136 million, 41%, perhaps even 61% of Americans are immune!
Restaurants to 50%: Inslee bestows entire state with Phase 3 on March 22.
Indoor spaces, like restaurants and movie theaters, can have 50% occupancy. Up to 400 people can attend indoor and outdoor activities, such as concerts and high school graduations, as long as physical distancing and masking is enforced. Outdoor events with permanent facilities can have 25% occupancy.
Spectator capacity is also expanded for high school and youth sports. High school contact sports, like basketball, wrestling and cheerleading, can resume.
The state will also move to a per-county-based system, re-evaluating counties every three weeks with the first re-assessment planned for April 12.
Vaccines effective against variants
Genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are emerging, but so far the three vaccines being used immunize against the variants very well.
Watch a video from the Journal of the American Medical Association:
Info: shpr.fyi/vacceff
British variant B.1.1.7 more serious but covered by vaccines
Infection with the new B.1.1.7 variant led to 227 (0.41%) deaths in a sample of 54,906 COVID-19 patients, compared with 141 (0.25%) among the same number of patients who were matched for age, sex, sociodemographic background, date of infection, and other factors, but infected with other variants.
Scientists say it is also 40%-70% more transmissible than currently dominant variants.
Info: shpr.fyi/b117worse
U.S. Solar Panel makers can’t compete with China
American-made solar panels “cannot compete” with Chinese prices as the demand for green energy increases under the Biden administration.
The U.S. Dept. of Commerce concluded that China violated the countervailing duty law by providing heavy subsidies to Chinese solar manufacturers. The Department calculates that China supplied solar producers with subsidies ranging “from 27.64% to 49.79%”.
These findings led the Trump administration to impose tariffs on “solar panels from China ranging from 18.56% to 35.21%,” bringing U.S. manufacturers level with the Chinese.
President Biden, while suggesting 10,000 Keystone Pipeline workers whose jobs he destroyed get jobs making solar panels, is removing those tariffs, so U.S. solar panel makers and their employees will again be unable to compete with China.
Info: shpr.fyi/solarchina
U.S. Military Rare Earth Metals Supply Threatened by China
China has the largest known rare earth reserves worldwide and is one of the major producing countries of these elements.
Roughly 80% of rare earth metals go into ultra-high-strength magnets used in many electronic products and high-temperature superalloys, especially those used to manufacture the turbine blades for commercial and military aircraft jet engines.
For example. an F-35 fighter jet contains over 900 lb. of rare earths.
China moved to tighten control over the rare-earth metals industry in what some experts see as part of its military response to the ongoing trade war with the US. Even rare earths mined in the US must be sent to China for processwing.
China may ban the export of rare-earths refining technology to countries or companies it deems as a threat on state security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mining in the Mt. Margaret metals area south of Randle may become existential for America.
Info: shpr.fyi/rarechina
Testing defense against Earth-bound asteroids
NASA Project DART will target a binary asteroid system that consists of a larger asteroid called Didymos, which measures about a half mile wide, and a smaller asteroid satellite called Dimorphos, which measures 540 feet across.
The mission will test a new planetary defense technique, requiring the spacecraft to slam into Dimorphos to change the orbital speed of the asteroid through a kinetic impact. If successful, this technique could be used to deflect asteroids that pose a threat to Earth.
Info: shpr.fyi/dartprotect
Ivermectin trial shows little benefit against COVID
In this randomized clinical trial that included 476 patients, the duration of symptoms was not significantly different for patients who received a 5-day course of ivermectin compared with placebo. Median time to resolution of symptoms was 10 vs 12 days which is not much.
Among adults with mild COVID-19, a 5-day course of ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve the time to resolution of symptoms. The findings do not support the use of ivermectin for treatment of mild COVID-19.
Info: shpr.fyi/ivermect
A note about the thermometer above:
The number of Infection & Recovery (Dark Green) I’ve used is just the actual number known and reported by CDC.
However, CDC, Dr. Fauci and others suspected and reported that very many additional, originally perhaps 30% of the U.S. population, had been infected and recovered without symptoms, without even knowing they were sick or had COVID. These cannot be not counted.
Probably the same percentage of those 30% originally estimated additional infected & recovered are among the 32%, now vaccinated so I have reduced the original 30% unknown recovered number by the percent vaccinated, now to 20%.
I have added this 20% of us who are probably immune as a lightly colored green section.
This would bring our real total American immunity to around 61%- getting close to the 70% herd immunity goal!
This is the reason that the daily number of new infections and hospitalizations has plummeted so drastically and wonderfully.
With herd immunity, COVID will no longer necessitate masks & shutdowns!
Dave Bunting