Once again I find myself, an ostensibly tech-savvy individual,* faced with manually resetting the time on 11 clocks and appliances in my house. Only my phone, laptops, and tablet appear to have joined the 21st century by self-correcting to eastern standard time. Of course, if our country had truly joined the 21st century, we wouldn't be making this twice yearly switch in the first place.
My election anxiety is somewhat mollified by focusing on infectious diseases, so you can categorize the following as therapeutic in nature.
WRIS
Still not much going on, though I was intrigued that my state of residence is 1 of only 2 to show up with moderate respiratory illness activity last week.
I'm pretty impressed by how quiet the SARS-CoV-2 front is. However, it's still around, and we can expect to see a resurgence sometime.
The fact that influenza has not yet appeared might indicate we are returning to a more "normal" flu season. The graph below shows how different the prior 3 flu seasons were from pre-pandemic experiences, where last year had a very early peak and 2020-21 and 2021-22 had very low and atypical peaks. (Apologies for CDC's labelling here, but if you stare at it long enough you can pick out which line goes with which year.)
New Development in Bird Flu
The so-called highly pathogenic avian flu H5N1 cropping up in dairy and poultry farms and in wild bird populations has been in the news for many months now. It still seems to be a mild illness in humans, most of whom have direct exposure to these farms. Only 41 humans have confirmed infections in 2024 so far. What's a bit noteworthy this week is that the virus may now have shown up in pigs. USDA officials reported probable swine cases at a backyard farm in Oregon where poultry, cows, and pigs all mingle. The farm itself has no role in commercial production of any foods, so it isn't a risk to others. What is of slight concern is the fact that pigs are involved. Pigs have a special place in influenza science because they have both human and avian flu receptors in their respiratory tracts, making the chance for a recombination event to occur if they happen to be infected with human and avian viruses at the same time. Most of the time this doesn't cause creation of a new pandemic strain, and I wouldn't hit the panic button at all now. Actually I'm surprised it took this long for swine infection to be found. The affected animals were all euthanized and multiple studies are ongoing, so I'm sure we'll hear more about this.
Polio
The news isn't great as both wild and vaccine-variant polio cases continue to be reported. This Global Polio Eradication Initiative map is a good summary.
No new cases have been reported in Gaza, with just the 1 case confirmed so far. The interrupted vaccination campaign in northern Gaza restarted this week.
Dengue Still Going Strong
I was browsing the CDC dengue page this week; infections are still plentiful.
Puerto Rico has the greatest number by far, but note that we have had autochthonous (locally acquired without travel to endemic areas) dengue in the mainland US (California with 11 cases, Florida with 49).
*
Can I really claim to be tech-savvy? I think so. I have an advanced degree in educational technology with classes that included instruction in networks and the various hardware involved; the fact that my schooling ended in 2008 shouldn't disqualify me. Also, this past week I restored to full health our K-cup brewing machine that became confused and wouldn't deliver the appropriate coffee volumes or allow the correct menu choices in its buttons. I guess in the interest of full disclosure, when I couldn't find a satisfactory replacement brewer online, my astute intervention was reading the instruction manual, realizing that I hadn't ever de-scaled the device in the approximately 90 years I've owned it, and made it new again using only a low-tech tool (vinegar).
In spite of my skills with technology and vinegar, I'll be performing my semiannual time resets for the foreseeable future; I could never part with my grandfather's clock.
