The latest info about COVID-19, the Delta variant and vaccinations: There appears to be a  decline of vaccine effectiveness , but not as bad as was shown in Israel.  Numbers like drop to 39% after six months might be closer to double that number. Further, those who are vaccinated, if so unfortunate as to get infected,  almost always get mild symptoms , and few die. The Delta variant is around  twice ( maybe 60% ) as infectious  as the Alpha original, but causes more severe illnesses, as the  hospitalization rate is double  that of the Alpha.  This is why hospitals are today overburdened 98% of the new cases are those who are unvaccinated . From the  New York Times  this morning: Those who are fully vaccinated have a one chance in 5000/day of being infected. In some of the safer states where more were vaccinated, this chance improves to 1 in 10,000/day.  Thus, in a 3-month period, the vaccinated here have a 1% chance of contracting COVID-19.  And if they do, odds are 1 in 50 that they w

I stumbled across a draft of the following posting that was supposed to be published on 11 January 2021, five days after that awful day in the U.S. Congress when Donald Trump, still in office as president, was attempting to orchestrate a coup.  In a rare error of this type, it turned out I had no blog on 11 January 2021.  So I'm inserting it today unchanged.  Note: My optimism about this pandemic was unwarranted.  But the Delta variant, this B.1.617.2 strain, had not yet been detected.   Read this article , which indicates that the first notice was in India in February, with some speculation that it was more transmissible. I even went on to suggest that Congress would impeach Trump and the Supreme Court would concur.  Of course, this did not happen, which is slowly pushing the Republican party into someday fracturing.  Then again, perhaps I again might be too optimistic. The reason why I am posting this article today is that I recently woke up in bed with an uncomfortable sense of

The U.S. House of Representatives will today pass a resolution imploring VP Mike Pence and cabinet members to use the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from the presidency.  If this group fails to act, tomorrow the House will impeach the President: House Democrats introduced an   article of impeachment   against Trump, charging him with “inciting violence against the government of the United States.” Authorities are in the process of arresting at least 150 individuals who participated in the ransacking of the U.S. Capitol, including 10-15 Capitol Police.  The FBI warned the 50 states to watch their capitols between now and Wednesday, January 20, when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get inaugurated.  Chances are that the new Senate will spend a portion of each day considering the impeachment effort, while also expeditiously approving cabinet members, moving additional economic aid to the people and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.  They could just as well consider impeachment into the