NOTE: Next Tuesday is Independence Day, and a lot of people — including, I suspect, many media sources — will be taking the whole week as vacation. So, barring the unforeseen, my next Covid Update will be on Wednesday, July 12. (Probably time for us to start tapering back again, anyways.)
Emboldened by the government’s recent lifting of the public health emergency, Americans who have tried to be rule-following pandemic citizens for the past three summers are at last abandoning precautions as the coronavirus fades into a background threat. https://t.co/moSJ6mpTms
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 25, 2023
(Should be paywall-free.) Covid is not ‘over’, but the attention it draws has been reduced to that of all the other chronic uncertainties of This Modern Life — weird weather events, wildfires, various outbreaks of political insanity… plus the aftereffects of long covid.
Moderna said on Thursday it has completed a submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking authorization for its updated COVID-19 vaccine to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant. https://t.co/zJQRYDZYlk
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) June 23, 2023
I’m very sensitive to airborne smells, so I’m not gonna be a beta tester, but given our fondness for ‘air freshners’ there will certainly be a market:
LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) – Reckitt’s (RKT.L) Lysol disinfectant brand said on Tuesday that it would start selling in the U.S. an “air sanitizing spray” that kills 99.9% of airborne viruses and bacteria.
The spray, which Reckitt said helps reduce the spread of airborne pathogens such as cold, Influenza and Coronavirus, has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reckitt, Clorox (CLX.N) and other disinfectant makers benefited from a boom in sales of surface cleaners and wipes. At the time, there were no products suited to sanitizing air, though some anxious consumers took to spraying surface cleaners into their surroundings…
“We have spoken to other regulators, but I’d say at the moment that the prime focus is really making the U.S. a success and (learning) from the U.S. and then how we can take that elsewhere.”
The formula contains active molecules that are hygroscopic in nature, which allows the molecules to attach to microorganisms suspended in the air.
Once attached, the molecules break down the structural membrane of the microorganism, leading to its destruction, Reckitt said.
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Several billions of dollars left in a scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poorest could be diverted to prepare for other pandemics or to support vaccine manufacturing in Africa, the scheme's partners said. https://t.co/jAlDLxsA8L
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) June 26, 2023
(link)
Status of Global #SARSCoV2 #Genomic #Surveillance | 06/25/2023
Global genomic surveillance is significantly down & decline is accelerated by the end of Global & National Emergency Declaration announcements!
Note: June 2023 data is incomplete
*Reporting delays pic.twitter.com/3U1VFdP5FY— Raj Rajnarayanan (@RajlabN) June 25, 2023
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Japan, Okinawa: More than 700 Covid patients hospitalized.
A total of 10 medical institutions have restricted emergency and general medical care.
"We must assume that the scale of the epidemic will exceed the seventh wave of last year."https://t.co/FFdXIewQCB
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) June 27, 2023
Australia, Victoria: More than 600 people die after catching Covid in hospital
Health Department data reveals 5,614 people were suspected to have caught COVID while in the state’s public hospitals between 2020 and April this year.https://t.co/9sQ9pmdTz2
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) June 27, 2023
(link)
“Sweden sacrificed its seniors to the pandemic and used its schoolchildren as guinea pigs. Its government plied its people with lies about COVID-19 and even tried to smear its critics.” https://t.co/bxrHYdzUmq
— Jonathan Reiner 🟦 (@JReinerMD) June 26, 2023
Britain:
(link)
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An inhaled Covid vaccine booster was more than 5-fold effective for inducing neutralizing antibodies at 28-days, and more durable at 1-year, than shots, vs Omicron BA.5 in a randomized trialhttps://t.co/yeHxgukgft @TheLancetInfDis pic.twitter.com/drpQuw0yiN
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 27, 2023
Prolonged inflammation, #LongCovid hallmark, was alleviated & inflammatory markers restored to healthy levels, new study reports. Patients given 1 mRNA vax dose at 12 months post #Covid, which incrementally eliminated excess inflammation w/in 24 months https://t.co/m74zjmXgfj
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) June 26, 2023
Study links moderate, severe COVID-19 to chronic pain
26% of patients with non-mild #COVID19 cases report frequent painhttps://t.co/J0UxDhvedN pic.twitter.com/eY6Fcq8Qzl
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) June 26, 2023
A new review of current data suggests the persistence of #SARSCoV2 in children & babies. The paper in the Lancel Microbe, isn't a study but an examination of previously conducted research. That said, it's a serious analysis warranting further research https://t.co/2GyHugcC7K pic.twitter.com/3XHE7QF6NJ
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) June 27, 2023
A third of people are Blood Group A. #SARSCoV2 preferentially infects these cells "providing a direct link between ABO blood group expression and [Covid] infection"https://t.co/Ya7bCrTsVb @ASH_hematology pic.twitter.com/GXKkpo6bhs
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 27, 2023
From a wastewater obsessive specialist:
@vinay_kishore Saluti, the unroll you asked for: https://t.co/Y6hMBHE9P6 Have a good day. 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) June 24, 2023
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Ending today, the @theNASEM held 2 days of mtgs on #LongCOVID & the big take-home messages:
-It's FAR more widespread & complex than is generally realized
-Patients experience stigma from MDs & employers
-Doctors can't get reimbursed
-There is no standard of diagnosis or care. pic.twitter.com/In3au6OJFE— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 23, 2023
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Must-read thread on the ODNI report and what it shows, but more importantly does not show.
At this point, any claim that this report supports a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 is disinformation. https://t.co/wAgtpxFmHo
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) June 26, 2023
@XinWei57337546 Namaste, here is your unroll: https://t.co/ngTDunuq5M Talk to you soon. 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) June 25, 2023
(link)
Excellent summary of the ‘lab leak’ fabulation — remember, sharing is caring!
🔥🔥🔥
"The lab-leak conspiracy gang has smeared scientists and misled the public into believing a theory that has no factual support whatsoever. They should be ashamed."
https://t.co/Wek1wMNmFY— Cadhla Firth (@CadhlaFirth) June 26, 2023
On The Road – UncleEbeneezer – Yucatan Adventure Part 5 (of 8) – MeridaReader Interactions
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NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
5 new cases on 06/21/23.
8 new cases on 06/22/23.
6 new cases on 06/23/23.
6 new cases on 06/24/23.
4 new cases on 06/25/23.
5 new cases on 06/26/23.
3 new cases on 06/27/23.
Deaths now at 2290, up 5 since last week.
My sister picked uo some sort of respiratory infection this weekend and it just won’t go away. She’s been taking home COVID tests every day and they all come back negative. She can’t find any place in her area that’s still doing PCR tests. Whatever this is, she regrets not using masks over the last month or so. She’d forgotten how horrible even a normal head cold is.
ETA: she had her 2nd Omicron booster shot a week or so back, too, right before she came down with whatever this crap is.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 341 new Covid-19 cases on 24th June, for a cumulative reported total of 5,114,717 cases. 340 of these new cases were local infections; one new case was imported. It also reported one death, for an adjusted cumulative total of 37,127 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
5,231 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 24th June, with a positivity rate of 6.5%.
There were 16,326 active cases on 24th June, 201 fewer than the day before. 366 were in hospital. 16 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, nine confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 541 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 5,061,264 patients recovered – 99.0% of the cumulative reported total.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 183 doses of vaccine on 27th June: eight first doses, 16 second doses, 115 first booster doses, and 44 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,847,988 doses administered: 28,135,934 first doses, 27,549,035 second doses, 16,337,744 first booster doses, and 825,275 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.
lowtechcyclist
I appreciate your doing this at all!! I can’t tell you how valuable these threads were in the early days (can’t believe you started these in January 2020!) and when the pandemic was at its worst.
And yeah, as long as the current lull continues, once every other week or something like that should be plenty. Hopefully it won’t be just a lull.
Anne Laurie
There’s a ‘new’ respiratory infection (human metapneumovirus, or HMPV) that’s been taking advantage of the Great Unmasking. It doesn’t kill people, or even (usually) send them to the hospital, but yes it’ll make ya miserable…
New Deal democrat
The good news across all trends continues.
Biobot updated yesterday, showing a further decline to 142 particles per mL. All 4 Census regions participated in the decline. This is the lowest level in 2 years except for July 2021 and March 2022.
Hospitalizations declined to 6,373 during the week of June 17, the lowest of the entire pandemic. Deaths declined to 653 during the week of May 27, the latest week with reliable information. Preliminarily in the three weeks since, the indications are of still further decline.
The CDC’s biweekly variant update was last Friday. All of the variants reported are either subvariants of XBB, plus two new descendants of XBB, FE.1.1 & EU.1.1., which total 3.3% of all new cases.
This is really just excellent news. The next big test will be how much of an increase there is from get-together over the July 4 holiday.
eclare
@Anne Laurie:
Oh I hadn’t even heard of that…
Matt McIrvin
@NeenerNeener: All the COVID mitigation efforts definitely made a lot of us forget the misery of the “normal” crud for a while, and it’s back with a vengeance.
satby
@eclare: That’s probably the cold virus that got me so sick last winter, because it wasn’t covid, flu, or RSV. TBF, had I not tried to power through the cold because it was the Christmas season, I wouldn’t have gotten so seriously ill. If covid taught us anything, it should have taught us to give ourselves time to rest and recover even from minor colds.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Is it me, or do those statistics not change much from update to update? I know compliance with boosters really dropped in the US.
eclare
@satby:
That makes sense. I remember it took you weeks to get over it.
Soprano2
I started feeling low-level crummy Monday night. Thought it was from travel tiredness, but took a test last night and discovered I have Covid! Took another one just to be sure. My boss says you don’t have to stay home unless you’re having symptoms, but I am – sore throat, stuffy nose and fatigue. The worst thing was having to text my conductor since I was on the bus back from St Louis. At least I didn’t lose my sense of taste and smell this time. I kept trying to find a time for us to get the latest booster, but never could. Guess I’ll be getting it in the fall now.
Old School
@Soprano2: Here’s hoping you bounce back quick and are soon back to normal.
eclare
@Soprano2:
OMG! I guess from travel exposure? No, it’s not over. Take care, rest.
sab
I had ordered a bunch of N 95 masks through Ace hardware. Just for grocery shopping. Boy am I glad, because of Canadian wildfires Ohio health departments are telling us to stay inside. I slept with the windows open last night and coughed all night. Woke up this morning, saw the air alert and shut the windows. Haven’t coughed in hours, and none of the cats have had an asthma attack this morning.
Facebones
Covid isn’t over, and I don’t think it’s ever going away completely. I got my first case of it two weeks ago. (I’m 90% sure I got it from the Governor’s Ball music festival that was being held around the theatre I work in.) I felt cruddy and sick on Tuesday, took a test, and it was positive. I am fully vaxxed and boosted, including the bivalent booster at Christmas, so I only felt bad for a day. I tested negative on Friday morning. It was (for me) like a bad cold for a day and a lingering cold for a few more.
Bill Arnold
@satby:
Think of viral infections as infections by intracellular parasites.
They are rarely a net good for human health. (Exceptions include cases where infection by a low-virulence virus induces broader immunity that protects against a more virulent (damaging) virus. The adaptive immune system is complicated.)
Soprano2
@eclare: That’s my guess, but who knows? Someone in the group could have had it, as well.
Bill Arnold
@sab:
Yeah, N95 masks (or equivalent, or better) help a lot when out in such poor air quality conditions.
I have forced air heat/cooling with high-quality filters; set on fan-only, it seemed to clear the smoke indoors as well several weeks ago (NYC area) with 200+ AQI.
dnfree
You are still my best and most consistent resource for Covid, so thank you again.
RaflW
Reduced to that of all the other chronic uncertainties of This Modern Life — weird weather events, wildfires… plus the aftereffects of long exposure to PM2.5 smoke particles.
Not minimizing Covid (and, in fairness, we’ve been some of the long-time cautious who about a month ago finally started eating indoors in restaurants and attending indoor gatherings), but rather, noting that we are running new experiments in long term effects from things previously rare.
What will the effects of the 2020 CA wildfires and the weeks of 300-600 AQI readings (extreme danger in those upper numbers, but for how long after? PM2.5 lodges in the lungs for long stretches). Now NYC, New England, and most recently the Midwest are getting similar weeks-long smoke accumulations.
Together with the warmest arctic spring ever, and an expected very warm El Nino, it’s feeling a bit jackpotish.
Ukai
Despite being vaccinated, boosted, etc., I got COVID for the first time ever from my landlady, who received it as an unexpected wedding “present” two weeks ago. Running through the whole gamut of symptoms (congestion, sore throat, coughing, fever, chills), sometimes concurrently.
It’s been an isolating experience, and I know that I’m luckier than those who’ve actually, you know, died from it.
0/5 stars, would not recommend.
RaflW
Oh. On the actual theme: I saw yesterday that there are some rather promising looking results from trials of inhaled or nasal Covid vaccines.
I hope these avenues are pursued thoroughly in/for the USA. Admittedly I don’t know much about immunology, but people who I believe do know such things have hoped a nasal vax would come forward, as it has the potential to direct response at the primary entry point for many of us. Fingers crossed!
Chris T.
@Bill Arnold:
You’d think some clever virus would discover how to give humans continuous orgasms or something, so that we’d all voluntarily spread it….