Before I get into the topic of today, got to report that this morning's  Star Advertiser   headline showed: New infection record reached Hawaii confirmed 2205 new COVID-19 cases...but zero new deaths.   Also, our hospitalization peak of 448 is only at 84 today.  A bit worrisome is that 32 of them were fully vaccinated.   This will get worse because of the holiday season, but maybe not significantly so as the Omicron variant gains in taking over from Delta. We also now have 12,777 active cases, another record, as the pervious high was 11,500. Our seven-day average positivity is 11%, creeping up, but nowhere close to the  really badly hit states in this union . DC  109% Kansas 53% Vermont 52% New cases per million; Hawaii  1575 Puerto Rico  1947 Denmark  2448 New York  1869 Ireland  2081 UK  1571 Japan  2.5 Congressman Kai Kahele, who was vaccinated and boosted, reported that he tested positive.  However, he said t...

News of the day: The  Rittenhouse  killings occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  The parade deaths this weekend were in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  The consensus seems to be that the Rittenhouse innocence verdict will mean more  AR-15 rifle s at protests and general outings, and further protect gun rights. The Ahmaud Arbery trial jury will begin deliberating tomorrow.  If all three white assailants are set free by the 11 white and 1 black panel, all hell will break loose.  Clearly, the timing was orchestrated for colder weather to minimize the potential backlash.  The defense strategy seems to be angling for a mistrial or deadlock. BTS got all the big awards at the  American Music Awards .  Their  Butter  won Favorite Pop Song.   Watch them perform this song last night. This weekend I viewed a special showing of  MASH:  Goodbye, Farewell and Amen  ( amazingly enough, you can watch the entire 2.5 hour movie if you...

 From the morning  New York Times : Here is a graph comparing average daily COVID-19 deaths/100,000 people, and the USA is doing something really wrong: The difference between our country and Europe is that we have flubbed the availability of cheap and ubiquitous at-home RAPID testing.  They have covered this base. There are two obvious problems: The FDA is much too bureaucratic about quickly approving anything related to this pandemic, including testing. We seem stuck with the test that takes one to several days to get your result. The good news is that the Biden administration has finally realized this problem and through executive order hope to soon flood the market with take home testing that at first will be subsidized to make it affordable. Now, on to getting everyone vaccinated, especially 5-11 years olds ( and we are close to getting to making this happen ), the undereducated and Republicans.  What to do about the latter two? The other concern is whether we a...

From  Worldometer  (new deaths yesterday):          DAY    USA    WORLD     Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732       1185        246        82 July    22     1205     7128        1293      1120       572 Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130 Sept     9      1208    6222        1136      1168        82 Oct     21     1225     6849         571       703  ...