Skip to main content

THE ARRIVAL OF MORE OMICRON SUBVARIANTS

           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   22      2228      9326          839        279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543        315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186         458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
Jan     7        2025      6729         148        285      140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335        173        28 
         11        1022      6002         465           88       28
         18          721      5214         380           69       39
         24          649     5008        300           82       33
         31          676      4287         276           28       44
Apr     1          439      4056         290           52       12
           7          409      3554         253           44         5
          14         331       3383         158            21        16
          15         361       3369         145             5          6
          21         299      3347           86           54       65 
          27         311       2703          224          39         3
May    4         305      2020            51          55       30

Summary:
  • Well, this pandemic seems to be lingering, with definite hotspots here and there.
    • The U.S. had the most deaths yesterday with 305, #2 Germany 222, and #3 UK 227.
    • Germany was #1 with 166,960 cases, #2 U.S. 71,798 and #3 South Korea 49,499.
    • Interestingly enough, Taiwan, with a population of 24 million, which has largely escaped this COVID virus, and is #111 in deaths, had 28,365 cases yesterday.
      • Only a few weeks ago on April 18 they reported a single-day high of 551 new cases.  They were fearing reaching 1000 by the end of April.
      • On April 27 they topped 10,000 new cases for the first time.
        • Their vaccination rate is quite high, and only seven people had died this year.
        • 99% of those infected in this wave are either asymptomatic or not seriously ill.
      • Yesterday Taiwan had 28,365 new cases and 5 new deaths.
    • China, with the largest world population of 1.44 billion, is #108 in total deaths, with 5,128. 
      • The U.S. has had slightly more than one million deaths.
      • Worldometer has the World at 6.3 million deaths.
      • WHO just reported that countries are undercounting COVID deaths, and India alone had 4.7 million deaths.  The World death toll is 15 million.  
        • Interestingly enough, 57% were males.
        • 43% females.
        • These countries have the worst undercounts:
    • One more graphic shows excess deaths compared to the norm for 2020/21.  Note that 2022 is not included, and this year China, Japan and Australia are being especially affected by COVID-19:
    • China reported 16 new deaths yesterday.
      • Only reported 362 new cases yesterday.
      • China is not counting asymptomatic cases, which happen to waver around 98% more recently in the country.  Thus, 362 really means 18,100 new cases yesterday for China.
      • Shanghai peaked at 27,605 cases three weeks ago, is now down to "only' 10,000 new cases/day, and is beginning to ease their lockdown.
      • However, Beijing is nearing that feared total lockdown, with cases rising.  Already mass transit is being limited and there are indoor ban for restaurants, theater and malls.

What is prolonging this pandemic?  A wide variety of Omicron subvariants:

  • In South Africa, they are BA.4 and BA.5.
  • BA.2 is haunting the USA, with BA.2.121.1 soon to overtake.
  • China shows BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.21.1.
    • The scary one is BA.2.12.1, for this strain is infecting vaccinated people in China.
    • However, those Chinese vaccines are not as effective as those in the West.
    • Yet, most experts contend that other subvariants could develop to overcome any vaccine.
  • The current reading of the future has the pandemic continuing into the mid-summer, with fewer hospitalizations and deaths.
  • Plus, Pfizer's Paxlovid and AstraZeneca's Evusheld should materially reduce serious infections.

15 Craigside has joined the COVID crowd, as one resident and at least 8 staff infections have quarantined 16 apartments.  Subsequently, I don't go down to eat in the dining room and need to pay $1.50/meal for pick-up.  Seems unfair under these conditions, for I pay for those meals anyway.  The good news is that no one is dying.  We received our second booster last week.

It can be worse, for a Carnival cruise ship from Miami docked on Tuesday in Seattle with at least 100 testing positive.  Everyone was supposedly vaccinated.  I've long  been advocating for a full booster requirement, as those two (or one J&J) vaccinations lose effectiveness.  A Fortune article way back in January indicated that all 92 U.S. cruises with passengers reported COVID cases.

What is this?

Chicago welcomes the seasonal Spring gnat swarm.  They could be gone by Sunday, and should surely dissipate by the following weekend.  Of course, this is not the only city with this problem, as these midges, chironomids or lake flies are merely living their life cycle.  Canada, Louisiana and any site with large freshwater bodies of water or swamps have them.  There are 4000 species, and some do bite.  And you don't want breathe in too many of them.

Well, what about something positive?  Today was once Boy's Day in Japan, and those koi displays were floated.  They combined both sexes and now have a national holiday on May 5 and call it Children's Day, but symbolically retained those fish displays.  Not a holiday in Hawaii, but the Arcadia family of companies, of which we are one, note this occasion. 

Of course, today is also Cinco de Mayo, and my dinner tonight will be an upgraded Mexican Tacos, with copious amounts of Margarita.   As tomorrow is also the Kentucky Derby, which features Mint Julep, I'll perhaps begin tonight with something called Mint Julep Margarita.  Finally, today happens to be a special once in a lifetime day calling for mucho gala festivity.  As I said on May 1, THIS WILL BE A GREAT WEEK.

-

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more