cremevax๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ’ป๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆโ€‹๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

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Former dev, Infosec-curious. Pronouns: she/her/OMG not her again. Married lesbian gal.

Since one of my hobbies is not dying of preventable diseases, I often post about vaccines. My handle is completely unrelated to this! Think VAX as in DEC, not vaccines. It's a misspelled ill-advised ancient Usenet joke, and now I'm stuck with this handle for as long as the Internet lives.

Jeremy Faust has a very good piece about some recent results about Paxlovid in our current #COVID #COVID19 environment: https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-paxlovid-era-why-two. The TL;DR is that two good studies show that this drugโ€™s utility has decreased a great deal as individual immunity developed with vaccines and infections.

What about Paxlovid benefits for immunocompromised people and preventing long covid? These are good questions, and I suggest reading the entire article to get Faustโ€™s assessment.

The end of the Paxlovid era? Why two new negative trials are great news.

These large and highly-anticipated trials found no reduction in hospitalization or deathโ€”and reveal how much the risk of Covid-19 has fallen.

Inside Medicine
I really should get back into #astrophotography this year. Last year was marred by both bad weather and brainfog. Here's an image from 2024.

But perhaps you would like to know some weird Vendovi Island facts. Here ya go:

The islandโ€™s reader board says it was named after a Fiji chieftain, Veidovi, who was being taken to New York to stand trial for the murder of sailors associated a 1840 South Pacific sailing expedition: https://sjpt.org/a-long-journey-home/. He died shortly thereafter and his skull was put on display at the US Patent Office?!?

For a while the island was inhabited by members of the Father Divine religious cult. After the death of its leader, Jim Jones tried to take the cult over by claiming to be the reincarnation of Father Divine. As the Wikipedia page on the cult explains, this was problematic from a math point of view, as Jim Jones had already been born before Father Divine died.

When you walk the trials you might happen on a clearing with an unexpected memorial to John Fluke of Fluke Instruments fame?!? Fluke bought the island in the 1960s, and his family sold the island to the San Juan Preservation Trust after he died. I guess there was some sort of understanding that the big memorial would remain.

A Long Journey Home: Ro Veidovi and the Island That Bears His Name - San Juan Preservation Trust

San Juan Preservation Trust
I recently visited Vendovi Island, part of the San Juan Island Preservation Trust, for the first time. It is a small island between Guemes Island and Lummi Island with about three miles of easy walking trails to explore. The only way there is by boat/kayak. https://sjpt.org/visit-our-preserves/vendovi-island-preserve/

After spending many hours checking flight routes, moon phases, and the movement of the cosmos throughout the night, I worked out that around 00:00 GMT would be the best time for me to try and shoot the Milky Way from a flight I'd booked.

๐Ÿ“ 37,000 ft in the air over northern Armenia.
๐Ÿ“ท OM System OM-1 II โ€ข OM System 8 mm f/1.8 Fisheye Pro.
โฑ๏ธ ISO 25600 โ€ข 16 seconds (2 seconds ร— 8 stacked) โ€ข f/1.8.

#MilkyWay #WingFriday #WindowSeat #AirTravel #Astrophotography #Photography

Comet C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS over Lausanne, Switzerland.
I had to work hard on this one due to the comet's very low altitude, the rising sun, and the city glow.
Canon EOS R7 + Canon RF 50.
50mm, f1.8, ISO 200, 324x5โ€™โ€™.
#canon #canoneosr7 #eosr7 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #comet #c2025r3 #panstarrs
The EU approved a combination mRNA flu vaccine and #COVID #COVID19 vaccine from Moderna. The covid component is based on mNexSpike, their next generation vaccine. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/moderna-s-combo-flu-covid-vaccine-receives-european-authorization
Modernaโ€™s combo flu-COVID vaccine receives European authorization

The decision comes after a positive phase 3 trial in older adults.

We went to see Anila Quayyum Aghaโ€™s show at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. This is the centerpiece of the show: an installation called โ€œA Beautiful Despair (blue).โ€ The show runs for a few more days.
The last of the three King County sites is King County South (KCS) treatment plant, and its Sars-CoV-2 7DRA numbers spiked up, welp. The last 7DRA calculation was made on 4/15.
The Brightwater sewage treatment plant (BWT) in Woodinville 7DRA numbers is also low. The last 7DRA calculation was made on 4/15.