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
Apr 1 439 4056 290 52 12
May 5 225 2404 151 ? 64
June 2 216 1413 130 10 31
July 7 320 1958 297 38 9
Aug 4 311 2138 258 70 ?
10 429 2400 254 53 ?
11 290 1994 173 49 ?
Summary:
- There seems to be a weekly pattern. The Thursday numbers (which are of Wednesday), are always quite a bit higher than the Friday numbers (for Thursday).
- This is the first time in a long time that new cases for all those countries above dropped from the day before.
- Don't know why South Africa has not reported for weeks, so I went to the World Bank, and they show something like 7 deaths/day during this period.
- Looks like COVID-19 is beginning to ease downwards, finally.
- But not for every country in new cases (with new cases/million population in parentheses):
- #1 Japan 243,104 (1935)
- #2 South Korea 137,196 (2671)
- #3 USA 79,145 (237)
- #4 Germany 49,839(591)
- #5 Italy 28,423 (472)
- #15 Singapore 7,776 (1308)
- #31 Thailand 2,326 (33)
- #45 UAE (of which Dubai is a part) 861 (85)
- Note that South Korea had new cases/person about eleven times higher than the USA.
- Japan had about eight times higher in new cases/person than the USA.
- The reason why I have included Singapore, Thailand and Dubai in the list is related to the subject of my blog tomorrow. These are countries we will visit in November into December.
- We decided to opt out of the Okinawa Festival and totally skip all of Japan, for the above reasons.
- Our plane lands in Seoul, but will immediately transfer to Bangkok.
- Bangkok is 81 times safer than South Korea and seven times safer than the USA.
- Dubai is 31 times safer than South Korea and almost three times safer than the USA.
- Singapore is a problem, and 5.5 times more dangerous than the USA.
- However, our trip does not begin until November 12, which is three months away. I don't see any new subvariant anywhere. Maybe the pandemic will be over by then.
- If you divide the total World COVID deaths by the total cases, you get a mortality rate of 1%. Vaccinations and previous infections are beginning to drop the mortality rate to approach that of the seasonal flu.
- The CDC reports that the mortality rate of the seasonal flu is around 0.02%. Yesterday, South Korea showed a COVID mortality rate of 0.04%. Dividing all COVID deaths by all cases, South Korea's mortality rate from the beginning to now is 0.12%
So maybe it wasn't such a big surprise that the CDC has significantly relaxed measures related to COVID-19. They did this primarily to keep our schools open.
- Students can go to school even if they have been exposed to COVID. In other words, if you don't test positive, you are not quarantined anymore. I didn't see any requirement about negative testing. Also, mask wearing is not anymore a requirement.
- Asymptomatic students are asked to attend classrooms, but wear a high quality mask for 10 days. Good luck trying to enforce this measure.
- Quarantining is still recommended for jails and nursing homes.
- Basically, the CDC also said staying 6 feet away from each other and wearing a mask, even indoors, is now not a requirement.
- Why did the CDC decide to take a rather major position on this matter? They said that previous infections and vaccinations essentially made our community relatively safe because of this herd immunity factor. Their calculation is that the USA is now on average at 95%!!!
House will pass the Inflation Reduction Act today:
- Process began 18 months ago, originally called the Build Back Better plan for $3.5 trillion.
- Today, only $430 billion.
- Republicans say this package will raise inflation. They will oppose passage.
- Democrats say inflation will be curbed, although it might take some time.
- Anyway, the name of the bill was mostly to satisfy Senator Joe Manchin, during a negotiating period when our inflation rate was, indeed, dropping.
- While important for a range of liberal programs, there are five ways the bill would fight climate change.
The latest scientific data shows that the Arctic is warming up four times faster than the rest of Planet Earth. Essentially, this is the problem. Ice reflects light back out into space. But the open ocean absorbs that much more heat. This is the "canary" signaling catastrophe.
I close with one effect of global warming.
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