2:00PM Water Cooler 1/22/2025

Patient readers, I’m still trying to get my arms around the Trump Transition, and so for the next day or so that will be the main focus here. After that, I will return to our various pandemics with renewed éclat. –lambert

Bird Song of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Rondeau PP–South Point Trail East, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada.

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

1. Trump’s executive orders.
2. Trump and AI.
3. Oh, Elon.
4. The Inaugural: Melania’s hat; the seating chart.

* * *

Politics

“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

* * *

Biden Administration

“Despite Biden Pardon, Fauci Still Faces Legal Perils. Here They Are” [RealClearInvestigations]. “President Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci may protect the former National Institutes of Health official from immediate criminal prosecution, but some critics say he is not completely out of legal jeopardy…. former Senate investigator Jason Foster, who now runs the whistleblower nonprofit Empower Oversight, says that Biden’s pardon creates new legal jeopardy for Fauci. Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to continue investigating the COVID origins question, and sources tell RealClearInvestigations that Sen. Ron Johnson and House Republican investigators plan to do so as well. When testifying in those inquiries or answering written depositions, Fauci will be unable to dodge questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. ‘They can ask him if he lied before, replough old ground,’ Foster said. ‘And if he lies about any prior lie, he can be prosecuted for that or held in contempt.'” That is: “Biden’s pardon negates the two Senate referrals for criminal activity. But future hearings could still require Fauci to respond to evidence that he might have perjured himself, and open him up to future prosecution if he stands by statements that can be proven to be false.”

The Inaugural

Melania’s now a billionaire too, thanks to Bitcoin:

Well, Melania is a Vogue girl who once ruled the fashion industry. Since she is so tall, this kind of boater hat seems to suit her best! Most importantly she knows how to wear & present any outfit. Her designer Adam Lippes owns credit for this as he knew what he was doing! The… https://t.co/pC6V9xGxSt pic.twitter.com/9Xl9MHBpiy

— UB citizen (@Ehdelhii) January 21, 2025

Scamalot. (Surely, if the Democrats had or were attempting to have, an effective media operation, this joke — surely justified by the Trump family memecoins — would be all over the intertubes? Or have the tech bros sacralized bitcoin?)

The Lannisters send their regards:

Melania's elegant, occlusive, all-business, mafia boss hat said no one—but especially not the media or their cameras —will have access to her unless she grants it, not even to her facial expressions. pic.twitter.com/uiRbMmk7fv

— Amanda Fortini (@amandafortini) January 20, 2025

If this were a Velázquez, we would know the dominant figure:

Melania's hat choice was brilliant. She shielded her eyes while in the presence of people who wanted to have her son left an orphan. Never let them know what you are thinking. pic.twitter.com/NsRcEop7BP

— Old West (@OldWest1453) January 21, 2025

* * *

Seating arrangement:

Scaramucci: "[Trump] is a perfectionist with aesthetics. There was symbolism to the family in the front row, billionaires in the second row, and cabinet in the third row. And there's messages there to corporate America and the global society: 'Take a bended knee to me.'" ~AA pic.twitter.com/JTepIKhPxm

— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) January 21, 2025

Refining Scaramucci:

Trump seating for the Inaugural: front row, family, second row, billionaires, third row, Cabinet.
MAGAs? Outside.

— Dare_L (@dare_l) January 21, 2025

Trump Transition

“Exclusive: Trump starts new term with 47% approval; Jan. 6 pardons unpopular, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds” [Reuters]. • Not that high, meaning all the more reason for the Republican attaque à outrance and Democrat obstruction and, er, resistance (assuming the Democrats actually have a coherent strategy, which I doubt).

Executive Orders (EOs):

“Behind-the-Scenes Aide Narrates Trump’s Day One Executive Actions” [RealClearPolitics]. “Back at the White House, on the evening of his second inauguration, President Trump did something on the first day that his predecessor never bothered to do in four years: He sat and took questions in the Oval Office as reporters peppered him with questions. It was the newest set piece in the second season of Trump, and in that moment, as the president signed executive order after executive order, an obscure staffer was catapulted to unlikely stardom. Will Scharf, the new White House staff secretary, stood by the president’s side and before the cameras, announcing the actions just before Trump put his black Sharpie to paper. Asked Trump, ‘What’s this one?’ Replied the staffer handing him paperwork bound in a black portfolio, ‘Withdrawing from the World Health Organization.’ Said the president, ‘Oh, that’s a big one.’ In this way, Scharf served as impromptu master of ceremonies for the first step in the attempted erasure of former President Biden’s legacy.” And: “A stack of those orders, each bound in black leather portfolios, had grown into a small mountain on the Resolute Desk by the end of the evening, each a step toward achieving what the president promised would be a ‘golden age of America.’ And in that moment, Scharf was the unexpected emcee. Soon the lawyer will recuse his speaking role and likely recede from public view. His influence within the White House, however, will not.” • A well-engineered spectable indeed — especially since Scharf was only asked by Trump to do the honors at the last minute (a small insight into why his staff might be loyal to him).

* * *

“Trump executive orders smash leftist pieties that kept America paralyzed’ [Editorial Board, New York Post]. More interesting is the take at the end: “Trump’s still giving his inner troll some room to play, renaming Alaska’s Denali Mt. McKinley (as it was called pre-Obama) and the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. But his vision is blessedly forward-looking — to the better, brighter vistas that Biden and his party refuse to see. That willful blindness cost them the election. America, in love with the future as always, is right there with Trump.” • The polling says that “America” is not. So we’ll see.

* * *

“Trump administration directs all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on leave” [Associated Press]. ” President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off…. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by President Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It’s using one of the key tools utilized by the Biden administration to promote DEI programs across the private sector — pushing their use by federal contractors — to now eradicate them…. [F]ederal workers are being asked to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face ‘adverse consequences.'” That said, there are implementation issues: ‘Despite the sweeping language of Trump’s order, [Noreen Farrell, executive director of gender rights group Equal Rights Advocates] said, ‘the reality of implementing such massive structural changes is far more complex.’ ‘Federal agencies have deeply embedded policies and procedures that can’t simply be switched off overnight,’ she added.” • That’s a lot of PMC, especially in Northern Virginia and Maryland, suddenly uncertain of their employment prospects.

“Donald Trump’s Medicare Executive Order Explained” [Newsweek]. “The potential impact of rescinding executive order 14087 is as follows: 1. Halted development of cost-reduction models: The directive for the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and test new models aimed at lowering drug costs through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has been withdrawn. This move could slow or halt progress on initiatives that were designed to make prescription medications more affordable. 2. Potential increase in out-of-pocket expenses: Without the implementation of new models focused on reducing costs, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries might continue to face high out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs, possibly affecting access to certain medications. 3. Uncertainty in future drug pricing policies: The rescission creates uncertainty regarding the federal government’s approach to addressing prescription drug costs, which could leave beneficiaries unsure about future measures to control or reduce expenses.” But as usual implementation: “While the executive order has been rescinded, existing laws and regulations governing prescription drug pricing and Medicare and Medicaid policies remain in effect. However, the measures from the previous administration that they say was designed to save on costs has now been disrupted.”

“A Trump Executive Order Could End The Government-Censorship Complex” [The Federalist]. “Trump’s executive order — just one in a slough of Inauguration Day measures — seeks to enforce the First Amendment, ‘essential to the success of our Republic.'” But once again implementation: “It is unclear what steps the Trump administration will take, pursuant to this order, to investigate or shut down agencies or partnerships that constitute the government-censorship complex.”

“Trump’s blanket Jan. 6 pardons stun Republicans on Capitol Hill” [The Hill]. “President Trump’s sweeping pardons of more than 1,500 people charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, including individuals who assaulted police officers, stunned Republican lawmakers who witnessed firsthand the chaos on Capitol Hill four years ago. Trump’s action, which defied assurances from his allies that he would examine convictions on a case-by-case basis and not grant clemency to people who committed violence, divided GOP senators and overshadowed talk about his first-100-days agenda. GOP lawmakers are largely willing to overlook the hundreds of people who entered the Capitol illegally four years ago, which disrupted the certification of former President Biden’s victory by several hours, but pardoning people who assaulted Capitol Police, causing dozens of injuries, was hard to swallow. ‘It is wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially when many of the victims of their violence were law enforcement officers,’ Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in a statement. Moran was expressing a view shared by many of his Senate GOP colleagues, even though many of them are reluctant to criticize Trump publicly.”

“22 states sue to stop Trump’s order blocking birthright citizenship” [Associated Press]. “Attorneys general from 22 states sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status. Trump’s roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he’s talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain amid what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle over the president’s immigration policies and a constitutional right to citizenship. The Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates say the question of birthright citizenship is settled law and that while presidents have broad authority, they are not kings.” And: “Ratified in 1868 in in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.'” • A strict constructionist reading the Fourteenth Amendment would surely support the Democrats.

* * *

“How Trump Is Pushing at Limits of Presidential Power in Early Orders” [Charlie Savage, New York Times]. “On Monday, as Mr. Trump took the oath of office to begin his second term, he asserted a muscular vision of presidential power. He not only revived some of the same expansive understandings of executive authority that were left unaddressed, but went even further with new claims of sweeping and inherent constitutional clout. Among a blizzard of executive orders, Mr. Trump instructed prosecutors not to enforce a law that bans the popular social media app TikTok until its Chinese owner sells it. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had signed the measure into law after it passed with broad bipartisan support, and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld it. Whatever the law’s merits, the Constitution says presidents ‘shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Mr. Trump offered no clear explanation for how he has any legitimate power to instead suspend the law, making only a vague gesture toward his ‘constitutional responsibility’ for national security, foreign policy ‘and other vital executive functions.'” And several of the EOs (border security; energy) depend on invoking Presidential emergency powers. “But facts matter little to whether or when it is legal for presidents to invoke emergency power, declarations that are governed by the National Emergencies Act of 1976. That law does not tightly define the circumstances under which presidents may determine that an emergency exists, leaving them with essentially unfettered discretion to unlock exigent powers for themselves. But previous presidents adhered to norms of self-restraint.” • The Norms Fairy sheds another tear.

* * *

AI:

“Trump announces private-sector $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure” [Reuters]. “U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology. Trump said that ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, SoftBank (9984.T), opens new tab and Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. These companies, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch. The first of the project’s data centers are already under construction in Texas, Ellison said at the press conference. Twenty will be built, half a million square feet each, he said. The project could power AI that analyzes electronic health records and helps doctors care for their patients, Ellison said.

• That will be awesome; we’ll be able to have AI-powered upcoding then, or wherever the return is greatest (i.e., wherever fraud and rental extraction is maximized). Commentary:

Omg pic.twitter.com/UYM3eNpikc

— Daniel (@growing_daniel) January 22, 2025

“Trump highlights partnership investing $500 billion in AI” [Associated Press]. “Still, the regulatory outlook for AI remains somewhat uncertain as Trump on Monday overturned the 2023 order signed by then-President Joe Biden to create safety standards and watermarking of AI-generated content, among other goals, in hopes of putting guardrails on the technology’s possible risks to national security and economic well-being.” • Implementation again.

“OpenAI Stargate is a $500B bet: America’s AI Manhattan Project or costly dead end?” [VentureBeat]. • With the Manhattan Project, we had Albert Einstein’s blessing and the crème de la crème of European science. With Stargate, we’ve got Sam Altman (and doubtless SBF, if he weren’t in jail).

“Moderna spikes as Oracle’s Larry Ellison touts AI-driven mRNA vaccines” [Seeking Alpha]. “At a press conference convened at the White House to announce the launch of Stargate, a $500B AI initiative, Ellison said that artificial intelligence could be used to develop personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccines and early tumor detection.” • Presumably treatments, not vaccines, and rented on a subscription basis…. Commentary:

Two days into this administration and we’re already talking about using AI to pump out personalized mRNA vaccines

We need to hold Trump’s feet to the fire and make it clear this is NOT the direction we want things headed towards

— SOVEREIGN BRAH 🇺🇸🏛️⚡️ (@sovereignbrah) January 22, 2025

* * *

Elon:

“The Maga movement is out to get Elon Musk – and so is China” [Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph]. MAGA over H1B (rightly). “If it were possible to short a public figure with maximum leverage, Elon Musk would surely be the top target. The political and enterprise value of “Musk Inc” is built on treacherous ideological sands…. Tesla has suffered its first year of falling car sales worldwide. It is running into ferocious competition on price and quality in China and is rapidly losing German market share in electric vehicles (EV) to BMW and Mercedes…. The driving rationale for the parabolic spike in the share price since Donald Trump’s election is the belief that Musk will enjoy techno-regulatory privilege and crony capitalist favour. The Tesla chief was still in good enough grace to earn a spot with the Trump family at the inauguration… His privilege is recompense for spending a quarter of $1bn helping Trump over the line in swing states – whether by fostering free speech or by exploiting the black arts of algorithmic propaganda, depends on your angle of view.” But: “The problem with the market’s political bet on Tesla is that Musk has already made himself arch-enemy of the Maga priesthood, who increasingly regard him as a globalist carpet-bagger. They think he is trying to subvert the ethno-cultural revival of the American nation state, spreading money around to capture the Trump movement for his own purposes.” And: “Musk has manoeuvred himself into an invidious position, caught between the Chinese Communist Party and the Maga movement and reliant on the fickle favour of a volatile American president. Those Icarus wings of beeswax and feathers have flown too close to the sun.” • Bannon didn’t plant this, since he’s quoted in the article. I wonder if anyone else did?

“Elon Musk’s salute falls flat: Why far-right trolling isn’t working this time around” [Amanda Marcotte, Salon]. “Most people, if they made this gesture innocently, would be upset about the neo-Nazis trying to claim common cause with them. As Ed Kilgore argued at New York Tuesday, ‘there is an easy way to clear this up, particularly for someone who owns a major social-media platform and uses it very often.’ All Musk needs to do is ‘make the gesture of denouncing fascism aggressively.’ He adds that explicitly rejecting fascism and white nationalism ‘should be worth a few dozen tweets, wouldn’t you say?'”

“Dimon says he and Musk have ‘hugged it out'” [The Hill]. “JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday that he and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have “hugged it out” and resolved their differences, after Dimon’s bank sued the tech billionaire’s electric vehicle firm in 2021…. JPMorgan Chase sued Tesla in 2021, demanding $162 million from Musk’s firm as part of a stock warrant deal. The dispute centered on a 2018 tweet from the Tesla CEO, suggesting he might take the company private, and the subsequent changes in Tesla’s value. The tweet also prompted a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million to resolve in 2018. JPMorgan dropped the lawsuit against Telsa last month after the two companies reached a settlement…. Dimon said Wednesday he wished Musk and DOGE the best as they embark on their cost-cutting efforts. ‘I think it is completely rational for someone to look at our government and say it’s been ineffective,’ Dimon told CNBC.”

* * *

The Wizard of Kalorama™

Untrue:

The DNC has always struggled with respect to social media messaging…always been weak.

But the fact that they posted this cringe, resist lib video in 2025 is wild.

It’s like they’ve learned no lessons. pic.twitter.com/en9tyFHnkm

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 22, 2025

“I stand between you and the pitchforks” (of bankers) and “look forward and not back” (to torturers).

Democrats en déshabillé

Maybe we should shut down the DNC until we find out what’s going on:

The DNC has always struggled with respect to social media messaging…always been weak.

But the fact that they posted this cringe, resist lib video in 2025 is wild.

It’s like they’ve learned no lessons. pic.twitter.com/en9tyFHnkm

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 22, 2025

“House Democrats privately squirm about their leadership and message” [Punchbowl News]. “The problem for Democrats is two-fold. Trump’s hardline approach to immigration is popular, including deporting migrants, although Americans are still queasy when it comes to large-scale efforts that involve a heavy-handed government approach. Secondly, with Biden and Kamala Harris no longer in power, Democrats lack a leader. Members are asking themselves whether it’s former President Barack Obama, a Democratic governor, Jeffries, Harris or someone else…. House Democratic leaders opted not to whip against the Laken Riley Act, which ended up getting 48 Democratic votes. A revised Senate version will come back up for a final House vote today before it heads to Trump’s desk. Some Democrats wish Jeffries had taken a tougher stance against the bill, which allows ICE to take custody of migrants accused of certain crimes. But Jeffries likely would have gotten flack from Frontliners if he’d pressured members to vote no. In one of the first Democratic caucus meetings after the bruising November election, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who represents a competitive district along the southern border, warned Democratic leaders not to tell him how to vote, according to a source familiar with the interaction. So far, Jeffries seems to be walking a very careful line. He’s made clear to members that they need to be able to vote their districts. Yet Jeffries is also counseling them not to take the Republican bait. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has been very outspoken on this issue, says House Democrats need to take the lead for the party since they have the best chance of winning back power in 2026. That puts Jeffries in the spotlight. ‘This is where the action is. This is where the margin is tightest. This is where we’re within striking distance of winning the majority back,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘That would mean our leader and our leadership here.'” • I’m so old I remember when Sanders won the Hispanic counties along the Rio Grande. Speaking of so-called “frontliners.”

“Why Are Democrats Joining Republicans and Voting for the Anti-Immigrant Laken Riley Act?” [Newsweek]. “It’s no surprise that Republicans supported this measure, as it aims to crack down on migrant crime. What’s mystifying is why some Democrats got behind this bill to hand Trump a victory on his signature issue. The Laken Riley Act is legally, logistically, and constitutionally unsound—and misguided Democrats helped make it happen. The Laken Riley Act requires the Department of Homeland Security to jail undocumented immigrants accused of burglary and theft, putting them on track for deportation. The key word here is accused. Under the measure’s provisions, people charged with minor crimes can be locked up without bail before they are convicted, even if charges against them are dropped. This flies in the face of the presumption of innocence, and violates due process, which the Supreme Court has ruled applies to undocumented immigrants…. Worse, the Laken Riley Act allows state attorneys general to sue the government over everything from individual immigration enforcement decisions to immigration policies. Why would 48 House Democrats, along with 12 senators like Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) support this measure? Because political survival seems to be more important to them than legal and civil rights. Reeling from Trump’s presidential victory, these Democrats want to show that they can be tough on illegal immigration. How disappointing that they embraced a bill predicated on the unfounded link between migrants and criminality. It is this sort of political cowardice that leads progressives to feel discouraged by their own party.”• Oh, I’m way beyond “discouraged.”

The beatings will continue until the dogs eat the dog food:

really wild that Trump is going scorched earth and liberal media’s response is to just keep platforming the same liberals who helped create the backlash conditions for the rampage pic.twitter.com/3RUsYRf3Fo

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 21, 2025

And why is the dude in the middle wearning slippers and what looks like pajamas?

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

* * *

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Airborne Transmission

“Aerosol research shows how easily COVID-19 can be caught through the air” [Medical Xpress]. A 2023 study, linked to here. But: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been discussions about how COVID-19 infections spread. Jakob Löndahl, professor in aerosol technology and a colleague of Alsved, was one of those who got involved with the ‘new virus’ early on. He paused his research on norovirus to investigate whether the infection from the then unknown virus was airborne. Much new knowledge about airborne transmission has emerged since the pandemic, and researchers now want to see if it can be applied to infectious diseases other than COVID-19. ‘The work on COVID-19 has raised many new questions. Do viral aerosols from other respiratory infections such as rhinoviruses, influenza and RSV spread in the same way as viruses from COVID-19? When is the risk of infection highest? How effective are our various protective measures? There are many questions we are working on now,’ concludes Löndahl.” • Indeed! And one might mention H5N1 as well.

Treatment: Covid

“Azvudine beats paxlovid in reducing COVID-19 deaths” [News-Medical]. “The present multicenter, retrospective cohort study was conducted in Henan and Xinjiang provinces, China, involving hospitalized patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between December 5, 2022, and January 31, 2023. The study population included 37,606 patients from ten hospitals in Henan and 3,270 patients from one hospital in Xinjiang…. The primary outcome was all-cause death, with 469 deaths observed: 288 in the azvudine group and 181 in the Paxlovid group. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed a significantly lower risk of death in the azvudine group compared with Paxlovid (p = 0.038). Multivariable Cox regression analysis confirmed this, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.82 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.676-0.987, p = 0.036). Composite disease progression occurred in 681 patients: 446 in the azvudine group and 235 in the Paxlovid group…. Sensitivity analyses supported the accuracy of these findings. Results remained consistent across multiple methods of handling missing data, alternative matching models, and the exclusion of early discharges or deaths.”

Elite Maleficence

[sigh]

“OSHA is now terminating the rulemaking via this rule because.. any ongoing risk by COVID-19.. would be better addressed.. in a rulemaking addressing infectious diseases more broadly.”
dude my coworker swabbed someone for flu, covid and strep without a mask on the other day and… https://t.co/9Y9sAgl8lD

— collagen machine broke (@chronicallybeee) January 18, 2025

* * *

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Lambert here: I don’t like a lot of this week’s charts. In wastewater, too many red dots concentrated in the Midwest and the Atlantic coast, so I started circling areas in red, again. New York’s weirdly persistent higher hospitalization rate continues. Traveler positivity is up, and worse, the dominant traveler variants are JN* and KP*, which, while present in the national variants, are very low. And in the two death charts, the projected deaths seem to have leveled out, when in the past they decreased. Nothing earth-shattering, but it does make me queasy, and it’s well after the holiday bump.

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC January 10	Last week[2] CDC (until next week):
Variants [3] CDC January 18	Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 11
Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data January 16:	National [6] CDC Janurary 16:
Positivity
National[7] Walgreens January 13:	Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4:
Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC December 30:	Variants[10] CDC December 30
Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 11:	Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 11:

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Bespoke Tailoring:

Eric Javits making Melania Trump’s iconic inauguration hat#FashionoftheFirstLady pic.twitter.com/8BI49BS2Qr

— FLOTUS Report (@MELANIAJTRUMP) January 22, 2025

Manufacturing: “Boeing needs another regulatory exemption prior to 737 Max 7 and 10 certification” [FlightGlobal]. “Boeing is seeking temporary regulatory exemptions for a stall-management yaw damper (SMYD) system on the 737 Max 7 and Max 10, saying a classification change left it unable to demonstrate that the system meets ‘increased regulatory expectations.’ The company on 17 January requested the exemptions from the Federal Aviation Administration. It needs the approvals to achieve certification of both long-delayed types and to roll out an angle-of-attack (AOA) system update planned for all Max models, says Boeing’s request, released by the US government on 21 January… The aircraft manufacturer has historically certificated SMYDs to ‘Level B’ standards under aircraft-software guidance published by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics. Level B applies to software for which failures are ‘hazardous’, according to online sources. ‘During 737-7 development and certification of the yaw damper function, updated analysis led Boeing and the FAA to determine that the SMYD should now be certified to Design Assurance Level A,’ Boeing’s exemption request says. Level A systems are considered those for which failure may be ‘catastrophic’. Because the Max 7’s and Max 10’s SMYD has “not been shown to meet” Level A standards, “additional certification activity will be needed”, Boeing says. It has requested the exemption be valid through end-October 2028. Between now and then, Boeing intends to ‘complete the certification activities necessary to show compliance’, it says. “This period also provides the time needed to retrofit airplanes delivered under this exemption, in order to bring them into compliance.'” • So when exactly was the need to upgrade to Level A known, and how long was Boeing management sitting on it?

Tech: “Instagram hides search results for ‘Democrats'” [BBC]. “While users who type ‘#Democrat’ or ‘#Democrats’ see no results, the hashtag ‘Republican’ returns 3.3 million posts on the social media platform. By manually searching Instagram for ‘Democrats’, rather than clicking on a hashtag, users are greeted by a screen reading ‘we’ve hidden these results.’ ‘Results for the term you searched for may contain sensitive content,’ it says. There are also limited results when people search for ‘Republicans’ as opposed to ‘Republican.'” • Even if this is an accident, the technical capability is still pretty frightening.

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Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 45 Neutral (previous close: 40 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 31 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 22 at 1:34:17 PM ET.

Musical Interlude

Goodbye to Garth Hudson:

Today, we sadly say goodbye to Garth "Honey Boy" Hudson, the last living original member of The Band. A musical genius and cornerstone of the group’s timeless sound, Garth once said, “I found some true enjoyment in helping people get to the bottom of their feelings.” Through his… pic.twitter.com/IdVidFbLOp

— The Band (@TheBandOfficial) January 21, 2025

Hudson sax solo at the end:

Gallery

Picasso as Alma-Tadema:

I wouldn’t have picked it as a Picasso, nor as by a 15-year-old, which just goes to show how little I know ~ ‘Science and Charity’ (1897) Picasso Museum, Barcelona pic.twitter.com/tJ53U2MWyC

— Journal of Art in Society (@artinsociety) January 22, 2025

The Current Cinema

“‘The Brutalist’ Sparks Backlash After Editor Reveals Use of AI in Dialogue and Buildings, but Says It’s ‘Nothing That Hasn’t Been Done Before'” [Variety]. “In an interview with tech magazine Red Shark News, editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that AI tools from Respeecher — a Ukrainian software company — had been deployed in order to improved the authenticity of the Hungarian dialogue of stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. Brody and Jones recorded their voices into the AI software, while Jancsó said he also fed in his voice to ‘finesse the tricky dialect.’ ‘Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there,’ he added. ‘We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there.’ Jancsó also revealed that generative AI was used in the final sequence of ‘The Brutalist’ to create a ‘series of architectural drawings and finished buildings’ in the style of Brody’s character, László Tóth.” • And so it begins.

News of the Wired

“My struggle with doom scrolling” [All That Jazz]. Useful tip: “Doing this helped me break some old habits I’ve formed over the years with a browser I’m used to. For example, the Google ecosystem knew me too well and constantly recommended articles to me to click on. A new browser without this historical data helped me to focus on the task at hand instead of getting distracted by the shiny, new, but useless information online.” • Also, Google’s recommendation engine by definition eliminates serendipity, making you stupider (for profit, too).

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Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From MB:

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