It's the most vulnerable, stupid

Last update: Friday 8/26/22 

Most older readers -- especially those of you who have been around long enough to be called "elderly" (like the editor of this blog) -- will recognize the title of this blog note as a COVIDized version of the slogan coined by strategist James Carville for Bill Clinton's winning 1992 campaign. It popped into the editor's head when he read the following headline: "Biden Administration Plans for New Booster Campaign Soon After Labor Day", Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland, NY Times, 8/23/22 

COVID misinformation ... #1

Last update: Wednesday 8/24/22 

In a previous note on this blog, the editor suggested that the nation's pandemic managers had overloaded us with medical and bio science information. As normally used, the word "information" denotes assertions that are valid statements of facts. Unfortunately, our pandemic managers and their sympathizers in the mainstream media have also packed a lot of misinformation into their messages, i.e., assertions and/or implications that are not valid. 

We're fed up with the pandemic because we're suffering from COVID Information overload

Last update: Sunday 8/21/22 

Way back in 1971, at the dawn of our new Age of Information, Herbert Simon -- one of the fathers of artificial intelligence, as well as a world renowned cognitive psychologist, and a world renowned economist (Nobel Prize) -- offered a profound observation. When information becomes abundant, our attention becomes a scarce resource. There's just too much coming at us, too fast. Unfortunately, the leadership of the CDC, the FDA, and the nation's other pandemic management agencies seem to have missed this fundamental insight in their medical and bio science studies. 

Yes, the CDC must be reorganized asap; but no, it cannot reorganize itself

Last update: Thursday 8/18/22 

Regular readers of this blog will recall that its editor has cried out that the "CDC must be reorganized asap" again and again for almost two years. (A partial list of his "I told you so's" appears at the bottom of this page.)  His prior notes have also affirmed that the CDC's culture is the biggest cause of its failures, a culture that mandates that its guidance be derived from well established science. For pandemics whose variants evolve much faster than the normal speed of science, the CDC needs a culture that commits it to making timely, rational judgements that are informed by, but are not limited to lagging science. Unfortunately, the primary carriers of the culture of any organization are its leaders. Expecting the leaders of the CDC to reorganize themselves in a timely manner is about as absurd as expecting the nation's top figure skaters to reorganize themselves into a world-class hockey team before the next winter Olympics.

Where is President Biden? -- He was out of quarantine/isolation and back on the 2022 campaign trail on 8/30/22

Last update: Wednesday 8/31/22 

<Original Post 8/14/22>
Readers who follow the president's @POTUS feed on Twitter will have noticed the absence of any photos showing him in the company of other people since 8/10/22 = 6 days. Gregarious to a fault, the president is an old-time political pro who relishes the company of others, especially when there's opportunity for celebration. Given his spate of big legislative wins last week, one would have expected to see lots of joyous photos showing him amid VIP's and staff with lots of fist bumps and high fives all around .... and few wearing masks. But recent photos have shown the president by himself or on split screens with others on Zoom calls. One has to wonder if the president has had another Paxlovid rebound and has burrowed into groundhog isolation for a few days. If so, let's all hope that he's back to his old self asap, but this time wearing N95 masks everywhere ... :-)  

Fatal consequences of inconsistent CDC vs FDA self-test guidance

Last update: Saturday 8/13/22 

The CDC and the FDA recently issued separate guidance about the number of negative tests that persons should give themselves before they end their quarantine. Unfortunately their recommendations were inconsistent and will probably lead to confusion, a confusion that may have fatal consequences for persons age 65+ (and/or persons having other comorbidities)

President Biden infected and reinfected, but up close and unmasked again ... more photos 8/10/22

Last update: Wednesday 8/10/22 

Most of the text of this short blog note are the headlines linked to articles in the mainstream media. As readers will surmise, President Biden's version of the reality TV show "Survivor" has had its contract renewed by CDC Productions for another season.

Did the FDA just make another bad call about boosters???

Last update: Saturday 8/6/22 

The FDA recently announced its recommendation that second booster shots for those under 50 be postponed until autumn. So you ask yourself, why might this be a bad call, and if so, why would it be "another" bad call? When did the FDA make a previous bad call about boosters? ... Ahhhhhh, dear reader, your last question suggests that you are well under 65. As a really old guy, well over 65, the editor of this blog takes every bad policy call by any of our esteemed pandemic managers very personally, because every bad call gives the virus another chance to kill him. That's why he recalls every bad policy as clearly as anyone who ever had a near death experience can recall that experience. So hop into his Way-Back machine as he drives you back to the summer of 2021, the summer of mega breakthroughs at the beach, and the summer wherein we lost our innocence while confronting the declining effectiveness of our highly effective vaccines.