Analytics

Saturday, February 28, 2026

Post #7583 J

 Endemic Report

We have the first update of the 4 mega stats in over a month. The latest regional trend includes a cluster og 6 states in the mid-Atlantic to Southeast US. 



The Sick Times:



The latest COVID-19 news items:

  • "COVID-19 infection predicts higher risk of kidney disease, study finds"
  • "Over 40% of health care workers had insomnia during, after COVID pandemic peak"
  • "Long-term brain effects of COVID-19 vs. flu: Study reveals key differences. Even a mild case of COVID-19 or the flu can impact the body long after the fever and cough fade, according to new Tulane University research that may help explain why some people struggle to feel fully recovered weeks or months later. Tulane researchers found that while both viruses can leave lasting lung damage, only SARS-CoV-2 infection caused persistent brain inflammation and small blood vessel injury, even after the virus was no longer detectable."
  • "COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Hospitalization"
  • "Potential 'holy grail' nasal spray that may protect against COVID-19, flu and pneumonia aims for human trial"
  • "How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain"

Other Notes

The blog received hundreds of page views on a single day this week, otherwise a fairly typical viewer pattern. I will not reach my target of 40 posts this month, but that's an artifact of February being a short month. I finally published my essay on Trump's tariffs, which took a long time to write, but I liked the way it came out, and I think it is one of my best efforts, both readable and detailed, with a good use of AI to support basic points. The overnight US/Israeli attack will likely be the focus of an upcoming March post. Twitter/X has somewhat higher numbers this past week, with followers up about 10 to near 220, but they fluctuate daily.

When I switched my cable service, I found my bundle included Great American Family. I think that's the network that hired Christmas hostess Candace Cameron Bure away from Hallmark, as Hallmark had started featuring non-traditional rom-coms.. I have gay relatives whom I love, but I personally prefer more traditional content. I still have Hallmark as one of my plan's few off-bundle channel choices. To be honest, I haven't watched many new rom-coms lately from either channel, but I notice both channels do play a few Christmas titles I think on Fridays or so, and recently saw 3 I've traditionally seen on Hallmark until recently, one of them a Candace Bure "classic" (on the takeover of a family ski resort). I don't know if the films are jointly or exclusively licensed. I know I saw the ski movie during Hallmark's recent countdown. My biggest gripe is most of the Hallmark content I like isn't individually licensed. I also don't like having to pay for multiple licenses of the same movie or song. For instance, I have boxes of CDs and LPs in storage. In another case, I lost a DVD copy of "White Christmas" in an old desktop drive. 

I recently ranted about this on X. The Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame took forever to select Foreigner and Pat Benatar. They once again left Boston off the list (while nominating pop acts like Carey, Sade, and Shakira); I'm still pissed the Grammys chose Starland Vocal Band over Boston for best new artist. Phil Collins is long overdue this year's nomination; he ruled the 80s  I'm with Adam Reader, Professor of Rock, on this one along with Adam's advocacy of Karen Carpenter. We just lost Neil Sedaka, and Karen's cover of his hit "Solitaire" is beyond awesome. We also lost songwriter  Billy Steinberg whose song "I Drove All Night" was written for rock icon Roy Orbison. I just used my Amazon digital credits to download his Grammy-earning performance. Oh my God, that moment when he soars to his high register in the chorus. He's like Brad Delp and Steve Perry; I'm a decent singer, and I can't do that.

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