*EU wants to force fashion firms to make clothes more durable and recyclable.*

That could be a great step forward, if it is enforced thoroughly.

The UK meteorologists will adjust their criterion for heat waves based on the new, hotter, normal.

That's reasonable as far as it goes. The concept of "heat wave" becomes useless if heat inflation results in a heat wave every week. Just as long as people don't get fooled and lulled by it.

*We are currently pushing existing vaccines to their limits with high infection levels, but we should instead be supporting them by reducing transmission. Returning to normal behaviour does not return us to normal life. It returns us to a life with more disruption, more sickness and more strain on [the medical system].*

*Why do we still have no answer for these four long Covid questions?*

The "let Covid rip" policy might almost make sense if our vaccines and treatments reduced the danger to a very small chance of death. There are two big flaws in that picture: (1) the substantial fraction of the population (perhaps 1/4 of the US) who are particularly vulnerable (and face a much larger chance of death), and (2) the risk of a fate worse than death: lasting disability due to Long Covid.

Information about the frequency of Long Covid is limited, and it comes mainly from unvaccinated people infected in 2020 by the original Covid-19. With Omicron, it could be so rare that it is no longer a major problem. Or it might be larger than before. BA.2 might be just like Omicron or it might be quite different.

In the face of this ignorance, the one thing we can be sure of is that the "let Covid rip" approach risks crippling considerable numbers of people.

Has anyone determined what fraction of the Americans that quit their jobs last fall quit because they were disabled? What fraction can't find child care because some of the people who previously provided child care had become disabled? To what extent was it, rather than the "great resignation", actually the "great incapacitation"?

One thing is clear. Now that Republicans have eliminated the funds for testing (as well as vaccination and treatment), many Americans, including those who can't escape being exposed every day, won't ever get tested for Covid-19. If they develop Long Covid symptoms, their doctors won't know they had Covid-19 at all.

If the wrecker runs against Biden again, the wrecker might win the popular vote, according to a recent poll.

Since the wrecker's fraction in this poll exceeds his general popularity, this must be due to Biden's unpopularity. Why is Biden so unpopular? I don't know, but I suspect that people blame him because Republicans blocked the mostly-good laws he proposed. I have seen that particular irrationality in the major media (when I see that). Instead of "Manchin and Sinema plus the Republicans blocked the bill," stories say "Biden failed to get his proposal enacted," as if that were his fault.

When and as Biden's proposed laws are inadequate, that's his fault.