Pandemic Report
The latest weekly stats from CDC:
The latest dailies from Worldometer:
We continue to see the fall/winter surge recede overall, although the flu remains elevated in some regions, but there are still many getting infected and/or dying, like infected comeback gymnast Gabby Douglas.
News items of interest include, but are not restricted to:
- Over 134K cancer cases went undetected during the first year of the pandemic.
- A number of related scientific studies published during the early pandemic did not get adequately peer-reviewed and had methodological issues, like the use of convenience samples.
- COVID relief fraud prosecutions continues including
- 2 IRS employees took out SBA pandemic loans
- a California inmate also filed for millions in pandemic payroll relief loans
- a NC businessman was sentenced to prison over fraudulent SBA pandemic loans
- a WV resident was also sentenced for PPP loan fraud
- a Georgia couple is being prosecuted over pandemic loan fraud
- 2 SC people are being prosecuted over identity theft in COVID relief housing fraud
- Younger adults (25+, especially women) are more likely to develop long COVID
- Apparently the use of COVID relief funds for migrants has gone beyond Washington state.
- A possible lead.or marker for long COVID: COVID stimulates production of protein interferon gamma (IFN-γ), which evidently is lower in vaccinated people
- Although vaccine sales slumped last year, Moderna's market share has risen to 48%
- An ex-US multinational study showed higher counts for certain adverse events to vaccination, including some combination of Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, convulsions, myocarditis and pericarditis.
- "A new study led by the University of Oxford has found that a high proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the general population lead to persistent infections lasting a month or more."
- Vaccine mandates may lead to unintended consequences, like lower vaccination rates. For example, a mandate might lead people to believe unrealistic expectations of herd immunity, hence feeling vaccination is unnecessary. If you don't know your neighbor is vaccinated, you may be more proactive towards your own health.
- "A new study led by the University of Oxford has found that a high proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the general population lead to persistent infections lasting a month or more. "
- The war against anti-vaxxer misinformation continues, e.g., contrary to some sources, blood donations from vaccinated people are healthy to use.
- Post-pandemic audit contnues on public policy. For example- the Kansas Senate is looking at shifting authority from unelected public health officials and to advance visitation rights for families.
Other Notes
It has been a sluggish week for readership on the blog and on Twitter/X where apparently I lost 3 followers over the past week.
I'm really concerned about the economy. Whewreas my retirement investments have done well over the past several weeks, I'm wary that we are in a similar situation to the manic euphoric blowout of the 2000 Nasdaq meltdown, only in this case we are seeing an AI boom led by chipmaker Nvidia. Yes, I remember back in 1999-2000 seeing printouts by co-workers of Nvidia stock. If I had inested at $12/share I would have been wealthy enough to retire by now. Don't get me wrong: it's a great company, but these stock prices are in the nosebleed territory.. Going vertical in the stock market is never sustainable. Calling a top in this market is a fool's mission. There's still a lot of cash on the sideline.I don't know when or how this game of musical chairs will end. But let me give one other AI stock I've been tracking lately: a 5-day graph from Google Finance:
This stock has gone down like 6% one day to 30% up another and down 17% to finish the week. A good company but I could mever sleep at night with this kind of volatility with the money I need to retire on.
I think we're seeing a global slowdown which will eventually hit our economy. I think inflation has been heating up again. The Fed will likely delay interest rate cuts I think the market has already priced into the market. But high interest rates will likely inevitably sink some banks in the near future, and the market will correct on bad news. This will not be good for Biden's hopes for reelection.
I got up very early this morning to catch the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE. The results were all obvious. The WWE has been hinting at Becky Lynch/Rhea Ripley for Wrestlemania, and Drew McIntyre was the obvious heel challenger to babyface champ Seth Rollins. In the men's chamber I wasn't happy about Logan Paul's use of brass knuckles again or AJ Styles' surprise entrance as a non-competitor to take out LA Knight. The talk segment was a waste of time; we all thought it was to announce Seth & Cody to challenge Rock & Reigns. Instead it was more about Cody pissed at Rock's slapping his face.
