Much of today brings back memories.  Let me start with the possible  return of COVID-19 , which served as the theme of my Thursday postings for years.  According to the CDC, there has a been a spike in COVID-19 cases of 18% this past week, and 24% hike in hospital admissions. From  Worldometer,  173 Americans died of COVID this past week and 277 in the previous week.  Of course, last year 550/week died from the flu, and this rate tends to jump in the winter, so flu deaths today are considerably higher than from COVID.  And few take the seasonal flu seriously. This alarms professionals like  Ashish Jha . More people tend to die 21 to 28 days after cases begin to increase. 60% of Americans did not get boosted. And look at how politics can make a difference. About that New Orleans terrorist attack by 42-year old  Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar , he was inspired by ISIS, but probably acted alone.  Donald Trump was wrong again, blaming Jabbar as an...

From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 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        7...

First, a refresher on what you should absolutely avoid if you have not been vaccinated and boosted.  But for those who got all those recommend dosages, even if you catch COVID-19, the odds are very, very high that your symptoms will only fall between a weak flu and a cold.   Or, you could be one of the 40% or so who will show no symptoms.   As of late last year, it looked like the  asymptomatic rate of this virus was 40.5% .   This rate for the seasonal flu is said to be around  33% . One study showed the asymptomatic rate of the common cold was  60% You need to be careful with venereal diseases, for the asymptomatic rate is around  66% . So to continue,  here are where you are most likely to become a statistic of this pandemic : Crowded and poorly ventilated sport or entertainment theater: If no one is wearing a mask and are talking = 54%. Everyone is wearing a mask and there is some talking = 24% If everyone is wearing a mask...

The   New York Times   this morning showed a graphic that, surely, got to influence anti-vaxxers to get vaxxed. Also:   Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are  older or have health problems . Further: The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). Since then, the chances have no doubt been higher, because of the Omicron surge. But they will probably be even lower in coming weeks, because the surge is receding and Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. For now, one in a million per week seems like a reasonable estimate . Plus: That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a  car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million . So is the average weekly death rate  from influenza and pneumoni...