Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo:
The latest vaccine stats from CDC:
So we've risen to about 42K/daily cases, roughly up 12K over the past couple of weeks during this apparent omicron BA.2 mini-surge. There is some speculation that cases from home testing (some furnished free to homes from the federal government) are going unreported. It is clear that the pandemic is not over, one reason why I tweeted this week that I got my second booster. (I would have done it last week but my local Walmart had run short of Pfizer doses.] Probably the biggest story since my last journal post is that the Biden Administration will appeal Judge Mizelle's decision lifting the airline/transit mask mandate (particularly TSA). I don't think constitutionally this overreach from CDC will stand, although I expected from the get-go that the Administration was never going to concede the loss of its asserted authority. This was after the Senate already passed a relevant bipartisan repeal. (This wasn't the first time; last year a narrower vote sought to repeal the vaccine/testing mandate on employers. I have no doubt both measures would pass the House, but Biden ally Pelosi won't allow a vote, and in any event Biden would veto them for self-serving reasons.) The issue isn't wearing masks; I would probably still wear masks in riskier places on a voluntary basis. but most people who fly aren't infected, the air is cleaner/filtered, you can turn on a seat vent, and you can wear an N95 mask. Not to mention you can vaccinate before your flights and flights are limited in time. There are few guarantees in life, but the chances of getting hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 exposure on a flight are marginal and largely under factors within your control.
Other Notes
Blog readership has continued to suffer. I've only had 1 100+ pageview day in weeks, and as I write Saturday, there's not been a single hit in over 6 hours. Just a week left in the month, and if the trend to date continues it'll be the lowest total in over a year. Tweets are improving somewhat, although I haven't had a 1K+ impression tweet in a while, and only 3 1K+ daily impressions over the rolling month window. Still an interesting smattering of likes across a number of tweets, maybe averaging a like daily. Most of my tweets get no impressions. I think my best was maybe about 5 dozen likes on a single tweet.
I finally watched "King Richard", the movie that Will Smith earned his recent Oscar over, playing the dad of superstar tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. I didn't know the story, about the assaults on him in front of his daughters. I was particularly impressed with an incident where he thought one of his daughters wasn't showing due respect/sportsmanship. I was somewhat confused by the moment they chose to end the movie--basically when the older sister, Venus, turned pro losing to the #1 ranked women's player (who basically was losing early in the match and sat out several minutes to take Venus out of her rhythm). I thought maybe they would end it with Venus' winning her first Wimbledon or the sisters winning one of their doubles' gold. But still there are incidents in the movie that stand out, like when Venus turns down her first multi-million dollar endorsement deal, only to win a deal later for about 5 times the amount of the initial deal. I really can't judge Will's acting talent or how authentically he portrayed Richard Williams, but I didn't view him as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air trying to play a tennis dad.
HBO was integrated into my cable package, and so I decided to start watching the heavily promoted Flight Attendant series. I wasn't sure what to expect (a RomCom?) but I wasn't expecting what happened when she woke up from a one-night fling with a passenger.
WWE's storytelling post-Wrestlemania has been weak; no follow-up challenge to Reign's unified title yet. It LOOKS like they are setting up Nakamura as an interim challenger and booking McIntyre for the Summer. Obviously they would love to have the Rock do a program with Reigns, and Cena is another person they could have job to Reigns, but they just did that last year. They seem to have turned Styles and Lashley babyfaces, and Cody Rhodes could obviously be written into the title picture. And of course they could always turn Reigns face. Not a fan of what's happened on the women's titles; they still haven't brought back Bayley and Asuka. Lacey Evans is back from her pregnancy break, and they had been planning a feud with Charlotte Flair before the break.
