Analytics

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Post #7405 J

 Pandemic Report

I normally post the latest weekly CDC stats in this section, but the data are not updated from last week. We had been seeing the trend of the summer wave declining, but the fall is getting cooler, at least locally, to the point where I've switched the thermostat from cool to heat defaults. Indoor settings are correlated with higher circulation of the virus and related infections. Most stories over the past week dealt with uncertainties caused by the revised changes at CDC under the vaccine committee, largely reflecting  RFK, Jr.'s stacking it with more skeptical members. There is a lot of discussion about out-of-pocket costs for vaccines, whether a prescription is necessary, coverage by insurers, etc., and other related topics.

The latest news items include:
  • "Study finds no link between mRNA COVID vaccines early in pregnancy and birth defects"
  • "GeoVax Highlights Positive Interim Results for Multi-Antigen COVID-19 Vaccine in Immunocompromised Patients at World Vaccine Congress Europe 2025"
  • "Medical evidence has repeatedly supported the vaccine’s safety and noted that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy offers poorer outcomes for both the mother and baby compared to the shot. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, these poorer outcomes include ‘more likely to need hospitalization, intensive care, or the use of a ventilator or special equipment to breathe if you do get sick from COVID-19. Severe COVID-19 illness can lead to death.’For the baby, an infection during pregnancy also carries the risks of 'preterm birth or stillbirth’, according to the CDC"
  • "COVID-19 may alter offspring's brain development, cause anxious behaviour, study in mice finds"
  • "Type 1 diabetes increased among young people during the pandemic"
  • "Vascular mechanism may explain persistence of COVID-19 symptoms and their greater impact, especially in women
  • "Common Blood Thinner May Cut COVID Deaths, Meta-Trial Finds"
  • "SK bioscience Files for First-in-Human Trial of Universal Coronavirus Vaccine (Pan-sarbecovirus Vaccine) GBP511 Phase 1/2 study in Australia"
  • "Post-Pandemic COVID-19 linked with high numbers of workforce absences and exits"
  • "COVID-19 restrictions linked to decline in immunity to childhood infections"
  • "Veterans study finds updated COVID-19 shot reduces hospital visits and death"
  • "Solomon Islands Reports Zero COVID-19 Vaccine–Related Deaths — Global Data Show Millions of Lives Saved"
  • "Researchers identify 4 antiviral drug candidates for COVID-19"
  • Legal/political topics
  • Prosecutions of COVID relief fraud and other crimes continue

Other Notes

Blog stats are continuing to show inflated. unreliable stats, although most posts lately are finally trending low double digits. X/Titter is trending lower weekly impressions (I do suspect shadow banning, especially in certain posts critical of Trump). I did see a big drop of 10 or more followers after X reported dropping many reportedly bot accounts, but I seemed to regain most of those by the end of the week.

The Christmas season seems to arrive earlier every year, especially for Hallmark. It's still a couple of weeks or so away from Halloween,  but Hallmark has already started its annual Countdown to Christmas yesterday evening. I haven't checked to see if the scheduling is around the clock or phased (like initially over weekends and/or primetime weekdays. It looks like it's also including limited holiday theme series along with the cable holiday movies.

The familiar reader knows I often gripe about sports coverage in my cable TV bundle. No all-sports networks,including ESPN and FS1. As I write, the ALCS has Seattle leading 3-2 in the best-of-7 series heading back to Toronto for the deciding game(s). The first 2 games were telecast on Fox, but all other games (unless Toronto wins game 6) are being carried on FS1 only; Fox would telecast any game 7. Ask me how this mkes any sense, especially to an AL fan
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