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Saturday, November 23, 2024

Post #7016 J

 Pandemic Report

The latest CDC weekly stats:




It looks like infections have stabilized at low levels, although your mileage may vary. We are heading into Thanksgiving and the related heavy travel period; be wary of possibly infected holiday guests.. The CDC doesn't necessarily expect a surge over the coming week but thinks things will likely start rising towards a predictable winter surge during our remaining month of autumn.(Note that Japan is seeing cases rise for the first time in 3 months.) We continue to see vaccine hesitancy, only about 18% for the latest COVID update, maybe twice that for the flu, somewhat improved over last year. (However, up to 40% have indicated they may get a dose in the near future,)

A couple of news stories have gotten a lot of coverage over the past week;
  • President-elect Trump's healthcare-related appointments: HHS nominee RFK, Jr. has been tied to video pushing a conspiracy theory that COVID spared Chinese and Jews. "RFK Jr. once said Covid-19 pandemic ‘feels very planned to me’" "RFK Jr. Group Denied by Justice Kagan in Covid Vaccine Dispute. US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan refused to stop Washington state officials from disciplining doctors who spread misinformation about Covid-19." "RFK Jr. Said His Organization Funded Viral Covid Conspiracy Film ‘Plandemic’" CMS nominee Dr. Oz has been linked to a misleading discussion that a 2% mortality rate among children would be an acceptable tradeoff for reopening schools. FDA nominee Marty Makary has been a critic of vaccine mandates and other public health policies. "Trump also tapped doctor and former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat, meanwhile, is set to be the nation’s next surgeon general."
  • A former Philadelphia Eagles running back being prosecuted over COVID relief fraud. Wendell Smallwood has been charged with defrauding COVID-19 relief programs (EIDL, PPP), IRS (false returns, refunds)
Other news items of interest include:
  •  "Younger patients more affected by neurologic manifestations of long COVID."
  • "As of November 10, 29.7% of nursing home residents had received an updated COVID-19 vaccine dose. Of those living at nursing homes that opted to report vaccinations against flu (59.4%) and RSV (51.8%), 58.4% had received a flu vaccine dose, and 17.9% were vaccinated against RSV."
  • "Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including significant drops in IQ scores"
  • "The analysis of hundreds of genetic samples provides strong but circumstantial evidence that the pandemic's origin is connected to the wildlife trade in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, said Angie Rasmussen, a study co-author and virologist at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infection Disease Organization."
  • "COVID-19 hitches a ride on mucus to spread deep into lungs, live imaging shows"
  • "SARS-CoV-2 hijacks cholesterol trafficking to fuel infection and evade immune responses"
  • "Novel nano-vaccine administered as nasal spray found to be effective against all major COVID-19 variants"
  • "GeoVax Announces Positive Interim Data Review for Phase 2 Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia"
  • "Report: 1 in 5 animals at [Brazilian] zoo tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, perhaps from people"
  • "Phase 2 study evaluates safety and efficacy of asunercept in COVID-19 patients.While the trial confirmed asunercept’s safety and tolerability, it failed to achieve statistically significant improvement in clinical outcomes compared to standard care."
  • "Only 22.7% and 12.9% of Floridians, respectively, are up to date with influenza and COVID-19 vaccines this respiratory virus season"
  • "Antiviral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir tied to large drop in deaths in older patients"
  • "After people are vaccinated against COVID-19 with mRNA vaccines, the immune system stockpiles memory T and B cells—essential for long-term immunity—in tissues around the body, including the lung, spleen, and bone marrow."
  • Prosecutors continue to pursue fraud cases:
    • "Charlotte healthcare provider sentenced for Medicaid, COVID-19 relief fraud"
    • "Eden Prairie man sentenced to over seven years in prison for COVID-19 relief fraud"
    • "Kanawha County woman sentenced in COVID-19 relief fraud, court records say"
    • " [FL] man steals over $1M in COVID-19 funds, unemployment benefits using 14 individuals' personal information"
    • "2 former Air Force Airmen indicted for alleged scheme to steal $300,000 from COVID-19 relief funds"
    • " U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation’s (HSI) marks the one-year anniversary of the announcement of Operation Stolen Promise, the ongoing operation protecting the United States from COVID-19 related crime. Combining HSI’s investigative expertise in intellectual property and trade violations, financial fraud, and cybercrime, HSI and its partners have seized over $48 million in illicit proceeds, opened more than 1,000 criminal investigations and made more than 2,000 seizures of mislabeled, fraudulent, or prohibited COVID-19 vaccines, test kits, including more than 21.2 million counterfeit respirator masks prevented from reaching hospital workers and first responders since April 15, 2020."
  • Other related political or legal matters:
  • Anti-vaxxer rubbish continues to spread in social media:
    • "Joe Rogan and Josh Brolin Rant About COVID-19 Vaccine"

Other Notes

The blog has gotten over 1K pageviews, mostly on stronger pageviews in the first half  of the month. Odd: exactly 6 consecutive daily post pageviews of 10. A very odd coincidence. Also today. no post pageviews since the 9 AM hour. I expect a cluster typically when I schedule new posts at 4 AM EST. But it's odd when I don't get a single pageviews over 14 hours. It could be Google is doing some maintenance over weekends. I'm on track for the 500 post goal this year. On X, I seem to be cycling between 3 to 4K impressions a week and as i write I'm close to breaking 50 followers.

I'm somewhat annoyed about how Amazon books its Prime subscription cost. I probably should have known from the cost amount (nearly $150) but nearly every other subscription service sends me an advance warning usually because of things like changing expiration date for credit cards, etc. So I disputed the charge, only to discover later the automated procedure canceled the card for suspicion of fraud. They don't list the transactions on Amazon orders. the information on my credit card transaction log was very cryptic. I finally had to call up Amazon. So, then I had to call to close the case and reinstate the charge. but I do some recurring transactions, so I'll have to reset these when I get my new card/number.  What a mess. I don't recall seeing an Amazon reminder, but i get so many notifications or emails from Amazon it may have got lost in the pile.

Egg prices are going crazy again. Just after a week or two after seeing Lidl drop prices for a dozen slipping below $3, they were up to $3.57/bargain dozen. i just checked Walmart, and their prices had jumped to over $4/dz in their 5 dozen box.

I try to be patient but I still hadn't received my title after finally paying off my car loan over 3 months back. I actually paid it off a few weeks early because the final payment was less than the regular payment. Long story short, the car finance people called me back to tell my bank to cancel the automated payments. There was a training issue at the bank. I know I told them I had a payment in process, but for some reason the payment got canceled with the autopay. So, I end up having to process another one-off final payment. I had to mention all that to explain the context. Somebody who handles the title transfer process saw the canceled payment (EVEN THOUGH MY ACCOUNT SHOWED IT WAS PAID OFF). And so they put the process on hold, and nobody bothered following up. So now I'm told the hold has been lifted and I should get the title within a couple of weeks. I thought I had called them a month after the final payment and they assured me  everything was in process.

My Texas Longhorns, a top 3 football team, nearly unraveled at Kentucky today in the third quarter. Their starting quarterback, Quinn Ewers, was favoring a leg. Why the coach didn't put Arch Manning on the field I'll never understand. Arch is the grandson and nephew of 3 pro quarterbacks and gifted, winning 2 games when Ewers  was injured earlier in the season.. At that point barely moving in the pocket  under pressure he seemed to lose grip on the ball, fumbling into a wobbly lob which was caught and returned for a touchdown. Yet even after that, coach left Ewers in the game. An 8 minute drive, all running plays in the fourth quarter, put the game out of reach, but a better team like traditional rival A&M next week will eat Ewers alive if he doesn't heal over the coming week.

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