Pandemic Report
Weekly CDC stats: The 4 mega stats haven't been updated since last week. This week's regional trends show an upswing in California and the Southeast. I've seen some reports of a first child COVID fatality in Colorado and a bounce back in flu cases after 3 weeks of declines. Measles outbreaks in SC remain of concern.
- "Large study finds COVID-19 shots don’t affect fertility"
- "Scientists say these two viruses [influenza D virus and canine coronavirus] may become the next public health threats"
- "COVID-19 viral fragments shown to target and kill specific immune cells in UCLA-led study"
- "Health authorities in India say they have contained a potential outbreak of a bat-borne virus with no approved vaccine or cure. With a fatality rate between 40% to 75%, authorities in several Asian countries are stepping up screening measures, including temperature checks for airport passengers to prevent further spread. The Nipah virus can be transmitted from animals to humans – especially from fruit bats and pigs – and between humans, according to the World Health Organization."
- "Blood test may identify COVID survivors at risk for ongoing lung disease."
- "Wastewater surveillance reveals true scale of COVID-19 spread as clinical testing declines"
- "Trump policies at odds with emerging understanding of COVID's long-term harm"
- "More than two years since the official end of the covid pandemic, a growing body of research continues to reveal information about the virus and its ability to cause harm long after initial infections resolve. The findings raise fresh concerns about the Trump administration’s decision to reduce recommendations about who should get covid vaccines and halt funding for the development of more-protective shots. "
- "COVID-19 left lasting rise in deaths in rich countries, study shows"
- "Traws Pharma Completes Enrollment of Ratutrelvir Clinical Study in PAXLOVID®-Eligible and Ineligible COVID-19 Patients"
- "UVA Health scientists pioneer a new way to create vaccines far more quickly than ever before"
- "Recent Northwestern Medicine study used app to track symptoms, recovery of long COVID patients"
- "Long COVID Brain Fog Far More Common in US than India, Other Nations"
- "US life expectancy reached a record high in 2024 as deaths from drug overdose and Covid-19 dropped" [Remember how DeSantis argued decreasing life expectancy under COVID resolved senior entitlement funding problems?]
- "Michigan sued for COVID-era nursing home files after shirking FOIA law"
- Prosecutors continue to pursue COVID relief fraud or other crimes:
- "Third Georgia Democratic state lawmaker accused of COVID-19 unemployment fraud"
- "Former Freeport tax preparer pleads guilty to stealing $12 million from IRS, COVID-19 relief program"
- "Former Charlotte councilperson Tiawana Brown pleads guilty in COVID-19 relief scheme"
- "Correction officer in Palm Beach County pleads guilty to COVID-19 relief fraud"
- "Woodland Hills business must pay more than $1.5 million after COVID-19 business loan fraud"
- "Man indicted for unemployment fraud during COVID-19 pandemic"
- "Federal Jury Convicts Belleair Man of COVID Loan Fraud Scheme"
Other Notes
The blog has attracted almost 19K pageviews this month. about 9 times the rate of the more reliable pageview trend. We'll close the month with 40 posts, maybe more if this post is published on Saturday. X/Twitter remains a mixed bag. There's a lot of work that goes into many political posts, which attract scant impressions, and then I I do one on a list of childhood cartoon characters and it gets over 70 impressions. Go figure.
My surname. Apparently very common in French Canada, but not in the states, except of maybe around New England, where much of the Quebec diaspora went. Now when I go to medical appointments, I automatically get up at "Ronald...?" (I often mention the true story that when Dad would register our family for a restaurant waiting list, he would sign in as "Gillmet"). It's not just the pronunciation; reportedly, 2 of my paternal uncles' birth certificates got the surname wrong, and my grandparents never noticed or had it corrected. For example, my Uncle Ray reportedly found out when he served in the Army during the Korean War that the "le" was omitted (the first and last e's are silent). Instead of having it corrected, he seemed to take a perverse pride in the misspelling, like a badge of honor. Maybe 15-20 years back, my female cousin invited me to an extended family reunion, but I got the invitation addressed to "Ronald Guilmette", which really pissed me off.
Another odd fact about my name: I will sometimes engage in vanity searches (of my own name. (I used to see listings for old blog posts all the time searching on topics, not so much recently.) But part of it was curiosity to see if my own academic scholarship was being referenced (I have a listing of articles and book chapters here) . Almost all of my work is sole-authored; it's not for lack of trying on my part but a lack of interest from others. I had offered to put Dr. Scamell's (my chair's) name on a couple of papers, but he declined, not wanting to share credit for my work. I would hang out with other UH alumni at conferences or MIS faculty at UTEP and try to brainstorm topics, but it was like I was the only one floating ideas, and it was like kids bored on summer vacation. Now, to be honest, I am pretty much a control freak about what's published under my name. So I had a second interest in doing a vanity search. In my last year in academia (ISU as visiting professor for a year) I had befriended a junior black faculty member, and we also talked about doing some research projects when area professors turned my life into a living hell because I allowed students in my data structure course to program in the computer language of their choice instead of mandating PL/1 (The department chair and I had discussed all about this when he assigned me to the class; I had not taught Pl/1. and he had assigned a resource to interface with PL/1 programming issues.) It seemed like I spent half the time outside of class that spring looking in vain for a follow-up job and fighting off a hostile department chair who threatened to relieve me of my teaching assignments if I filed a complaint against him. The fact is, I had never thought of doing it until he threatened me. The sooner I could get out of Normal, IL, the better. I needed at least some cooperation from the chair to move on. So, I don't know if the dude was paranoid, if someone started a false rumor, or if he was just being preemptive. I was pretty much isolated from other faculty by the end, and my black friend probably could read the politics of the situation; he was still a nice guy considering the situation and said something like he would put my name if he ended up publishing any research. I immediately begged him not to. I don't take credit for work I don't do, and I'm very particular of what appears under my name.
But the reason I raised the surname issue is that I had mentioned to my siblings yesterday, sending out an important email. It hadn't bounced back. I had sent her past emails (I thought) without issue. Sh had changed her email domain a year or 2 back. Long story short: somehow, I had written her maiden name instead of her married name in my contacts email address. I have to laugh at my muscle memory. She got married in the 80s
