Pandemic Report
Despite this week's end of the longest government shutdown in American history, the weekly stats haven't changed, but they finally took down the partisan message scapegoating the Dems for the government shutdown, the rationale for not updating the page.
According to The Sick Times:
National averages of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from both WastewaterSCAN and Biobot Analytics suggest that we are at a lower plateau between waves, as of late October. WWSCAN’s latest national average is the lowest it’s been since 2022, significantly below the levels reported in spring 2025 as well as early November 2024. While this is just one data source, it’s good to see our baseline between waves actually get lower for once. Yale’s PopHIVE dashboard also reports declines in COVID-related medical claims as of October 25.
The WastewaterSCAN Dashboard seems to suggest high levels of COVID in the upper Midwest through the Northeast regions.
Other COVID news items of interest:
- "'Long Covid has ruined my life'"
- "Scientists reveal another piece in the long COVID puzzle"
- "Why women are three times more likely to get severe long Covid"
- "Conflicting Advice on Covid Shots Likely To Ding Already Low Vaccine Rates"
- "COVID-19 infection in pregnancy may pose risk to fetal brain development"
- "Tuberculosis rates fall for the first time since COVID-19 pandemic, WHO report"
- "Prior exposure to cold viruses boosts antibody response against SARS-CoV-2"
- Legal/political issues:
- "DoorDash Agrees to Pay $18M to Settle Chicago Lawsuit Alleging Firms Hurt Restaurants During COVID-19 Pandemic"
- "Shriners Worker With Missing Organ Gets Trial Over Covid Vaccine"
- "Tampa pharmacy to pay $17M after allegedly submitting false Medicare claims for COVID-19 tests"
- "White House reveals COVID lab leak theory as ‘true origins’ of pandemic in flashy new website that blasts Biden, Fauci and Cuomo"
- Prosecution of COVID relief fraud or other crimes:
- "Man sentenced for scheme to defraud millions from COVID-19 relief program"
- "Former Virginia delegate fraudulently obtained $83,000 in COVID relief funds"
- "CT woman who stole $1 million from COVID-19 loan program gets probation"
- "East Granby woman sentenced for defrauding $1.1M from COVID-19 relief programs"
- "Florida-based social media influencer Scott Huss to face 2 years in prison for COVID-19 relief loan fraud"
- Dealing with misinformation:
- "Social Media Content Moderation Policies and False Claims that COVID-19 Vaccines Cause Cancer"
- "No, doctors weren't warning about new 'COVID-25' strain with 'very different signs'"
Other Notes
The blog continues to draw dubious psgeviews, but most posts are barely breaking double-digits. I haven't published my first essay this month, but I should soon. My X impressions are probably down. Most posts aren't reaching triple digits despite 250 followers at last glance.
Just a follow-up on that missing item delivery that was reportedly FedEx Ground. About mid-week, a middle-aged woman delivered the package for her mother, who lives about a mile away from my residence. I don't know how FedEx Ground delivers in a different neighborhood with a much different street name. Being honest, I called the retailer, which had already issued a credit to my account. I offered to return the relatively inexpensive blanket, but they waived it in the interest of customer goodwill.
I switched my cable/ISP vendor for the first time in over 8 years. The final straw was a disputed $100 service charge, where my issue was not even resolved by the technician (I got better advice by Googling on the general issue). I didn't want or request an in-home visit because I know how to check my coax connections. It usually involves the other end of the coax cables. In one recent example, squirrels got into their cables, chewing through them. On more than 1 occasion, I encountered connection issues due to undisclosed maintenance in their infrastructure. There is a learning curve every time one changes vendors. In particular, you have to change your WIFI connections on all of your devices, and there are nuances in say how you use voice functionality of the remote. Easier said than done. For example, my older Google Nest Hub didn't easily handle the Wi-Fi change, and I had to perform a factory reset; that idea was stolen from a YouTube user who claimed it was the only way he could reset the Wi-Fi. But the process of doing a reset seemed different from others' experiences. I initially didn't get any feedback.
