Dr. Fauci and "loose" American vs. "tight" Chinese strategies for "ending" the pandemic

Last update: Monday 5/2/22 

Most people have heard about Dr. Fauci's comments on the PBS "News Hour" a few days ago that we were “out of the pandemic phase”. He edited these misleading words on NPR the next day to a more correct rephrasing that we were “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase”. Yes, we are ... assuming, of course, that the virus doesn't develop more transmissible variants that evade our vaccines and are more lethal. In a subsequent interview with the Washington Post he commented that “We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity”. Yes, "controlled phase" being the key words.

Protecting our elderly U.S. president from Omicron with booster shots ... or not

Last update: Friday 4/29/22 

Let's suppose, dear reader, that like the vast majority of Americans, you are decades younger than 80. So why should you care about how well booster shots protect those of us who aren't? Well, one good reason is that President Biden is 79, which is close enough. Surely the president has very limited exposure to the virus in his day-to-day meetings and other activities, right? Wrong. Recent headlines indicate that Omicron has found cozy homes in the paneled offices along Washington, DC's rarified corridors of power, even within offices whose occupants are doubly boosted.

Moving another CDC "component" to the Census Bureau

Last update: Friday 4/29/22 

The U.S. Census Bureau is America's official biographer, determined to get all of the facts about life in the USA, determined to get them right, and determined to get them without bias as to which facts are more important than others. The last characteristic distinguishes the Census Bureau from other data repositories, e.g., the CDC. All repositories produce tables that codify their anticipation of the tabulations that most users would like to obtain. However, the Census Bureau is unique in its extensive efforts to enable users to extract new tabulations. 

Current shortfalls in Biden's "Test to Treat" initiative

Last update: Saturday 4/23/22 

This blog note calls the reader's attention to an important assessment of President Biden's new one-stop "Test to Treat"  initiative by Zeynep Tufekci that was recently published by the New York Times. Ms. Tufekci has been one of the most perceptive critics of our nation's pandemic management policies during the Trump and Biden administrations, so her warnings must be given serious consideration.

Biden says Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not

Last update: Wednesday 4/20/22 

Here's the first paragraph of an article in the NY Times on 4/19/22. "President Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks, undercutting efforts by his administration to urge Americans to keep wearing face coverings on airplanes, trains and buses even after a federal judge struck down a nationwide mask mandate on public transport."

Undercounts at the COVID Olympics ... Revised 5/8/22

Last update: Monday 5/8/22 

Which countries have suffered the most deaths from COVID per hundred thousand residents? Which have suffered the least? Statistics about COVID deaths and death rates reported by the world's three most populous countries -- China, India, and the United States -- are of particular interest because 40 percent of the world's total population lives in these three countries ... The world's total population = 7,940 million; China = 1,449 million; India = 1,404 million; and the United States = 335 million. (Note: Population estimates from Worldometer.) Unfortunately, there is reason to question the death tolls and derived death rates cited in the official reports issued by these nations.

One size fits all notions of "new normal" pose threats to our national security

Last update: Saturday 4/9/22 

The New York Times recently reported that at least 53 of the people who attended an exclusive dinner party in Washington, DC, had contracted COVID. Some of the  victims in this super spreader event were high level government officials,  persons who have regular close contact with President Biden. Not to worry, soothed a prominent medical pundit. Her op ed in the Washington Post suggested that these kinds of super spreader events are the stuff of the new normal to which we will all have to become accustomed in order to live with COVID ... Oh, really? All of us? One size guidance fits all of us? No exceptions? Not even the friends and associates of the president of the United States of America, the leader of the free world? Not even the president himself?

The CDC intends to reorganize itself

Last update: Tuesday 4/5/22 

On 4/5/22, the online Washington Post published an article with an unlikely headline, "CDC, under fire for covid response, announces plans to revamp agency". In other words, the CDC intends to reorganize itself.  But it gets better. The article informs us that the CDC will disband the interdepartmental teams that managed its day-do-day COVID responses, and will "return more activities to existing offices". In other words, the CDC wants to get back to normal living. So do we all.  The article was largely based on a copy of an email the Post obtained that the CDC Director had sent to all CDC employees. Or ... maybe ... there was a snafu in their system? Today is the fifth ... Maybe this email was supposed to go out four days ago. That's it. April Fool!!!  ... not really ... :-(