News for week of 2022-12-26 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - December 25, 2022

News

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The snow caused a lot of issues over the weekend holiday.

I have a friend in middle Ohio by the coast that has to walk to work, and even bundled up with mask, ear hat, four layers and extra socks, still couldn’t do the -12F wind chill that was out there.

“”Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowbanks,” said Poloncarz. “We know there are people who have been stuck in cars for more than 2 days.””

https://www.wdsu.com/article/winter-storm-rain-snow-across-us/42334135

Lots of power outage too

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/weather/christmas-arctic-winter-storm-poweroutages-friday/index.html9

The routers articles are funky, one url says 1 million, the other says 500k, and the article body says the other number. Either way lots of power outages.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/over-300000-without-power-us-east-coast-texas-due-winter-storms-2022-12-23/

Cancelled a lot of flights too

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/24/winter-storms-force-airlines-to-cancel-10000-flights.html

 

This storm also broke records in how quickly temperatures dropped, and how long they stayed below zero. Where I live in CO temps dropped about 50 degrees in one hour and stayed between around -12 f and -20 f for about 2-3 days (usually we’d have a couple of nights at 3 f or so but never that cold and never for that long – and not really during the day). We’ve even experienced our first blackout in three years (resolved within an hour). Cheyenne, WY had temps dropping 40 degrees in 30 min (tweet has cool GIFs illustrating the storm): https://twitter.com/burgwx/status/1606454968688558081?t=6vkklNTmC6CxNmO5P0CM_Q&s=19

 

I’m struck by the story of the 22-year-old woman who died in her car in Buffalo while waiting for help.  I saw a TikTok by another woman in Buffalo who explained that, although the locals are used to extreme weather and always well-prepared, this event overwhelmed them.

To prepare myself for such a situation I’m keeping insulated coveralls and snowshoes in my car at all times.  I imagine that with warm clothing and snowshoes she could have saved herself.

 

Native Buffalonian here. Something that I don’t see talked about a lot with this storm is that it hit a bit farther north than our usual storms. We get lake effect snow so it can be very localized. Usually the worst snow is south of the city. Unfortunately this storm hit in the city where several factors made it much worse. One of the big things is there are a lot of poor people in the city (keep in mind that’s a generalization) It’s common in the south towns to keep a stock of emergency food, have a generator etc, which is not possible for some in the city. Also when people are living paycheck to paycheck it can be hard to say no to a boss telling you to come in.

 

Autopsies confirm live, replicating COVID virus in the brain. Medical significance not yet clear.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/longcovid/102384

 

From last week but U.S.national stockpile putting out Tamiflu

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/12/21/hhs-increases-access-to-tamiflu-through-the-strategic-national-stockpile.html

 

Strep is also going around. Taking out kids too. I have a friend that was hanging out in Dallas recently that caught it and confirmed it last Friday and wasn’t able to get antibiotics due to holiday weekend.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/cdc-warns-rise-severe-strep-a-infections-children-rcna63034

 

Global resurgence of cholera

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/parasites-and-plagues/102370

 

Get your free covid tests from USPS! It really helps to have these on hand in the post-holiday wave. https://special.usps.com/testkits 

 

New COVID variant XBB.1.5 is 2-3 times more infectious than any previous variant and will soon be dominant in USA. If you haven’t taken the new bivalent vaccine yet, now is the time.

https://erictopol.substack.com/p/a-new-variant-alert

 

Update on baby formula shortage:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102409

 

Winter storm knocks out power in Canada for multiple days. Guy is able to power the essentials of his house off his electric Ford F150 Lightning and still had a charge after two days. Cool emergency backup source of power. 

Ford Lightning owner powers home essentials for 2 days and still had battery left in the tank

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/30/us/blizzard-new-york-rescue-school-break-in/index.html

Man ends up helping to shelter 20+ people by breaking into a school after 10 households initially refused to shelter him and another unprepared man he came across also stuck in the snow.

 

Genetic variations and mutations of COVID are impacting PCR test accuracy 

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-covid-19-tests

 

UK hospitals overwhelmed.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1609676514928517120

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64126110.amp