Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo:
The latest from CDC:
The overall stats are roughly holding steady at about 38.6K new cases daily and 340 deaths. Probably the biggest news over the past week is the CDC seems to be leaning into a recommendation likely for an annual COVID-19 booster. There seems to be some early evidence for a more natural treatment:
The study found that the natural amino acid called ‘5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA)’ is an effective way to reduce the expression of ACE2, which is the receptor for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a strain of the COVID-19 virus, which allows the virus to infect a cell. Therefore, this amino acid can reduce the infectivity of COVID.
ALA can be found in spinach, tomatoes, Shitake mushrooms, potatoes, squid, ground beef, wine and soy sauce, according to clinicaltrials.gov.
There's some interesting data that the common Typ4 2 diabetic oral medication Metformin may help lower viral load. China reports its recent major surge seems to be under control although not completely over and it has expanded critical treatment capacity. George Mason University announced a recent study claiming urban vaccine mandates had little effect in reducing COVID-19 caseload. There is evidence of liberalized public policy such as Marine restrictions on unvaccinated soldiers' deployments overseas.
Other Notes
Blog readership has somewhat improved over the last week, and I have a shot at reaching a level that I used to achieve by mid-month but only achieved once in the last 6 months or so. Twitter is improving since earlier this month when I had a long streak of single-digit tweets. Still, I wonder what's going on with some tweets. For example, I was the victim of a violent crime while a UH grad student, and as I write, that tweet only has 3 impressions. I got more impressions tweeting about an older George Harrison song tweet. Nevertheless, it explains why I stopped jogging in the 80's.
Well, I finally tried something I had once swore I would never do: buy a plant-based "meat"' in this case. Beyond Hot Sausage, Lidl had a discount on it. Not bad; it's a lot better than meatless stuff I've tasted in the past. But I prefer the taste of "real" hot sausage. Of course, I generally avoid processed meat like sausage, hot dogs, cold cuts, etc. It turns out after weeks of illness in December, I had rebounded back to my last doctor visit weigh-in. Probably a 20-lb. bounce. Most of that was dehydration, but for several days I couldn't keep anything down and I had to go off a prescription.
The Walmart Pharmacy I use is pretty good, but I had a weird process this week when I noticed I had an email of a list of multiple generics to pick up. Usually, I get a text asking me if I want a refill. Ane then the day after pickup I got a text saying I had 2 of the same 90-day prescriptions to pick up. I called in and yes, it wasn't a delayed notification but a duplicate one. On a separate earlier occasion, they mentioned one of the same notifications but it was really a different off-schedule refill. On a separate note, one of my patient portals is showing I need my pneumonia and shingles shots and I've done those over the past few weeks. I'm not sure why they didn't get updated by Walmart or my health insurer. They had a button to schedule, but none to say I've had these.
