PASTICHE THURSDAY

From Worldometer (new COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

DAY USA WORLD Brazil India South Africa

June 9 1093 4732 1185 246 82

July 22 1205 7128 1293 1120 572

Aug 12 1504 6556 1242 835 130

Sept 9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82

Oct 21 1225 6849 571 703 85

Nov 25 2304 12025 620 518 118

Dec 30 3880 14748 1224 299 465

Jan 14 4142 15512 1151 189 712

Feb 3 4005 14265 1209 107 398

25 2414 10578 1582 119 144

Mar 2 1989 9490 1726 110 194

31 1115 12301 3950 458 58

April 6 906 11787 4211 631 37

20 883 13905 3481 2020 120

21 876 14088 3157 2102 53

28 885 14837 3120 3285 51

29 954 15301 3019 3647 48

Summary:

If anything, the pandemic is getting worse.
So here we are today in the U.S.:

As this is pastiche day, here is what I saw this morning when I sat down for the usual morning constitution:

I thought, this certainly looked familiar. Here is the full scene:

Amazingly, just the shadow cast by the hanging bath towel created that graph of the pandemic in the USA today.

On Sunday I featured Pfizer. Here is a video of how they make their vaccine. Another (click below to watch) of why even the 72% Johnson & Johnson vaccine is just about as good as the 95% Pfizer version. The pause that occurred was, I think, a tactical mistake, for it forever cast this vaccine into third-class status. With a less than one in a million chance of a clot, this kind of decision just shows that this Administration is just too namby-pamby, another way of saying too much abundance of caution.

Oh, by the way, it was only yesterday that I indicated the $2.3 billion infrastructure bi-partisan bill was now the $3 trillion Biden Build Back Better budget. Well, he surprised me in his speech from Congress last night with what apparently is now a $4 trillion dollar total, one where he has at least one more budget reconciliation path to passage without any Republican help.

I should add that the NFL draft will begin today with only round one. Want to guess how many Alabama players will be selected? The other six rounds occur Friday and Saturday. One of the latest rumor blurbs is that the San Francisco 49ers might be inquiring with the Green Bay Packers about a trade for QB Aaron Rogers. His comment was that his future is a beautiful mystery. Did you catch him on Jeopardy the other week? Did a great job.

I'd like to end my blog today with a reference to Pat Saiki, who this month at the age of 91, launched her new book, A Woman in the House. Interestingly enough, you can get it from Watermark Publishing, but not yet from Amazon.com. Read this article by Denby Fawcett, who was a fifth grade student of Saiki's at Punahou, who, fresh out of the University of Hawaii, in 1952 was hired as the first non-Caucasian full-time teacher at that school.

I never had the pleasure of interacting with her at any level, but that might have been because she was a Republican in Hawaii. She was, though, a liberal Republican, and a leader I've long admired. She and Patsy Mink were the early female politicians in Hawaii who made a real difference for society, at both the local and national levels.

Let me finish with a short clip that makes some mathematical sense, but is yet surprising:

Further, this is Pastiche Thursday, so we need something more comical. What about that re-run of maybe the funniest TV sketch ever...Tim Conway playing a new dentist:

It starts slowly, but towards the end, if you're breathing normally, something is wrong with you.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

THE CRYPTO REVOLUTION

Is this the beginning of the next pandemic surge? From the New York Times this morning. You've read about Philadelphia's return to indoor masks . But what about the other regions? Remember when the Alpha variant hit Michigan and Minnesota about a year ago...then fizzled? So sure predictions are difficult. Of course, most new cases are being caused by the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, the most contagious virus yet, but the combination of vaccinations, high number of previous asymptomatic cases, home tests ( which are generally not reported ) and mildness of the resultant symptoms is not affecting the hospitalization rate, with a continuing decline of death rates. We are now in the mode of uncertainty tinged with optimism. The crypto world is erupting . It's possible that this could become a revolution. However, anything relatively new remains perilous, and this financing option could just as easily blow up into obscurity, for the system is vulnerable to too many r

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