WILL THERE BE A COVID WINTER WAVE?

I ended my posting yesterday with:

Latest hot flash! Watch this. NASA WILL TODAY ANNOUNCE WHEN THE TWO ASTRONAUTS WILL RETURN HOME.

Well, today we found out that NASA again delayed a decision about what to do with the stranded astronauts. They did say that a final decision will be made at the end of August. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore had an 8-day mission, which now is into Day 72.

Froma Harrop had a fine op-ed today about the presidential election.

The Harris-Walz campaign radiates sunshine and good times to come. Donald Trump, on the other hand, spreads gloom through his lame insults and crazy delusions.

Harris doesn't have to do much to bait Trump. She and Walz need only ignore, mock or sometimes provoke him, and then view his lashing out with quiet detachment. It is said that the devil cannot endure to be mocked. Trump can dish it out, but he can't take it.

The election is far from over, but Trump is already laying the groundwork to deny the upcoming 2024 results. This level of desperation was not seen when the polls had him handily beating President Joe Biden.

If you haven't figured this one out. That's comma-la, or Kamala. Costs around $16. Or, for the same price, the official Harris-Walz cap. The camouflage relates to Walz being a hunter.

After dinner the other night, my throat began to hurt. Got worse into the evening, so I took a COVID-19 test. Negative. Throat got worse through the night. The, I noticed that the pain was only on the left side. I woke up around 3AM and the soreness came in sudden waves, penetrating for only a second or two. Then noticed that the pain was not really in my throat but my inner ear, something which now and then occurs. My ear hurts, but I'm not contagious and without COVID-19. Whew.

But there is no doubt that there has been a summer COVID-19 summer wave. Last week, NBC News asked, Is This The Biggest Covid Summer Wave Ever? Southern states in particular did not look good., with the nation rising about 17% from early June into late July. Mind you, there are now only 10,320 hospital admissions now compared to 150,000 in January of 2022.

In fact, Axios indicated that all signs point to a late summer COVID wave. A new variant, EG.5, is now the dominant form. Unfortunately, this virus is not designed for the Fall booster shot, which actually will be available next month, for 15 Craigside, where I live, just announced sign-ups for the September 11 mass inoculation date.

I was getting worried about when this would occur, for we have a two-month trip planned for departure on October 9, and it takes a couple of weeks for the vaccine to become protective. We will fly to Seattle, board a cruise ship all the way through the Panama Canal to Southampton, UK. Then fly to Amsterdam for a two-week European River Christmas cruise. After a couple of days in Zurich, fly home to Honolulu. Both ships will no doubt have covid outbreaks, and I worry about plane flights, of which we'll have five.

This is not only a U.S. wave, the entire world is affected, and Europe might be where the worst is occurring. Winter covid waves are more severe than the summer ones. According the the CDC:

....respiratory virus illnesses typically peak during the fall and winter. These peaks are due to several factors, including human behaviors and environmental conditions that can affect the ability of viruses to survive and spread.

On the ocean storm front, certainly looks like Typhoon Ampil, now strengthened to 115 MPH, a Category 3, is heading straight for Japan today or tomorrow. However, all projections show a turn to the right, sparing the country.

Hurricane Ernesto, to strengthen into a Category 2 today, caused some problems in the Caribbean as a tropical storm, but will remain in the Atlantic Ocean.

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 suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

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 several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

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 are held every five years, and there have only been

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