THE PANDEMIC WILL GET WORSE NEXT YEAR!!!

On Sundays I normally post something spiritual.  I will do so next week.  I just stumbled across a World Bank projection that stunned me so much that I just had to share this bit of info with you.

The World just experienced its one millionth COVID-19 death.  With 4% of the global population, the USA has a little more than 20% of all deaths.  We've recently experienced between 500 and 1000 deaths per day, but I just noticed a World Bank projection (updated on 24 September 2020) showing that the United States on 1 January 2021 will be getting:

• 1,185 deaths/day if there is universal mask-wearing.
• 3,059 deaths/day if we maintain our current state of mask-wearing.
• 6,618 deaths/day if we open up our economy.

The highest one-day deaths peaked on 16 April 2020 at 2,323 deaths.  

Further, the U.S. had 43,206 new cases yesterday.  The peak new cases per day of 283,236 occurred on 29 March 2020.  As projected by the World Bank for 1 January 2021:

• 263,694 new cases/day with universal (95%) mask-wearing.
• 363,204 new cases/day with current (48%) mask-wearing.
• 1,281,349 new cases/day with an opened economy!!!

What about the World, which had 5,306 deaths yesterday?  The World Bank predicts for 1 January 2021:

• 17,456 deaths/day with universal (95%) mask-wearing.
• 33,272 deaths/day with current (43%) mask-wearing.
• 72,700 deaths/day with opened economy.

With the return of all those professional and college sport leagues, you would think that this pandemic is close to being over.  This got to be the most depressing comment I've made in any of my blogs ever:  if the World Bank is right, and there is no reason to cast any doubt, THE PANDEMIC WILL GET WORSE NEXT YEAR!!!  Then, hopefully, by the spring into the summer an effective vaccine will begin to make a difference.

Paving the way for Trump's eagerness to release a COVID-19 vaccine, China has already inoculated a large number of citizens with an untested vaccine.  Priorities?

First, workers at state-owned companies got dosed. Then government officials and vaccine company staff. Up next: teachers, supermarket employees and people traveling to risky areas abroad.

Note that there is no mention of the most vulnerable, the elderly, nor school students.  Further:

It is not clear how many people in China have received coronavirus vaccines. Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company with a vaccine candidate in late-stage trials, has said hundreds of thousands of people have received its shots. Sinovac, a Beijing-based company, said more than 10,000 people in Beijing had been injected with its vaccine. Separately, it said nearly all its employees — around 3,000 in total — and their families had taken it.

Signs are that Russia is also headed in that direction.  In desperation, expect Donald Trump to pull a similar stunt.

Switching subjects to the politics of the USA, only 37 days to November 3 and 2 days till that first presidential debate, which will be moderated by Fox newscaster Chris Wallace.  Nothing much has changed since my speculative posting of 19 September 20 about Republican/Democratic strategies to replace Ruth Ginsberg.  In Joe Biden's response to Donald Trump's nomination of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court, the challenger focused on the end of Obamacare when she is confirmed.  The New York Times today also added:

Judge Barrett’s vote record is almost uniformly conservative on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration. If she is confirmed, our Supreme Court reporter writes, she would move the court firmly to the right, making compromise less likely and putting at risk the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.

It's also becoming clear that Biden should become the next POTUS.  However, Trump has virtually announced that Republican-controlled state legislatures have the freedom to do whatever they want in choosing electoral voters, adding yet another degree of uncertainty, which could lead to a Supreme Court decision.

My favorite song #94 will come from the folk era:

• Different Drum   Linda Ronstadt
• Guantanamera   Sandpipers     
• Greenfields   The Brothers Four  
• Mr. Tambourine Man   The Byrds  
• Hang On Sloopy   The McCoys  

Plus:  The 100 Essential Folk Songs from National Public Radio (I've deleted those on my list):

1. "This Land Is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie

2. "Blowin' in the Wind" - Bob Dylan

4. "If I Had a Hammer" - Pete Seeger

5. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" - The Kingston Trio

12. "Tom Dooley" - The Kingston Trio (Trad)

13. "Both Sides Now" - Joni Mitchell

15. "Goodnight Irene" - The Weavers (Trad)

19. "Sounds of Silence" - Simon & Garfunkel

22. "Turn, Turn, Turn!" - The Byrds (Pete Seeger)

23. "Puff the Magic Dragon" - Peter, Paul and Mary

36. "Freight Train" - Elizabeth Cotton

49. "Amazing Grace" - Odetta (Trad)

79. "Eve of Destruction" - Barry McGuire

84. "Mr. Tambourine Man" - Bob Dylan

87. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" - Simon & Garfunkel

98. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - Bob Dylan

100. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" - John Denver

Again, there are so many choices.  For an imaginative reason, my pick for #94 is Puff the Magic Dragon.  The song has nothing to do with Hawaii, but the mythical Honalee, as I heard it, was, to me, Hanalei, close to where my father was born.  I once lived on Kauai and remember those days at Hanalei with Pearl and Pepper.  What I recall most had to do with our dog, Pepper:

• 
  Once I threw a stick into the surf, he went for it, a big wave came, towed him under, and he disappeared for a full minute.  But he recovered, strolled back and gave me the stick.  
• Another, I was fishing on a close-by reef and caught an inedible fish, a hinalea.  Gave it to him, and he walked back to the beach, dug a hole, and buried it, coming back for more.
• A few miles away was Kaloko Reservoir.  We went up to it once, and while Pepper was yet a puppy, no more than 6 months old, he jumped into the water and swam to the middle, which must have been at least a 100 yards away, then swam back.  

 Memories have a lot to do what is meaningful to you.

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