Pandemic Report
The latest stats from CDC:
The COVID surge tailoff continues, with reported hospitalization lows (note that CDC has switched from hospitalization counts to ratio data). The FLiRT variants have now displaced JN.1 with more than a third aggregate market share.
Ehe latest news items of interest include but are not restricted to:
- AatraZeneca, facing in a drop of sales volume, is withdrawing its vaccine from the global market. It received early scrutiny over reports of rare alleged blood clots
- Besides public program fraud, other types of COVID fraud are being prosecuted, including
- a part-time actor selling fake COVID cures
- Sanctions imposed during the pandemic continue to be eased:
- a doctor whose license was syspended after engaging in vaccine misinformation was reinstated
- a Chinese journalist who had reported on Wuhan data was released
- mRNA manufacturers are looking to expand beyond COVID vaccines, e.g., to flu and RSV
- New York State enacted immunity laws during the pandemic including (notoriously) nursing homes
- HHS has estimated COVID vaccine ads saved thousands of lives and billions in costs
- A recent study shows people with heart failure live longer when protected by COVID vaccines
- Social distancing tactics protected nearly 2/3 of Americans from getting infected before vaccines were available and likely helped prevent 800K Americans from losing their lives but at staggering economic, social and human costs
- A recent Oxford study suggests ways cccines worked to mitigate severe illnessm including lower relevent concentrations of infected cell counts and fewer inflammation markers
- Finally, we look at the struggle for a global pandemic treaty from a lessons learned from this pandemic; this includes among other things resentment over limited at best vaccine production capacity in the less developed world and thorny issues like the scope of alerts from source locations like China's limited disclosures at the start of the pandemic.
Other Notes
Blog statistics are still likely bloated although not as much as over the last several weeks. Fo example, last month reported 15K vs a long-time trend of 1-3K/month. This month's trend is just over the high end of the long-term trend. My statistics on Twitter/X are at record lows in part because my tweeting is inconsistent Some days I don't publish any tweets in part uninviting trends, busy work schedule, etc.
It's time I rant about one of my (and I'm sure others') pet peeves other stupid and/or aggressive drivers. By stupid, I'm including things like getting hit from behind while at a stop at an intersection. Two times I remember:an older Asian (foreign?) dude at night in California and the other a mother obviously paying more attention to her baby than the traffic. The aggressive ones do things like slowly encroach into your lane, effectively forcing you off the road to avoid a collision. Then there are the passive-aggressive ones who target you for some reason, will hop in front of you and then slam on their brakes. I'll never forget some Illinois bonehead cop who let some motorist back on the highway. I'm on I-55 S going back to a distant Chicago suburb where my first brother lived, with my visiting parents in the back seats. This asshole jumps right in front of me; I'm driving maybe 55 mph and he was doing maybe 10-15. If it wasn't for my great reflexes I and my parents would have died that day. I was literally standing on my brakes and miss a collision by mere inches. And get this--the cop pulls ME over.. He kept me waiting like 10-15 minutes. He finally said, "I bet you're wondering why I pulled you over..." No shit. "It was all my fault for letting him back on the road. I didn't want you chasing after him." My folks were clueless about what was going on--they didn't see like my car inch closer to this guy's bumper and praying for my brakes to stop the progression. The folks had wanted to see me for dinner while visiting my brother's family but didn't have a car with them.
Otherwise, the worst incident was back in my native Texas. I'm a big Bobby Goldsboro fan.(He's probably best known for his sentimental hit Honey He also sang my favorie anti-war song Btoomstick Cowboy.) So I was driving to Gilley's in Pasadena where he was scheduled to appear, when this guy in a big truck forced me off the road as described above. He was psychotic, pointing at me in pure rage. I could see his shotgun dangling near the back window. His significant other was pleading with him to let it go. It scared the living hell out of me; I didn't trust a psycopath with a rifle at close range. I went straight home. To this day, I've necer seen a famous entertainer/act in person..
There are other pet peeves I have, including but not restricted to rubbernecks, traffic weavers, people who will deliberately cut you off from a lane change (especially when you are in an outgoing exit lane as you enter the road), but what really annoys me are self-entitled drivers who don't want to wait their place in line but try to get the jump on traffic by rushing down a closing lane and then force their way into the adjacent lane. I'm willing to play the nice guy and take turns with merging traffic but there are always assholes who will try to tailgate their way in front of you. There are times I will let it go because I don't want the hassle of a potential car repair.
Believe me, I've had more than my fill of congested traffic around Chicago, Los Angekes, Silicon Valley, the DC beltway, DFW loop, and Houston. I've driven through NYC to 2 New England funerals. I had a doctor drop me as a patient for being late in Baltimore 695 traffic (to discuss blood workup) .
My current work assignment has me commuting through the Baltimor harbor tunnels (2 lanes each direction: you generally have 2-3 miles of bumper to bumper traffic somtimes backed up for half a mile or more, like on the spur to 895 from 97N. There's something offputting about mototists racing down a closing lane while the rest of us in the left .lane inch our cars closer to 895 with its own lane merge.
In theory it should be an hour commute each direction but usually it's more like 50% more or double that. I already miss remote work but because of security reasons, that's not possible.
