North America is about to enter cold and flu season. Covid is on the uptick and may spread to millions of people this winter depending on how many people get a booster and how well the boosters work. Every year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has to decide in the winter to spring which four flu strains are most likely to hit the United States next year. Strains circulating in Asia are often the ones that infect Americans, Canadians and Mexicans in the coming Winter. Thus, the flu vaccine is a cocktail of the four flu strains likely during following flu season.
Category: News and Events
Tuesday Links
- After vaccines became available, red states had higher death rates, almost certainly as a result of lower vaccine uptake among Republicans.
- New book show how Chile’s economy became the ”jewel of Latin America.”
- Are workers more productive when they work from home?
- One thing George W. got right: PEPFAR has saved 25 million lives.
- How scientists used AI to find two antibiotics for use against the most antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- mRNA vaccine pioneers win the Nobel Prize. (Shouldn’t’ Trump win as well?)
Officials Use a Mosquito Factory to Control Mosquito-Borne Diseases
My wife is a mosquito magnet. It seems like she complains of getting bit every time she goes out to hand water plants during the summer. For millions of people around the world, a mosquito bite isn’t just an irritation that is itchy for a day and then forgotten. I have a close relative that went camping years ago and caught West Nile Virus from a mosquito bite. About half of people who have had West Nile suffer from long-term problems due to the infection. Mosquitoes are the mostly deadly living thing that preys on humans.
Monday Links
- The US has destroyed all of its chemical weapons.
- The covid pandemic spurred a surge in new business startups.
- More on Fauci, the CIA, the lockdowns and the Wuhan lab leak.
- The average American can expect to celebrate only a single birthday in good health after age 65. (NYT)
- Using GPT-4 to predict Cardiovascular Risk. HT: Tyler
- Lifetime health care costs for your pet: $10K to $15K for a dog; $8K to $11K for a cat.
- Solution for Social Security: more sex and more death. Having more children and dying earlier would make the system solvent through 2065.