Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

December Update: COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate

ACA Signups blog and healthcare author, Charles Gaba does a rewrite of an earlier commentary at his site. If you missed it, Angry Bear blog featured “33 Months of COVID In One Image” also. Recently, this writeup’s stats was used by Prof. Paul Krugman in his recent NYT article, “Will 2024 Be a Vaccine Election?” […]

What News Was in My In-Box, Dec. 14, 2022

Rents decreasing, CPI slowly decreasing, and questions on whether any of this is due to the FED’s actions. Industrial production is still the same and gasoline prices have dropped. According to New Deal democrats’ analysis, real sales and real income have increased (still lower than they were one year ago), and payrolls have continued to […]

33 Months Of COVID In One Image: One More Look At The Red/Blue Death Rate Divide

“33 Months of COVID in one image: One more look at the Red/Blue Death Rate Divide,” ACA Signups, Charles Gaba. Charles lives in Michigan, one county over from where I lived. While my County head Democrat was touting me for a great knowledge on healthcare to Slotkin, I was pushing Charles. He knew more about […]

Coronavirus dashboard for December 7: the first winter wave of endemicity begins

Coronavirus dashboard for December 7: the first winter wave of endemicity begins  – by New Deal democrat COVID is well on its way to becoming endemic, with a significant background level similar to what we have experienced in the last 8 months, and a surge during the winter months when people spend more time socializing […]

What News Was in My In-Box, Dec. 7, 2022

Assorted topics this time. Consumerism was actually the first topic on the list of links in my In-Box. I am interested in seeing how the US negotiates with the Taiwanese on a new plant and what the US will do with Supply Chains. It is not as simple as what many people think. You should […]

New Guidance for States to Stop Charging Parents for Foster Care

“States Should Use New Guidance to Stop Charging Parents for Foster Care, Prioritize Family Reunification,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, cbpp.org, Diana Azevedo-McCaffrey. This article was referenced at “Mike’s Blog Round Up,” Crooks and Liars, by Batocchio, on October 22, 2022. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children & Families is allowing states […]

What News Was in My In-Box, Nov. 30, 2022

Healthcare and the Environment appear to be the issues talked about in this installment of links. It was pretty clear this week in what showed up in my In-Box. Two of the topics I marked and suggesting you might read them. One is Healthcare Insurance Claim denial. The other is Solar Panel efficiency. I am […]

From the frontiers of viral immunology

Ever since the COVID mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) proved themselves, I became convinced they are the future of viral vaccines. Looks like a polyvalent flu vaccine is in the works that may obviate annual strain-specific vaccines. “In this work, we developed a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA)–lipid nanoparticle vaccine encoding hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 […]

Medicare Advantage Healthcare and FFS Medicare

Medicare Advantage Over Payments In the conclusive summation of the latest KFF report on Medicare Advantage Healthcare plans which KFF also has in place, is this: Historically, one goal of the Medicare Advantage program was to leverage the efficiencies of managed care to reduce Medicare spending. However, the program has never generated savings relative to traditional Medicare. […]