Pandemic Report
The latest weekly stats from CDC:
A slight bump from the long-tailing winter surge numbers. One prominent recent death of an infected celebrity was a notable Star Wars actor. Politics continues to raise its ugly head. For one thing House Republicans are calling a Pfizer executive to testify attempting to claim the company held back promising vaccine news before the 2020 election, hurting Trump's reelection bid. Second, a high-ranking FDA official (Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research) pushed back against scientist consensus in extending eligibility of those beyond at risk groups like the elderly and the immunocompromised.
Other COVID-related news items include the following:
- Legal or political developments include:
- "OSHA proposes removing remaining requirements of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard"; "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) this week proposed removing COVID-19 recordkeeping requirements for healthcare employers"
- "Navy Sees 100 People Interested In Rejoining After COVID-19 Vaccine Separation"
- "Months after the Pentagon rolled out a policy aimed at wooing back service members booted from the military over the COVID-19 vaccine, the Pentagon has confirmed that only 13 people -- all Army soldiers -- have rejoined."
- "7 in 10 US adults would still test for COVID if they suspected infection"
- "Appeals court permits senior living operator’s COVID-19 insurance coverage lawsuit to proceed"
- "New NIH director: COVID-19 lockdowns were a failure"
- "Covid-19 Relief Forfeiture Order Gets Tossed by Eleventh Circuit"
- "Ex-Disney Workers Fail to Revive Bias Suits Over Covid-19 Rules"
- "Ohio workers who claim they're owed $900m in unemployment COVID funds win again in court"
- "Workmen entered care homes without protective gear, Covid inquiry hears"
- "No role for routine antibiotic use in patients admitted for COVID-19"
- "COVID-19 has become endemic"
- "Catch-up needed after non-COVID vaccination plunges in first 2 pandemic years"
- "Tocilizumab Reduces Mortality in Patients With COVID-19, Low S-Spike Antibody Titers"
- "COVID-19 hospitalizations linked to faster cognitive decline in older adults"
- "Study finds antibiotics often not effective as COVID-19 treatment"
- "Moderna’s flu vaccine shows positive late-stage trial results, paving way for combination Covid shot"
- "Long COVID Rates Higher in Women"
- "Many children suffering ongoing COVID symptoms"
- "No link between Covid-19 vaccines and sudden deaths, says health ministry"
- "Promising results from Phase 1 human trials of McMaster’s inhaled COVID-19 vaccine"
- "Nasal COVID Vax Shows Promise in Phase 1 Clinical Trial"
- Prosecutors continue to pursue COVID relief fraud or other crimes:
- "Oklahoma man sentenced to 20 years for COVID-19 relief fraud amid Colorado funeral home abuse case"
- "Inglewood woman charged with $1.3 million COVID-19 relief fraud"
Other Notes
Blogger stats remain inflated like thousands versus a more normal few dozen daily although there was a mid-week decline to higher 2 digits. On Twitter/X my feed is typically swamped with Trumpkin rubbish. It's not my intention to be a troll targeting Trumpkins.
I recently had to update 3 old Windows 10 notebook computers. Right after several hours of patching I suddenly got a white screen that remains unresolved; I suspect a hardware issue The second laptop successfully patched but the third one has chronic patching issues I'm still trying to resolve. I've failed manually trying to download and apply patches from the Windows update catalog, trying to run sfc and DISM, even trying to deal with the software distribution folder Given the fact Microsoft has announced end of life support for Windows 10 PC's as of September, what's the ipoint? After all, most Win 10 PC's can't be upgraded to 11 given newer hardware requirements? Among other things, I have my last AskSam (freestyle database) copies which I can't reinstall on a Win 11 PC since the now-defunct company required registration via its websites to successfully activate your license. So you're limited to a short duration trial version
