Trump's an ineffective troll who rages behind his Truth Social account while the rest of the world ignores and laughs at him—and us. We either endorse this aberrant and harmful situation or we fight by voting in November. What will you do? #VoteBlue www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

Trump keeps making threats. The world has stopped flinching.

The president’s bombast has ceased to rattle world leaders, who have seen him fenced in by courts, rebuffed by Congress and strung along by Iran.

washingtonpost.com

#COVID19 is still low in most of the US, but this is not the case in certain spots in Alaska, Florida, and Georgia, where around 1 in 100 is infectious. There are other spots with modest rises in COVID, such as in AL, LA, OH, and TX. It's smart to take care in parts of the US now. But… 1/2

My new weekly update on #COVID19 risks in the US: - This summer's surge remains quite modest. We may have just this week surpassed the lowest level the US experienced in the prior four years. - Risks are varied. Hotspots are in AK, FL, HI, LA, and OH. medium.com/@augieray_66...

COVID’s Modest Summer Surge Continues, with Varied Risks: Update for July 31, 2026

COVID is rising in the US, but at a fairly consistent and modest pace. Thus far, this surge is well below past surges, although the risks…

medium.com

Damn it, another favorite musician of mine has died. Too much talent going to waste. variety.com/2026/music/g...

Glen Hansard, Irish Musician and ‘Once’ Star Who Won Oscar for Best Song, Dies at 56

Glen Hansard, the Irish musician who starred in the film "Once" and won the Oscar for best song, died on Wednesday in a motorcycle crash. He was 56.

variety.com

RIP Kavinsky. Two of my favorite DJs/electronic music artists have recently passed. Starcadian/Georgios Smaragdis was killed in an e-bike accident last year, and Kavinsky/Vincent ‌Belorgey was recently found dead at his home of a presumed stroke (at 50!). www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV_3...

Kavinsky - Nightcall (Drive Original Movie Soundtrack) (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Record Makers

youtube.com

Healthcare workers: “We care for people.” Me: “Then you'll wear a mask?” HCW: “We don't care that much.” STUDY: “Hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections remain significant (and) associated with higher mortality rates than non-hospital-acquired infection.” www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Epidemiology and mortality among hospital-acquired cases of COVID-19 in the pre-Omicron and Omicron periods: A data-linkage study in Victoria, Australia

The aim of this study was to compare the epidemiology and mortality of hospital-acquired versus non-hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections among hospit…

sciencedirect.com

My weekly update on #COVID19 in the US: - The CDC NWSS's data is more complete but harder to interpret. It indicates COVID is rising in the West and Northeast. - WastwaterSCAN's data is less complete but more specific. It suggests the South is increasing. 1/2 medium.com/@augieray_66...

COVID Low but Rising in the US, Particularly in South and West: Update for July 24, 2026

The latest data from the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) and WastewaterSCAN are not completely aligned. However, the new…

medium.com

Conservatives ignoring science and putting their health at risk is nothing new. A new study found that, in the 2010s, “conservative Americans experienced worsening health and higher mortality than liberals.” 1/2 www.fastcompany.com/91561329/wid...

Conservatives are dying at higher rates than liberals. A new study points to mistrust in medicine

The health divide emerged over the last decade and has widened since 2020, according to research that links ideology to outcomes from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other internal causes.

fastcompany.com

We are in a (so far) small summer surge in the US. #COVID19 in wastewater has roughly tripled, but to put this into perspective, here is the chart of US sewersheds over the past 12 months. Our surge remains so mild you can barely see it relative to levels this past year.

New weekly update on #COVID19 in the US: COVID is rising but remains low in aggergate. Risks are quite diverse. The NWSS indicates COVID viral activity is Moderate in TX, while 5 of the 7 sewersheds with the highest levels in WastewaterSCAN's dashboard are in FL. medium.com/@augieray_66...

COVID Rising in Portions of the US but Remains Very Low in Most of the Nation: Update for July 17…

The latest National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) data hints that COVID is rising in portions of the West, while data from…

medium.com

Air quality is no better today in the Midwest. Air is unhealthy in New York, very unhealthy in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, and hazardous in Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Be careful!

Proposal: Rather than test the military for low testosterone, we test for low IQ. That way, we can get a new Secretary of Defense.

Donald Trump is manipulating the stock market with his posts, and now he's selling early access to his posts so both he and Wall Street can profit from his manipulation. Meanwhile, he thinks your affordability crisis is a hoax. #VoteBlue www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/b....

Truth Social will sell Wall Street quicker access to posts | CNN Business

Truth Social will sell Wall Street firms quicker access to market-moving posts from President Donald Trump, the company said on Thursday.

cnn.com

The WastewaterSCAN #COVID19 dashboard is bouncing around this week. Most of the sewersheds with elevated levels of COVID (4 of the top 6 at present) are in Florida. If we eliminated FL, we might not be having much of a surge at all. (I mean, it's not much of a surge anyway thus far.) FL chart:

STUDY: "Grandparents had 9.9% higher hazard of #COVID19 infection during birthday risk windows. The risk was greater for birthdays of preschool-aged grandchildren (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.15) than during birthdays of school-aged grandchildren (AHR, 1.07)." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Children’s Birthday Gatherings and SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Grandparents

This cohort study uses Danish registry data to examine the association of grandchild birthdays, as a proxy for opportunity for social gathering, with SARS-CoV-2 infection in grandparents.

jamanetwork.com

“I will choose to remember the time before Trump. Because I believe in an America after Trump.” - Hunter Biden

STUDY of patients with a #COVID19 diagnosis between June 1 and November 30, 2022, finds that total healthcare costs during 11 months of post-acute follow-up were 27% higher among adults and 42% higher among pediatric patients with COVID-19 compared to controls. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Evaluation of long-term healthcare utilization and costs associated with COVID-19 among adults and children in the US

This study assessed long-term healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and direct medical costs associated with COVID-19 among adults and children in the United States. Using a large national claims ...

tandfonline.com

I've posted a detailed update on #COVID19 risks in the US. The CDC's NWSS isn't showing much of a trend, but WastewaterSCAN suggests COVID has more than doubled in a month. It still looks less like a broad national surge than like a series of brief, localized surges. medium.com/@augieray_66...

COVID Is Rising for the First Time in 2026: Update for July 11, 2026

For several years, I provided weekly updates on COVID risks in the US. I suspended them three months ago, with COVID falling to near-record…

medium.com

Both the level of #COVID19 in US wastewater and the positive rate of testing have almost doubled in the past 3 weeks. We're still WELL below the levels in past lulls, but we might not be within two or three weeks at this rate. 1/3

The positive rate of #COVID19 testing is rising, which signifies our summer surge is underway. The positive rate is still low relative to past lulls (1.5% now vs ~2% for lulls in 2025), but the trend is definitely rising at this point. Wastewater data was interrupted by the holiday weekend.

No new wastewater data from the CDC today due to the holiday. #COVID19 is rising in the US for the first time since December, based on WastewaterSCAN's incomplete data. The positive rate is also gently rising. Thus far, the rise is modest and not accelerating. 1/2

Will Republicans just sit back and put our nation's most sensitive information in the hands of a man who has mishandled national secrets and who has a suspiciously close history with Putin. Why would any president need a list of all foreign espionage targets? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/u...

Inside Intelligence Agencies, a Fight Over Building a Master List of Spies

nytimes.com

I created an interactive tool that estimates the proportion of people who are infectious with #COVID19. The 2 data points you need are wastewater level today and 10 days ago, which you can get nationally and locally in many places, such as WastewaterSCAN. us-covid-infectious-estimates.netlify.app

Republican Thomas Massie: “I think it’s ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House, and we’re yelling election fraud? I mean, we won all the damn elections and we’re in charge.” A Republican loses a primary and finds a spine. thehill.com/homenews/hou...

Massie: Republicans need to ‘wake up’ to avoid ‘absolute shellacking’ in midterms

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned Thursday that Republicans could suffer major losses in November if the party doesn’t “wake up,” predicting an “absolute shellacking” for the GOP in the midterm ele…

thehill.com

I added to my spreadsheet the 100th study showing repeated #COVID19 infections increase risks for Long COVID and chronic health problems. One recent study found a history of reinfection had a 9.7x higher odds of LC in children and adolescents. More info: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 Studies

docs.google.com

The Trump administration has now paid around $2.5 billion to companies to cancel their offshore windfarms. We're canceling renewable energy projects that provide power and save the planet, all because Donalt Trump considers windmills ugly. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/c...

Trump Administration to Pay $765 Million to Cancel 4 More Wind Projects

nytimes.com

This spring's #COVID19 lull is very notable. Between Spring 2022 and Spring 2025 (last year), the lowest level of COVID in wastewater was 91 PMMoV. We've been below that for 4 months. Between Spring 2022 and Spring 2026 (this year), the lowest was 47 PMMoV. We've been below that for 10 weeks. 1/2

I continue to worry about two primary things with #COVID19: COVID in kids and the impact of reinfections. This STUDY of LC in kids found that for children over 8 years, individuals with a history of reinfection had almost a 10X higher odds ratio of Long COVID. www.frontiersin.org/journals/ped...

Frontiers | SARS-CoV-2 reinfection: a possible contributing factor to long COVID in children and adolescents

BackgroundFollowing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, attention shifted towards patients who developed sequelae, persistent symptoms, or relapsing or remitti...

frontiersin.org

Apropos of nothing in particular, according to US actuarial tables, an 80-year-old man has a 15 to 20% chance of dying in 2.5 years. Actuarial data indicates the average remaining life expectancy for an 80-year-old man is around 8.2 additional years. myannuitystore.com/resources/li...

Life Expectancy Tables 2026: SSA, IRS RMD Charts by Age

At age 65, a man is expected to live 17 more years and a woman 19.7. See full SSA, IRS Uniform Lifetime (RMD), and cohort tables - updated 2026.

myannuitystore.com

No sign of the US summer #COVID19 surge—yet. New NWSS data (as of 6/6) shows no upward trend. Every state still at very low activity except MS (moderate) and LA (low). www.cdc.gov/wastewater/r... Biofire still shows no upward trend in positive rate. www.syndromictrends.com 1/4

National Wastewater Data for Respiratory Viruses

View national wastewater viral activity data for Influenza A, COVID-19, and RSV.

cdc.gov