THE CDC SAYS THAT THE USA HAS REACHED HERD IMMUNITY AND MASK WEARING CAN BE DISCONTINUED

      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        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512       1151        189     712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194

April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37

May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 

June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411

Aug     4         656    10120        1118        532      423 

Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124

Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59

Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23

Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140

Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175

Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 

Apr     1          439      4056         290          52       12

May    5          225      2404         151            ?        64

June    2          216      1413         130          10       31

July    6          316      1627         335           35       12 

         13          407       1742        388           38       12 

         14          231       1721         292          47         8

         22          251       1785         271          69         3 

         28          260       2088         276          47       10

Aug    4           311       2138         258          70         ?

         10          429       2400         254          53         ? 

         11          290       1994         173          49         ?

Summary:

• There seems to be a weekly pattern.  The Thursday numbers (which are of Wednesday), are always quite a bit higher than the Friday numbers (for Thursday).
• This is the first time in a long time that new cases for all those countries above dropped from the day before.
• Don't know why South Africa has not reported for weeks, so I went to the World Bank, and they show something like 7 deaths/day during this period.
• Looks like COVID-19 is beginning to ease downwards, finally.
• But not for every country in new cases (with new cases/million population in parentheses):
• #1      Japan  243,104 (1935)
• #2      South Korea  137,196 (2671)
• #3      USA  79,145 (237)
• #4      Germany  49,839(591)
• #5      Italy  28,423 (472)
• #15    Singapore  7,776 (1308)
• #31    Thailand  2,326 (33)
• #45    UAE (of which Dubai is a part)  861 (85)
• Note that South Korea had new cases/person about eleven times higher than the USA.
• Japan had about eight times higher in new cases/person than the USA.
• The reason why I have included Singapore, Thailand and Dubai in the list is related to the subject of my blog tomorrow.  These are countries we will visit in November into December.
• We decided to opt out of the Okinawa Festival and totally skip all of Japan, for the above reasons.
• Our plane lands in Seoul, but will immediately transfer to Bangkok.
• Bangkok is 81 times safer than South Korea and seven times safer than the USA.
• Dubai is 31 times safer than South Korea and almost three times safer than the USA.
• Singapore is a problem, and 5.5 times more dangerous than the USA.
• However, our trip does not begin until November 12, which is three months away.  I don't see any new subvariant anywhere.  Maybe the pandemic will be over by then.
• If you divide the total World COVID deaths by the total cases, you get a mortality rate of 1%.  Vaccinations and previous infections are beginning to drop the mortality rate to approach that of the seasonal flu.
• The CDC reports that the mortality rate of the seasonal flu is around 0.02%.  Yesterday, South Korea showed a COVID mortality rate of 0.04%.  Dividing all COVID deaths by all cases, South Korea's mortality rate from the beginning to now is 0.12%

So maybe it wasn't such a big surprise that the CDC has significantly relaxed measures related to COVID-19.  They did this primarily to keep our schools open.

• Students can go to school even if they have been exposed to COVID.  In other words, if you don't test positive, you are not quarantined anymore.  I didn't see any requirement about negative testing.  Also, mask wearing is not anymore a requirement.

• 
  Asymptomatic students are asked to attend classrooms, but wear a high quality mask for 10 days.  Good luck trying to enforce this measure.
• Quarantining is still recommended for jails and nursing homes.
• Basically, the CDC also said staying 6 feet away from each other and wearing a mask, even indoors, is now not a requirement.

• Why did the CDC decide to take a rather major position on this matter?  They said that previous infections and vaccinations essentially made our community relatively safe because of this herd immunity factor.  Their calculation is that the USA is now on average at 95%!!!

House will pass the Inflation Reduction Act today:

• Process began 18 months ago, originally called the Build Back Better plan for $3.5 trillion.
• Today, only $430 billion.
• Republicans say this package will raise inflation.  They will oppose passage.

• 
  Democrats say inflation will be curbed, although it might take some time.
• Anyway, the name of the bill was mostly to satisfy Senator Joe Manchin, during a negotiating period when our inflation rate was, indeed, dropping.
• While important for a range of liberal programs, there are five ways the bill would fight climate change.

The latest scientific data shows that the Arctic is warming up four times faster than the rest of Planet Earth.  Essentially, this is the problem.  Ice reflects light back out into space.  But the open ocean absorbs that much more heat.  This is the "canary" signaling catastrophe.

I close with one effect of global warming.

-