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SHARKS VS HUMANS

              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         ? 
         11         290       1994         173          49         ?
        18          264      1950         202           ?         ?
        25          245      1909         197          68        ?
        31          403      1989         115           37        ? 
Sep    1          272       1732          39            ?         ? 
          8          287       1676          99          13        ? 
        15          249        1418          79          23       17
        21          375        1330         87          26        ? 
        22          222        1219         69          20        ?

Summary:
  • As Joe Biden said, the pandemic is over. 
  • The official word must come from the World Health Organization, and last week Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the end is in sight.
  • Yesterday, Japan moved back to being #1 in new cases with 61,478.  #2 Russia, #3 Germany, #4 Taiwan and #5 USA with 38,464.
  • On 10January2021 the U.S. had 4.7 million new cases and 3466 new deaths.  Yesterday, down to 222 new deaths, plus more than 100 times lower new cases compared to 10January2021.
  • In a bad year, the flu has killed around 300/day during the season.  COVID is already below that rate.  Here is how the current flu season (red line with triangles) compared with previous years.  A bit complicated, but ILI stands for respiratory illnesses that cause fever plus a cough or sore throat.
Now on to the topic of the day.  I've shown this graphic before.
I've also  shown this.
So this statement to the right is not correct.  Mosquitos are more dangerous than Homo sapiens.  My point, of course is that sharks have a fallacious reputation.  For every human killed by sharks, we terminate 30 million of them.  The ten or so of us done in by sharks are the result of only 80 unprovoked attacks by them annually.  There are almost 500 species of sharks, and three are mostly responsible for fatal attacks:  great white, tiger and bull.
Last month a snorkeling woman was bitten on her leg off the coast of Cornwall, located in the southwest corner of the country.  So what?  Well, this is the first time that a shark attacked anyone in the United Kingdom since 1874, 175 years ago.  And she had paid $200 on an excursion to see Blue Sharks. The country has 11,000 miles of coastline.  Hawaii has only 750 miles, but "suffers" 2 to 3 attacks each year.
The moral of this story is that if you are afraid of sharks, go to the UK or Sahara Desert.  Avoid Hawaii.  Mind you, since 1828...and that's almost 200 years...there have been a total of 116 confirmed shark attacks and ONLY 8 CONFIRMED FATALITIES.  That is sharks kill a human in Hawaii every quarter century.  But if you really want to know, Maui is where the most attacks occur, and here are the beaches you might want avoid on that island.

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Fiona at 130 MPH is heading for landfall over Nova Scotia tomorrow morning.
The more worrisome one for the USA is Tropical Depression 9, which formed just off Venezuela, is destined to become hurricane next Monday, roll over Cuba as a Category 2, and crash into the west side of Florida, perhaps as a Category 3, on Wednesday.  Could be named Hermine or Ian, depending on when it becomes a tropical storm.

The following find stunned me.  That above graphic of what animal causes the most human deaths is hard to believe.  Did you know that elephants kill 500 and dogs 20,000 humans every year?  The one that most startled me, though, is that a freshwater snail kills 20,000 of us annually.  So I had to check and found an article that indicates this freshwater snail, from a WHO report, annually causes 200,000....not 20,000...human deaths. That's 548 human deaths/day.

What happens is that this creature carries a parasitic disease called schistosomiasis, which infects 250 million people/year, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America.  And also Hawaii.  I've seen signs when I once hiked.   Never took them seriously Afraid of sharks?  Read this.

You do contract it from just wading, swimming, entering the water in any way, and the parasites (a parasitic worm, Scistosoma, a blood fluke, photo below) basically exit the snails into the water and seek you. And they penetrate right through your skin, migrate through your body, end up in your blood vessels where they can live for many years even decades. It's not the worms that actually cause disease to people, it's the eggs. And those eggs have sharp barbs because they eventually need to make it back out of the human body and back into the water and find that there are snails that they need to complete their reproduction cycle. And so those eggs can lodge in different tissues and cause severe symptoms ranging from anemia and fatigue, all the way to various severe symptoms, even death in about 10 percent of chronic cases.

Let me further scare you.

The common symptoms of schistosomiasis are:

  • Abdominal pain, diarrhea, and blood in the stool 
  • Pain while peeing, and the urge to pee frequently
  • Blood in the urine
  • Persistent cough, shortness of breath, and coughing up blood
  • Headaches, seizures, dizziness, and numbness in the legs
Then:  liver enlargement, blood in urine, bladder cancer, anemia, stunted growth in children, etc.  NO VACCINE available.

Finally:

Here are some precautions that you can adopt while visiting affected areas:

  • Avoid swimming, paddling, fishing, or washing in freshwater. Swimming in chlorinated pools and the ocean is safe. 
  • Only drink boiled or filtered water. If possible, consume only mineral water. 
  • Beware of the locally sold medicines that are advertised to treat schistosomiasis. Often you will end up buying fake drugs in incorrect dosages.
  • There’s a misconception that drying your body quickly with a towel prevents infection. But this trick doesn’t work against it.
Wow, what a way to end the week.  Sorry.  I was thinking of deleting this addendum.  But, it might save a life.
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