Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo: 66.2K
The latest from CDC:
With Christmas and family reunions a week away, the sticky high infection rates and low bivalent vaccine booster adoption are worrisome, not to mention the flu and RSV are making the rounds. Anecdotally I've been under the weather the last couple of weeks, have gone to my doctor's office twice and cancelled a scheduled holiday trip to Texas. I was sure it wasn't COVID (symptoms and limited public contact) but the clinic still insisted on doing swab tests: negative/clean results. I routinely get push notifications from the Maryland Department of Health, reminding me as part of an at-risk group, I'm probably 4 times more likely to get hospitalized over infection and even one from Walmart saying if I get infected, they stock relevant meds (like presumably Pfizer's).
A sibling (all have had primary vaccination but some have not had the latest booster despite lobbying by me and our RN sister) got infected along with his/her spouse on a recent vacation to Mississippi. The sibling is now testing clear. Their symptoms varied but included things like coughing, fever, chills, body aches, headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. The sibling had some balance issues walking and slept a lot while infected. Yet the sad fact is up to a quarter of Americans remain unvaccinated despite no out-of-pocket costs and convenient sites for vaccine administration. The fact is without some acquired immunity my relatives' infections might have led to worse, more tragic outcomes, and this is a nasty disease even with a vaccine regimen. Breakthrough infections can and do happen, and as long as the pandemic lasts, we run the risk of new deadly variants emerging.
Other Notes
Probably the worst weekly readership numbers I've seen since Blogger started reporting stats a dozen years ago. At one point I had less than 100 pageviews for the prior week. Barring an unlikely turnaround in readership over the coming 2 weeks, it'll make for a new multiyear monthly low.
HMM has been heavily promoting the next story in its "Five More Minutes" movies. You don't pick up much of the storyline from the promos but it seems to be about a grieving mom longing for 5 more minutes to share with her late young son.
[I usually don't update posts barring issues like mistaken video clips, but I completely misread the promos. I saw the clips of mother and son and didn't make the obvious observation the father wasn't in the clips, I've only watched the opening minutes. The movie begins with a family of 3 Christmas Eve moment. The dad is assembling son Adam's bike but notices he didn't attach the best part of the bike--the bell. Along the way, he has a momentary flash of a headache--an ominous sign. He insists on running a quick errand to get a bell. He's driving on a snowy road when he seems to experience some sort of seizure triggered by approaching headlights...Flash forward, Adam is having adjustment issues at school, and his widowed Mom is praying for 5 more minutes with her late husband.]
One of the few interesting aspects to this boring WWE Bloodline storyline dominating the major titles for more than a year is Sami Zahn, a French-Canadian without a drop of Pacific blood. Sami won champ Roman Reigns' approval as an honorary/"real" Uce/Uso by screwing over longtime pal Kevin Owens in the last Survivor Series to cost his team a win over the Bloodline. In the last Smackdown, Reigns decided to honor Zahn's place in the Bloodline by partnering with him in a Kevin Owens' tag match on Dec. 30. And Owens' mystery partner turns out to be John Cena making his first/only 2022 appearance. We all know Sami's days are numbered with a planned Owens challenge to Reign. So will this be the beginning of the end, say by Sami somehow costing Reigns the match or setting up Owens for the challenge?
Interesting to see WWE finally pair Rousey and Baszler in the annual Tribute to the Troops. I think they are obviously in the hunt for the female tag titles. The returning Bray Wyatt storyline is beginning to play out with Alexa Bliss reprising her role by a teaser, putting Raw champ Bianca Belair in Wyatt's signature Sister Abigail move. I still don't see the logic of a feud between Bray Wyatt and LA Knight which could kill the latter's build. It looks like they're teasing a feud between Intercontinental champ Gunther and Braun Strowman. In the meanwhile, they've booked a storyline termination of Bobby Lashley on Raw. Is this a pretext to moving Lashley to Smackdown in order to feud with Reigns or Strowman?
