January 26, 2023 – 669,818,916confirmed infections; 6,820,465 deaths
January 27, 2022 - 363,582,100 confirmed infections; 5,630,850 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 100,920,100 confirmed infections; 2,175,500 deaths
US (Map)
January 26, 2023 – 102,254,233 confirmed infections; 1,107,466 deaths
January 27, 2022 - 72,991,900 confirmed infections; 876,800 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 25,600,000 confirmed infections; 429,160 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 20, 2023 - 4,054,803confirmed infections; 102,595 deaths
January 27, 2022 - 3,590,400 confirmed infections; 94,495 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 1,430,650 confirmed infections; 42,550 deaths
Post from:
January 27, 2022 - “Turn, turn, turn ”
January 28, 2021 – “Anniversary”
News blues…
It turns out that early waves of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza peaked before the new year, according to new data from the [US] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the expected winter uptick of coronavirus is nowhere close to overwhelming hospitals, as it did in 2021 when covid wards were filled with unvaccinated people struggling to breathe and last winter when the highly transmissible omicron variant ignited a massive wave of illness.Read more >>
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XBB.1.5 is a spinoff of XBB, a subvariant of omicron that health officials worldwide have been warning about since the fall. XBB.1.5 is considered a recombinant virus because it carries genetic data from two previous mutations, Nexstar’s The Hill reports. XBB was first detected in India in August and spread quickly through Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization. At the time, the WHO described XBB as “the most antibody-evasive SARS-CoV-2 variant identified to date.”Read more >>
Since first being discovered, XBB has evolved and now has two subvariants, XBB.1 and XBB.1.5. XBB.1.5 differs from its family members because it has a mutation that allows it to better bind to cells, Andrew Pekosz, a virologist for Johns Hopkins University, told CNBC. That ability to bind gives it a better chance of infecting people.
Earlier this month, XBB.1.5 began sweeping through the Northeast. As of Thursday, the CDC reports the variant makes up roughly 82% of cases in New England, New York, and New Jersey. It’s now becoming more prevalent across states along the East Coast.
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The [US] Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation's COVID-19 vaccine strategy.Read more >>
The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar to what is used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. This is according to a federal official who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
NPR reported the proposed shift early Monday morning, and later Monday the FDA outlined it publicly in a set of documents released in advance of a meeting Thursday of the agency's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). The committee will vote on the agency's proposal. Currently, people who want to be fully vaccinated against COVID have to first get their primary vaccinations — two shots of the original vaccine spaced weeks apart. That's followed at least two months later by a booster, currently the bivalent shot that's tailored to protect against omicron.
Under the new approach, most people would be advised to simply get whatever the latest version of the vaccine is annually each fall like the flu vaccine. They wouldn't have to worry about how many shots they've already gotten and which one they got when. Those who still need to receive two doses initially, such as young children and older people, would use the same formulation for all three shots.
About 80% of China’s population has been infected with Covid-19 since restrictions were lifted in early December, Chinese health authorities have said.Read more >>
The figure, which would equate to about 1.2 billion people but cannot be confirmed by outside bodies, prompted some pandemic experts to estimate that more than 1 million may have died – far more than the government’s official tally of about 72,000.
On war… and culture war
A diversion from the usual…
In an out of the way area of South Africa, near the Orange River, lies the growing town of Orania. This “homeland for Whites” offers a way of life to predominantly Afrikaner people “far from the madding crowd.”
Check out with cultural anomaly presented in this 16 minute video show >>
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The Lincoln Project:Still here (0:50 mins)
MTG and McCarthy (1:35 mins)
The way I handle things (0:29 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party – January 24, 2023 (1:50 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
There’s …a murky brown sheen sitting on the surface of the South African city’s harbour, where brilliantly white yachts worth millions of rand float in water contaminated with human excrement.Read more >>
“We all call it Shit Creek,” said Brad Groddler, 50, a boat captain who takes tourists out for whale-watching and fishing trips.
Ever since deadly floods in April last year damaged an already ailing sewage and water system, millions of litres of untreated sewage have spilled into the beaches, rivers, harbours and ocean in and around Durban.
Between April and December many of the city’s beaches – which usually draw hundreds of thousands of tourists for the southern hemisphere’s summer – were closed after critical levels of E coli, a bacteria that can cause diarrhoea, vomiting and fever, were found in the water.
Nine months after the floods, environmental scientists say contamination is still a big problem.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Here in California, we’re experiencing promising signs of spring on the way: sunshine, people out and about enjoying that sunshine, warmer temperatures, and teeny tiny buds of greenery in trees and plants.I say, enjoy this while we can!
