Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo:
The latest vaccine stats from CDC:
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Well,a definite sign of a wave top with the first drop of new cases in weeks, although note that we are in the 6-digit rolling average range.No major news stories I've seen over the past week, besides the usual smattering of celebrity infections. Probably the moat intriguing is the imminent FDA/CDC review of a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use from Novovax. I've read of this vaccine over the past year; it's already won approval in 40 other countries with millions of doses administered globally It is more of a traditional vaccine vs the novel mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna). There are advantages like more modest refrigeration requirements, good efficiency, and possible appeal to those vaccine skeptics distrustful of mRNA technology. There are purity and scalability (production) issues to resolve.
Other Notes
This will likely be the last post published in May. Blog readership improved modestly after a very low first couple of weeks. After last month's record multi-year low, I was concerned with another steep drop off Barring an unexpected surge, it looks like rhis month will come in with a 15-20% drop off from last month, which had one less day.
I'm on my second series binge over the past few months: Dallas. I don't recall when I started watching the prime soap opera, but I certainly recall the hype of the season 3 cliffhanger "who shot JR?" (I haven't gotten there yet, so I haven't seen these. IMDb TV become FreeVee, a free streaming service (ad supported), which is available via Amazon devices and services (i.e., Prime).) It's a weird setup, it shows all the prime time seasons in order EXCEPT season 2. I couldn't figure out the gap. What made it worse, looking for the season 2 episodes seemed to blur into the TNT(?) series (think Dallas Next Generation) reboot around 2012. Long story short, I found episode summaries for seasons 1 and 2, and for some reason FreeVee merged them under season 1.
What's notable is some of the recasting done by the third season, include Digger Barnes (Cliff's/Pam's) father, and Kristin Shephard, Sue Ellen's sister. I think the original Digger was superior and more believable. I thought Colleen Camp, the original Kristin, was very attractive, but Mary Crosby's version was a darker, more complex, manipulative character, quite willing to get involved with Sue Ellen's husband JR, which is good for storytelling.
