During the pandemic, Thursday was my day for COVID-19.  Looks like there is a new variant that could become serious, so I return today for an update.  But first, yesterday I ended with input from Elon Musk.  Today I will start with him.  From the  New York Time s: Elon Musk is leaving Washington . In a post on X last night, he confirmed for the first time what has become increasingly clear for weeks — that his work with the Trump administration and DOGE is coming to an end. He thanked Trump “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. ”   One more matter dealing with politics.  The  New York Times  this morning also showed the following graphic, which is startling: Trump won because many counties shifted from Democratic to Republican.  Ironically, Democrats improved in mostly richer counties.  What has happened is that Republicans are now making gains in working-class areas.  Wonder what will happen in November 2026 when t...

Before I re-enter the world of diseases, first, a couple of updates on another one, the first cabinet meeting President Donald Trump presided over yesterday: He said he wants school policy to be left to the states, so the  Department of Education will be abolished . Of course, he needs congressional approval to do this, and education secretary, Linda McMahon, was hired to do just that. Like most of Trump's dictatorial announcements, this created confusion and alarm. Democrats expressed huge concern. The Education Department distributes funding for K-12 schools serving more than 50 million students in almost 100,000 public and 32,000 private schools Project 2025 advocated this, and to end  Title 1  funding in phases.  Title 1: Was created in 1965, and reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The act emphasizes equal access to education, aiming to shorten the   achievement gaps   between students by providing federal funding to support schools wi...

Status of the two prominent wars: Peace on the Gaza Strip.  How will it be possible for any kind of treaty, for the goal of Israel and the U.S. is to eliminate the Hamas from this site, with they being the other participant in the negotiations?  At least President Trump's off the wall solution for the USA to gain control is one possible solution for a longer peace.  What he did was set the terms so ridiculously against the Hamas, that some other Middle East country might be able present a more logical pathway to a longer peace. On the Ukraine War, with President Trump so anti-Ukraine (he said Ukraine started the war and Zelensky is a dictator, while blackmailing the country to give us their rare minerals or else), no doubt Russia will get what it will want for peace.  Meaning holding on to winning territory and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO.  Trump is also upset at many NATO nations not allocating sufficient funds to the Organization, and in this he is ri...

Going back to the Black Death in the mid 1300s,  humanity has suffered through a bunch of pandemics. What is the  Black Death ? A bubonic plague pandemic from 1346 to 1353 killed as many as 50 million people, perhaps half the population of Europe. Rats to fleas to the bacterium  Yersinia pestis .  Once affected, this bacterium could also be spread through the air. After 7000 years, there is no consensus of the origin. The most likely first source though was probably Central Asia, more specifically, China over 2600 years ago. There is no direct link yet established, but could a bat have infected a flea to initiate this pandemic? The deadliest recent outbreak struck Madagascar in 2017, killing 170. There are some pandemics that are still here.  For example, malaria has been around throughout history, and this malady had killed perhaps 50-60 BILLION people, about half of humans that have ever lived. COVID-19 has so far killed 7 million , or an average of 1.4 millio...