Analytics

Saturday, December 7, 2024

Post #7035 J

Pandemic Report

The latest weekly CDC stats;



The data are mixed but consistent with the beginnings of a winter surge. Doctors are concerned about fewer COVID and flu shots. Probably the biggest news over this past week is the US Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic GOP majority report argued that COVID-19 most likely resulted from a Wuhan lab leak. (My note: science is not decided by majority vote of politicians The minority report correctly notes both zoonotic and lab leak hypotheses still exist, but I've seen  more evidence in favor of the former lately, including below*.)

Latest news items of interest include:
  • "Massachusetts General Brigham hospitals-led research has reported a significant increase in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections following the cessation of universal masking and SARS-CoV-2 testing policies. Researchers found fewer infections when masking policies for health care workers were reinstated during a winter viral surge."
  • * "After years of rumours that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory in China, the virologist at the centre of the claims has presented data on dozens of new coronaviruses collected from bats in southern China. At a conference in Japan this week, Shi Zhengli, a specialist on bat coronaviruses, reported that none of the viruses stored in her freezers are the most recent ancestors of the virus SARS-CoV-2."
  • * "Researchers have re-analysed data collected from a market in Wuhan, China, during the early days of the pandemic and found that animals there were infected with a virus...The latest analysis suggests that infected animals were at the market at the same time that early cases of COVID-19 emerged there. “This is one more piece of indirect evidence that suggests a connection of the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with the Huanan market,” says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. However, because a progenitor of the virus has not been found in an animal, some have continued to argue that the virus could have escaped — either by accident or through deliberate release — from the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
  • Legal/political developments include:
  • Prosecution of COVID relief/other related crimes include"
  • "Lower income groups more likely to experience food insecurity, inability to pay bills due to [long COVID]"
  • "Psilocybin can lift depression in clinicians who worked on COVID-19 frontlines"
  • "A new paper provides a stark reminder that the virus responsible for COVID-19 is still spreading, with 9 animals out of 47 testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at a zoo in Brazil."
  • "Nursing home deaths are still higher than before COVID-19"
  • "First wave of COVID-19 increased risk of heart attack, stroke up to three years later"
  • "Almost a third of preteens, teens with long COVID still not recovered at 2 years"
  • "Large, real world, multistate study finds COVID-19 vaccine cuts risk of disease when administered during pregnancy"
  • "Study findings reveal that suspended particulate matter increased the risk of Long COVID by exacerbating the severity of the initial COVID-19 infection."
  • "Symptoms can predict COVID-19 pneumonia in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants"
  • The battle against misinformation continues:
    • FALSE: "Studies show COVID-19 vaccine recipients are 500% more likely to die from a heart attack"

Other Notes 

I had a couple of big days (which is always suspicious) last weekend, but the rest of the week was below-average, Usually my essay posts do better than my daily posts, but the one I published yesterday barely reached double digits. On Twitter/X, according to Premium statistics, I've gotten 2.1K impressions over the past week, maybe down 1K, which isn't bad given for a long time I was averaging maybe half that..

Well, the University of Texas (my first Master's alma mater) lost their first SEC Championship game this afternoon in overtime. They  dominated the first half but turned cold in the third quarter. Mostly they never got their rushing game going, they missed a couple of field goal attempts, turnovers and penalties killed promising drives. Texas did rally to tie late in the fourth quarter but they didn't score a touchdown in the first overtime and Georgia did. Part of the problem is Georgia's starting quarterback got knocked out of the game in the last minute of the first half, and the team rallied behind the backup quarterback in the second half. Texas will likely make the new playoff with an 11-2 record, but as the conference champion they would gotten a bye in the first round. According to this analyst, the Longhorns are likely to be a #5 or #6 seed home team playing in 2 weeks.

Courtesy of ncaa

I am still dealing with the aftermath of the Amazon Prime membership kerfuffle. I noticed a mysterious $147 Amazon charge on my credit card transaction log. Apparently they at least now have a default to send a notification but I never got one. I scanned my Amazon orders. Nope. I have MailStore maintaining all my Amazon emails. Nothing. So the card issuer had an option to file a disputed transaction--in the past I've called card membership to do. What I didn't know is they automated the process to red-flag suspected fraud and canceled my card. I talked it over with a card agent because some automated bills get routed through that credit card She didn't mention my cell provider, and they cut off my service the day after I bought my new cellphone (using a different credit card).

But I must have called Amazon and card issuer at least a half dozen to a dozen calls each. I never went to Amazon to tell them I wanted to stop Prime through the website. I called my issuer and told them I wanted the transaction to go through. They netted out the provisional credit So I still showed a net charge to Amazon. So when I got an email saying my Prime membership was canceled, i didn't know what was going on. When the charge bounced, they must have initiated a cancellation. They didn't notice I had a "good" credit card on the account and ask me if I wanted to use that one. I never got a notice of a refund to my card. All last week no pending credit to my card. They're telling me my old Prime account id dead. I have to reregister. I said fine but I don't want to pay you another $147; you still have my $147. So I reenroll in Prime--and the new membership is canceled! Are you kidding me? It turns out Amazon has finally refunded the credit but it was still in pending status when I last checked. Will I return to Prime? I don't know But I don't like how they handled this. or the card issuer.

Finally, I haven't seen any new cable holiday flicks like "One December Night". I thought maybe Hallmark would do another installment in the "Five More Minutes" series   They did do another in the Debbie Macomber ("Mrs. Miracle") series ("Joyful"), but the first viewing didn't impress me; I can find myself zoning into my blog posts. But quite often her prior stories had an intriguing touch of fantasy. I noticed a couple of sequels like to "The 9 Lives of Christmas" and |"Three Wise Men and a Baby". The first sequel ("Nine Kittens") was before this season. Somehow you think Zach and Marilee are headed to wedded bliss but in the sequel, Marilee and Zach have broken up, Marilee has moved to another city and is in a different relationship. There is a decent conclusion to the sequel, but the breakup is inconsistent with the original. I'm not sure what: maybe cold feet before their Christmas wedding; they're expecting a baby and wonder how their pets will react.

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