Pandemic Report
As autumn is in full swing, I finally switched from cool to heat settings on my thermostat (the heat hasn't triggered on with my temperature floor often yet), the summer COVID wave continues to recede. (I'm particularly encourages by declining test positivity rate).
Relevant news items include:
- COVID-19 relief fraud prosecution continues, including:
- A NH casino owner was charged with misrepresenting business receipts to qualify for more relief funding.
- "A grand jury investigation has revealed major mismanagement of millions in Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief (GEER) funds in Oklahoma, intended to support students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic"
- The FDA has withdrawn EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) for 2 Cue Health COVID tests, citing unauthorized changes affecting reliability
- "A history of COVID-19 can double the risk of heart attack, stroke or death according to new research led by Cleveland Clinic and the University of Southern California."
- "The present study utilizes the largest multi-ethnicity GWAS dataset hitherto used in long-COVID investigations and provides evidence that individuals with genetic predispositions to chronic fatigue, depression, and fibromyalgia, as well as other phenotypes such as autoimmune conditions and cardiometabolic conditions, are at significantly higher risk of long-COVID than individuals without these conditions."
- "Neither vaccinations nor immunity from infections seem to thwart SARS-CoV-2 for long....The study, which appeared last month in Nature Medicine, found that people who received repeated doses of vaccine, and in some cases also became infected with SARS-CoV-2, largely failed to make special antibody-producing cells called long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs). "
- "In a head-to-head comparison of masks worn by people with active COVID-19, the inexpensive “duckbill” N95 came out on top, stopping 98% of COVID-19 particles in the breath of infected people from escaping into the air. Led by researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health (SPH), results showed other masks also performed well, blocking at least 70% of viral particles from escaping from the source – an infected person’s exhaled breath."
- It looks like one strain of influenza (Influenza B/Yamagata lineage) has seemingly disappeared during the COVID-19 era.
- "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked a federal judge in Texas to throw out a public records lawsuit related to COVID-19 vaccines, arguing that it has already spent more than $3.5 million to produce more than 1 million documents in the case."
- "Research links COVID-19 vaccines to temporary facial palsy in over 5,000 patients."
- "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put on hold a trial of Novavax's (NVAX.O), opens new tab COVID-influenza and its standalone flu vaccines after a participant who took the combination shot reported nerve damage, the company said on Wednesday."
- "GSK Sues Moderna for Alleged Patent Infringement on COVID-19, RSV Vaccines"
- "New findings show that undocumented Latinx immigrants, who make up 7% of the US population, face significant challenges in accessing health care due to high rates of uninsurance, limited access to primary care, language barriers, and fears surrounding their immigration status."
Other Notes
One of the slowest weeks of pageviews of the blog in several weeks with some daily posts not reaching double-digits. over the past week, we went over 400 posts for the year. The goal is to hit 500 posts for the fifth consecutive year, doable but likely the lowest in that interval The debate commentary posts have done well, each with multi-dozen readers. These take a lot of work. On Twitter/X, I've gotten a new high of nearly 50 followers.. X is still trying to get me to subscribe to premium services at one point over the past week that I had gotten over 2K impressions. Of course, most tweets on a trend get more views and interactions than I ever do. I'm far more likely to get solitary likes (and only a minority of tweets get that).
Yes, Hallmark has started its annual Countdown to Christmas on Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Mystery. On most weekends the former will feature a primetime original on F-Sa-Su, the latter on Thursdays. But to be honest I've been watching the baseball playoffs, and one of my alma maters, undefeated Texas is playing Georgia, another highly rated SEC team, tonight.
I continue my obsession with egg prices. I do most of my grocery shopping at Lidl, but I don't know what's going on with their prices. It looks like online for my store location, price was listed at $3.61/dz lined out with $2.65. A price rollback? But I went to Lidl today, and it looked like their budget brand was selling for $3.77. What the hell? Well, to be honest, there's an asterisk next to the price, and if you look at the fine print, they give fineprint like prices may vary by location. I never intended to buy eggs at Lidl though because Walmart was showing $2.16/dz. Now I always check my eggs for cracks, etc. before I buy them, and Walmart only had a few dozen left, which leads me to wonder if they were damaged. Yup. Well, of course, there were other packages like 18-counts and their 5 dozen box. They don't really offer comparative volume price advantage. I've occasionally bought the boxes before and never ran to egg damage issues. It still takes up space in a bachelor's refrigerator.
