I’m tempted!
If you want to make sure all your bases are covered- or just give someone a fun get-well-soon gift, the 'Lucky' Negative Rapid Antigen Test Necklace is also in stock😄https://t.co/zCTHzTKTYe pic.twitter.com/Pb5wWDnwBu
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) May 21, 2023
The tsunami wave has rolled back, and we’re starting to clean up the debris. It’s going to be a loooong job, and the next wave will (probably) get here sooner than we expect…
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“gaping holes remain in both our ability to detect new variants of concern and protect vulnerable people from severe disease and death. #SARSCoV2 is still circulating intensely in every country on Earth, infecting millions of people each week…”#COVID19 https://t.co/rQgcyG6Fjg
— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) May 22, 2023
OK, let's pause to reflect on some details here.
The PRC🇨🇳 govt is not denying a dire prediction that the #SARSCoV2 #XBB variants have, for the first time, hit #China and will cause a massive epidemic over the next 6-to-8 weeks. https://t.co/JUQ2lMOIkA
MORE— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 22, 2023
India appears to have slowed down on sequencing genomes of COVID-19 variants. The INSACOG, a pan-India network tasked with keeping an eye out for new variants, has not published a single bulletin since March 27. @BShajan, @neutranino reporthttps://t.co/9HzppBaY1V
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) May 23, 2023
When comparing the XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.1.9, and XBB.2.3 sub-variants of #COVID19 in the vaxed population of #Singapore :
-Severe illness rate 6-8%
– Hospitalization rate 29-37%, which is 3-8% higher than other sub-variants https://t.co/L0H3smiuG5— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 23, 2023
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“COVID-19 claimed the lives of 467 921 people in Europe during 2022… COVID-19-related control measures are not on any public health agenda in Europe at this time.” https://t.co/IkcPHlBUQe
— Anthony Costello (@globalhlthtwit) May 23, 2023
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Surging rates of diabetes in 0-4 year olds in Sweden starting in 2020.
Swedish children in that age group are entirely unvaccinated. https://t.co/CtayMYAlfw
— CovidMeetups.com (@covidmeetupscom) May 21, 2023
Hi there. Significant changes to covid reporting coming in in June https://t.co/xiHnig12RG
— Luke O'Shea (@LukeOShea1) May 19, 2023
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Pre-infection COVID vaccination linked to lower odds of lingering symptoms
Pre-infection #COVID19 vaccination was tied to a lower likelihood of persistent symptoms 45 days after infectionhttps://t.co/t6rX33CqTK#LongCOVID pic.twitter.com/VcATkntoB9
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) May 23, 2023
A World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group on Thursday recommended that this year's COVID-19 booster shots be updated to target one of the currently dominant XBB variants. https://t.co/niQlwT2PeE
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) May 19, 2023
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🆕 @WHO Technical Advisory Group on #COVID19 vaccines (TAG-CO-VAC) statement
Including advice on composition of future COVID-19 vaccines. It is critical that vax remain part of the strategy (vaccines AND, not vaccines only)to reduce the spread & prevent severe diseases & death⬇️ https://t.co/FsZvbBzXFy
— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) May 18, 2023
Some of the most vital information in any epidemic comes from careful autopsies & related lab work, which can be both expensive and risky to perform. Future #pandemic prep schemes must emphasize the need to finance autopsies & train personnel to safely perform them.
See thread: https://t.co/VGXJddJrCL— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 22, 2023
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"#SARSCoV2 was detected in aerosol samples up to
52 days after the initial infection."@NatureAging from aerosol monitoring of 3 Belgian nursing home outbreakshttps://t.co/Y8xcfk7a1P #COVIDisAirborne @ElsKeyaerts @johanvawe and colleagues— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 22, 2023
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What do we know about the safety of #CovidVaccination in #pregnancy?
🧑🏽🔬 37 studies…
🇮🇱 In 9 countries…
🤰🏼 Including more than 367,308 ppl vaccinated in pregnancy…
… found no increased risk of any pregnancy problems following COVID vaccination.https://t.co/FwAuOnBFBG pic.twitter.com/lR9BLyyrgz
— Viki Male (@VikiLovesFACS) May 23, 2023
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Intentional mass infection was a centerpiece of the U.S. pandemic response, months before vaccines were even available. Why?
My review @PsychToday of @19joho’s brilliant, one-of-a-kind We Want Them Infectedhttps://t.co/OzIG1qbdCi
— Christopher Lane, PhD (@christophlane) May 22, 2023
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Thanks so much for the kind words! Feel free to distribute widely. If you'd like a higher-res file available for printing, I've made it available for free /pay what you want on gumroad https://t.co/v137Evb4J6
— kind of a recluse (@schmutzparty) May 21, 2023
On The Road – ema – City Blooms and Solidarity Ducks
RaflW
Had my annual physical about a month ago, and I was nonplussed and frankly kind of angry that mask requirements for health care workers have been dropped.
WTF?!
Not just for Covid, but for all sorts of airborne infection control, they should be S.O.P. for the indefinite future.
My actual doctor was wearing a NIOSH N95. But the 3 different nurses? Not a mask among them. Even when inches from me taking BP or giving me shots.
And I was masked, which should have signaled that I’d like them to mask also.
Seeing the diabetes risk for kiddos, this is just community-wide malpractice.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
13 new cases on 05/17/23.
14 new cases on 05/18/23.
18 new cases on 05/19/23.
23 new cases on 05/20/23.
4 new cases on 05/21/23.
10 new cases on 05/22/23.
12 new cases on 05/23/23.
Deaths now at 2266, up 5 since last week.
I’ve actually started going out unmasked now. I hope I don’t regret it.
Another Scott
I wear a Fitbit Charge 5 all the time as my watch. I mentioned downstairs that my heart rate was elevated (resting pulse ~ 75) for many weeks after my mid-March COVID infection. It is finally back to normal (mid-60s) this week. I have no idea whether it’s significant, but I thought it was interesting.
Bodies are complicated.
This is still a novel virus, and there’s still lots to learn.
Thanks for the updates, AL. Best of luck, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
JeanneT
I’m waiting for the arrival of a visiting veterinarian to euthanize my old fella Raleigh this morning. I’ve got mono, and I’ll be wearing a mask while the doc is here, and the vet will be wearing one too. No need to share the virus, even if it’s not life threatening.
Soprano2
OT – people mentioned a podcast a couple of days ago that was about debunking bad health advice. I was interested in it but can’t remember the name of it. Can anyone help me?
Steeplejack
@NeenerNeener:
Good luck!
Steeplejack
@JeanneT:
Sorry to hear about Raleigh. I’m sure you gave him a good life.
🌈 🐾
Matt McIrvin
That idea that people should intentionally be infected was all over Twitter in the early weeks of the pandemic, usually among libertarians and conservatives. It’s horrifying to see that it affected public health planning to such a degree.
I think part of it is this sort of eugenic intuition that “strong” people will have no trouble with disease and that “strength” in that sense has a moral value–most good folks will be fine. It’s related to the way a lot of people who are very into “health” are antivaxxers: the idea that if you take proper care of yourself by their standards, exercise and have the right diet and take the right supplements or whatever, you shouldn’t need vaccines. But many of these folks on the right aren’t particularly keen on proper diet or exercise either, it’s just this vague idea that they’re strong.
Eunicecycle
@RaflW: I just had my annual physical on Monday and wore an N95. Most providers were wearing some type of masks (including mine) it seemed but patients were not required to and most were not.
Matt McIrvin
…I’ve also noticed that Very Online Libertarian types are instinctively attracted to this concept of the fundamental perversity of good and evil, that bad things might secretly be good for you or vice versa. I think that it comes from a desire to be the smartest person in the room–if you understand that something that seems appalling is secretly good, that makes you the cleverest one, and you can shock people by stating these upside-down things and then prove that they are true!
I think Ayn Rand had a serious case of this, maybe from early exposure to a Communist society where noble ideals seemed to lead mostly to bad stuff happening. If benign principles lead to badness then maybe sociopathic behavior we generally consider evil is actually healthy. (She had a weird crush on a serial killer, if I recall correctly.)
smith
@Matt McIrvin: Also likely tied up with racist ideas about inborn superiority, and boosted by the observation that minority populations were harder hit by the pandemic.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 786 new Covid-19 cases on 20th May, for a cumulative reported total of 5,094,448 cases. 784 of these new cases were local infections; two new cases were imported. It also reported three deaths, for an adjusted cumulative total of 37,070 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
4,630 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 20th May, with a positivity rate of 17%.
There were 19,122 active cases on 20th May, 489 fewer than the day before. 721 were in hospital. 34 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 25 confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 1,272 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 5,038,256 patients recovered – 99.0% of the cumulative reported total.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 345253 doses of vaccine on 23 May: 12 first doses, 33 second doses, 136 first booster doses, and 72 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,843,588 doses administered: 28,136,215 first doses, 27,549,574 second doses, 16,334,756 first booster doses, and 823,043 second booster doses. 86.2% of the population have received their first dose, 84.4% their second dose, 50.0% their first booster dose, and 2.5% their second booster dose.
Glidwrith
Thank you for posting this information. It helps to reinforce that despite so many folks not masking, that the danger is still there. I will also be passing along the information concerning COVID in donated tissues as that is a direct health risk in my job.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: Yeah, though of course the main reason minority populations were hit harder was just that they were forced to be exposed to the disease!
You’d also think that this sort of resistance-from-infection thesis, considered carefully and with some understanding of biology, would lead to the realization that what we really need is vaccines, but while Trump himself was actually more or less pro-vax, a lot of his followers didn’t end up there.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin: “I don’t need a vaccine, I have an immune system.” Said by a lot of people who have not even a speck of understanding of the immune system and how it does and does not work.
Kristine
@JeanneT: I am so sorry about Raleigh.
YY_Sima Qian
The XBB based vaccine will not be available in time for the current wave in China. Chinese new reports are actually saying that the wave will probably crest in a week or so. Plenty of people around us have tested positive (& those are just the ones who took a PCR or RAT). The current wave started a month ago, mostly COVID virgins that escaped the exit tsunami, but now a lot of people are on their 2nd infections. The former COVID virgins generally have similar symptoms as the people who contracted it for the 1st time in Dec. – Jan. Those on repeat infections generally have very mild symptoms that last a day or two.
Both of my in-laws had their 2nd infections a couple of weeks ago, so have many of our extended families in Wuhan, Beijing & Nanjing, & colleagues in Shanghai, Shenzhen & Beijing.
No far, no reports of hospitals being stressed, yet. People aren’t nearly as careful as 6 mos. ago. Masking rate outdoors has plunged to ~ 50%, but indoor masking has remained high, especially in public transportation.
CaseyL
@JeanneT: There are few things as wrenching as having a beloved companion euthanized. Kisses and farewells to Raleigh, and hugs to you.
Matt McIrvin
@Eyeroller: Just wanted to ask them “How do you THINK vaccines work?”
Old School
@Soprano2: I think “Maintenance Phase” is the podcast you are trying to recall.
debit
@RaflW: I work in a long term care facility, and not only are the medical staff masked and wearing eye protection while onsite, so is the administrative staff. I can only take my mask and googles off if I’m alone in my office and have the door closed.
Sorry you were put at risk. People keep saying they are done with Covid, but I don’t thinks it’s done with us.
debit
@JeanneT:
I’m so sorry. You know you’re doing the right thing, but I doubt that makes it any easier.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Sounds like a reasonable sort of trap to fall into when you’re 15, but falling into it at 25+ should mark someone as being way less than the smartest person in the room.
Which is a silly thing to want to be anyway. No matter how smart we are, we all make mistakes, we overlook key facts, look at things from the wrong perspective, etc. We all need other smart people to see the things we don’t.
Matt McIrvin
@YY_Sima Qian: The one that hit me was probably XBB.1.5 back in January. As a person with no prior infection but with 5 shots in him (but the most recent one several months prior so there were likely few antibodies left), my symptoms were on par with a typical bad cold, with one exception: for about a day, a few days after onset, I had a raging sore throat that felt more like what you’d expect from a strep infection than a cold. It was a sort of burning irritation. Then it subsided to a more typical kind of phlegmy congestion that lasted for a couple of weeks.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
The biggest right-wing gun nuts that I know are all out of shape. One dude who I worked with drank a six-pack of Diet Coke every day (brought it to work in a personal cooler). He was out of work for upward of eight weeks with open heart surgery in his early fifties. He was significantly overweight.
Manyakitty
@JeanneT: sending love
StringOnAStick
@Matt McIrvin: Both your comments match my experience with Libertoonians.
I’m stuck having to socialize with a Libertoonian (I refuse to honor them by using their chosen term for their bullshit dorm room bong session politics when they are decades older than that). He’s the husband of my husband’s cousin, and we are in a very social couples book club with them. Everyone else in the book club is a D to very liberal D, but we all have to be careful what we say or suggest we read so we don’t set off Dave because we all like Jennifer so much. This is all leading to what I wanted to say since you mentioned Ayn Rand; we just listened to the audiobook written by Michael Shur about all the philosophy research he did in order to write the series The Good Place. Not only is is a humorous way to dance through centuries of western philosophical thought (with some parts voiced by actors from the show, which I loved), the only philosopher that he flat out rips as absolute crap is: Ayn Rand. He didn’t add the necessary headshake that this is a guiding moral system for a bunch of our politicians, but I sure did.
Mike in Pasadena
Thanks for this update, Anne.
Returned from Europe a few days ago. Wore kn95 masks on all flights, esp. 10 and 11 hours long ones. Neither of us caught colds, flu, or Covid. Dr. Shriner, infectious disease specialist at nearby hospital, says that masking on flights really makes a big difference. After my experience, I am a believer. In the pre-Covid past, I have taken these long flights unmasked and often contracted awful colds. A relief to be able to travel without getting sick.
Soprano2
@Old School: Yes, that is what I was looking for! Thanks so much, this time I’ll write it down so I remember what it is.
sdhays
@RaflW: This also blows my mind. I mean, fine, forget the masks for the general public, but hospitals? That should just be a new forever normal. Period.
Just mind boggling.
Ramalama
Love this post, thanks for sharing. Word on the news in Canada is hospitals dropping the masking requirement, but when my partner got eyeball surgery here in Quebec province, both facilities (attached to the hospital) required masking still, thank jod. I’m not sure this is true for the big bad city of Montreal. But at least in the little mountain town where we live, there’s a semblance of safe-breath.
Ramalama
@StringOnAStick:
What’s the title of the book based on researching the ‘toons? The ‘tooners?
DianeB
De-lurking to mention that the picture of NYU Langone with Keep Masks In Health Care projected on the side of the building–that building is the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, aka the city morgue.
StringOnAStick
@Ramalama: The book is How to Be Perfect, by Michael Schur. I loved the audiobook and will buy a hard copy because it delves deep enough into various philosophical traditions and teachers that I would like to have it for that alone, plus I’m not a good auditory learner, much better with print.
Libertarians can all go DIAF as far as I’m concerned.
Ramalama
@DianeB: Good catch. Shazbot!
Ramalama
@StringOnAStick: Same. Even that way with some fiction. I had to get a copy of Adrian McKinty’s The Cold Cold Ground even though the reader on audio is terrific. Thanks for the book rec.
NaughtYT
Meanwhile, at the New York Times, a co-worker with a immunodeficiency asked if they could request that other people in a meeting they were invited to could wear masks. The meeting was in a small enclosed space.
HR got back to them and said it is a violation of company policy to even ask someone if they would mind wearing a mask.
Betty
@Another Scott: I have read of others having a similar experience. When my heart rate went up after my second bout of Covid, I started medicating for it. Now I am wondering if it would have resolved on its own.