8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
COFFEE BREAK
TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2020
Coronavirus stalls work to keep
Dinner parties dominated
by woman’s nonstop talking alive a rare rhino subspecies
By Joe Mwiha
and Kheled Kazziah
DEAR ABBY: I am part
of a couples group that gets
together on a regular basis
for dinner.
The problem is one of
the women takes over the
conversa-
tion, and it
becomes her
monologue.
She just won’t
stop! She goes
into minute detail about
every aspect of her life for
the last couple of weeks (or
months or years!) and the
lives of her family, friends,
friends of family and
friends of friends. These
are people we don’t know
and don’t care about!
We have tried to redirect
the conversation by asking
someone else a specifi c
question. Before they can
hardly comment, she jumps
right in again. She’s a nice
person, and a friend. Can
you suggest a kind way we
can fi x this, or do we just
have to exclude them from
these dinners?
— EARS HURTING IN
OHIO
DEAR EARS
HURTING: The woman
may not realize how her
efforts to be entertaining
are perceived by the rest
of you. Someone — pos-
sibly you — has to summon
up the courage to tell her
how off-putting her mono-
logues are.
It may not
DEAR
be an easy
conversa-
ABBY
tion to have,
but it would
be better than excluding
her with no explanation.
If, however, she is unable
(or unwilling) to change
her behavior, the solution
would be to stop inviting
her.
DEAR ABBY: I just
turned 51 and have been
diagnosed with cancer for
the second time. Why is it
that when I tell someone
I have cancer, their fi rst
response is to tell me
about every person in their
life who has had cancer
and all the gloomy stories?
One family member actu-
ally pulled out pictures
to show me her SIL’s hair
growing back. Why do
they think this is an appro-
priate response? It’s the
last thing I want to hear.
It is diffi cult to remain
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positive, and I struggle
with letting people in.
The more this happens,
the more I shut down. Your
thoughts?
— TRYING IN SALEM,
MASS.
DEAR TRYING: It
might help to remind your-
self that these individuals
may be trying to show you
they identify with what
you and their relatives
have experienced.
The family member
who showed you that pic-
ture may have thought she
was being encouraging
by showing you a posi-
tive outcome — that after
chemo, your hair may
grow back.
If someone starts a con-
versation along these lines,
it is perfectly acceptable to
tell the person you would
rather not discuss the sub-
ject right now — or ever.
Please don’t allow the fact
that some people are inap-
propriate to isolate you. As
I am sure you are aware,
there are cancer support
groups in which you can
receive emotional support.
If you need to fi nd one,
visit cancer.org.
Associated Press
NANYUKI, Kenya
— It’s not quite a case
of coitus interruptus, but
efforts to create a very spe-
cial baby are defi nitely on
hold. Blame the pandemic.
Groundbreaking work
to keep alive the nearly
extinct northern white
rhino subspecies — popu-
lation, two — by in-vitro
fertilization has been
stalled by travel restric-
tions. And time is running
out.
The two northern white
rhinos are female. The goal
is to create viable embryos
in a lab by inseminating
their eggs with frozen
sperm from dead males,
then transfer them into a
surrogate mother, a more
common southern white
rhino.
As of January, three
embryos had been cre-
ated and stored in liquid
nitrogen. But further key
steps now have to wait.
“It has been disrupted
by COVID-19, like every-
thing else,” said Richard
Vigne, managing director
of Ol Pejeta Conservancy
in Kenya, home of the two
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remaining rhinos. “That
is, the process of col-
lecting more eggs from
the females as well as the
process of developing the
technique to introduce
the northern white rhino
embryo into the southern
white rhino females.”
It’s an international
effort that includes con-
servationists from Kenya,
the Czech Republic, Ger-
many and Italy — many
affected by closed borders
or restricted travel.
For those involved in
the effort, acutely aware
of time, the delay can be
painful. The procedure to
create viable embryos has
proven to be safe, they say,
and can be performed reg-
ularly before the animals
become too old.
In January, the transfer
of the embryos to surro-
gates had been planned
for the coming months.
In March, the plan had
been to collect another
round of eggs from the two
remaining females.
Because those eggs
are limited, scientists are
working with embryos
from southern white rhinos
until they can establish
a successful pregnancy.
Seven or eight transfers
so far have failed to take
hold. A receptive female
is needed, along with the
knowledge of exactly when
she ovulates.
“We know time is
working against us,” said
Cesare Galli, an in-vitro
fertilization expert based
in Italy. “The females will
age and we don’t have
many to choose from.”
He hopes restrictions
on international travel
will loosen in the coming
weeks so key steps can
resume in August. “The
problem is quite serious,”
he said. “
Certainly as soon as
international travel is
resumed, it will be the fi rst
priority to go” to Kenya
and collect more eggs from
the two females.
Even when travel can
resume, another problem
looms. The Ol Pejeta Con-
servancy also is home to
primates — non-human
primates — which are sus-
ceptible to the coronavirus,
Galli said.
“If you bring in the
virus accidentally, it’s an
additional risk,” he said.
“You threaten one species
to save another.”
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