I saw this sign & thought it was quite beautiful pic.twitter.com/Sy7mba9mXu
— Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD (@MVGutierrezMD) March 24, 2023
Finally. @US_FDA approval to make available free 2nd bivalent booster for age 65+ and immunocompromised https://t.co/2D22cuxt9W by @lauriemcginley2 and @bylenasun
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 4, 2023
And yes, this is likely an underestimate. Here are latest data available for excess mortality in the US, trending uphttps://t.co/P4aMlY7D41 pic.twitter.com/OAvbh28ZEy
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 4, 2023
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Chart: Where Most Health Workers Have Died From Covid-19 | Statistahttps://t.co/qV5jdz9jDG pic.twitter.com/eJ0p7pllxu
— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) April 3, 2023
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Gilead Sciences Inc on Tuesday unveiled data from the first human study of its experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral, saying the results in healthy volunteers cleared the way for two large Phase III trials of the drug that have begun enrolling patients. https://t.co/kLAeWhiKOi
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) April 4, 2023
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New approach to a #Covid nasal vaccine is showing early promise. Scientists in Germany say they’ve been able to make a vax that shuts down #SARSCoV2 infection in the nose & throat, where SARS2 starts. Hamster experiments. Vax made of weakened form of SARS2 https://t.co/1h0pneUx1U pic.twitter.com/D7XK8zQmHx
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) April 5, 2023
Treating long covid is going to be a key medical issue for years. From a long, heartfelt thread:
“In a world where there’s hundreds of things to trial, why are we choosing this one thing that we know has the potential to cause harm to a substantial portion of patients?” asks @LisaAMcCorkell, a co-founder of @patientled for #LongCovid https://t.co/10thfMCQRH
— charlos (@loscharlos) April 1, 2023
#SARSCoV2 infection appears to accelerate dementia, according to scientists in Spain. Since the pandemic's 1st wave neurologists have noticed acute & long-term neurological syndromes. Now, they say, brain fog for some people may be a prelude to dementia https://t.co/Avl60FaCLY
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) April 4, 2023
Japanese study results raise the possibility that in some patients, the virus is not entirely eliminated from the brain due to a decline in microglia & other immune functions, resulting in continued microglia infection & prolonged aftereffects.#LongCovid https://t.co/Adc6a4O162
— Long Covid Support 🌍 (@long_covid) April 1, 2023
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A common objection to the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 emerged via live animals at Huanan market is that the sampling was biased & we didn't have the negative sample data. We do now.@acritschristoph brilliantly describes his hard work to resolve this issue. https://t.co/ZZ2mJIlzwO
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) April 3, 2023
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Masking is still required in about 50% of medical offices, according to a new poll. But that percentage is down from a year ago and is expected to continue dropping https://t.co/ytjgm2inwH #Masks pic.twitter.com/QJP2yoTQbW
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) March 29, 2023
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Imagine being told in March 2020 that three years later, after over a million COVID-19 deaths, it would be a common belief that we did *too much* to combat the spread of the disease.
— Duncan Udaho (@UdahoDuncan) March 30, 2023
So my question is: where is the accountability for elected officials who generated/spread disinformation about Covid vaccines causing 200,000 Americans to needlessly lose their lives because they refused vaccines (mostly red states) during the delta + BA.1 waves in 2021-22 https://t.co/SOC1niceBc
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) April 2, 2023
The whole story proved to me how futile combatting vaccine lies is.
This woman is old fashioned, Hollywood FAMOUS and people still think she's dead because anti-vaxxers pushing #DiedSuddenly have immense power.
It was a wake-up call. Hope you read it.https://t.co/Rm8nrA6zwe
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 31, 2023
Reader Interactions
27Comments
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NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
48 new cases on 03/29/23.
59 new cases on 03/30/23.
52 new cases on 03/31/23.
37 new cases on 04/01/23.
35 new cases on 04/02/23.
19 new cases on 04/03/23.
24 new cases on 04/04/23.
Nice to see this dropping from triple digits into double digits. 0 would be best, though. My zip code has an 81.9% vaccination rate (the first two shots) but only 26.9% of us are completely up to date.
Deaths now at 2229, up 9 since last week. We seem to have evened out to about 8 deaths a week.
Hospital beds: we’re at 4% available now, including 11 ICU beds among 4 hospitals. The largest hospital still has no regular available beds, and just 2 ICU beds now.
So they’re finally approving a 2nd bivalent booster. A lot of good that does me now; I’ve already had two dentist appointments and my MRI is tomorrow! I’ll schedule another trip to Target as soon as the 2nd shot is official.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 599 new Covid-19 cases on 1st April, for a cumulative reported total of 5,052,337 cases. 595 of these new cases were local infections; four new cases were imported. It also reported one death, for an adjusted cumulative total of 36,982 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
7,348 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 25th March, with a positivity rate of 3.9%.
There were 11,312 active cases on 1st April, 223 more than the day before. 458 were in hospital. 13 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, nine confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 375 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 5,004,043 patients recovered – 99.0% of the cumulative reported total.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 385 doses of vaccine on 4th April: 36 first doses, 64 second doses, 170 first booster doses, and 115 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,820,347 doses administered: 28,133,144 first doses, 27,546,075 second doses, 16,323,650 first booster doses, and 817,478 second booster doses. 86.1% of the population have received their first dose, 84.3% their second dose, 50.0% their first booster dose, and 2.5% their second booster dose.
Matt McIrvin
The COVID spike I thought I was seeing in people I personally knew a couple of weeks ago did show up in the wastewater counts–it wasn’t very large though. And now we seem to be on the downslope of it, descending to levels not seen since a year ago after the big 2021-2022 Omicron spike.
I know it won’t last and am looking at that new XBB variant emerging in Nebraska–hard to say yet what it will mean in absolute terms. It seems like they haven’t had a huge outbreak as a consequence, more like a blip that cleared rapidly. But we shall see.
Marmot
Hi AL—thanks again for these updates, now going for three years. That’s dedication!
raven
A guy at the dog park is now in his 4th bout of covid.
oldster
This probably makes me a bad person, but:
There is no barrier to anyone’s getting an additional booster, beyond scheduling the shot with your pharmacy and showing up. There is no shortage of doses, so you are not depriving anyone else. The pharmacists are happy to do it. And there is no central body keeping track of how many shots you have had.
So, if you have a plausible case for needing an additional booster, then just go do it. I did.
raven
@oldster: Is it the same shot?
New Deal democrat
A general note: aside from Biobot, updated information about COVID is becoming almost impossible to obtain. The most recent data is now from the CDC and is over a week old.
With that said, the good news is that Biobot showed a renewed drop in COVID particles to 284 per mL, the lowest number during the course of the pandemic with the exception of spring 2021 and late February through early April 2022. All 4 Census regions showed declines, especially the Midwest.
The decline in the Midwest is most encouraging, because that is where subvariant XBB.1.9.1 has made the most inroads, at 16.3% of all cases. Nationwide it is only 4.6% of all cases, with XBB.1.5.1 at 2.5%, and XBB.1.5 87.9%. No other variant is emerging in the US, and XBB.1.16.1 does not appear to be a global threat. This is really encouraging, because it is about the longest time we have gone without a new variant threat.
Confirmed cases, which are now only useful for the general trend, as of March 29 averaged only 20,000/day, the lowest since July 2021, and were still in a decline. Hospitalizations were 17,460, the lowest except for 45 days near mid year 2021 and 60 days in spring 2022. Deaths were 230/day, the lowest for the entire history of the pandemic – but based only preliminary data only, so may be revised higher. Deaths and hospitalizations still skew heavily towards seniors and the unvaccinated.
This is what endemic COVID is going to look like. On the bright side, my county has not reported a death in nearly a month, and is down to near the 1 hospitalization per day and under 3 reported cases per day which are my personal metrics for resuming my normal pre-COVID routine, including eating indoors in restaurants.
Ramalama
I have two friends in the US who were very fit but not young. 50s – 60s. Both caught COVID and both had terrible times with it. One pre-vaccination; the other having had everything possible injected (sans bleach). Both now have extreme long-Covid symptoms. One of them just got out of a 7 hour long heart surgery as a result of getting the virus. So there’s that.
Then my siblings are gallivanting around on planes and parks and no masking. In the Midwest and California.
Me, I live like a recluse in the woods (Quebec province) and barely go out because our environs has terrible restaurants. I guess all the chefs got ill, or just gave it up. The food is terrible here. So we stay home and cook. And eat. And watch tv. And work. And listen to music. We’ve gone round the bend and are talking about going to France to visit family but no one’s talking about Covid unless they’ve got Covid.
Except you all here. Thank you thank you.
Matt McIrvin
@oldster: My impression is that whether they will do it depends on the place–heard a bunch of reports here of people scheduling a booster through their drug store’s website, then being denied when they showed up, on grounds that CDC/FDA only ever approved a single shot of the bivalent booster.
In some cases the pharmacist said they were expecting revised word soon, but as far as I know that never happened–my impression is that the CDC is just going to wait to make a call until the fall.
It bothers me because I’d really like to get that shot. I’ve probably still got some antibodies in me from my bout of COVID in January but they’d be fading fast. At least there doesn’t seem to be a big outbreak looming for the moment.
NeenerNeener
@Matt McIrvin: I’m one of the people who was denied by the pharmacist when I went for my 2nd bivalent shot. They wanted to see the little white card with my vaccination history and said they wouldn’t give me a 2nd booster until the CDC approved it.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
Why would someone over 65 who’s gone over four months since getting the first bivalent booster need to consult with anyone before getting the second?
Matt McIrvin
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: The CDC and FDA never approved more than one shot of the bivalent booster, for anyone (I believe). It doesn’t necessarily make medical sense but that’s the bureaucratic situation.
It’s confusing because they justify getting the first bivalent shot on the grounds that protection wanes over time, but they never went the next step.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: Our cases here have leveled out too, in spite of the fact that our vaccination rate for the first series is 51.51% (!). I’m sure the rate for subsequent vaccinations is even worse. The sewer data show low levels of Covid that are pretty consistent. No deaths have been reported in my county since January 2023. There are currently 32 people hospitalized with Covid, only 5 in critical care. I think you’re right that this is what endemic Covid will look like. Between vaccination and people who’ve had repeated infections, the virus isn’t “novel” to us anymore, and thus is somewhat less dangerous than it was in March 2020.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Unlucky, stupid (unvaxed) or both? Whatever, I wouldn’t stand too close to him!
dmsilev
The all-time low for hospitalizations in LA County was around 250, right after the vaccines hammered the original wave but before the relentless march of the variants through the Greek alphabet. Today, we’re at 380, so about 1.5x that low. The winter wave peaked at 1200, maybe 1/4th as bad as last year and much much better than the winter of 2020-21 (during which LA was one of the hardest hit spots in the country). So, we’ve definitely come a long way. At this point, given the relatively low rate of new vaccinations, further progress is going to have to be …acquired immunity. So, let’s hope that we don’t have some new variant that resets that.
YY_Sima Qian
I have not had any lingering respiratory symptoms since recovering from COVID-19, but I am finding myself having typos & speech errors more frequently than before. I would intend to say one thing & another word just pops out. Not sure if this is a very slight case of long term sequelae.
Chetan Murthy
@oldster: oh wow really ? I figured it’d be like the last booster: I begged my doc to write me a scrip for it, and he said “no can do”. I ended up pretending to be undocumented to get it. I guess I should get down to Walgreens and get a re-up! Thanks for the info!
raven
@Steeplejack: Max vaxxed
Timurid
Really less than thrilled about the 50 – 64 group getting shut out…
kalakal
Not crazy about the 65+ bit being 62 and all.
Increasing risk by age isn’t a digital phenomenon
Geo Wilcox
My daughter told me a very strange story about her ex bosses mom and Covid. The mom is fully vaxxed and got Covid. She lost her sense of taste until she got Covid again and it came back!!!!! Not sure wtf that is all about but there you have it.
lowtechcyclist
DeSaniflush: “So my question is: where is the accountability for these people for all the damage that they did to our country?”
Good question from the governor of a state which is #11 in Covid deaths per capita, and will probably pass NJ any day now to get into the top 10. When does DeSaniflush finally get held accountable?
Cameron
I want to thank Gov. Pudd’nhand Whiteboots for endorsing my decision to keep wearing an N95 mask in all public settings.
SomeRandomGuy
I confess, I’m impressed:
Just the use of post-exertional malaise is impressive.
It’s an important point they’re making, too. The last thing you want to do, is study people who are getting fatigued, and developing cognitive dysfunction, during a study of their symptoms. It will ruin their reporting. People who aren’t fully functional also aren’t necessarily fully conscious of their own state.
Two hallmarks of fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction is, they’re invisible from the inside. People don’t say “oh, I am fatigued,” unless fatigue is sudden, and severe. More likely, they say “damn, didn’t sleep well last night,” and load up on coffee, and force themselves to tough it out. People who have a bad cold, but tough it out, they’re setting themselves up to “tough out” a few months of “damn, didn’t sleep well last night” because they’re used to pushing themselves, even when it hurts.
(NB: not criticizing people who push on through pain and fatigue – I’d be criticizing me! But it’s true: teach yourself to ignore pain, and you’ll get good at it.)
This is also why so many people who go to sleep labs end up with a diagnosis – you can sleep poorly for *years* without consciously noticing, because the incremental worsening slows down, and hence, becomes less noticeable.
And, people don’t say “oh, my brain is misfiring.” Hell, I don’t think to myself “oh, my brain is misfiring.” I catch myself making the eighth or ninth mistake, and alert myself to increase the coping mechanisms.
Well, not really. I’ve had these problems for 40 years, and I don’t know which of my habits are coping mechanisms, because I don’t know what normal people are like. I was afflicted very young – no later than when I was 13. Even then, I knew of fairly advanced coping mechanisms for cognitive dysfunction, meaning it’s probably been years before *that* when it manifested. Still: if you had a normal high school/college career, so you knew your baseline, *then* you might notice the eighth or ninth mistake, and realize it’s a bad day, and consciously cope with stuff that you’ve found works.
VFX Lurker
I tried. I failed.
I successfully scheduled a second bivalent booster on the CVS website. The CVS pharmacist personally called me the day of my vaccination to tell me that they would not give me a second bivalent booster shot without FDA approval.
I asked if my age 50+ spouse (who had received J&J for initial vaccination) might still qualify for an extra booster. He had received two boosters + one bivalent booster. The pharmacist told me he did not qualify.
I then turned to my doctor to inquire about a second bivalent booster, since the UCLA Health system was nudging both of us to do it. The doctor advised that it was an error in the system, which has since been fixed.
I’m sticking with BOTN KF94 masks for the forseeable future.
J R in WV
My Kroger’s pharmacy was quite willing to administer a second bivalent vaccination 10 days or so ago. By filling my prescriptions they are aware of my diagnoses and didn’t hesitate to give me a Moderna. My first bivalent shot was pfizer last September at the health dept.
The last Moderna shot I got had the interesting side effect of inducing me to sleep 18+ hours the next two nights. Being fond of sleep in general, and retired, I just slept in and enjoyed the feeling of viral resistance…
Annie Laurie, thanks so much for the work you do keeping this information flow gushing for us all !!! No doubt at all that you have saved lives with this work !!