Pandemic Report
The latest weekly CDC statistics:
We see the summer wave slowly receding. Probably the biggest news is you can order 4 free COVID tests per household at this website.
- Add Louisiana to the list of disturbing anti-vaxxer-leaning state surgeon generals.
- China sought to disguise military drones as COVID aid to Libya through corrupt UN personnel
- "[T]his research revealed broad, global cognitive impairment, even in patients without neurological complications. Cognitive deficits were linked to the severity of the initial infection, post-acute mental health status, and COVID-19-associated encephalopathy. Despite some improvement at early follow-ups, recovery plateaued, leaving patients with persistent impairments one year after infection."
- "US healthcare workers receiving additional vaccine doses during the Omicron period (December 2021 to April 2022) had a 45% lower risk of having symptoms 6 weeks after COVID-19 infection."
- "Unmedicated mental health conditions linked to lower COVID-19 vaccination rates."
- mRNA vaccine producers Pfizer and Moderna are contesting IP claims in a British court.
- Former New York City COVID Czar Dr. Jay Varma who has admitted to having attended sex parties and a rave during the early pandemic, has lost his job at SIGA Technologies.
- "In preclinical studies, [drug-free nasal] spray offered nearly 100% protection from respiratory infections by COVID-19, influenza, viruses, and pneumonia-causing bacteria."
- "A new study on COVID-19's effects on US infants notes that the proportion of hospitalized babies of mothers vaccinated during pregnancy plunged from 18% in October 2023 to 4% in April 2024, underscoring the need for increased vaccine uptake."
Other Notes
The blog seems to be currently at the long-term pageview pace. We recently went over 365 posts for the year, which we have done since 2010; will we break 500 for the fifth year in a row? It's possible if I can keep up the pace of the last couple of months. During the late winter and spring I was commuting 2-3 hours daily and barely kept up with my daily posts. Twitter/X is much the same; my followers have been fluctuating between 40 and 43.
I have been having problems with my cable ISP over the last few weeks. The fun started over some puzzling maintenance I was texted about. Usually I never get a warning about maintenance They then texted me they were finished. It's not like I noticed any issues immediately. But soon it seemed my Internet connection (ethernet or WIFI.) was toggling on and off. It might take 3 or 4 refreshes to paint a webpage. Uploads to my cloud accounts were abending. I also find it impossible to reach tech support directly. They force you through some AI interface. The only way you might hear from a support person. If you jump through their hoops and you verify it didn't resolve your issue. And don't ask me how it feels when connectivity affects communicating with their wizard. So the first time I went through this process, they can't figure what's wrong because their tests suggest everything is functioning and they schedule an in-person technician, noting I could be charged if they determine it's my problem.. Then I get a call hours later from their advanced support team saying basically I was getting disruption signals from somewhere in their network, they've fixed the problem and canceled the visit. Only nothing has changed . I've got an ISP supervisor's phone number. He sends out a guy who punches in another cable outlet (he found my Internet cable from the original cable outlet wasn't strong enough.) and replaced my modem. He leaves saying basically they needed to check out network connections. I never got an update on that. But the problems continued. I tried calling the supervisor but either he was blocking me or I got forwarded to some dead voicemail system. I have to jump through hoops to schedule another technician visit. This time he finds an issue with some hardware in their network and they have to schedule a maintenance guy for that. And so I have things almost back to normal as I write. I'm still seeing some latency issues for some webpages, some upload problems. But at least my Internet icon isn't cycling on and off; I'll be more concerned if I start doing billable remote work.
Well, my 2024 dall election ballot should be in USPS somewhere. I'll probably check the status over the coming week or so although I think Maryland sends out a confirmatory email, at least in 2020. No secret here; I've tweeted or posted my support for LP candidate Chase Oliver multiple times. There is an open US Senate seat and to be honest, there is almost no Democrat I could support. There aren't many Republicans (and zero Trumpkins) I could support. To be honest, I prefer to skip the in-person voting. It's usually a hassle finding a parking spot at a public school not to mention being in a half-hour or longer queue
