Looks like Ted Cruz will run in 2024 'In a heartbeat'.

Doesn't seem to care what Trump does:

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Texas-Senator-Ted-Cruz-2024-president-nomination-16725350.php


And the video:

https://www.politico.com/video/2021/12/22/absolutely-in-a-heartbeat-cruz-on-potential-2024-white-house-bid-441394

A Christmas Hymn - Richard Wilbur

Jingle Bell Rock - Cast of Glee

Third grade teacher hits full court basketball shot! The kids get free hot chocolate!

Had to happen in time for Christmas!

https://nypost.com/2021/12/23/teacher-who-hit-viral-shot-is-ex-rutgers-player-kathleen-fitzpatrick/

How many boosters should you get after the J&J vaccine?

I saw this from Dr. Forman and thought it might be of interest to anyone who originally got the J&J vaccine:


https://twitter.com/thehowie/status/1474196340364259330?s=20

Will Santa Claus come to Wall Street?

The final five trading days of the current year and the first two trading days of the new year have traditionally been a good period for Wall Street. Since 1928 the S&P has been positive 79 percent of the time registering about a 1.7 percent gain.
In any event, it's been a damn good year.



https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/23/santa-claus-may-be-on-his-way-to-stock-investors-in-the-week-ahead.html

The Return of The Mayflower Madam!

Oh, come on. You always wondered what happened to Sydney Biddle Barrows. She's living in the same rent controlled apartment, charging people serious money to give advice over the phone and retains a good sense of humor. Good for her!

https://nypost.com/2021/12/23/sydney-biddle-barrows-recalls-time-as-mayflower-madam/
.

The most recent data on hospitalizations from South Africa

Via Dr. Howard Forman of Yale:


https://twitter.com/thehowie/status/1474023197620453377?s=20

How long should you isolate if your are vaccinated and test positive for Covid?

This is the subject of ongoing debate. The CDC says currently 10 days. Dr. Faucci said yesterday said that is under review
The UK lowered it to 7 days yesterday..Dr. Jha and other public health professionals believe it should be 5. As the CDC points out vaccinated people are far less likely to spread the disease than the unvaccinated.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/22/health/isolation-guidance-covid-19-vaccinated-debate-wellness/index.html

The risks of dying from Covid if you are vaccinated

.I'm reproducing an excerpt from David Leonhardt's The Morning newsletter. Unfortunately I can't provide a link. Based on extensive research out of Oxford University, the risks of dying from Covid pre Omicron if you are vaccinated are comparable to the flu. However that is not entirely good news. If you are older the risks of dying from the flu are significant. The Oxford research indicates that a healthy infected 75 year old woman has a 1 in 220 chance of dying from Covid if fully vaccinated. The elderly are still at significant risk from Covid even if vaccinated. You don't want to know about the risk to the unvaccinated.
Anyway, here are a couple of paragraphs:

Encouragingly, there are reasons to believe that Omicron’s death rate may be lower. Three new studies released yesterday suggested that Omicron causes milder illness on average than earlier versions of the virus. “I would guess that the mortality risk with Omicron is much smaller” than with earlier variants, Dr. George Rutherford of the University of California, San Francisco, told me yesterday.

One reassuring comparison is to a normal seasonal flu. The average death rate among Americans over age 65 who contract the flu has ranged between 1 in 75 and 1 in 160 in recent years, according to the C.D.C. Pre-Omicron versions of Covid, in other words, seem to present risks of a similar order of magnitude to vaccinated people as a typical flu. Some years, a flu infection may be more dangerous.

With Omicron, “I think the risk is not super high for relatively healthy and boosted people in their 70s,” Janet Baseman, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, told me. “I think it’s moderate at most.”