Happy Independence Day! In true American fashion, there was an active shooter at a parade in Highland Park, north of Chicago. One report said there were at least five people killed and 16 people injured enough to go to a hospital. Another report said that the shooter was still at large. Happy Holiday? Not! All this has happened after I had put on my "CANADA: Looking Better Every Day" t-shirt and moose earrings.
Very, very little covid news out there this morning. So let's start with the now-daily monkeypox note. If the monkeypox rash moves into a patient's eye, it can cause permanent damage including, in rare cases, blindness.
If monkeypox is not enough, there is now news of Pasco County, Florida's being in quarantine due to a rapidly-growing population of invasive giant African land snails. They carry something called rat lungworm, which can cause meningitis. They also eat over 500 different plant species as well as paint and stucco off houses as a source of calcium. Some people keep them, illegally, as pets. If a snail is released or escapes, it can lay 1,200 eggs each year. Two giant African land snails were also found in luggage at Atlanta's airport, discovered thanks to two members of Customs and Border Protections's "Beagle Brigade."
As for covid, any strain should be evaluated on three things: infectivity, immune escape, and severity. The BA.5 subvariant is worse than others on the first two items. Severity is still up in the air. Hospitalizations are up, but deaths are not ... yet. As for number of cases, one estimate is that we could be missing 80 percent of all cases due to home testing. That would put the current US peak about the same as the initial Omicron peak in January.
Finally, a legislator in Hong Kong tested positive for covid a day after having appeared in a group photo with Xi Jinping. The legislator stood two rows back, and everyone was masked. A new round of testing has been ordered in Macau. I don't know how it works that casinos are still open but staff have been asked to stay home. Self-serve gambling? Slot machines and electric poker? They need to be careful in Macau. The population is 600,000, but there is only one hospital. One.
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