did not answer. I've called that number hundreds of times seeking advice and counsel, and I have always come away from the conversation with a gem of wisdom, a better solution to a problem, encouragement, and a precious gift of friendship. Not this time. My call was answered by his son confirming Richard Rominger's death. I'll keep Rich's number. He won't answer, but just calling will encourage me to stay true to the lessons he taught me. I know that Rich treated everyone with the same respect and desire to help. Perhaps they will keep that number, too."

When Rominger served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S.Department of Agriculture, "he was always the bulwark of support for the American family farmer," Garamendi wrote. "He knew the challenges facing farm families and he knew how to use government to improve their lot. During the Clinton years the Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior, where I was also Deputy, teamed up to produce seminal studies on the effects of Climate Change, create the first Tahoe Summit, address droughts, support land conservation efforts nationwide, attack invasive species, and protect America's great forest." 

"Governor Jerry Brown recognized Richard's potential as a problem solver when he appointed Richard to serve as the Secretary of the California Department of Agriculture," Garamendi noted. "A problem-solver was necessary with Medflies, drought, water wars, and agricultural labor problems in abundance. Undaunted by these challenges, Rominger steered a wise course that yielded a bumper crop of solutions."

"He had an indelible positive impact on our state and nation, and he will be deeply missed," Garamendi wrote.

And as Linda Delgado, his former executive assistant at USDA, said: "With great humility, humor and brilliance, he set the example of how to live a life of grace, generosity, kindness, and deep respect and care for fellow humans, food, agriculture and the planet."

An agricultural icon...

Are beekeepers immune from COVID-19  infections?

Newly published research in the journal Toxicon indicates "No, they're not." 

"A survey on 5115 beekeepers and 121 patients treated with bee venom by an apitherapy clinic in the Hubei province, the epicenter of COVID-19 in China, reported that none of the beekeepers developed symptoms associated with COVID-19, the new and devastating pandemic. The hypothesis that immunity to bee venom could have a preventive effect was expressed and the authors of the Chinese survey suggested that the next step should be animal experiments on monkeys."

That's the opening paragraph in the research article, "Beekeepers Who Tolerate Bee Stings are Not Protected against SARS-CoV-2 Infections," published last month in the open-access journal.

The authors, German scientists Heidrun Männle, Jutta Hübner, and Karsten Münstedt, set out to explore the hypothesis of beekeeper immunity to the deadly virus. They asked all German beekeepers to complete an assessment form "which would summarize their experiences with COVID-19." 

They found that two beekeepers died from COVID, and 45 were affected. One had been a beekeeper for 10 years and had no underlying health issues. He had developed "a level of tolerance to the effects of bee stings," they wrote.  Not much information was available on the second beekeeper.

"The study shows that beekeepers are not immune to infections caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2," they summarized. "Especially, our data do not support the hypothesis that beekeepers are not affected by SARS-CoV-2 due to their exposure to bee stings and the associated immunity. The severity of the disease was not influenced by various variables like how long they had been a beekeeper, total number of bee stings received, number of bee stings received in the year 2020 and potentially allergic reactions to bee stings. However, the reaction to a bee sting (none versus mild swelling versus strong swelling) influenced the severity of two of the symptoms of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, namely exhaustion and sore throat pain, all of which were more pronounced in beekeepers who reported being more sensitive to bee stings. Beekeepers with less or a minimal reaction to bee stings were less likely to suffer from severe symptoms."

So, bottom line, their results "did not confirm the findings of the Chinese study." But there's this....

"However," the authors added, "since the antiviral effects of bee venom have been found in several studies, we cannot exclude that there could be a direct preventive or alleviating effect when bee venom is administered during the infection."

"The question why 121 patients of apitherapy clinic treated with bee venom did not develop symptoms associated with COVID-19 cannot be answered by our study," the authors acknowledged. "There could be a direct preventive or alleviating effect when bee venom is administered during the infection. In retrospect it would have been interesting to assess the time intervals between string exposure, onset of disease symptoms or contact to infected people."

Read the research here.

Note that many questions are neither answered nor explored, and that this study was published before the development and arrival of vaccines.