Endemic Report
The latest CDC weekly stats:
We continue to see the winter surge tailing off, although the virus recently spiked in Arizona; it is still significantly declining in a plurality of states. There were 2 principal stories over the past week: the hantavirus cruise outbreak (and whether it poses a COVID-like pandemic threat — no) and Rand Paul's obsession in Senate hearings with the idea that Fauci allegedly buried the lab-leak hypothesis of COVID origins.
The latest COVID-19 news stories:
- "Ensitrelvir Demonstrates Significant COVID-19 Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Efficacy in Phase 3 Trial"
- "Placenta clears away SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy"
- "Many older adults who died of COVID weren’t close to death before infection, study suggests"
- "New research finds diseases like COVID-19 can spread between apartments through ventilation systems"
- "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed 51 new measles cases in a nationwide outbreak that has now reached 1,893 infections. All but nine cases are locally acquired, with the rest related to international travel."
- "Atomic-level images could improve future COVID-19 antiviral drug design"
- "Forgotten and isolated: 1.8 million people still vulnerable to COVID-19 face a mental health crisis""
- "COVID-19 cut life expectancy of older adults by 4 to 5 years, study finds"
- "Scientists find concerning link between COVID-19 and lung cancer"
- "Research identifies significant spike in neurological disorders during the covid-19 pandemic"
- Prosecution of COVID-19 relief fraud/other crimes:
- ":Kingsport man sentenced after COVID-19 tax credit fraud scheme"
- "Kauai woman sentenced for abusing COVID relief program"
- "Cheshire Man Sentenced In COVID-19 Relief Fraud Case: Feds"
- "Mob boss's grandson gets sentenced for involvement in COVID-19 scheme"
- "KC man claimed $1.5M budget, payroll of 100 in COVID relief fraud. He’s sentenced"
- Legal/political issues
- "It’s Way Past Due That Rand Paul Quit His Covid-19 Crusade"
- "Family of NC nurse who died from COVID seeks Appeals Court’s help"
- "How RFK Jr.'s false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine hurt people with autoimmune diseases"
- "Critics accuse Vivek Ramaswamy of hypocrisy over COVID-19 remarks"
- "CDC to Weigh Adding Covid-19 Vaccine Injury Medical Codes
Other Notes
The blog averaged nearly 1K daily page views, which normally reflects half the monthly total over the life of the blog. I finally published my first essay of the month, another of my detailed posts integrating Google AI excerpts on the Trump-Pope Leo kerfuffle. My X/Twitter followers gave back some of last week's modest gains.
I've been following the NBA playoffs with some interest, focusing on the San Antonio Spurs, who will play defending champion Oklahoma City in the conference finals. (There's a bit of nostalgia with OKC because I won an internal Oracle award for my DBA work on a State of Oklahoma ERP project, my last gig with Oracle Consulting.) The SAS have been my favorite major league sports team since my undergraduate days at OLLU. Those were the old ABA days, with the tri-colored basketballs and George Gervin. We students were eligible for nominally charged ticket bundles (I think bus tickets to and from games cost more) (I've only attended home pro games with 2 other pro franchises: I attended a few Houston Astros games, and my consulting employer had an event with a Chicago Blackhawks game.) I've been a somewhat fickle NBA fan, having followed the Houston Rockets, especially after they drafted UH star Olajuwon. (I watched them win the championship while on an extended 1995 business trip to Brazil.) Finally, I followed the Chicago Bulls in their final years with Michael Jordan.
