Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo: 37K
The
latest from
CDC:
A modest slowdown in cases to 37K/daily. For those of us who took the bivalent booster months ago, it's an
unanswered question: when do we get out next booster? The answer, for the time being, CDC recommends 1 bivalent booster. We may be transitioning to an annual booster, and it's possible we'll get a more specific recommendation in the near future.
Probably the biggest kerfuffle lately has to do with a Cochrane review of masking. Long story short, this study is a meta-analysis of more rigorous scientific studies involving the effectiveness of masks, including higher quality masks like surgical masks and the N95 (like the ones I wear). I'm sure the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers feel vindicated and emboldened by this study. Let's just point out there are some limitations about inferences from the apples and oranges of different quality studies, only a small number of these studies deal with COVID-19, and there are other studies supporting masking whose evidence didn't qualify for the study. See this Twitter thread and especially this post for more detailed elaboration of these and related points. I, for one, will continue to mask when circumstances warrant given I'm in the at-risk population.
There's been a lot of discussion about high pricing for vaccines once the public emergency expires (in May, I believe). Here's the latest response from Moderna:
“As the public health emergency ends, the United States government will no longer be providing vaccines at no cost. Moderna remains committed to ensuring that people in the United States will have access to our COVID-19 vaccines regardless of ability to pay,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be available at no cost for insured people whether they receive them at their doctors’ offices or local pharmacies. For uninsured or underinsured people, Moderna’s patient assistance program will provide COVID-19 vaccines at no cost. Everyone in the United States will have access to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine regardless of their ability to pay.”
Other Notes
Blog readership continues to fluctuate intraweekly, sometimes down to single-digits mid-week. It's difficult to estimate but there's a good chance I'll modestly improve over last month's numbers in a short month. On Twitter, I'm not sure what happened when, but after a long spell of single-digit impressions and no engagements, I saw a couple of likes from non-followers, then a series of 4 1500+ impressions. I also noticed some updates to my analytics home page which now shows SOME February tweets.
I had to get my contractor id extended 6his past week. This is always a bit of a hassle because your email certificates change and you have to import your old keys to read older encrypted emails. Scheduling is a hassle because I live more than 10 miles away. I stuck a new N95 mask in my pocket because the confirmation email still lists the mask policy. Then I found myself behind a school bus that stopped to load a wheelchair-bound student. It was sort of interesting because I hadn't seen an uploading before, but I must have been at a stop for 10-15 minutes, and all I can think is I'm going to be late, and heaven knows if I'm going to have to make a new appointment.
Well, Elimination Chamber, the last WWE PLE until Wrestlemania at the start of April is now history. Arguably the best storyline in years, champ Roman Reigns and his Bloodline (the tag champ Usos have enjoyed long title reigns. Somehow Sami Zahn, without a drop of Samoan blood, got himself embedded into the group and ended up winning Reigns' favor by turning on his old pal Kevin Owens in a key PLE several weeks back. We always knew it was just a matter of when, not if, Zahn would lose favor with the Bloodline. Owens got a title shot at the Royal Rumble, and after his predictable defeat, Reigns demanded a loyalty test in a post-match beatdown of Owens. Zahn turned on Reigns and paid the price, although Jey sided with Zahn and walked out on the Bloodline. This set up Zahn's own challenge at Elimination Chamber. Zahn fell short in front of his hometown crowd, and Owens saved him from the post-match beatdown. We already knew men's Rumble winner Cody Rhodes is set to challenge Reigns at Wrestlemania, and it looks like Owens/Zahn will challenge the Usos.
I am not a fan of Logan Paul and his presumptive challenge to Rollins. I didn't expect Lesnar and Lashley to end at Eliminator Chamberbut but disqualifying Lesner for a backwards kick low blow breaking out of the full nelson is a cheesy ending. The WWE frequently scripts blatant low blows, and I can't recall the last one getting called.
I think WWE initially wanted the Rock to combat Reigns at Wrestlemania and give him the rub, but reportedly his schedule didn't give him enough time to train for the match. I don't know why they haven't split the titles yet; there was another rumor of Reigns defending each belt on different Wrestlemania nights. There was yet another rumor of creating a men's RAW heavyweight championship.
