Analytics

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Post #7451 J

Pandemic Report

Despite the end of the latest government shutdown, we still haven't seen the usual 4 basic stats (testing. emergency admissions, hospitalizations, deaths) updated. However, some regional trend data are reported; basically, we are seeing declines in Pacific-bordering states and increases in the Midwest and upper Mideast states:


The Sick Times provides the following synopsis: They believe we are at the start of the winter surge.

Singer/actress Ariana Grande got infected during the new Wicked movie press tour. "Tragic [different] singer who never recovered from Covid she contracted five years ago dies after heartbreaking last vid in hospital." In general news, we are seeing scrutiny of British leadership during the early pandemic as "too little, too late," with a cluster of fatalities hitting the disabled.

Other COVID news items of note:

  • "Scientists Uncover How COVID-19 Variants Outsmart the Immune System"
  • "Experts identify eight distinct symptom paths for long COVID"
  • "COVID-19 virus poses higher cardiac, clotting risks in kids than vaccines"
  • COVID is no longer in the top 10 causes of death.
  • "Resistance Exercise Boosts Physical Function Post-COVID"
  • "Remdesivir Tied to Lower Mortality in COVID-19 Patients With Liver or Kidney Disease"
  • "Study of higher education during COVID-19 shutdowns shows certain subjects can be better taught online...Results varied depending on the subject and the lockdown environment. Online learning worked especially well for reasoning-based subjects such as mathematics, where students could pause lectures, rewatch examples and practice problems at their own pace. In contrast, courses such as English that rely on discussion and interpretation, and are challenging to replicate effectively in virtual environments, benefited much less from the online format."
  • "Research published in Contemporary Economic Policy reveals that despite widespread adoption of indoor vaccine mandates in major US cities during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no consistent evidence that these policies significantly increased vaccination rates or reduced COVID-19–related outcomes. The findings contrast with those from other countries, as national mandates abroad boosted vaccine uptake"
  • "COVID vaccine under new scrutiny after studies reveal possible health risks. Experts say studies don't prove causation, but only show association"
  • Lsgal/political issues:
  • Prosecutions of COVID relief fraud or other crimes:
    • "Former southern Ill. pastor sentenced for fraudulently getting COVID-19 relief money"
    • "Man sentenced for $290K COVID-19 fraud scheme in Maryland"
    • "Ex-Phoenix news anchor sentenced to 10 years for COVID-19 fraud scheme"
    • "Minneapolis man sentenced to 7 years after admitting to stealing millions from COVID-19 relief programs"
    • "Kingsport woman sentenced to 50 months for COVID-19 tax credit fraud"
    • "House Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick charged with stealing $5M in Covid aid funds"
    • "Harper Woods man accused of fraudulently obtaining $60,000+ in COVID relief funds and PPP loans to stand trial"
    • "Woman sentenced for stealing $51,664 in COVID-19 relief money"0-`-  `19 fraud"
    • "Corrections officer accused of fraudulent COVID-19 leave"
    • "Woman jailed for over three years for Covid-19 fraud"

Other Notes

The blog continues to draw dubiously high pageviews. On X I lost about 10 followers; I think as a libertarian, I'm not popular with Dems or Republicans, and even though I'm Never Trump, I'll differ from partisan hacks who say something like Trump is the worst POTUS or argue he's a traitor. I think the latter probably is  a response to Trump's charge of Dem lawmakers as seditious for encouraging military members to resist illegal Trump orders.

Arkansas visited Texas for the first time, I think, since Arkansas, a member of the old Southwest Conference, jumped to the SEC in 1990. Most infamously, m the 1969 Great Shootout #1Texas beat #2 Arkansas by 1 point with Nixon in attendance. Arkansas had been the only non-Texas school in the SWC.  The conference folded by the mid-1990s; Texas then joined the Big 12 until joining the SEC last season. This afternoon QB phenom Arch Manning probably had his best day as a Longhorn. The Longhorns will close out their regular season next Friday against the revived intrastate rivalry with the Aggies.

I don't usually name vendors, but Amazon has annoyed me enough this week. It appears to be from an update for my Echo Show. Occasionally, it will interrupt spoken commands with a curt, annoying "Please unlock your device". It's not obvious how to do that; I've seen references to button combinations to enable a communication setting on the Alexa app, which I can't seem to find. Then it suddenly stops interrupting me for God knows what reason, and then goes into nag mode again.

But more annoying is a credit card issue from hell that Amazon seems to be unwilling to fix or address. I often run a VPN, and I've noticed that sometimes Visa will pop up and ask me to enter a confirmation code. I've since been told that happens if your VPN locates your session overseas. Now, my VP normally operates from the East Coast or the extended DC/Baltimore area. On an earlier transaction, I got the confirmation code, and it completed normally. On this recent pop-up, I'm sure I entered the correct code, but Amazon didn't seem to process it and eventually canceled the order. Now, my credit card issuer declined an earlier transaction, which I think involved a PC product from a vendor overseas (I may have had to use a different card to process it). I do think my card fraud team contacted me about that, and I thought that was resolved before the Amazon transaction attempt. So before contacting Amazon, I checked with the issuer because of earlier issues with transactions. They've shown approval at their end, but the vendor (USPS?) didn't process it. In this case, the issuer insisted they saw nothing from Amazon.I've tried to call Amazon customer service probably a half dozen times with zero to show for it. On Thursday, I was told to try again in 2 days. It got rejected again; I tried to put it on my backup card. It killed all he items in my order except a minor add-on for fresh blackberries. Both cards had ample credit available. The last agent is supposed to be following up, but I'm irritated enough to consider dropping my account.

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