ERIS: Covid Strain EG.5

From Worldometer, total world covid cases and deaths. Nine waves? Or ten?

Three countries continue to dominate new covid cases/week, with South Korea still #1, by far:

This past week Previous week

World 300,529 490,578
#1 South Korea 216,046 359,479
#2 USA 56,391 85,783
#3 Brazil 9,713 10,741
Of course, many countries don't do any reporting anymore.

During the past week, South Korea had 72% of all covid cases, USA 19% and Brazil 3%, or these countries had 94% of all the world cases. South Korea had 4211 new cases/million people, USA 168 and Brazil 45.

The grand summary regarding percentage of citizens who were infected with covid, and mortality rate in the right column, which is deaths divided by total cases.

S. Korea 66% 0.11%
Australia 45% 0.19%
Italy 43% 0.74%
Taiwan 43% 0.19%
USA 32% 1.08%
Japan 27% 0.22%
Brazil 18% 1.87%
China???

Earlier this year, CNN reported that the 80% of people in China had been infected with covid.
Worldometer has this figure at 0.03%, which clearly wrong.

The USA, Italy and Brazil suffered from a lot of deaths before vaccinations reduced the mortality rate. Here is today the mortality rate:

USA 0.23%
Italy 0.77%
Brazil 0.88%

Mortality rate now of those countries becoming infected after being vaccinated.

S. Korea 0.04%
Australia 0.41%
Taiwan and Japan don't report anymore.
Note that the mortality rate of the seasonal flu is also 0.04%, what is today the mortality rate of covid in South Korea.
Why Australia now has a higher mortality rate today is not explained.

Otherwise:

Covid strain EG.5, or Eris, is now the leading variant in the world.
Descended from XBB.1.5, which was the #1 virus for a while.
EG.5 is the dominant virus in the U.S., but only at 17.3%.
Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax are preparing their Fall vaccination to target the XBB variant (of which Eris is one), and they all descended from Omicron. Should be available by the end of September.

About the Lahaina Apocalypse:

Deaths up to 111, with 38% of disaster zone checked by 40 cadaver dogs.
1000 people remain missing or unaccounted for on Maui.
The Lahaina fire is now 89% contained, having burned 2170 acres and destroying more than 2000 structures.

And by the way, there is another fire on Maui at Kula on the slopes of Haleakala, which is 80% contained, and has destroyed 500 structures and charred nearly 700 acres. No deaths.

Like Kodi Lee in 2019, Putri Ariani, she from Indonesia, who is also blind, could well win America's Got Talent this year. Simon Cowell gave her a Golden Buzzer. Her dream is to get a scholarship to Julliard, and her Ministry of Education has offered to finance her wish if she gets accepted.

Also impressive was 11-year old Eduardo Antonio Trevino.

England will play Spain on Sunday at 6AM EDT (midnight Hawaii) for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. This is the first time either country has made the finals.

There are three ocean storms in the general vicinity of Hawaii. Tropical Storm Gregg is moving along a track far enough south that there will be no problem. Once Hurricane Fernando (up to 130 MPH) will weaken and bring rain to Maui on Monday or so. However, Hurricane Hilary is now up to 110 MPH and will strike Baha, California this weekend, with the track projected to be a tropical storm over Los Angeles on Monday.

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 suspicio...

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...

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...

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