CRUISE Part 4: Seabourn from Sydney to Honolulu

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 ?

28 370 1220 48 27 ?

29 226 1218 49 18 16

Oct 5 350 1210 109 12 9

Summary:

The USA continued to lead in most new deaths with 350 yesterday. Russia #2 113, Brazil #3 109, Germany #4 97 and Japan #5 74.
Germany is #1 in most new cases with 132,494, France #2 66,564, Taiwan #3 54,868, Italy #4 45,223, Japan #5 41,193, USA #6 36,704 and South Korea #7 34,710.
Regarding new cases/million population:

#1 Liechtenstein 2476
#2 Taiwan 2294
#3 Cayman Islands 2194
#4 Austria 2031
#5 Germany 1570
#6 Hungary 1433
#7 Slovenia 1374
#8 Bermuda 1069
#9 France 1015
#10 Singapore 995
#13 Italy 750
#14 S. Korea 676
#15 Hong Kong 477 (interesting that this colony by itself had 3642 new cases

while China only had 273 yesterday)

#18 Japan 328
#30 USA 110
#35 Sweden 69
World 66
#36 Australia 59
Clearly, you still don't want to travel to Europe at this time.

Today, Part Four of my cruise series:

We take an epic 53-day cruise on the Seabourn Odyssey, leaving Sydney, Australia on March 9, and arriving in Honolulu on April 30. We actually first leave Honolulu via Qantas Business Class on March 5 so we can look around Sydney.

Surely I've been to Sydney more recently, but a decade ago I went on a Circle Pacific Adventure, primarily to visit Yeosu, South Korea for Ocean Expo 2012. I also had stops in Busan, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Singapore, Bali and Auckland.

The cuisine is supposed to be fabulous on the Odyssey. Luxury Cruise Review gives it 5.0 out of 5.0 points. A member of Chaine des Rotisseurs, an eating club to which I once belonged. A partner with Regiis Ova for caviar.

There are four restaurants: The Restaurant, Colonnade, The Patio and The Grill by Thomas Keller. Champagne and fine wines are always available for free.
Keller is known as America's best chef.

Started as a dishwasher in his mom's restaurant.

Worked in many top Paris restaurants.
In 1994 bought a small restaurant in Yountville, called The French Laundry. The town is nine miles from Napa, and is not close to anything. I was there in 2013.

Opened Per Se in New York City in 2004, gaining three Michelin stars in 2006, the first American restaurant to be so honored. No one said he dishes are cheap.
The following year, The French Laundry got 3 stars.
He lives in home behind that restaurant.

Like the Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn's package includes everything like Wi-Fi and unlimited drinks. However, on Seabourn, you need to pay for tours and plane trips. Tipping is neither required nor expected.

The itinerary for this cruise is great if you want to visit Pacific islands. But if not, just luxuriate and enjoy the food.

The first 20 days focus on Australian sights, the Great Barrier Reef, with stops in places like Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Melbourne, Townsville and Cairns.
Then on to Noumea, New Caledonia.
On to Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia for eleven days, then finally Lahaina, Kona and Honolulu.

This blog site suddenly stopped allowing for graphics, so I'll later come back to add them. I'll check if videos work.

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

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