Pandemic Report
The latest CDC weekly stats:
The summer surge continues, led by variant KP.3.1.1. CDC notes 27 of the states have elevated levels of COVID. "Nationally, wastewater detections of SARS-CoV-2 are at the very high level for the second straight week. The highest levels are still in the West and South, followed by the Midwest and the Northeast. The CDC's latest update, however, shows downward trends from high levels in the South and Midwest.... the CDC said in its latest variant proportion estimates. KP.3.1.1, one of many JN.1 offshoots, is thought to more easily evade immunity from earlier infection and vaccination." On a more personal, anecdotal level, my Mom has tested clear after her second infection. A sister-in-law mentioned she's been infected twice this year and I think she also got infected in 2022; I was supposed to visit them then but I had caught a severe bug I think from a grandnephew over Thanksgiving then and had to cancel holiday travel plans.
Other notes of interest:
- The upcoming jumbo Pfizer booster (combining COVID and the flu) is not performing up to expectations on the latter.
- We could see FDA approval of the Pfizer and Moderna 2024/2025 boosters as soon as next week
- The June updated COVID symptoms include
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- New loss of taste or smell
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Researchers combining simulations and theoretical predictions have been exploring the S2 domain of spike proteins for future ways to fight the COVID virus
- The resurgence of mbox/monkey pox in Africa has alarmed the WHO worrying about the next pandemic
- Routine lab tests aren't distinguishing long COVID from other illnesses
- The Presidential election has renewed focus on bad government pandemic policy:
- Gov.Tim Walz (D-MN) had a nursing home policy with high fatality rates, not unlike NY Gov. Cuomo
- Also on Walz' watch: "According to federal charges filed over the past couple of years, at least 70 people were part of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy that exploited two federally-funded nutrition programs to fraudulently obtain more than $250 million in one of the largest COVID-era fraud schemes anywhere in the nation."
Other Notes
The blog is still attracting elevated counts of pageviews. I published 2 essays over the past week, which I haven't done in a while. Twitter/X also seems to be doing well, although I've recently lost a couple of followers.
Post-Olympics I'm back to watching WWE programming, which was preempted and transferred to a channel not in my cable bundle. Come the new year I may have to go back to Netflix which will carry Monday Night Raw.
I've spent a lot of time this weekend trying to resolve a Windows update problem on one of my old notebook PC's.
I lost a job in Annapolis in early June. One of the related issues is I had just enrolled in this commuter EZPASS program, which reduces tolls by up to half. The problem is you can get penalized if you don't hit the bundle's toll trip minimum over a certain number of days. I thought I got an accommodation after I clled in early June, but I recently discovered I got penalized $56. . Long story short I got a partial credit back, but in essence they charged me full tolls for the trips I took. Fair enough.
