WHY DO WE TODAY SPEND SO MUCH ON WAR?

                                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

        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 

        19        2005      7528         401           160             80 

        27       1594       8671         433           734              62 

Nov   3        1436       7830        186           458             23

        10        1493      8366         264           362             48

        17        1416       8440         374           470              11

Dec    1        1633      8475         266           477             28 

          8        1324       7894         231           159             36

        16         1690      8233         227           343            54

        17           997       7115          173            391            36

Summary:

• Can't believe the U.S. just dropped so much in one day.
• Russia was #1 yesterday with 1133 new deaths.
• Japan had 173 new cases and one new death.  I later bring them into the discussion as to why many countries in Europe are suffering at more than a thousand new cases/million, while Japan is close to one/million. 
• The U.S, was at 443 new cases/million yesterday.
• Russia had 195 new cases/million
• The UK was up to 1292 new cases/million.
• Something bad is happening in the Scandinavian countries, for Denmark was up to 1724 new cases/million.
• Both Japan and Hawaii are island communities, where we can better check who comes in and out.  However, Japan, with a population of 126 million did a heck of a lot better than Hawaii with 1.4 million:
• Japan
• New cases  173  (1.4/million)
• New deaths    5  (0.04/million--U.S. was at 3.0/million)
• Hawaii
• New cases  395  (282/million--U.S. was at 443/million--Denmark 1724/million)
• New deaths    2  (1.42/million)

Ray Kamada sent me the following, which pretty much coincides with much of my past surmisals:

https://coronavirus.quora.com/

Of note, thus far:

1) Omicron case doubling time in the UK and Denmark is now less than 2 days, suggesting it's effectively more than twice as contagious as Delta. 

2) The UK now recommends that seniors reboost after 3 months.

3) Prior covid infection seems to provide little immunity against re-infection by the Omicron variant - too many new mutations on its spike protein.

4) Not seen a credible R0 estimate yet, but suspect that most chronically unmasked anti-vaxxers will catch Omicron. 

5) Despite regular mass transit, Japan shows less than 1 new, confirmed covid case per million population per day, compared to ~600 in the US and ~1,200 in Denmark, the UK, and Netherlands. Shows the power of masking + sanitation + vaccination.

6) Initial South African (SA) hospital data suggest that Omicron infections are less serious than Delta. Death rate data lags, so still too soon to say.

7) SA data shows only 33% efficacy against omicron infection for the doubly vaxxed, a slice more for the boosted, declining with age and months since injection. 

8) Some data suggests that boosting strengthens secondary, T cell-driven immunity, thus reducing Omicron hospitalization rates.

9) Recent Israeli data suggests that Pfizer boosting lasts about 4 to 5 months against Delta, about the same as after the first two doses.

10) Moderna seems moderately more protective than Pfizer. J and J, Sinovac, and Sputnik vaccines seem to be ineffective against Omicron.

11) Omicron is spreading in Whatcom County and throughout Washington. Big surge expected by Christmas; peak expected in January. 

12) Though perhaps symptomatically less severe, the sheer speed of this variant will likely over-stress our hospitals again. 

13) If approved quickly, Pfizer's new covid pill may help. But several other existing antiviral meds show little efficacy against Omicron.

14) Way too soon to say much about Omicron's long haul covid potential.

15) Omicron is hitting younger people harder.

He also sent me to this Our World in Data site which shows how some countries are seriously increasing new cases, while some are not,  Japan, in particular, is escaping these latest upsurges and is experiencing only around 1 in a million new cases/day, while much of Europe is above 1000 and the U.S. is around 400.  Why?  Feel free to read this article, but the two best reasons offered is that Japan started late in vaccinating people, so they are today better protected.  The U.S. is today at 61% fully vaccinated, versus Japan at 78%.  Also, see if you understand this:

Ituro Inoue, a professor at Japan's National Institute of Genetics, said that subvariant of Delta, known as AY.29, now may be conferring some immunity in the population.

He did say he is not 100% confident of his view.

Overweight people develop a higher risk of developing severe symptoms.  Why?  COVID-19 readily attacks fat cells, which are in the midst of delicate organs, and they transmit the infection to whatever is around them. A higher degree of obesity thus increases fatality.  Another good reason for not being overweight.  The study was conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The New York Times this morning reported the following:

In the U.S., partisanship is the biggest factor determining vaccination rates. If Democratic voters made up their own country, it would be one of the world’s most vaccinated, with more than 91 percent of adults having received at least one shot. Only about 60 percent of Republican adults have done so.

Finally:

• Vaccination rates are also lower among independents (68 percent), people without a bachelor’s degree (68 percent), Black Americans (67 percent) and adults under 50 (about 67 percent), according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

You can't really blame Donald Trump for this latest bit of grief, for he did a decent job of facilitating vaccine development.  Who do you then blame?  Fox News, the Sinclair Broadcast Group and conservative talk radio hosts.  The sardonic truth to all of this is that most of these so-called pundits are themselves actually vaccinated and boosted.  The FOX news staff was 90% fully vaccinated in mid-September.  Got to be higher today.

Further:

While vaccination is the key to staying alive, the latest warning is that you must take a booster as soon as you're eligible.  Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are recommended.  Remember, if you're not vaccinated yet, that just since summertime, 150,000 unvaccinated Americans have needlessly lost their lives. 

Finally, while wholesale testing is becoming the norm for children to stay in school, there aren't enough tests to go around.  This Omicron variant is so contagious that a child can easily spread this disease to many more people, especially during this holiday period.  The cold and unmasked celebrations will make the next two weeks a challenging period for the northern hemisphere.  

The possible redeeming factor is that those infected with the Omicron variant might not get seriously ill.  However, if Omicron is less lethal than Delta, the contagion factor will mean many more cases and more total deaths.  Get vaccinated and boosted as soon as you can.

Going on to my topic of the day, the Senate on Wednesday passed the $768 billion defense bill  by an 89-10 vote, and is now on President Biden's desk.  They gave him $24 billion more than he requested.  Who won?  The Military Industrial Complex.  This is the only measure which has total bipartisan support?  Why?  Every state has something to gain.

But the USA has no mortal enemy anymore.  China couldn't care less about taking over the U.S.  Challenging our economy, of course, but they can barely control their people.  Russia?  They are weak and not anywhere as formidable as was the Soviet Empire.  There is some truth to us being our own worst enemy.

We are falling behind in sanity and augmenting weapons of war, which soon become obsolete.  For example:

My very first Huffington Post article suggested that we cut the defense budget by 10%.  Way back in 10August2008 I asked,  Why Do We Spend So Much on National Security?

Thirteen years later, the USA spends more on defense (also known as war) than the NEXT ELEVEN COUNTRIES, COMBINED.

Mind you, in 1971 defense discretionary spending was 7% of our GDP, which dropped by a factor of two in 2021, and is projected to be even lower in a decade.

The military budget is the largest portion of the discretionary U.S. federal budget.  Just the F-35 fighter will have a lifetime cost of $1.7 trillion.  The last air-to-air combat occurred in 1999!

Here is how we compare with our two prime opponents:

In short, the 10% strategy for world peace, you might say, only amounts to $75 billion dollars, which is a tiny portion of a trillion dollars.  Isn't it better to dominate over China and Russia to keep them under control?  That's the view of the Military Industrial Complex.  They float scare stories annually, like that Chinese nuclear capable hypersonic missile that went around the world.  A few years ago, they showed China's next generation air craft carrier.  You saw that image.  The reality is that today the only operational carrier they have is one that they bought from Ukraine.  Read a Snopes report.

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Typhoon Rai struck the Philippines as a Category 4 and left at least a dozen dead:

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Too much bad news, so let me end with some nostalgia for the weekend.  These songs will become 60 years old this year:

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