Analytics

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Post #6997 J

 Pandemic Report

The latest weekly CDC statistics:




The summer COVID-19 wave continues to wind down; the strongest evidence is from wastewater concentrations.

Relevant news items include:
  • "Test positivity rates for influenza viruses dropped by >95% during the acute phase of the pandemic (April 2020 to March 2021) compared with the pre-pandemic period....[After] the end of the global emergency in May 2023), the global circulation of seasonal influenza returned to pre-pandemic patterns characterized by continued viral movements and accumulation of genetic diversity—both important for maintaining transmission of seasonal influenza. The global lineage dynamics of seasonal influenza between May 2023 and March 2024 appears similar to that before the pandemic, albeit smaller in magnitude."
  • "New nasal swab test can accurately predict COVID-19 infection severity"
  • "A new study published in Nursing Research has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted patient safety indicators in U.S. hospitals. [R]ates of falls, infections, and injuries increased significantly during the pandemic, and have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels."
  • "New research from Emory University is providing a more precise prediction of COVID-19 severity that can be found by looking at autoantibodies in the nasal cavity."
  • "Recent COVID-19 vaccination tied to lower risk of long COVID"
  • "A new large study of children in California shows that unvaccinated kids are at a much higher risk of developing multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) if they were unvaccinated with two doses of Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine before contracting COVID-19. "
  • Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy, citing the pandemic as an important contributing factor.
  • Prosecution of COVID-19 relief fraud continues, including:
  • Here are some recommendations for (preferred) N95 facemasks
  • "Study finds COVID-19 increases type 2 diabetes risk in children by 50%"
  • "Research shows how public criticism during COVID-19 impacted teacher wellbeing"
  • Legal issues during the pandemic era continue:
  • According to CDC, less than 1/6 of healthcare workers got more recent vaccine shots
  • "Levels of mistrust in the science behind COVID-19 vaccines have hovered at about 35% for the past 3 years among US adults, while the greatest levels of trust were seen among men, those with university degrees and high median outcomes, and those who had lost someone to COVID-19."
  • "Veterans Affairs medical officials recorded their millionth diagnosed COVID-19 case Wednesday, a milestone that department experts say serves as a reminder that the virus remains a public health threat even years after the height of the global pandemic."
  • "People infected with COVID-19 early on show increased risk of heart disease"

Other Notes

The blog has improved readership to a more normal level over the past week and will break7000 early next week. I had no idea when I started the blog in mid-2008 it would pass 16 years and counting and number over 7000 posts. According to X/Twitter my impressions reached over 3.7K impressions over the past week. I think the unexpected election results had much to do with the surge.

Grocery prices paid a part in the election story. I've already looked at the issue in my blog and tweets. I know Harris' discussion of price-gouging was absurd; supermarkets have some of the lowest profit margins of any industry. As regular readers know, most of my groceries are purchased from Lidl. I'll often shop at Walmart for certain items or varieties not at Lidl. For example, I\ll buy organ meats like chicken gizzards or liver from Walmart, maybe grassfed roasts or turkey legs. There are some weird quirks. For instance, Lidl carries diet cola in cans, but not 2-liter bottles. Now as a low-carber, I don't eat much bread, and if I do it's usually whole wheat, but I swear to God loaves seem to start molding so quickly. So anyway, I look for special promotions at Lidl. I just say one advertising budget frozen turkeys at 39 cents/lb. i don't think I've seen a price that low in over a decade. But usually when they have a special like that, others wipe out their stock before I can shop there. They used to have very good reward discounts, but lately they haven't been as appealing, e.g.. a discount on spices which I rarely buy

Late note 9/10/24. Lidl finally lowered the posted price for budget eggs/dz from $3.77 to under $3. And, yes, i managed to snag a budget rozen young turkey for under $5 after discount. I think I paid more for my last package of 3 turkey legs from Walmart   

Hallmark continues thinning out some of my holiday cable movie favorites. To give an example, I haven't seen "Christmas with Holly", the orphaned niece with one uncle as her legal guardian, on Hallmark Mystery. Somehow I found it and another favorite, "Holiday Engagement", on a Hallmark Family listing. (That channel isn't in my cable bundle, at least directly.) HF I think runs a more limited holiday movie schedule on weekends during Countdown to Christmas. I do think, for least these titles you can purchase them from Amazon Video. (Oh, I think they may be carried by Hallmark's revamped subscription streaming service, Hallmark+.) Another beloved title, long unavailable, is "Farewell, Mr. Kringle", who has been playing town Santa since his late wife died, i think 50 years back. He is discouraged from declining holiday crowds and this is his last year. A journalist young widow has been sent on the  human interest story. So anyway I think it shows up in HF's library although I don't know if it's been scheduled. I think a Christian streaming service  also has it. I think Xumo streaming has it for     free but it's dubbed in Spanish. For some odd reason, it's not available for purchase in any licensed format.

My MA alma mater, the University of Texas, is back on track with a blowout win against Florida. It's planning to face old traditional Southwestern Conference rivals Arkansas and Texas A&M. Arkansas was first to join the SEC (1991), and A&M joined in 2012 from the Big 12. Texas officially started this season. i don't think Texas has faced them since the former joined the SEC which never made sense to me. A&M  is particularly important from my extended family. My third sister has 3 sons who graduated from A&M and another son and daughter from Texas. I have a brother and a different nephew who graduated from Texas, and interestingly that nephew recently married a lady Aggie. Sort of a coincidence, I initially intended to join the USAF after my MA, and the tentative plan was the Air Force had intended for me to earn a PhD in meteorology from A&M but the USAF passed me over in 2 eligibility selections, which meant I was ineligible for 6 months. [The last of my A&M nephews ended up earning 2 meteorology degrees and had been accepted for the PhD program, but decided to leave after his master's.] In the interim, someone suggested the Navy needed mathematicians. ironically, after I was offered and accepted a Navy commission, Austin Community College finally expressed an interest in my availability to teach there, and the USAF checked on my availability. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. I sometimes wonder about the road not taken, like when a Louisiana university essentially offered me a full stipend to pursue a PhD in math there. I know my PhD was inevitable, but it could have been from different fields. (Not to mention I had interviewed with the Jesuits who operate some well-known universities, while at OLLU (they never followed up; I guess I didn't pass the audition. But I soon found myself alienated from progressive Catholicism)). Philosophy remains my first love, but the job market is bad.

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