This winter's U.S. COVID surge is fading fast, likely thanks to a 'wall' of immunity – NPR https://t.co/h210Oykj1g
— Rod (@rodimusprime) February 3, 2023
It certainly looks like the Winter of 2023 is getting off easy with #COVID19 — likely, because most of the population is vaccinated, boosted, and previously infected. pic.twitter.com/0HkX4zIi9Y
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 6, 2023
The Green Lantern Pandemic Theory: We can force this epidemic to be over if only we have the WILL!
As of Monday at 8:00 a.m. ET, the unofficial #Covid toll in the U.S. reached 102,592,201 cases & 1,111,495 deaths, increases of 308,615 cases and 3,849 deaths since this time a week ago https://t.co/HHTq2gDcY1 #CovidIsntOver pic.twitter.com/Ur1C7DIkmq
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) February 6, 2023
15,625 Americans have died from COVID 19 in the past 28 days. This is not over.https://t.co/smPsGLI8qq
— Michelle RN, CHPN, Retired for Now (@MichelleRNCHPN) February 6, 2023
The US gov't will stop buying #Covid shots for the public this fall. Here’s what that means:
– Pfizer/Moderna will sell shots to health-care providers at higher cost
– People w/ health ins will still get shots free
– Uninsured may have to pay full price https://t.co/YpCr5KBgJE— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) February 7, 2023
======
Dr. Li saved a lot of lives, not all of them in China:
… Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, died on Feb. 7, 2020, from contracting the virus shortly after warning his colleagues about the COVID virus.
He was silenced by Chinese authorities for spreading rumors when the outbreak began.
Three years later, many people regard him as a symbol for freedom of speech in China…
In the months after the outbreak, President Xi Jinping enacted a strict zero-COVID policy and ordered lockdowns in many cities across the country.
Authorities lifted the restrictions in December after protests around the country in late November dubbed the “white paper” movement because of the blank white papers that protesters held up to show their dissatisfaction with the lockdowns as well as limits on freedom of speech…
Zhou Fengsuo, president of Humanitarian China, said the white paper movement was the largest demonstrations in China since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
“This was definitely the first time that I’m seeing such a deep, profound change in the young people,” said Zhou. “They are awakening to their true identity. They have transformed themselves through protesting, through calling for freedom in China.”
Zhou said he was hopeful for the younger generation, that they might bring change.
He quoted one of Dr. Li’s final utterances: “A healthy society cannot have only one voice.”…
China’s long-term future with Covid-19 will depend on accurate data https://t.co/sMJ5kykw0L
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) February 7, 2023
Excellent article — well worth reading the whole thing:
The Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week declared that the Chinese capital’s population had reached temporary herd immunity from Covid-19, after a feared second wave did not occur after the Lunar New Year.
Beijing CDC deputy director Wang Quanyi said a serum survey will determine antibody levels among the city’s residents, to help formulate its response to further outbreaks.
This kind of survey is common after a wave of infectious illness, to assess the number of people affected and overall levels of immunity, but it is not the only information needed when preparing future policy.
Without reliable data on Covid-related deaths, it will be impossible to gauge the full impact of the outbreak or the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments.
While China has released data on deaths, severe cases and hospitalisations in the wake of mounting international pressure – including requests from the World Health Organization – many international experts doubt its accuracy.
They point to China’s definition of Covid-related deaths and the number of tests performed, as well as reports that doctors are discouraged from putting Covid-19 as the cause of death when a patient has other underlying illnesses.
When mass travel at the end of January for the Lunar New Year holiday did not bring the second wave that some mainland scientists were worried was coming, officials and state media were quick to report a dramatic drop in severe Covid-19 cases and deaths.
The National Health Commission recorded almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths between December 8 – when China scrapped mass testing and daily reporting of Covid-19 numbers – and January 12.
Since last month’s peak, China reported a nearly 90 per cent drop in Covid-19 deaths and severe cases among hospital patients on February 1 .
While Chinese state media is relaying a message that the worst is over, some scientists are now predicting another wave in three to four months, when the population’s immunity wanes, but with mild symptoms for most people…
Japan 🇯🇵 Covid cases & deaths 6th February (Daily)
(Weekend data, Sun/Mon, generally lower)Number of newly confirmed cases
15,612 casesCompared to the previous day
– 16,847 cases+ 124 New Deaths #Coronavirus #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #Japan pic.twitter.com/fwjotrobFw
— Tigress (@tigresseleanor) February 6, 2023
======
(link)
Excess mortality among American physicians during the Covid pandemichttps://t.co/fGHu44FE9R
"Active physicians had lower excess mortality than nonactive physicians despite their higher risk " @JAMAInternalMed pic.twitter.com/gMEhQ2ibRc— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 6, 2023
From a longer thread:
Some are saying that the BMJ study shows vaccines are a higher risk for causing severe myocarditis than covid.
That's wrong.
If anything it says you're ~4 times less likely to get myocarditis, ~23 times less likely to get heart failure, and ~80 times less likely to die.
1/12 pic.twitter.com/OZqqxnJSZn
— Kyle Sheldrick (@K_Sheldrick) February 6, 2023
(link)
(link)
(link)
======
(link)
(link)
(link)
New book "The Big Myth" argues that "market fundamentalism" leads to science denial. Anti-vaxxers & anti-public health troglodytes are drawn to easily digested falsehoods.
They also believe in [invisible] boogeymen trying to force something on them or take something away⬇️ https://t.co/Oj6LC13VgM— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) February 5, 2023
… The law — said to be the first of its kind in the U.S. — specifies that for physicians and surgeons, the dissemination of misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19 constitutes unprofessional conduct, which is subject to discipline by the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California. (Existing law specifies that the applicable board take action against any licensed physician or surgeon charged with unprofessional conduct.)
Notably, AB 2098 specifies that dissemination applies to information shared by the physician to a patient under their care in the form of treatment or advice. And it defines misinformation as “false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care.” The law does not cover information stated in a public domain, such as on social media, because that provision was removed as the bill moved through the legislative process last year…
Jaffe told MedPage Today that, in representing the plaintiffs, the legal argument against AB 2098 especially needs to emphasize that “contemporary scientific consensus” is meaningless. As it relates to COVID-19, there have been instances of that consensus falling apart in real time, he said.
Jenin Younes, JD, litigation counsel for the NCLA, called the order granting a preliminary injunction against the law a “significant victory,” adding in a phone interview with MedPage Today that “people have the right to know what the law means” and that vagueness leads to a “chilling effect.”
Practical concerns arise if physicians are afraid that what they say violates the law, she said. “It damages the relationship and trust between physicians and patients.”
She further said that AB 2098 isn’t necessary, because there are already tools in place to hold physicians responsible for bad conduct…
The Center for Countering Digital Hate has been one of the strongest voices against disinformation throughout this pandemic. Their March 2021 “Disinformation Dozen” report has been extremely helpful to explain how a small number of individuals peddling pandemic lies have created such outsized noise through social media which has consequences in shaping public health behavior offline. Their calls to platforms to reign in the risk these individuals posed to global public health have gone mostly unanswered and in the case of Twitter, new owner Elon Musk has done the exact opposite of what is needed by re-platforming anti-vax extremists.
Their follow-up report “The Pandemic Profiteers” from June 2021 is worth giving as much attention as their first. For a more updated report, see “The science (and business) behind COVID-19 disinformation. And what to do about it.” from Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina. The contents of the CCDH’s 2021 report are echoed in what we are still seeing in 2023 and saw throughout 2022…
It pays to deceive online. All the way back in 2021 the CCDH was calling out RFK Jr. and Del Bigtree’s admission in court that social media was key to their organizations’ revenue streams. That is why deplatforming grifters is so important. The profit (and politics) are what drive their behavior. Social media companies have been complicit in allowing this to happen and harm their users in the process…
Buzzy disinformation gets more engagement on social media which increases the bottom line for the platforms. This was the case long before anti-vaxxer and far-right Republican Elon Musk – who invested in Steve Kirsch’s “Covid Early Treatment Fund” and has engaged in the extremist rhetoric of RFK Jr., Del Bigtree, and Dr. Simone Gold – took over at Twitter. His decision to drop Twitter’s Covid disinformation policy is likely due to a mix of prioritizing Twitter’s bottom line, his own politics, and protecting his own investments in the anti-vax movement.
This is the magnitude of the problem we are up against. In the absence of prioritizing facts, social media has had a direct hand in ushering in rising hate speech and attacks on the overwhelming majority of healthcare workers who are pro-vax. Just as anti-vax disinformation causes real life consequences in avoidable unvaxxed illness, hospitalization, death, and economic destruction, the hate speech generated from allowing these conspiracy theorist individuals a platform has frightening consequences on the safety of those who dare to stand up for truth…
We've sat on this piece for a bit, but IMO it's inarguable. If Republicans hadn't been killed off their own voters by being so anti-vaccine, Abe Hamedeh (who lost by 280 votes) would be the Arizona Attorney General.
From @notkavi and I for @SplitTicket: https://t.co/hSfquJVNrC
— Lakshya Jain (@lxeagle17) February 5, 2023
time was, I was in favor of maximal vax policies because I believed that people shouldn't preventably die even if they're morons. congrats on successfully beating that out of me! now I just care about their idiocy to the extent it impacts me, which is of course still too much.
— William B. Fuckley (@opinonhaver) February 6, 2023
Reader Interactions
63Comments
Comments are closed.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
124 new cases on 02/03/23.
96 new cases on 02/04/23.
79 new cases on 02/05/23.
58 new cases on 02/06/23.
Deaths at 2171, up 11 from last week. We seem to be consistently losing 10 people a week even though the case counts are relatively low.
As for hospital beds, we’re still at 5% available now, including 18 ICU beds among 4 hospitals. The largest hospital still has no regular available beds.
New Deal democrat
Biobot updated yesterday, reporting a continued decline in COVID particles, now off 40% from their post-Holiday peak, and slightly below average for the last nine months. This is equivalent to about 200,000 “real” cases per day. All regions declined except for the West, which is flat. The West and Midwest are equivalent to their lows for the last nine months, while the Northeast and South remain somewhat elevated. Further, at this point we have a conundrum in that generally speaking the Northeast has been the most vaccinated region, but for most of the last nine months has had the highest concentration of COVID particles. Perhaps it is population density easing transmission?
At 44,700, confirmed cases are also down about 40% from their post-Holiday peak, but still well above their October low of 34,400. Regionally the Northeast is declining slightly, and the other three are flat. The South and Northeast are elevated compared with the West and Midwest.
Hospitalizations have continued to decline to 26,800, almost back to their October low of 22,900. The bad news is that deaths remain elevated at 552, although below their January 24 peak of 636. In the past two winters, deaths began a precipitous decline after February 5 and 14 respectively, so hopefully that will be the case this year as well.
There has been no significant news about new variant CH.1.1, which shares an important mutation with the old Delta variant.
I think we are very close to what endemic COVID will look like for a long time to come. The good news is that the fatality rate is something like 1:700 real cases as implied by Biobot. The concerning news is that the effectiveness of the latest boosters are probably waning, with no policies about regular shots for those most at risk in sight.
Matt McIrvin
As one of the infected in this wave, I guess I got off easy in the sense that I didn’t get seriously ill, but it didn’t feel easier to me.
The descent from the winter peak has been treacherously slow and lumpy here, not like the rapid drop from the big Omicron wave of 2021-22. There seem to be all these little aftershock outbreaks locally. I don’t think we’ve hit the peak of deaths yet–it’s going to be more substantial than you’d think from a lot of the other numbers, maybe half of the big Omicron wave. That might be because deaths disproportionately show the impact on the elderly and un- or under-vaccinated. I suspect that in the final retrospective analysis the 2022-23 winter wave is going to be deadlier than people expect.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 175 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 5,038,170 cases. 174 of these new cases were local infections; one new case was imported. It also reported one death, for an adjusted cumulative total of 36,944 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
17,276 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 3rd February, with a positivity rate of 1.3%.
There were 10,053 active cases yesterday, 22 fewer than the day before. 388 were in hospital. Six confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, five confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 195 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,991,173 patients recovered – 99.1% of the cumulative reported total.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 1,410 doses of vaccine on 6th February: 59 first doses, 51 second doses, 348 first booster doses, and 952 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,763,111 doses administered: 28,127,077 first doses, 27,538,951 second doses, 16,304,751 first booster doses, and 792,332 second booster doses. 86.1% of the population have received their first dose, 84.3% their second dose, 49.9% their first booster dose, and 2.4% their second booster dose.
Spanky
Welcome to my world, William B Fuckley.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I still don’t know how I’ve managed to avoid infection – my girlfriend, my parents, and my brother are about the only people I know who have successfully dodged the COVID bullet. Everywhere else I look, people have caught it to one degree or another, some people multiple times.
I guess the best I can do is keep up with daily masking, get my boosters every six months (that’s the recommendation for over-50 people like me, right?), and be prepared to confront anyone demanding I unmask with detailed instructions as to how he can use a steak knife and a corkscrew to go sodomize himself.
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/4 the China CDC provided a summary of state of the COVID-19 pandemic in China as of 2/2:
As of 2/2, there were 98,742 hospitalized cases positive for SARS-CoV-2 (~ 30% lower than 1/30)
As of 2/2, there were 7,918 of whom are in severe/critical condition (~ 45% lower than 1/30), 653 w/ severe/critical COVID-19 symptoms & 7,265 w/ severe/critical co-morbidities
Between 1/27 – 2/2, 3,278 COVID-19 related deaths were reported at hospitals (~ 50% lower than the previous 7 day period); 131 deaths directly caused by COVID-19 & 3,147 were caused by co-morbidities
It does not appear that the Spring Festival holiday travels have caused a new wave of hospitalizations & deaths, as feared. The vast majority of the population had already been infected before the holiday.
Between 1/22 – 1/28, positivity rate of travelers from Mainland China to South Korea was 2% (once as high as 30%), though all travelers had to have negative PCR tests w/in 48 hrs of departure. On 2/4, the positivity rate of travelers from Mainland China to Taiwan was 1.28% (once as high as 25%).
As of 1/26, 3,490.419M vaccine shots have been injected in Mainland China, 1,310.267M individuals have taken at least 1 shot, 1,276.661M individuals have completed their primary courses, 826.772M individuals have taken at least 1 booster. Among the > 60 y.o. cohort, 241.645M individuals have taken at least 1 shot, 230.176M individuals have completed their primary courses, & 192.395M individuals have taken at least 1 booster shot.
Taiwan, Hong Kong & Macau do not appear to be publishing daily data dumps, so I am using data from Worldometer.
On 2/6, Hong Kong reported 291 new positive cases & 5 new deaths. There have been 13,393 total COVID-19 deaths to date.
On 2/6, Macau reported 2 new positive case & 0 new deaths. There have been 121 total COVID-19 deaths to date.
On 2/6, Taiwan added 16,640 new positive cases & 63 new deaths. There have been 16,750 total COVID-19 deaths to date.
OzarkHillbilly
She’s got a point there.
p.a.
“it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.
… and then there are the idiots and grifters – me
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: To elaborate, just look at how Docs in antiabortion states deal with failing pregnancies. They don’t.
jonas
A bunch of red states have (or had, until recently) laws *requiring* physicians providing abortion care to give patients patently wrong and unscientific information about the long term health consequences of an abortion and those rules apparently passed legal muster, so I can’t see why this wouldn’t.
NotMax
@Bruce K in ATH-GR
OT: Snow on the Acropolis, according to what I’ve been reading?
Ohio Mom
Re: the twelve people who are responsible for 70% of Covid misinformation on Twitter.
I am reminded of Margaret Mead’s observation (quoting from memory), “Never doubt a small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Though I don’t think she would be pleased to see this application of her maxim.
Barney
As an example of how effed up Twitter is by now, the link to John Hopkins University data from Michelle, RN’s tweet was initially marked as “the following media contains potentially sensitive content” for me, so I had to give the extra click to see that it was from JHU. It’s a map! It can’t even be bots alerting on something politically inconvenient to get it hidden.
terraformer
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Agreed. While my son got it, my wife and I have not. We are the only people we’re aware of who haven’t caught it yet.
We still mask in close quarters/large crowds (we went to a hockey game here in MKE Saturday night and I swear I think we were the only people wearing masks). I still wear one at the gym too – one of only a handful who do.
I don’t know, it’s not difficult to wear one – even in the gym. I can’t imagine why people *won’t* wear one if conditions warrant. I *like* not getting sick, nor having had the flu or even a cold in 3+ years.
If we make it through all this, I hope the historical record is harsh against those who refused precautions based on tribal instinct rather than sober analysis. It’s never not amazing that so, so many people believe things that are against face validity (e.g., a barrier in front of the nose and mouth doesn’t reduce droplet transmission)
Nicole
I can’t help but think that a lot of the falling numbers in cases is from people taking rapid tests at home and not reporting it anywhere. I don’t know what’s to be done about it; you can only work with the data you have, but I just don’t see how anywhere near the number of actual cases are being reported.
My son has a pretty severe cold this week (this whole autumn/winter has been a series of regular, run-of-the-mill viruses for him, as it’s the first full school year with optional masking). He wanted to take a Covid test, and as I’ve used all of our free ones, I ran down to the local pharmacy to buy one- TWENTY DOLLARS FOR ONE TEST. Had I gone to Rite Aid, it still would have been $10.
I foresee a lot of people blowing off symptoms as “just allergies” as we go forward. I mean, I’m cautious; I wear my mask on public transit and if I’m in a store for more than 5 minutes, but I don’t want to fork out $10 every time I want to go to a social event.
OzarkHillbilly
@terraformer: My wife and I have also never gotten it.
Exactly.
Nobody has ever challenged me on my masking up. If they ever do, I will probably react the same way I react to any such bullshit: Just look them in the eye and not say a word. Either that or ask them what it says about them that I am doing more to protect their family than they are.
jonas
Wait, is that tweet by Dr. Iwasaki suggesting her colleague got long Covid from a vaccine trial? How does that work?
jonas
@NotMax:
Snow in Athens is rare, but it happens. A big winter storm swept across southern Europe and the Mediterranean this week. It’s been hampering rescue and recovery efforts after the earthquake in Turkey.
MomSense
I guess Republicans did have a red wave – just not the way they hoped.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@NotMax: Can’t personally confirm about the Acropolis itself, but Athens has been seeing snow since Monday morning. In fact it’s snowing right now (1406 UTC). We’ve had road closures, shop closures, and nobody in Attica was allowed to drive yesterday unless they had snow chains.
jonas
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Maybe I’ve missed it, but I don’t think the CDC has given any guidance yet on further boosters if you’ve already taken the bivalent one. I think they’re still working out whether to recommend a general booster every year (six months, or whatever), or only when another variant emerges.
Doug R
TBH I was afraid of what we’d see with China opening up, but the numbers aren’t so scary yet.
Of course it takes a week or two to see most infections hit the hospitals and another week or two to see the death rate rise.
So cautiously hopeful.
bluefoot
I am pretty angry that the uninsured will have to pay full price for COVID vaccines once the emergency is rescinded. That’s pretty much the opposite of sensible public health.
That item about active physicians having lower COVID rates is interesting. I am going to have to dig into that. But what I have seen is that active physicians have been very diligent about testing themselves and properly wearing PPE.
I am one of several of my circle who still haven’t had COVID yet as far as we know. I hope to delay getting COVID as long as possible. Still masking in indoor public spaces.
I was getting a weekly PCR test while they were free where I work (from late 2020-Dec2022). It’s possible I had COVID early in the pandemic – I have several friends who got it as a result of that biotech superspreader event in Feb 2020.
Raven
And the alarm about the bird flu?
Matt McIrvin
@terraformer: I am never optimistic about the historical record being accurate in the future. I think the popular story of COVID will be that everyone overreacted and it wasn’t that big a deal.
dmsilev
@Nicole: I’ve stopped looking at the case count numbers; as you say, the rapid tests not being reported makes them basically useless. Hospitalizations has become my go-to metric for “how bad is COVID right now?”, since that’s both a reliable test/report regimen and also selects for bad cases.
Locally, we’re at about half of the peak (which was around New Year’s), but the peak in the current wave was about 1/4th as bad as it was last winter when Omicron blew through.
Ohio Mom
@Nicole: I asked the pharmacist the other day if Covid tests will continue to be free for those of us on Medicare. She said nobody knows yet. We both agreed you can’t really stockpile them because they expire.
I had a mixed experience with Paxlovid — I rebounded but considering how awful I felt that first day before I started taking it, I was probably better off having taken it.
Obviously, I wouldn’t have been able to call my doctor and get that prescription without the home test. Going forward as someone who is high-risk, I like having a home test or two on hand.
When you are sick, you don’t want to have to run out and buy one, and I think it bad manners to go out in public with a raging case of Covid, even masked. So I may have to pony up for tests I guess.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas:
Because certain judges are pro-falsehood and anti-truth.
Elizabelle
re the Propaganda Works tweets: here is the WaPost link to that article. Dated yesterday. Not a gift link.
Conservative doctors were more likely to see hydroxychloroquine as effective
This part we could figure from the tweeted portions:
And this was more interesting: confirmation bias, anyone??
Fake news! Woke research!
Kay had that interesting comment yesterday about the conservative leaning law grad applying for a job at her firm. He thought the economy was in dreadful shape. She needs someone who lives in the reality-based world.
Pay attention to the professionals you deal with. Some of them may have blinders on, and it can hurt you, and your clients.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: It sounded to me as if she was simply saying one of her coworkers got long COVID, unrelated to any vaccine trial. The point being that this is a widespread problem with an obvious human toll.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Hallelujah. May their numbers continue to drop.
Amir Khalid
@Nicole:
TWENTY DOLLARS?! The most expensive rapid antigen self-test kit I found on the website of a Malaysian pharmacy chain cost RM9.90 (US$2.30) before discount.
Elizabelle
We can still order free “Biden” Covid test kits “this winter.” Four free tests. Delivered by that woke organization, the USPS. Right to your door. They know where you live!
https://www.covid.gov/tests
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Direct USPS link.
jonas
@Nicole: Public health officials have several data sources — reported tests are just one. Those may not capture the full picture, but they indicate a trend one way or the other. There is also wastewater monitoring, which is probably going to be the best tracking method going forward. In my county in NY, for example, the wastewater trend tracks the reported case trend pretty closely — both show a decent decline in infections over the past two weeks. Still a high level, but headed down.
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: I’m going to disagree with you about deaths.
Per Biobot, in 2021-22 particles peaked between December 29-January 2. In 2022-23 they peaked on December 28, at almost exactly 1/4 of their peak in 2021-22. In 2022 deaths peaked on January 13 at 3376. Deaths in 2023 peaked on January 24 at 636. While 1/4 of the 2022 deaths would have been 844, we should have seen that by now.
One crucial difference is that, this year, hospitals are not overwhelmed with patients, having in some cases to turn patients away. Additionally, there are virtually no COVID-naive individuals left. Almost everybody has been vaccinated and/or infected. Finally, there was no paxlovid last year.
We’ll see, but I think the circumstantial evidence is convincing.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: The death rate seems to be way worse in the Northeast (at least by comparison with earlier waves) than it is the country as a whole. I was looking at local numbers.
Glidwrith
@OzarkHillbilly: I have been challenged only once for masking. Man approaching me on an empty street and I get on a mask before he gets near enough to infect me.
Him: Don’t worry, I don’t bite
Me: But I do!
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Some of the COVID tests they sell here are these ridiculously overengineered devices that transmit their results via Bluetooth to a phone app (I think they’re just detecting the stripe on a strip using an LED and photosensor). Sometimes those are the only ones available at the drugstore.
The Moar You Know
A ridiculous take. What this means is that uninsured won’t get vaccinated or boosted.
As for dropping the CA vaccine mandate, all I can say is that this is totally on-brand for Newsom. I thought he’d finally found the courage of his convictions, but I should have known better. He’s been doing grandstanding shit like this his entire political career, then walking it back, and I was foolish to think he might have stopped now.
He will make the second-shittiest president America’s ever had, if people are dumb enough to let him have a shot at it.
Mel
@OzarkHillbilly: I am really thankful that you are not getting hassled.
I got challenged in a hospital facility, by the employee in charge of registering patients for cardiac testing. They have a “masks optional” policy for everyone, including employees, even in the cardiac and oncology units. Unreal.
The employee rolled her eyes at me and told me in a nasty, mocking tone that I didn’t “need to wear some silly mask anymore. They don’t really work anyway, you should know that by now. You should take that off.” When I said no, she laughed in my face.
I let her have it: listed my high risk conditions, told her that I hope that if she ever needs surgery, the surgical staff does it without any masks and breathes right in her surgical site, which shouldn’t be a problem for her if she really thinks that n95s “don’t work”. I reported her to hospital administration.
The only consequence she received was “advice” to “be more polite and thoughtful to our patients”. Okay… bet that will work wonders!
Not: “Stop badgering sick people who are following reasonable precautions.” Not: “We’re writing this up and warning you to stop intimidating patients.” Not even: “We’re making her do some re-training” (translation: “We don’t give a shit about patients, but we don’t want to get sued, so we’ll make her sit in a room and watch a pointless video for 20 minutes to cover our asses”).
It has also happened in a LabCorp lab, and on the sidewalk in front of a pharmacy. I’m a petite woman (5’1”), and it was pretty unnerving having a 6 foot tall big guy getting angrily aggressive in my face.
Maybe part of it is that the people getting aggressive are more hesitant to challenge someone who is similar in size or who seems more physically able to defend themselves?
Whatever the case, it still surprises me how vicious and selfish so many people can be over something that doesn’t impact them in any way, except perhaps that we’re protecting them a bit from their own stupidity!
Cheryl from Maryland
I’m very torn about the California law regarding medical misinformation. On the one hand, I would prefer it to extend to medicine in general — remember laetrile and cancer? Also, the misinformation regarding abortion and ectopic pregnancy, etc. has got to go. On the other hand, part of the whole pro-life movement is the importance of privacy between a woman and her doctor, and how horrible and clumsy and dangerous legislative bodies are trying to write about subtle and changing health procedures. Isn’t the California law close to this even if for a good cause? Finally, the US system is basically that one has to be injured (or dead) by a doctor to sue them for malpractice or report them, so the law is a noble attempt to prevent death or serious injury. Bother.
Mel
@Matt McIrvin: Yes- I love the ominous “do not open until instructed to do so!” warning on some of the OTC Binax tests.
Because what – they’re actually a Bond gadget that will self destruct upon opening? They contain portals to strange, new realms?
RaflW
It is absolutely appalling that the ‘plan’ is for the uninsured to have to pay full price out-of-pocket to maintain protection against the virus. From KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation):
The disposability of the working poor and many other people who fall thru the gaping holes in our shitty ass health “care” system. Who is going to have $115-200 or more (with fees) for each family member to get an annual Covid shot? G.D. immoral.
Tazj
I got COVID a few weeks ago after evading it for three years. I got careless going out in public without a mask and that it where I think I picked it up.It wasn’t horrible thanks to the vaccines but definitely something I wish I avoided. I had a fever for 2 days accompanied by horrible sinus pain on both sides of my nose and into my teeth. Then thankfully when the fever broke, I had a runny nose for three days. My oldest son was positive, didn’t have a fever but had sinus pain, muscle pain and a runny nose. No one else in the household got it.
I got COVID a day after I had to put one of cats to sleep, just a horrible week.
mvr
That’s what my doctor told me at my physical around a month of so back. Just last week I saw a NYT article that said some researchers now thought those on the older end of things should do it every 6 months. I am 5 1/2 months out from my 5th (the bivalent one). Was going to go in to the pharmacy at 6 months to see whether they would do it. Unfortunately I tested positive last night. Have a telehealth appointment in half an hour.
RaflW
I’m fully boosted, and had whatever variant was likely most en vogue in August of ’22.
Of course I’d do whatever in consultation with my primary care physician, but what I want is a dose of Novavax in the late fall.
I think there’s value in the non-mrna for at least one round.
Unless a much more deadly strain emerges, my guess (and yes it is a guess!) is annual boosts in the fall along with flu shots.
Matt McIrvin
@Mel:
I’ve never been hassled, even in more libertarian-minded places than my Massachusetts neighborhood, and I strongly suspect the fact that I’m an aging 5’11” man has a lot to do with it. I’m not at all physically imposing but I probably project authority to people with dumb bigoted ideas about that.
RaflW
@OzarkHillbilly: We had the opposite experience recently, probably from someone who is paying attention.
We boarded a 6 hour red-eye home from Hawaii, both KN95’d. The woman in the window seat looked at us and got up (it was the exit row) went to the galley, and requested and got a mask!
Granted it was just a surgical mask, but hey, any layer of protection helps.
More to the the topic in general, I’m 6’2″, grey beard, and a smidge over 250#. I may occasionally get a look at a store or whatever, but no agro (except a woman yelling from Lexus SUV once, well over a year ago, in wretched Janesville WI. I’m sure she’d a said nothing if not inside two tons of steel.)
Kent
@Elizabelle: Here is a gift link to the WP article on conservative doctors and ivermectin if anyone wants to read the whole thing
https://wapo.st/3RE39Fg
Kent
It is actually the right thing to do if vaccines are no longer going to be free for poor families who lack insurance. I would be 100% in favor of a vaccine mandate for school kids (for all vaccines) if schools were able to have free vaccine clinics during school registration for families who lack insurance. Or something similar.
I’m not in favor of vaccine mandates for a vaccine the government is unwilling to pay for.
Kent
Here is a link to an April 2020 article on the rise of hydroxychloroquine and Trump’s obsession with it during the first months of the pandemic. This article was referenced in today’s WP article on conservative docs and ivermectin. Reading the timeline I was surprised/not surprised to see where Trump’s obsession with hydroxychloroquine actually originated. You ready for this?
It all started with a March 16 tweet by Elon Musk. https://wapo.st/3I2thp1
gvg
@Mel: I live in Florida. My sister is a Doctor working in a VA hospital her and still is required to mask all the time. I have never been confronted for wearing a mask and until recently all doctors offices were still requiring them that I went to. I do sometimes go without a mask now, though yesterday I started again as someone’s relatives got it. Rude medical employees like that have never happened to me.
Mel
@gvg: I’m glad that you haven’t encountered it. Only one large medical group that is part of my care team still requires masks. All of the hospital facilities where I live are “masks optional”, even for employees. It makes it extremely challenging for anyone with serious health conditions to obtain care safely.
My primary care physician and rheumatologist both tell me to insist that other caregivers wear masks when treating me, b/c of my genetic immune deficiency and the immunosuppressive medications that i have to take for an autoimmune condition (which has impacted my heart, liver, etc. cresting higher risk). Although most will put on a mask, a surprising number do it grudgingly, and several have been outright defensive.
I have asked the question in such situations: why do you feel that 5 or 10 minutes of wearing a mask a few times a day is more of an inconvenience for you than getting Covid and likely becoming extremely ill or even dying would be for me or other patients in similar health situations?
I have yet to get a satisfactory answer.
gwangung
Hm, yeah. I think physique plays into any potential harassment. I’m not nearly as tall as other folks, but I’m solidly built and it’s probable that few people want to risk if it’s fat or it’s muscle.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@terraformer: I work with people (in healthcare but not patient-facing) who don’t get the flu shot because ” they don’t want to get the flu from it” aka they don’t want to fell a little crappy for a day.
davecb
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” -Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride.
Herd Immunity is defined as the “resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population that is based on pre-existing immunity of a high proportion of individuals”. It doesn’t means that the person in the herd who hasn’t had the vaccine is immune: they’re not. They die just the same as anyone that catches it. It just says that statistically they’re not as likely to catch it.
Kent
@davecb: Exactly. Herd immunity just reduces the R0 factor for the disease. It doesn’t make it any less deadly.
Tinare
@Nicole: This was me two weeks ago. My symptoms were so mild I really did think it was allergies and I kinda laughed when I tested myself thinking I was being a little hypochondriac. But the line started to come up almost immediately. The only thing that got me was that I was super tired for a little more than a week. But I had few symptoms and easily could not have tested and shrugged it off. I also didn’t report having it.
StringOnAStick
@Mel: Where do you live? Somehow I suspect you are in a red area, though I’ve known plenty of RW medical staff. Here is blue dot Bend in the red sea of eastern Oregon, even the optometrist office still requires masks, as do the medical offices and labs. I’m 5’3″ and blonde but with a deep voice plus the ability to swear like a sailor if someone tries to pull any crap on me. I start out nice but I can go scary in the blink of an eye.
I suspect the hospital doing little to discipline that employee has to do with staff shortages, because I got someone disciplined and demoted for similar crap at a hospital 15 years ago.
Mel
@StringOnAStick: Oh, yes – red Midwestern city.
I hear you. Before I became ill, I taught high school and then worked with non-trad adult college students transitioning to college from a variety of really difficult life circumstances (prison, domestic abuse, drug addiction, long-term juvenile institutional or foster care, etc. ). To be my size, it took being fierce to advocate for what our students needed to succeed.
Twenty years of illness has definitely drained my reserves, though. Some days, it takes all I’ve got to get out of bed.
I think you’re spot on about the staffing shortages.
JustRuss
@mvr: I had it before Christmas, worst sore throat I’ve ever had. Excruciating. You might want to get some throat lozenges just in case.