THE END OF LAHAINA...and more on covid

Lahaina on Maui is now no more. You can follow the devastation from where you are. I will provide special details tomorrow. For now, read my posting of 29April2023 about Lahaina, the one best day of our entire 53-day Seabourn Odyssey cruise. What we saw are now all gone.

I prepared the following yesterday for posting today.

Some USA Covid stats?

32% have been infected, and the percentage is probably lower/person because many have caught it twice, and some more.
2% died from Covid.
1% of those who caught Covid died.
Should you contract Covid today, there is now a 0.5% chance of dying.
In South Korea, those who contract Covid today have only a 0.03% chance of dying.
Why this significant difference? I don't know.
The mortality rate of the seasonal flu is between 0.03% and 0.07%, depending on the year.

Asymptomatic Covid victims have always been the most dangerous to spread this disease.

Three years ago, the CDC thought that 35% of Covid cases were asymptomatic. Tony Fauci placed this figure at 40-45%.
Two years ago, about a third of Covid cases were tested to be asymptomatic.
Covid vaccines were introduced early in 2021, and by the end of 2022, over 13 billion doses had been administered. The world population is around 8 billion.

Fully vaccinated as of early 2023.

Qatar 99%
China 91%
Singapore 90%
Taiwan 87%
South Korea 86%
Japan 82%
G7 countries 75%
European Union 73%
India 69%
USA 68%
Russia 55%
South Africa 33%

The point of the immediate above is that asymptomatic rates clearly jump when a population gets vaccinated.

By April of 2022 Shanghai showed an asymptomatic rate of 97%.
Across China it was 95%.

The USA had the most Covid cases during the past week. One reason is that our vaccination rate is not that high. See above data.
But why are there so many new Covid cases in South Korea? They have a relatively high vaccination rate. Answer? I don't know. New Covid cases this past week (change from previous week in parentheses):

World 357,032 (-12%)

#1 S. Korea 296,617 (-7%)

#2 USA 28,333 (-31%)

So what is the latest info about Covid?

There is yet another new subvariant, formally known as EG.5 and nicknamed Eris, that is now the most prevalent strain in the USA. But only 17%.
#2 is XBB.1.16 with 15%.
In other words, there is a spectrum of subvariants all around you.
They are all related to the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.9.2.
The next booster will also address EG.5, which is also expanding in dominance around the world.

Went out to lunch at Mian. Off Sheridan Street close to Walmart, Mian and sister restaurant Chengdu Taste, are worthy of your consideration.

Meal okay. The pork belly skewer, though, was outstanding. At 15 Craigside, pork tonkatsu and o-toro sashimi, while watching the Seven Stars. Got $5400/person for 4 nights/3 days? Then this train ride on Kyushu, Japan is for you. It only starts at this price, and you need to win a lottery to earn a seat. Who can afford this?

I'm off to Ala Wai for a Buddhist golf tournament. Just went to West Loch. Summer flowers.

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...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

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 ...

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