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SQUID GAME and NETFLIX

                        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
Mar     2        1989      9490        1726       110      194
April   6          906     11787         4211       631       37
May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 
June   1         287    10637         2346      3205       95
 July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411
Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532      423 
Sept   1        1480    10470          703        505      235
          8        1700      9836          250        339     253
        14        1934      9001          709        281      300
        22       2228      9326          839        279      124
        29        2190      8859         643        309     108
Oct    5        1811       7495          686        285     103
          6        2102       8255         543        315       59
        12        1819        7544          201        249       37 
        18        1563       7228          381         199       55
        19        2005      7528         401        160        80

Summary:  Oh, oh, not improving for the USA.  We also had 80,425 new cases yesterday, with UK #2 at 48,964.  Interestingly enough, Russia had "only" 34,073 new cases for #3, but with 1028 new deaths to UK's 179.

The FDA yesterday announced its approval of booster shots for Moderna and Johnson&Johnson vaccines.  Bad for J&J, but there is reason to believe that mix-and-match is being allowed.  Very few who gave any thought to this would now take a J&J shot to match the original Moderna and Pfizer sequence.  I expect to be injected with my Moderna booster next month from some pharmaceutical company coming to 15 Craigside, where both residents and staff are up to 99% compliance, and there are hints staffers (only a very few left) will be let go if they don't go ahead and get inoculated.

Read this article for details on the three prominent U.S. vaccines:

  • Pfizer-BioNTech:
    • Has always been the first to gain approvals, including booster shots for the elderly and a few others, plus okay to proceed with children from 5-11.
    • Initially was said to be 95% efficient, but this later dropped to 91%, with a further diminution to 84% at 6 months.   Another study showed the decline to 77% in four months.  Even then, efficacy against severe disease was at 97%.
    • More specifically, 96% effective against hospitalization for the Alpha variant and 90% for the Delta variant.
  • Moderna:
    • Finally received approval for half a dose booster shot, and will soon get expansion to 5-12 year olds.
    • Minor warning about heart problems in 12.6 cases per million, but this condition seems to work itself out.
    • 95% efficacy after two doses, declining to 90% after six months.
    • 95% protection from severe conditions.
    • Prevents 96.3% efficiency against symptoms, compared to 88.8% for the Pfizer.
  • Johnson and Johnson:
    • One shot.  Booster approved.
    • Minor Guillain-Barre syndrome and blood clotting disorder symptoms.
    • A different kind of vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna.
    • ONLY 72% efficient, with 86% efficacy against moderate and severe disease.
    • Just approved for booster shot, which two months after first shot improves protection to 94% from moderate and severe disease.
    • Not as efficient for the Delta variant, but still 95% effective against death.
  • Two more:
    • Similar as a carrier vaccine to J&J, AstraZeneca from the UK/Sweden is 76% effective after two doses and 100% efficient against severe disease.  Slightly less effective against the Delta variant:  60% against symptoms and 93% against hospitalization.
  • Novavax from the U.S. is a protein adjuvant and can simply be stored in a refrigerator.  Is 90% effective against symptoms and 100% against moderate and severe disease.  91% effective in protecting people in high-risk population.  Will soon be approved by the FDA.

Since I began visiting South Korea a third of a century ago, I've been impressed by how much the country has advanced in technology and home products.  Their chaebols (large industrial conglomerate controlled by a person or family) were able to influence the central government into helping them help themselves.  The result has been a plethora of scandal cases.  Yet, the overall effect was impressive.

More recently, K-pop, or Korean pop music, groups, such as BTS and Blackpink, have gained massive fan bases in the U.S., and their popularity continues to grow. Movies like the South Korean film Parasite have done well, winning the Academy Award for best picture last year.

There was a time that I made fun of people who weekly watched certain Korean soap operas on television.  I couldn't imagine what would influence them to spend so much time so religiously on something like that.

Well, time to eat humble pie, for the pandemic led me to Netflix and several Korean series.  

Now...Squid Game on Netflix, rated 92/85 by Rotten Tomatoes.  Why is it popular?

  • From South Korea, released on September 17, and is #1 in streaming internationally, for it is available in 37 languages.
  • Nine episodes, 54 minutes (varies from 32 minutes to 63 minutes) long each, or only 8 hours of your time.
  • Simply, "some organization" picked 456 people in debt to compete in kids games for what will ultimately be a $38 million prize.  Those who lose will die, meaning everyone but the victor.
  • I'm giving a lot away, but so what.  Competitor #456 wins all the money and the person who is controlling everything is someone who you would think is the last person to do so.  The clue is in that previous sentence.  Plus there is one more controlling individual who I will also not name at this time.

K-dramas have catapulted the country into prominence.  Something about their story complexity and humanity make binge-watching easy.  There is something for almost anyone.  If you like history, they are educational and entertaining.  I'm into relationships, intrigue and adventure, but not back in time.  The lifestyle in Korea today is something the USA will experience in a few years.  Too much smart phones, which are, for example, used to get into a movie theater with reserved seats.  You just beep in and go to your seat.  I tried to buy a ticket and could not figure out how to do so.  Their theaters also have a wide range of pop corn and a variety of alcoholic beverages, and these came almost a decade ago.

While South Korea is beginning to dominate the Netflix series scene, Spain (Money Heist) and a half dozen European countries are doing very well.  There are five parts to Money Heist, with season 1-3 getting Rotten Tomatoes reviewers' scores of 100.  Japan is returning after a long hiatus, and several programs related to cuisine (Samurai Gourmet and Midnight Diner), of all the things, are particularly interesting.  Midnight Diner, for example, earned 100/94 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.  This show is that good.  And there are five seasons, 50 episodes of 25 minutes each, or 21 hours.

Next on Netflix, video games.  That seems to be the next direction of the world's leading streaming channel.  What is free today, won't soon be so.  How will they synthesize three dimensions with Oculus?  Such is the future of television.

What?  You don't subscribe to Netflix?  Here is how.

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