Analytics

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Post #7469 J

 Pandemic Report

CDC still hasn't updated its macro stats since the end of September. We do have a regional trend chart:


Thus, we see a decline along the Pacific Coast states (except Alaska) with an upsurge from the Midwest through the Northeast. The Sick Times recent summary notes:


TST also presents immunization charts from CDC as follows:


 As we can see, the disastrous, politically motivated. anti-vaxxer leaningTrump Administration has suppressed COVID shots (an Oregon source indicating 21% less than last year's already low rate). Given waning protections since the last shot, it risks more serious outbreaks particularly if nasty new variants emerge.

By far the biggest news emerging over the past week involved a Black Frday CDC announcement which claimed (without data or a peer review) 10 or more child deaths from administered COVID vaccine shots. "Prasad's claim of 10 Covid vaccine deaths may be an overcount, FDA sources say." "Vaccine stocks slide as FDA official links COVID vaccines and heart conditions in young men" "New ACIP chair compares Covid requirements to Holocaust, says shots caused cancer, miscarriages" "FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data – and could severely hinder vaccine access" "FDA links 10 children's deaths to COVID-19 vaccines. Doctors want proof. The federal agency has not publicized how it reached its conclusion" "Former FDA heads, Sen Cassidy push back on FDA official’s claim of 10 COVID vaccine deaths" "A dozen former FDA leaders lambaste claims by current FDA vaccine chief" "IDSA, Experts Refute Claims of ‘Hidden’ Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination Deaths" "The memo, which was obtained by The New York Times, has not been released publicly or reviewed by outside scientists. It also does not include important details such as the children’s ages, medical histories or how the FDA reached its conclusions about the vaccine’s role in the deaths."

Other COVID news items of interest:

  • "A case-control study showed that the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine provided additional effectiveness against medically attended COVID-19 but that vaccine effectiveness waned over time, supporting recommendations for adults to receive the 2024-2025 vaccine."
  • "French Study on mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Finds a Drop in Severe COVID—and No Increase in Deaths. Vaccinated adults had a 74 percent lower risk of dying from COVID-19—and a 25 percent lower risk of dying, period."
  • "Vaccinated teens face lower risk of long COVID, study suggests"
  • "Updated COVID-19 vaccine formula produces antibodies nearly three times longer than earlier versions"
  • "Off-label use of COVID-19 vaccines was once discouraged but has become common amid new guidelines"
  • "For Kids, COVID Infection Is Riskier Than the Vaccine"

Other Notes

The blog continued to experience high pageviews although this morning's post so far remains in single digits. Assuming I publish my media digest tomorrow as expected, I'll hit the 400 post mark I have consitently hit each year since 2016. On X/Twitter I have seen a meltdown of followers from 250 to below 200. I really don't publish for impressions or followers, but any writer likes to have a wider audience.

I've tried to steer this jounal post free of political content. I've made no secret I'm a harsh critic of Trump, and as someone who has excelled at math and science since middle school, I've been particularly alarmed by the anti-vaxxer bias of the Administration under RFK, Jr. I've also highly critical of usual libertarian allies Rand Paul (particularly obsessed with Fauci) and Tom Massie. I've had my share of differences with the excesses of climate change alarmism and  of government restrictions  during the early pandemic. It's bad enough that the Administration issued the Black Friday memo without being vetted by independent scientists, but note that millions of American kids have successfully taken the vaccine without ill effect. Even if you accept the allegation of vaccine deaths at face value, that's a statistically negligible number of cases. The tweaks to vaccine regulations could restrict vaccine benefits to millions of kids and put a number of kids at risk of harmful complications of severe COVID infection.

I mentioned on X I had experienced a noroviruc (the winter vomiting disease) [technically I wasn't diagmosed, but it's been sweeping the nation so much that it made Colbert's late-night monologue. I had it late Monday through early Tuesday Monday (and it seemed to make a short return visit Friday night). The good thing is my annual flu shot probably shortened the virus' infection period and severity.

I can't speak for other IT prodessionals, but I've not seen a decent opportunity for my extensive DBA experience for some time. Over the last few years we've seen an increasing reliance on cloud computing, headed bt Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure platforms. The bulk of my experience has been with on premise (client/employer-owned) database servers; I've had some Azure accounts, but my clients hadn't transitioned their systems into production. I've applied for dozens of remote jobs but it seems they must prefer more exposure to the cloud. But the big point is that this economy seems the most challenging I've seen since the Great Recession (post-2008). In compiling today's report, I saw multple references to the most job cuts since the early pandemic.

I've written multiple segments and a number of tweets over my favorite supermarket, Lidl. Now the idea of celebrating a customer's birthday is not new: I routinely get a discount coupon on say. my next underwear purchase or a free dessert on my next visit to some restaurant chain. Lidl is a little different. You get a free item. It differs year by year: one tear it may be a large chocolate bar, a package of cookies or (this year) a fresh bakery item like a chocolate-covered doughnut.
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