VERY VERY GOOD NEWS ABOUT THIS PANDEMIC

HERE IS SOME VERY VERY GOOD NEWS FOR THE ELDERLY.  From the New York Times this morning:

Before Omicron, a typical vaccinated 75-year-old who contracted  Covid had a roughly similar risk of death — around 1 in 200  — as a typical 75-year-old who contracted the flu. (Here  are the details behind that calculation, which is based on  an academic study.)

Omicron has changed the calculation. Because it is milder  than earlier versions of the virus, Covid now appears to  present less threat to most vaccinated elderly people than the  annual flu does.

Let me repeat:  SENIORS WHO ARE FULLY VACCINATED AND BOOSTED, IF YOU GET INFECTED WITH THE CURRENT COVID-19 DISEASE, YOUR MORTALITY RATE WILL BE LESS THAN THE ANNUAL FLU.  I'm exaggerating here, but perhaps if you get all the necessary shots, and are so unlucky as to get infected by the Omicron variant (which is now by far the dominant strain around the world), this will be like just catching the common cold!!!  An important factor is that you need to get boosted as necessary.  Of course, if so protected, the odds of your actually getting infected should be quite low.  Not vaccinated/boosted?  You must have a death wish.

Two ways of looking at that bit of good news.  First, go out and enjoy life as in normal times.  Well, maybe travel, cruising and stuff like that could await until cases significantly drop.  You could get quarantined somewhere in the world.  Second, you still need to be careful as to not become a carrier of the Omicron variant.

Also from the New York Times, South African COVID-19 (mostly Omicron) cases have definitely peaked.

Note that there is a 2-3 week period of death lagging the cases.  

In the U.S.:

The peak of hospitalizations in the U.S. has not yet come, but both hospitalizations and deaths are considerably lower from Omicron compared to Delta.  Not stated here, but of course in other articles, is that you are relatively safe if you have been vaccinated and boosted.  Not so for the unvaccinated or the age group from 0 to 15.  If you have decided not to get vaccinated/boosted, or keep your children from these inoculations, what more information do you need??? 

Keep in mind that in the U.S. all of this surge is occurring in cold weather during the prime holiday period.  South Africa was in the middle of summer when Omicron struck.  What I'm trying to say is that this current minor crisis could easily linger for a longer period into February and March.

You will read and hear reports today that the USA for the first time experienced more than one million new COVID-19 cases.  The number shown will be 1,082,549.  Nope, did not happen.  Over the weekend reportage was tardy, and a good number of those cases actually occurred during the weekend.  The seven day total as of January 3 was 480,273, and according to Worldometer, the new cases on Monday amounted to 515,250 and 567,696 on Tuesday.  Mind you, the USA has by far been the country with most new cases for most of the past two years.  But we have never reached 1 million new cases, ever, and almost surely, never will.

You will also hear that the U.S. is in a crisis stage with the number of hospitalizations approaching 100,000.  Yes, this is a problem because sudden hot spots appear, hospital staff members have also caught Omicron, plus there are some supply shortages.  However, a year ago the Delta variant caused up to 137,000 hospitalizations.  Deaths are also down, for the daily number today is in a still high 1000 range daily.  However, there were more than 3000 deaths/day for a period a year ago.

Finally, of course the Omicron variant has been devastating:

The U.S. has set a seven-day-average record for Covid cases every day over the last week, according to an analysis of NBC News’ case numbers and Department of Health and Human Services hospitalization data. In that time, 33 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories have set records for cases, hospitalizations or both.

Yet, if you are fully vaccinated and boosted, first, you almost surely won't get infected.  However, if you do, the fatality rate will be LOWER than if you contract the seasonal flu, and much lower if you are not old.  I keep saying this, and I will continue until we reach herd immunity, but for those out there reading this who have not been vaccinated, please do.

I can stop here, but this is science Wednesday, so I will go ahead and introduce a topic of possible interest to a few.  Millipedes recently became newsworthy.  One recently found has more legs than any other animal, 1306 of them.

• Millipedes live underground.
• Most don't have as many legs, and some have fewer than 100.
• The older the millipede, the more legs, as they add segments.

• 
  Until now, the most was an Illacme plenipes with 750 legs.
• The new found species from the Goldfields, Australia, 200 feet below the surface, named Eumilipes persephone after Persephone, the daughter of Zeus, who was taken by Hades to the underworld, is 100 times longer than wide.

• 
  Entomologists lowered cups of leaf litter down a nickel/cobalt mine, waited a few weeks, and retrieved them.
• Four were analyzed, and the shortest had 778 legs.
• It is speculated that, while millipedes usually live only two years, these new ones must live have lifespans of between 5 and 10 years.

The second millipede was a fossil of what is possibly the largest arthropod to ever live, said to be car-sized.

• In the UK, they found an exoskeleton that roamed the planet between 359 and 299 million years ago.

• 
  Known as  an Arthropleura from 326 years ago, this giant millipede would have been 8.5 feet long and weighed around 110 pounds.
• It is unclear how many legs this creature had, but at least 20.

More entomology, what has eight legs and fangs powerful enough to bite through a human fingernail?  The newly captured Australian funnel-web Megaspider:

• Funnel spiders are found in eastern Australia.
• Some of them are so toxic that an adult human can die in 15 minutes.

• 
  Most funnel-web spiders are 0.4 to 2 inches wide.
• This Megaspider was 3 inches wide, and was anonymously donated to the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales, a public zoo.
• The ARP is the only place that milks these spiders to create an anti-venom at a lab in Melbourne.  It is estimated that they save 300 lives/year.

I'll close this arthropod Wednesday with the largest.  You know it well.  It is a delicacy.  Most weigh in at a few pounds.  The largest lobster caught was scaled at 44 pounds and 6 ounces in 1977.  It was around 100 years old.

Want to guess what this is?

It is a formation of 700 sheep and goats in Schneverdingen, Germany forming a 100-meter syringe to inspire vaccinations.

Have a nice day:

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