Today, March 14 is Pi Day, that mathematical constant 3.14... Thus, the third month of the year, March 14. Sometimes this day is honored on July 22 because 22 divided by 7 is a very close approximation of pi. UNESCO in 2019 designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics. Celebrations often involve eating pie or some kind of pi recitation. Founded in 1988 by Larry Shaw of the San Francisco Exploratorium. Although there is no practical reason to calculate pi to so many digits, a Swiss team found the first 62.83 trillion of them.
Two bits of politics before I get into the Norovirus. Delay...delay...delay. When one wants to delay a court trial, it's because you're guilty. That's certainly the case with Donald Trump, and looks like his strategy is working. Pushing these trials until next year is key to his avoiding jail, for if he beats Biden, Trump can pardon himself or kill the process if he becomes president.
The Florida documents case will be pushed back a month or so. Actually, this could be a strategic good decision for Trump, as this piddling case might not leave room for the more critical ones.
- The New York hush money case will not be at the end of this month but instead probably May.
- The key Georgia decision about Fani Willis will come tomorrow.
- Of course, another delay has been the Supreme Court.
- If the Florida documents case begins in May or June, the Republican National Convention occurs in July and election on November 5, when can another important trial occur?
- Will be announced on the first day of Spring, March 21, possibly.
- What they come up with will be crucial.
- They will field a unity team.
- Chances are that this partnership will not particularly hurt Biden, but could be fatal to Trump, mainly because they seem to have a spirit of liberty and freedom.
As the pandemic becomes less newsworthy, I'm shifting away from COVID to other health matters. Hard to explain in writing how terrible you feel if you haven't had seasickness. Same for that nasty stomach bug Norovirus, which I also have managed to avoid.
Has been called the perfect pathogen.- Also called the Norwalk virus or the winter vomiting disease.
- RNA virus.
- Awaits you on tabletops and toilet seats and door knobs for many weeks, and usually by the fecal-oral route.
You can physically wash away with soap and running water, but hard to destroy with disinfectants. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective.- 685 million cases/year and 200,000 deaths/year. It took 4 years for Covid to reach 700 million cases.
No vaccine yet because it keeps mutating.- Until recently, scientists were unable to grow it in the lab.
- Just 10 of these microscopic varmints can be sufficient to infect your body, where SARS requires a few hundred and MERS several thousands. COVID virus remains unclear, but would be similar to these other respiratory diseases.
It is easy to get, and untreatable. Strikes only a day or two after exposure, and you just suffer for two or three days. How? Vomiting, diarrhea and a feeling of utter misery.- While popular on cruise ships and downtown Las Vegas, this stomach flu strikes 20 million Americans annually, killing 800.
- Responsible for 58% of all food-borne illnesses.
- Hits all ages.
- The asymptomatic rate of the Norovirus is 30%, not much different from Covid. These individuals can still transmit the virus, and innocently walk around touching things.
So let me try to review Covid asymptomaticity because, again, these are the individuals mostly responsible for spreading any disease. From the beginning to today, experts have reported stark differences in this rate.
- In 2020 the CDC estimated that the Covid asymptomatic rate was around 35%.
The first truly accurate test for Covid and asymptomatic rate occurred on the Diamond Princess. The rate was 46.5%. I was on this ship only a month before this happened to kick-off the internationalization of this pre-pandemic period. An also again last year.
- In 2020 Wuhan found an 82% asymptomatic rate.
- Yet, Peking University in 2021 looked at 95 studies involving 30 million tested people, and found that 4.52% of cases among nursing home residents and staff were asymptomatic. Further, the rate was only 2.2% for those taking flights or cruises.
Are you getting this? In the same country, such a wide difference.
- South African researchers in 2022 said the asymptomatic rate increased to 16% with the Omicron virus, versus 2.6% during the Beta and Delta outbreaks.
- After the lockdown in late 2022, Shanghai reported an asymptomatic rate of 70%.
- Another China study said 95%. Most of the people were fully vaccinated, so there is an implication of some connection.
The CDC Yellow Book 2024 says the asymptomatic rate of Covid is now 40%.- The bottom line is that scientists remain confused about the asymptomatic rate, and how it has changed, if it did.
- The World Health Organization should host a gathering to come to some kind of asymptomatic conclusion.
I have long been a pro-vaccine person. But the following reality disappoints me.
- The medical profession is more and more saying that vaccinated people are more likely to be protected of infection by Covid than the un-vaccinated.
- But a vague silence on exactly how effective.
- However, there is one study that shows that vaccinations don't help much in preventing getting Covid, which surprises me, especially as I thought we took these shots to avoid getting infected.
- But there is universality that if infected, a vaccinated person is less likely to be hospitalized, with reduced mortality. Also, those vaccinated are less liable to get long Covid. That's a relief.
- But by how much??? The exact numbers are hard to find, if they exist at all.
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