Per the NYT analysis I read yesterday, this points to signs of a Republican ripple, not a wave. The NYT's analysis was something like:

VA-2 falls --> Red Ripple
VA-7 falls --> Red Wave
VA-10 falls --> Red Tsunami

We held VA-7 and VA-10, so it's looking like the worst case scenario isn't happening, at least.

This district was expected to stay blue, but I read somewhere, I think NYT, that losing this district would be a sign of the worst case scenario for Democrats. So the fact that she has already been projected to win seems like good news. If Spanberger is projected to win soon that would be even better news.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/health/novavax-fda-eua-request/index.html

This may not be a big deal to most of you, but I've been caught between vaccine hesitant family members and the rest of the family for the past year, and Novavax might be the solution I've been waiting for. It's based on a protein subunit technology that has been in use for years, it seems to have fewer side effects than the other vaccines and potentially be more effective against Omicron, and even a right wing site that I stumbled on by accident when looking for news on it, which obviously I won't link here, called it a "pro-life" vaccine, so maybe some people with bogus religious exemptions will take it too, as well as many people who are hesitant about the current vaccines for health reasons. I'm really hoping this gets approved quickly and that my family members keep their promise to take a "traditional" vaccine once one becomes available.

I finally convinced someone who was vaccine-hesitant to get the J&J shot, but now I can't find it anywhere within a 50 mile radius. She's concerned about the mRNA vaccines and is only willing to get that one, but suddenly it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. Has it been paused again, or are places just not doing it anymore because the other two are more popular? Grrr!

I ask because several of my vaccine-hesitant relatives say they would take a COVID shot that works like a traditional vaccine, with a live, dead or attenuated virus. I believe them because they are not anti-vaxxers in general and had no problem with checking if their immunizations for things like MMR and TDAP were up to date before my son was born.

I found an article about one such candidate, a nasal vaccine that is currently in trials. But it seems like this is years away from becoming a reality. There's a vaccine with EUA in India, Covaxin, that seems to be a more traditional vaccine, but with my limited scientific knowledge I am not sure. My understanding is that Covaxin was denied an EUA and told to apply for full approval because there were enough vaccines already with EUA. If Covaxin is a more traditional vaccine, I think that is a big mistake on the part of the FDA, because at least some people would take the COVID shot if a more traditional vaccine were available.

Does anyone know if any other attenuated COVID vaccines are in the works or available in other parts of the world?

I recall reading that the recount would cost the Trump campaign about $3 million, so half of that is probably trivial for the Biden campaign in light of how much they raised. And I think it would be a good PR stunt to demonstrate his commitment to making sure every vote is counted fairly. Offering to chip in for a recount that won't benefit him and could conceivably hurt him (but won't) would make Biden look magnanimous and truly committed to a fair process, and would go a long way to undercut the baseless but sadly somewhat effective (in terms of public perception) lies that are being told about him trying to steal the election. Of course, those lies won't affect the outcome of the election, but they will potentially impact the approval rating he starts out with and the amount of good will he gets from the American people in the beginning.

What do you think?

This was looking like the one Clinton 2016-->Trump 2020 county in PA, but as I predicted, it's now back in our column.

There's still one Obama 2012-->Trump 2016 county, Luzerne, that we probably won't flip back. Trump is leading by double digits with 95% counted. But I expect it to narrow a bit when they finish counting mail ballots, if they haven't already. Biden is leading in every other Obama 2012-->Trump 2016 county in PA.

This should be interesting. Very curious to hear his thoughts on this election, given what he went through 20 years ago.

Do you think that means they're planning to call PA tonight?

Hillary lost this county by 1.5 points in 2016, a dramatic shift from 2012, when Obama won it by 17 points. On election night, it was looking like Biden was doing even worse than Hillary there, but as of a few minutes ago, CNN now has it very light blue, with Biden leading 49.8-48.8. 94% counted, so he won't come close to Obama's margin in 2012, but I'm happy to see that county and Northampton back in our column.

Now it looks like the only county Hillary won that Biden is losing is Monroe, and I'm guessing Biden will flip that too once all the votes are counted. Bigger question is whether he can win back Luzerne, which I believe is the only other Obama 2012-->Trump 2016 county in the state. Right now Biden is down 56.8-42.2 with 95% counted, so it's a major longshot, but he's already doing better than Hillary did there.