Post #7780 J

Endemic Report

The latest CDC  stats:

The Sick Times:

The latest data show a definite expanding summer wave, although far shallower than earlier summers this decade. COVID remains active outside the US, including the American territory of Guam. Rand Paul continues his anti-Fauci crusade in the Senate, including the release of selected private emails that appeared to undermine their public support for the zoonotic hypothesis of COVID-19 origin. 

COVID-related news items include:

• "Smaller COVID-19 vaccine booster doses match full-dose protection for up to two years"
• "mRNA COVID-19 Booster Outperforms Protein-Based Shot on Antibodies, But Both Cut Infections Over 12 Months"
• "Study identifies immune response causing severe COVID-19 susceptibility"
• "COVID vaccination during pregnancy didn’t increase poor infant outcomes, data suggest"
• "Study uncovers molecular connections between COVID-19 and PAH"
• "Debilitating Ocular Symptoms Persist Years After Mild COVID-19"
• "Low antibody levels after vaccination flag who's most vulnerable to severe COVID-19"
• "Long COVID symptoms have declined since COVID-19 Omicron but can persist"
• "Study Reveals Stress a Significant Factor in Women Experiencing Long COVID"
• "Study reveals high prevalence of post-pandemic fatigue and sleep disturbances"
• "Are mRNA vaccines safe? What scientists know so far"

• COVID relief fraud/other crimes:
• "Dallas lab, owners and investors set to pay $24 million to resolve allegations of COVID-19 testing fraud"
• "Two men charged in $52 million COVID-19 tax credit fraud conspiracy"
• "Feds want beloved Kearney businessman to testify in COVID-era loan fraud investigation"
• "Ford Dealer To Pay $2.1M Over Fraudulent COVID-19 Loans"
• "York County business owner indicted after $52.7M defrauded in multi-state COVID-19 tax scheme"

• Legal/political issues:
• "AstraZeneca immune from Covid-19 vaccine injury lawsuit:"
• "Moderna says CureVac broke agreement by suing over COVID vaccine patents"
• "Science and the public are learning the wrong lessons from Covid"
• "Trump promised redemption for troops who refused Covid shots. A year later, many are still waiting"
• "Pfizer (PFE) Faces New Patent Lawsuits Over Covid 19 Vaccine Technology"
• Lawsuit over COVID vaccine policy at Idaho National Lab leads to $5M settlement"
• "Pentagon asked for ‘gain of function’ research proposals years before COVID-19" pandemic, top virologist tells Congress"
• "More than 100 INL workers to receive $5 million in discrimination settlement over COVID vaccine mandate"
• "The patent war over COVID-19 vaccines has reached the courts in the U.S. — Reuters"
• "COVID-inspired House bill would guarantee Americans in the hospital can see their clergy"
• "White House admits it used keywords related to diversity, gender and COVID-19 to kill billions worth of research grants"

Other Notes

The blog continues to have elevated pageviews. up to 5K or more daily. Individual posts now routinely attract up to mid-teen double digits. X/Twitter is a different story, where I suddenly lost 7% of my followers at once. Not sure: X always talks about puging bot accounts or maybe I wrote something that really irritated some people.