Pandemic Report
The latest CDC weklylatest CDC wekly stats:
As the new FLiRT variants continue to increase their dominant market share, hospitalization rates continue to bottom ar near record pandemic lows, although some areas report a modest pickup, e.g., in wastewater sampling. Disease experts expect a small FLiRT surge this summer. It's always troublesome when new variants emerge because you know we don't have natural or acquired (vaccine) immunity for which we know the virus has novel defenses to evade. I went on DC Metro this week I think for the first time since 2009. I spotted at least 3-4 people wearing masks: still the exception vs. the rule, but more than I've seen recently. Still, infected celebrities continue to make the news. For example, Lady Gaga recently admitted to having performed publicly while infected (unspecified events), causing a furious backlash {you are never going to get close enough to a celebrity to get infected). One of the key issues to be addressed by the FDA is whether the upcoming fall booster update will mandate targeting the JN.1/FLiRT variants; if so, the vaccines might be delayed by 4 months or so. Interesting, California for the first time in years saw a day without a COVID fatality.
Other related news of interest include but are not restricted to:
- I've discussed in past posts how states have been redirecting federal COVID funds for other purposes. Not surprisingly, Trumpkin legislators are eyeing unspent COVID funding for southern border spending.
- COVID relief/other fraud continues to be prosecuted including
- a Colorado businessman obtainrf SBA loans for allegedly inoperable businesses
- a California ambulance businessman took PPP loans for a business that allegedly had no employees or revenue
- Two Minnesota business consultants are being charged with PPP/EIDL loan fraud
- The CDC is shutting down in August its Bridge Access Program for vaxxing uninsured Americans
- The Cue Health company, recently cited for invalid COVID tests, is shutting down
- The pandemic basically reversed nearly a decade in global life expectancy gains
- A widely reported Cochrane review several months back was skeptical of facemask effectiveness. A new meta-analysis finds support for mask wearing and discusses several methodological issues.
- There are discussions of the new FLiRT variants on contagion, symptoms, and severity of illness. They are thought to be somewhat more contagious, less severe and no unique symptoms so far beyond the usual: "Symptoms of Covid-19 infection include runny nose, sore throat, headache, fevers, cough and body aches. Some people may experience more severe symptoms such as shortness of breath. Covid-19 could also exacerbate underlying conditions such as heart failure.".
Other Notes
Blog readership seems to have stabilized at a more stable, realistic rate. Most posts, even the daily miscellanies, seem to be hitting double-digits. Not dozens of pageviews even for my essays but progress. My Twitter/X publication rate is still infrequent, particularly on weekdays given long commutes, but I have surged to 100+ impressions largely based on 2 popular tweets on the recent American Idol finale (no, the singer I supported did not win).
WWE had its King/Queen of the Ring PLE from Saudi Arabia earlier today. For the most part, the results were expected. The only title flip was Liv Morgan winning over Becky Lynch, who hasn't yet signed a new contract with her current deal expiring. They did make the King/Queen contests more interesting by giving them a Rumble-like championship shot at SummerSlam. I didn't like the Logan Paul challenge to Rhodes. Paul's brass knuckles gimmick is tired and annoying.
I had to go to a federal building in DC this past week where I had to go through TSA-like screening twice (the second time for a coffee with my escort). This includes the stupid requirement to take off my belt. Trust me, nobody wants to see a fat man's pants fall down (and yes they did). And then the security rent-a-cops were useless. I had luckily entered the escort's phone number (that may seem obvious but I was planning to meet with a co-worker who wasn't there). The escort's phone went unanswered. The security idiots literally didn't know the agency's phone number, office location, etc.They literally had no suggestion beyond call agaim. The POC didn't know me; luckily he finally called me back. Never mind the congested driving to the north beltway to the Metro station. It turns out you can't buy a refillable SmartTrip card at the statiom. I ended up unintentionally buying a $30 3-day pass which didn't even cover parking at the station.
The drive back from Metro was hellishly bad. I had some weird thing going on with Google Maps where it seemed to have a GPS malfunction, occasionally speaking irrelevant gibberish directions, and then there's the highly annoying "kerplunk" alert (usually it tells you things like it's found a new better route, there's a speedtrap ahead, etc.) So I got a series of kerplunks without messages. It was bumper-to-bumper some distance from the tunnels, then I found myself behind 2 disabled cars within a couple of miles apart, the first seeming stalled out, no lights, etc., and traffic in both adjacent lanes cutting me off. I really, really didn't want to do this meeting to begin with, but I wasn't given a choice by my boss
