There's a very good and comprehensive article in today’s Washington Post on whether to boost again now or later.  You can read it here.

But if you don't want to read the whole thing or can't access the paper, I mainly note this for one particular passage which I found the most interesting. And comforting –

“The decision about when, whether and who to boost has also been complicated by imperfect data. A widely quoted CDC study showed that protection against severe illness from three shots waned over four months, from 91 percent to 78 percent.

“What was lost in the messaging was that those who had been vaccinated for more than four months in that study were primarily people with poorly functioning immune systems, who typically respond less well to vaccination. When the data was instead limited to people with functioning immune systems, there was little evidence that protection against hospitalization was waning among people 65 and older, according to data presented by Ruth Link-Gelles, part of the CDC’s Epidemiology Task Force at a federal advisory committee meeting this month.”

The show writes that “We don’t want to send the message that criticizing us on Twitter is a ticket to the podcast...but that’s what climate reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis did, and now here she is. Kendra had some issues with our climate episode on Apple TV+, so Jon invited her on for a conversation. And just like our planet, things heated up—insofar as you can call a thoughtful exchange of ideas ‘heated up.’ Jon is also joined by writers Rob Christensen and Tocarra Mallard to talk about Twitter trolls, beard maintenance, and the importance of a steady government job.”

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is Woody Hoburg, a former astronaut candidate-in-training – and now officially an astronaut.  He and host Peter Sagal talk about how, although he hasn’t been into space yet, he is now assigned to the Artemis mission planned for the moon a couple years away. The conversation is very low-key and charming, as he talks about his plans for getting ready, including if he’s decided what one personal item he’s allowed to bring.

This the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:30 mark.

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guests are Andy Slavitt and Laurie Garrett who discuss disturbing new Covid realties, which Al notes “turns out this is harder than we thought.”

A couple years ago, a friend recommended what he said was a fascinating HBO documentary, The Inventor:  Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.  And he also recommended a book on it all – Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, which came first.  In fact, Carreyrou initially wrote the story as a series of articles for which he won the Polk Award.  (Previously, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for another series on corporate scandals.)
 
I can’t recommend them both highly enough.  They were both wonderfully done, and worked as companion pieces, even though I don’t believe they were related.  Carreyrou’s book was meticulously researched, filled with material the documentary couldn’t begin to cover – in fact, he was called as a witness during her recent fraud trial.  Where the documentary shined was that she had so much of her work videotaped that it’s remarkable how much footage is available.  And so you get to see her in action – which is very important to the story, especially if you only saw coverage of her at the trail.  A point that Carreyrou makes is that she consciously patterned herself on Steve Jobs, down her clothes, the black turtleneck, her tight hairstyle, lowering her voice and even training herself not to blink.  So, seeing her in action adds something the wonderful book can’t show.
 
To those interested, you can get the book here.
 
I didn’t follow the trail closely, but because of the book and documentary, I did stay on top of it to a reasonable degree.  And the verdict came down yesterday that she was found guilty on four counts, and not guilty on four other charges – and the jury was deadlocked on three.
 
My view and my friends overlapped, though we had a slight divergence – he thought it was a scam with her from early on, perhaps even the beginning.  I felt she seemed well-meaning, though deluded in thinking she could develop what her supervisor said was physically not possible…but she got so deep into things that she probably (in part) convinced herself it would work and in larger part had to start lying and scamming so that the House of Cards she built wouldn’t fall apart.  In either case, being found guilty on four counts seems justified.  And that they didn’t convict her on seven of the charges perhaps suggests the jury agreed with him – though not necessarily, since they might have felt she was largely guilty but the government didn’t prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
CNN legal Elie Honig analyst had interesting comments on what he expected the penalty would be.  He said –
 
"All that matters here for sentencing purposes is the guilty counts. This is a maximum of 20 years, but in the federal system, we have this guidelines book. And the sentence — the recommended sentence is driven largely by how much loss there is. We are talking about a $140 million loss case. I did a quick calculation. That comes out to a recommended guidelines range of, conservatively ten years, potentially as high as 15 or 16 years depending on other enhancements. So she is looking at at least a decade behind bars under sentencing guidelines."

I’m certain that we haven’t heard the last.  No doubt she'll appeal, but I’m not sure what grounds she has for an appeal to succeed.  And there’s also the upcoming trial of her former boyfriend and partner Sunny Balwani, who her lawyers tried to blame for it all.  But that strategy clearly didn't succeed, and there would seem to be nothing that his trial can do to help her or her reputation -- after all, if the government thought she was just a victim they wouldn’t have gone after her, and his side is going to try and blame her for everything.  So, yes, she’ll still be in the news.  But other than the sentencing, I suspect her day in court is largely over.  But we’ll see…
  
I believe there are two movies being made about this all, one of which is for Apple Original Films based on John Carreyrou's book, Bad Blood. It's set to star Jennifer Lawrence, which I think is great casting.  And directed and co-written (with Vanessa Taylor) by Adam McKay, who did The Big Short.

This is the trailer for the original HBO documentary.  You'll not only see how well-made it is, but also what I was talking about above with her -- and why Jennifer Lawrence is great casting.

And if you do see the documentary, which is terrific, I can only repeat that Carreyrou's book adds so much more.
 
And that’s the news from Today in Court…

Oh, my – this from Stephen Colbert is too good. 

I sense that his band leader, Jon Batiste, wasn’t at rehearsals for the monologue.  He may have been, and he may be a terrific actor, but since there’s no great reason for him to have been there, his surprised expression (along with the audience’s response) appears awfully natural and speaks to how strong and unexpected Colbert's punchline is.

(Especially since even Colbert himself seems a bit surprised by how vociferous the reaction.)
 
The video is only about a minute, and concerns Ron Johnson again – though not on the topic I referenced the other day, but another truly idiotic thing he said a few days earlier about his irresponsible, shameful claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci "overhyped" the COVID pandemic like he supposedly did with AIDS.

​For the record, 36 million people around the world have died from AIDS.