COVID AND THE STURGEON SUPERMOON

I can't find any explanation of why this is occurring, but South Korea again leads the world in most covid cases during the past week. This has been going on for more than a month now. From Worldometer, new cases this past week:

World 272,971
#1 South Korea 210,672 (77%)
#2 USA 32,537 (12%)
Covid deaths during the past week:

World 590
#1 USA 129
#2 Brazil 116
#3 S. Korea 71

Mortality rate average this past week:

World 0.2%
USA 0.4%
Brazil 1.2%
S. Korea 0.03%

Covid deaths/million population:

#1 2 Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Malta.
#5 1 S. Korea, Canada, Croatia
#12 0.4 USA, Guatemala, Romania, Norway

How does one make any sense of these differences? Take mortality rate, for example.

The annual mortality rate of the seasonal flu is around 0.1%.
With all the vaccinations and infections, the mortality rate of covid, which was at 1% for much of the first two years, has dropped to 0.2% for the world and 0.4% for the USA.
But Brazil remains around 1%.
The mortality rate of covid in S. Korea is one-third that of the flu.
Some day some sense will be made of these discrepancies.

Next, what do we know about the uptick in covid cases this summer in the USA?

Covid hospital admissions, positivity rates and emergency visits have seen national increases this summer.
Interestingly enough, this has also occurred the past THREE summers.
Whether its vaccination or previous infection, 96% of blood donors show antibodies.
The most recent surge occurred this past winter, and this summer's rise is not as serious.
Many other countries have also experienced a wave this summer.

In Japan, for example, there has been a fourfold covid case increase from May to July.
China's wave began in April into June, jumping from 11 million/week to 65 million/week.
No mention was made about what is happening in South Korea.

Why do cases rise in the summer?

People travel.
Masks are generally not worn.

As cases are rising, should you get a booster shot?

Probably, but maybe better to wait, for the FDA will be authorizing Pfizer's updated covid vaccine later this month.
Moderna submitted their request late in June for monovalent shots to target XBB.1.5 subvariants.
Yet, there is a sense that older individuals or with weakened immune sytems who plan to travel and place themselves in close quarters with other people, might want take this current booster if their last one was at least three months ago.
The current booster is for Omicron BA.4/5 variants. The majority of current illnesses come from other subvariants.
When in doubt, get again vaccinated, for this does protect you from getting seriously ill.
The general advice is to still wear a mask in public settings, but this is not a mandate.

Two days ago I alerted you to watching the super moon. For historical reasons, this was the Sturgeon Supermoon because the Farmer's Almanac indicated that Indians were able to catch more of this fish in the Great Lakes when this moon appeared. Here are some photos from around the world.

Two from Turkey, first, Instanbul's Camlica Mosque (Chris McGrath) and Edirne's Selimiye Mosque (Cihan Demirci):

An ancient temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, south of Athens (Aris Messinis):

Over temple in Jiujiang, China (VCG, Getty images):

Statue of Liberty (Gary Hershorn):

Moon over Manhattan as seen from New Jersey (Seth Wenig).

Typhoon Khanun passed just south of Naha, leaving some damage, moved west, then, very unusually so, stalled, and will next make almost a U-turn, to bring more problems to Okinawa, then head north for Kyushu. However, the 140 MPH power of the storm just two days ago is now down to 80 MPH and will further weaken. However, when the eye reaches the Pacific Ocean, strengthening is expected back to hurricane strength.

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 a...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

THE FIRST 84 YEARS OF MY LIFE

The first half of my life was spent preparing myself for my final 42 years. This was a mostly trying and stressful period involving a less than ideal youth, then struggles to get through school, my first few jobs and accompanying life, ending two months later on a Sunday with Part 15E , so it was a spiritual conclusion to my final transition. I never did count the number of actual postings, but I suspect it was around 25 parts. The ending had to do with golf, the disappearance and re-appearance of an 8-iron cover. That was the final clue to whether the beyond after death would be eternal gloom or Heaven. Today, I provide only one transition, but hint about a final one, for this, after all, is Sunday. I'm 84 years old, so let me summarize what happened during the first phase, from 0-42, and follow with the years 42-84. As this is 2024, that key transition year was 1982. I can't seem to find this photo, but as a one-year old baby, I was fat....

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