Jeff Bezos says he plans to give away the majority of his ~$117 billion net worth during his lifetime.

That’s nice, but can I let you in on a secret?

Billionaire philanthropy isn’t charity. It’s PR to distract you from low wages and a tax system that’s rigged for the rich.

COVID cases in hospital continue to grow sharply in Victoria, up to 489.

The increase is already close to the growth seen in the BA.5 wave in August, which started from a far higher base. There's no sign of a peak, in fact the growth is accelerating.

There is no noticeable public health response to quell the spread of the new XBF and BQ.* lineages. The "mild" XBB lineages that drove the August wave in Singapore is at very low frequency and declining in Victoria and Australia, so I there's little reason to expect this wave to resemble Singapore's experience.

XBF is growing the fastest, so is presumably more transmissible. XBF was first identified recently in Victoria, so we are now running a live experiment on it's severity.

#COVID19 #Australia #VIC #Melbourne @auscovid19
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[Edited - original version overstated the cases hospitalised]