Endemic Report
Well, the summer wave is in full bloom, with the virus spreading in almost every state, though it's the weakest surge since the pandemic. Over the past week, we've seen an executive order from Trump looking to reduce the childhood vaccination schedule.. The GOP, led by Rand Paul's long-standing antagonism toward Dr. Fauci and seeking his federal prosecution, tried to politically exploit Fauci's private theoretical concerns about possible risk of miscarriage by vaccines, and a few red states sought prosecution beyond Biden's pardon of Fauci. I'm not sure, but I would think Fauci is protected by qualified immunity.
COVID-19 news items include:
- "COVID-19 Vaccination Does Not Increase Miscarriage Risk, Studies Show"
- "A study in Estonia has found a link between long COVID and chronic diseases"
- "US prison guards refusing vaccine despite COVID-19 outbreaks"
- :"Mutated COVID-19 variant could be behind surge in SF virus levels"
- "IRO-203: a novel intranasal COVID-19 vaccine showing immunogenicity and viral suppression in African green monkey challenge study"
- "COVID Excess Deaths Paper Retracted Over Misinformation. Study paid "disproportionate attention" to vaccination as potential cause, investigation finds"
- "Study ties COVID vaccine conspiracy theories to distrust of government, mainstream media"
- "Prevalence of hypertension in severe vs. non-severe COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis"
- "Covid-19 patients with allergic, upper airway diseases face 66% higher asthma risk"
- "Students miss over 200M more school days annually since COVID"
- "27% of UK health care workers report long COVID symptoms"
- COVID relief fraud/other crimes:
- "Bergen County man gets two years for $670,000 COVID-19 relief fraud"
- "‘Trying to steal every last cent’: Final defendant convicted in $6.8M COVID-19 fraud scheme"
- "Feds Allege Lawrence Mayor DePeña Used COVID-19 Aid for Campaign, Taxes, Debt"
- Political/legal issues:
- "GP guilty of professional misconduct over 'dangerous' Covid-19 social media posts"
- "Ted Cruz Exposed Covertly Deleting Dangerous Medical Lies"
- "Teen in school stabbing case showed signs of mental condition during Covid, court hears"
- "Fact Check: Studies Do NOT Show an 81% or 82% Miscarriage Rate in Women Vaccinated Against COVID-19 in First Trimester"
- "Bill Maher blasts Rand Paul for releasing Fauci’s COVID diaries"
- "Sen Marshall calls for special counsel investigation into Anthony Fauci after COVID-19 vaccine texts"
- "The Case Against Fauci Was Never About the Origins of COVID-19"
- "University of Washington Avoids Covid Shot Suit in Ninth Circuit"
- "Cam Newton backs Aaron Rodgers, claiming NFL 'players, coaches and executives' used fake COVID vaccine cards"
Other Notes
The blog still attracted a historically high page read rate, though it has tapered down from recent weeks and only showed a teen total for Saturday. I still haven't published an essay this month, but I've started a rant on Rand Paul, and you can see where I'm headed based on my weekly summary above. X/Twitter is still a struggle with my followers dipping below 200 for the first time in months.
It's probably not a good idea to flame the IRS, but I've had a weird experience this year, which is particularly annoying because they made no attempt to contact me and their AI front end repeatedly dropped my calls. They owed me a modest refund, and I directed them to apply it to 2026 taxes. Since I didn't request a refund back to my bank account, I didn't complete that info, although the IRS already has that from prior estimated tax payments. I ended up getting a puzzling notice from the IRS saying either I didn't provide bank info or the bank info was wrong. I had no clue why this was an issue. I reached out to my local congressman. In the weeks that followed, the IRS sent me a notice to the effect that they had recomputed my taxes and determined the IRS owed me more money- and apparently their preference is not to cut a paper check for the residual refund. My Congressional contact implied the IRS might end up cutting me a paper check. At some point, the IRS ombudsman seemed to suggest the relevant IRS employees hadn't accounted for my declared income correctly. Keep in mind I never got an explanation of why the taxes were recomputed. The IRS sent me a notice saying they owed me money, but nothing le like how they would refund me. Then one day I get a paper check. I got back in touch with the aide and said I needed to get feedback from his IRS contact because I was inclined to cash the check. The aide said (this was weeks ago) he expected to hear from the ombudsmen in mid-August, and I should sit on the check. Well, I just got word back that the IRS rolled back these interim findings, and I now owe the IRS the amount of the paper check, so I need to return the voided check.
