The Daily Valet. - 8/3/22, Wednesday

✔️ Need a Boost?

Wednesday, August 3rd Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

You like dill pickles? Because if you do, you’re in for a treat.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

To Boost or Not to Boost?

COVID is still bouncing around with new variants and rebound cases ... so what should we do?

The Biden administration is preparing to launch a coronavirus booster campaign next month with a new, reformulated vaccine designed to provide stronger protection against the omicron subvariants sweeping the country.

According to the Washington Post, the FDA said it had received assurances from the vaccine manufacturers—Moderna and Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech—that reformulated boosters will be ready in September. Those boosters will contain components from the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 as well as the original formula.

The strategy is aimed at trying to balance protecting people now with keeping people safe next winter, when the country will probably get hit by yet another surge.

Still, researchers and public health officials are looking onward to a new generation of vaccines. One of those is a nasal vaccine that can be inhaled instead of injected. According to The Hill, they may be key in preventing the spread of the virus. While current mRNA vaccines induce robust immunity in the blood (preventing severe disease), research has suggested the antibody response in the airways where the virus enters the body may be lacking, particularly when it comes to this damn omicron sublineage.

What’s more, recent research published in Science Immunology suggests coupling the traditional vaxx with an intranasal booster vaccine can provide much stronger protection against the virus where it enters the body, thus limiting the spread and preventing breakthrough infections.

As for those who’ve recently tested positive and experienced rebound symptoms (like the president), that happens to about a third of people who come down with COVID, regardless of whether they’ve been treated with the antiviral Paxlovid, according to a study posted online Tuesday. But the phenomenon of waxing and waning symptoms is not unique to COVID. Several doctors told NBCNews that’s simply the natural history of all respiratory viral infections. So stay safe out there.

↦ Never Had it? As far as I’m aware, I haven’t caught COVID. But a mounting pile of scientific evidence suggests millions of Americans have been infected with the virus without ever even knowing it.

Is the Labor Market Cooling Down?

Despite a decline, total job openings remain well above the number of available workers

The hot labor market could be starting to soften, as U.S. employers posted 10.7 million job openings in June—their lowest level since September 2021. Despite the tapering off, the number of people who quit their jobs was still elevated, at 2.8%, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Job openings have slowed down,” an economist at jobs site Indeed told the Wall Street Journal. “There's still lots of opportunities for job seekers right now. We're just not seeing any further pickup or increase in those opportunities.” Still, despite several months of record-high job openings and quit rates, analysts say June's figures continue to reflect a strong labor market.

But as the labor market softens, workers are more likely to hold onto their jobs out of fear of recession and layoffs. On Friday, the Labor Department will release unemployment figures. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, in July reached their highest level since November, and are expected to have climbed slightly last week.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the strong job numbers for the first half of 2022 were a sign that the U.S. economy may not be in a recession, despite two consecutive quarters of negative growth. So we got that going for us.

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‘Batgirl’ Won’t Fly

HBO Max’s big budget female hero movie is headed to the vault instead of theaters

About a week ago, some keen industry folks and movie fans noticed that Comic-Con 2022 came and went without any mention of Batgirl, the film adaptation of the DC Comics character, shot over the winter and apparently due for release in 2023.

But on Tuesday, Variety and several other sources confirmed that Warner Bros. will be shelving the nearly completed $90 million project because, as insiders put it, “the movie simply did not work.” However, studio execs insist the decision to axe the film was not driven by the quality of the film or the commitment of the filmmakers, but by the desire for the studio's slate of DC features to be at a blockbuster scale.

Batgirl was originally conceived and produced as an HBO Max release, was later being considered for a theatrical rollout, and will now have neither. The movie, which was already in post-production, stars In the Heights breakout Leslie Grace, and DC even released first-look images of her in a throwback Batsuit last year.

According to The Verge, the list of American unreleased films on Wikipedia is not a long one, and the flicks on it usually have a reason for being there—see the 1994 Fantastic Four effort or Netflix's shelved Bill Cosby 77 project. Perhaps if fans really want to see this Batgirl, they'll need to rally and stage a serious social media campaign to get the studio to change its mind.

↦ FYI: Batgirl made her debut in the Batman mythos 50 years ago as Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.

Pickle Is Summer’s Big Flavor

It’s only a matter of time before White Claw introduces a spiked dill seltzer

Dill pickle seasoning is suddenly showing up on all sorts of non-brined foods—so much so that the New York Times has dedicated an entire trend piece to the phenomenon.

From hummus and popcorn to meat sticks, bagged salad and salad dressing, the pickled flavor is popping. And while some pickle-spiced foods (like potato chips) have existed for years, the versatility of the flavor and its virality on social media have helped the products multiple quickly.

Pickle flavor hits all the right notes for people—especially those under 40—who are looking for bigger, bolder, brighter and sourer flavors, food and beverage researchers said. Bret Thorn, a senior food and beverage editor at Nation's Restaurant News told the Times, “It's a tanginess that appeals to a lot of consumers, especially younger ones.”

And it's not just packaged goods. Recipes recreating the flavor are being published more online as well. There's dill pickle pizza, homemade potato chips and even a dill and cucumber cocktail. So really, it's only a matter of time before the hard seltzers starts experimenting.

↦ Dig Deeper: Mashed dives into the jar for the whole backstory on the dill pickle.

In Other News

↦ Voters in Kansas Decide to Keep Abortion Legal in the State, Rejecting an Amendment

↦ Earth Just Mysteriously Spun Faster, Causing Shortest Day Ever Recorded

↦ Diane Warren Apologizes for Disrespecting Beyoncé

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Splitting the bill

Having a big earthy summer

Good celebrity NFTs

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