GET YOUR COVID UPDATED VACCINATION

Got to start with Donald Trump. There are so many court cases pending that I've lost count. Here was one I did not know even existed. I'm a bit confused, for New York Attorney General Letitia James has a wide-ranging non-jury lawsuit against Trump and his family, which is scheduled to start anytime soon. But Judge Arthur Engoron (right) somehow made a pre-judgement, I think. Read this article. Maybe you can better comprehend what exactly is happening.

About that second GOP presidential debate yesterday, nothing much happened. Here is NBC News' take on the five biggest moments. Or, Time's assessment of the biggest moments. I once visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Library in Simi, California, as my attire shows: Air Force One jacket and cap, which I bought when I was there.

Who won the debate? Maybe Donald Trump in another successful boycott.

I'm nearing the end of my Thursday Covid summary, for there were only 148,860 new cases in the World this past week, and 221,582 cases the previous week. In January of last year, the USA alone had more than 5 million cases per week.

About what Covid vaccinations, does it matter if you get a booster or the new update?

Both are mRNA-based.
Both are made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Both are approved for 12 and older.

The updated vaccine targets the XBB.1.5 subvariant, even though the EG.5 and BA.2.86 subvariant are now the most prevalent. But not to mind, for this update works for all of these variants.

Novavax's vaccine has not yet been approved by the FDA and is based on recombinant viral proteins.
So when it does get approved, can you mix and match? The answer is yes.
However, the best medical advice is NOT TO WAIT. As only the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech versions are currently available, get one of them now.
Finally, should you get old booster or new update? The CDC recommends the new update.

As vaccines and past cases have made herd immunity now the world condition, and those who do get infected rarely die anymore, with the mortality rate approaching that of the seasonal flu, one of the remaining fears is LONG COVID, which now is found in 7.5% of new cases. Researchers are working on a specific test for this ailment. Long covid patients tended to have significantly lower levels of a hormone called cortisol, which causes profound fatigue. Further, dormant viruses, such as the one that causes mononucleosis, sometimes awakens for some.

It was thirty years ago that the USA Ryder Cup team beat Europe 15-13 at the Belfry in Warwickshire, England. Remember Bill Clinton in the White House. It was that long ago. Over half the 2023 team wasn't born yet. Since then, they have lost in Spain, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and France. Play begins in Rome on Friday.

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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