Skip to main content

THE CDC SAYS THAT THE USA HAS REACHED HERD IMMUNITY AND MASK WEARING CAN BE DISCONTINUED

         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.

- 

Comments

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

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

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