USA: BUDGET AND BASKETBALL

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

May 4 853 13667 3025 3786 59

26 607 12348 2399 3842 101

June 1 287 10637 2346 3205 95

30 249 8505 2127 991 383

July 7 251 8440 1595 817 411

13 307 8117 1613 623 633

14 374 8721 1574 580 453

Summary:

While some countries like the U.S. have experienced a ten-fold lowering of deaths, others are seeing serious upticks, particularly in Asia, Africa and even parts of Europe.
You look at the vaccination rate (per 100K people), and the low ones are where cases are increasing because the Delta strain is more infectious:

Africa 4.13
South Africa 7.14
Thailand 17.86
Russia 32.44
Mexico 39.32
World 43.89
Asia 46.05
Japan 47.18
Europe 74.34
China 95.47
U.S. 99.74
Israel 126.15
UAE 160.92

The USA yesterday had 35,447 new cases. If the mortality rate remains the same (0.018), the new deaths/day a week to ten days from today could well double into the 600's. Still, the January-February figure was around 4,000 new deaths/day, so vaccination has made a difference. As reported by CBS, 99.7% of all new cases are of those not vaccinated.

From the New York Times:

“We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War,” President Biden said of Republican-passed laws that change election rules.
Democrats agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, which could pave the way for an infrastructure bill that would not require Republican support.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, will propose legislation decriminalizing marijuana.

Remember, 2008 was the year the stock market crashed. But I had no money invested, and when I thought the bottom had been reached, I bought a few stocks, and ultimately doubled my money. Be prepared.

You might have noticed that there are two major budget bills in the U. S. Senate:

The $1.2 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure package, mostly to rebuild America.
A monumental $3.5 trillion Democrat investment plan with many of their dreams included:

Expanded medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision healthcare.
Free community college, paid family leave, expanding child tax credit and a resolution to achieve 80% clean electricity and cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
To be paid by taxing the rich (those earning more than $400,000/year).

Both are expected to pass next month. But anything could get in the way, including even one senator. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation looks promising. The $3.5 trillion will eventually pass in some form because of something called reconciliation, which is everything but that. This was a compromise with Senator Bernie Sanders and his partners, who really wanted $6 trillion to $10 trillion.

Have you noticed that our Olympic basketball teams are losing exhibition matches? The U.S. men's team to Nigeria and Australia. In previous years they won 54 of 56 such games. Now they find that one of their stars, Bradley Beal, might have COVID-19, and could miss the Olympics. But he would be replaced. Yet, the NBA finals are still on, and Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton are still involved. However, if the finals reach game 7, that would be on July 22, and our first game is against France on July 25. Then Iran on the 28th and Czech Republic on the 31st. We should win all those games. By then the team should be in form.

Then yesterday, the team that is most favored to win a gold medal at Tokyo, the USA women's basketball team, also lost. However, this was to the WNBA All-Star team, so there is not much concern about the Olympics. These are their uniforms for Tokyo.

I walked on the Ala Wai Golf Course yesterday. Not quite 18 holes, but a good effort nevertheless. I took a photo of a red-headed cardinal:

That statement might have some flaws. For one, I try to get on a course once/week. The average is 46 rounds/year. So not three times per week, at 6 miles/round. Then, of course, 75% of golfers ride a cart. But why nit pick.

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

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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