Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The willow is too close to the house.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

In my day, never was longer.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let there be snark.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: August 23, 2023

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: August 23, 2023

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… The official said that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting an increase in infections and hospital admissions from the virus, overall levels remain low.

On Thursday, Moderna (MRNA.O) said initial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the “Eris” and “Fornax” subvariants in humans.

Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccine makers Novavax (NVAX.O), Pfizer (PFE.N) and German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant.

Pending approval from health regulators in the United States and Europe, the companies expect the updated shots to be available in the coming weeks for the autumn vaccination season.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: August 23, 2023

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: August 23, 2023 1
The NYTimes tends to be *very* cavalier about pandemic risks, but still:

… There is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far.

The severity of repeat infections
For many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, emerging data shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid.

Reinfection and long Covid
The chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms.

A buzzy paper that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System.

Dr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection…

OK, so now what?
It’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick…

He also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An updated vaccine, which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may reduce the risk of developing long Covid…

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From the article: “The profile of the infected person that continues to reach hospital emergencies and primary care centers (CAP) is that of a old person, with chronic pathologies, which is decompensated by the mixture of covid-19 and heat” —

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I don’t particularly trust Quillette‘s editorial board either, but it’s worth reading the whole thing:

… Some lab-leak sympathisers were simply persuaded by the presence of a virology lab in Wuhan and considered the question no further. Others embraced the hypothesis because they loved Trump (or rejected it because they hated him). Some liked it because (for a long list of very good reasons) they despise and distrust the CCP. Others just want to see Anthony Fauci’s head on a pike, either because he recommended social restrictions to control the pandemic or because he was unable to stifle a smirk during one of Trump’s incoherent press conferences (or both). Some decided that public-health authorities and other experts are simply credentialed frauds who had screwed the pooch on public masking and various other aspects of pandemic messaging, thereby forfeiting any reasonable expectation of trust. All allowed themselves to be seduced by a heroic narrative in which humble internet gumshoes, armed only with a laptop and a commitment to the truth, humiliated arrogant elites and exposed a cover-up that reached all the way to the top of the US medical establishment…

The lab-leak hypothesis may also be appealing for a more human reason—just as many people were reluctant to believe that someone as important as Kennedy could be murdered by someone as unimportant as Lee Harvey Oswald, perhaps the search for a human agent who can shoulder the blame for the pandemic relieves us of the idea that we live on a dangerous and chaotic planet, fraught with natural risks we do not yet properly understand and which we are presently powerless to control.

While these may all be compelling reasons to find the idea of a lab-leak appealing, they do nothing to prove that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from a Wuhan lab. The lab-leak hypothesis is not a moral or political matter, it is an empirical question. The answer may have consequential moral and political implications, but first we need to establish what happened. That answer is emerging, albeit more slowly than any of us might like. And when it finally arrives, it will be the product of laborious and painstaking research by people who know what they are talking about, not of investigations by amateur sleuths and agenda-driven activists who don’t.

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(Unpaywalled)

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Snark, perfectly pitched to mimic the bad-vaxx sites:
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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    20 new cases on 08/16/23.
    29 new cases on 08/17/23.
    32 new cases on 08/18/23.
    24 new cases on 08/19/23.
    25 new cases on 08/20/23.
    11 new cases on 08/21/23.
    22 new cases on 08/22/23.

    Deaths now at 2302, only up 1 from last week.

    The case counts are still worrying but at least not as many people are dying from/with it.

  6. 6.

    Betty

    Finally there is a report confirming my theory that Covid caused the onset of my high blood pressure. I also believe it caused my subsequently diagnosed left branch bundle block. The cardiologist curtly dismissed me when I suggested this. That’s what has happened to so many people who had long-term effects from Covid. So frustrating.

  8. 8.

    Soprano2

    @Betty: I found out I had that last year. The doctor said I could have had it my whole life and not known it. It’s entirely possible Covid caused yours to come to the surface; I think we’re going to spend decades figuring out everything Covid has done to some people who contracted it. I only found out about my left bundle branch block because I had some symptoms that made me believe I might have had a heart attack, so my doctor had me take an EKG; that’s when they found the irregularity. The cardiologist told me I might never have any symptoms from it, unless I develop heart failure. I hope I never have to do that stress test again! Seeing my heart valves working on the ultrasound was cool, though.

    I’m not sure what the person who posted that governments are ignoring Covid expects them to do. There is zero appetite at this time for any kind of mask mandates or other Covid measures.

  9. 9.

    NorthLeft

    Thanks again Anne. Keep up the great work. It is appreciated.

    From Ontario; my wife and I have gone back to wearing masks in certain venues, like Grocery stores, crowded stores and malls.
    Our plan is to get our next booster (our sixth) in the fall, but recent reports are making us reconsider that strategy.

    Best wishes to all to stay safe and healthy.

  10. 10.

    Wvng

    Twitter, X, is awash with “no one will force me to wear a mask this time” posts, with hundreds of “right on” comments and thousands of likes. I suspect this means that the republican:democrat ratio of very sick and dying folks will remain high.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Wvng:

    Twitter, X, is awash with “no one will force me to wear a mask this time” posts, with hundreds of “right on” comments and thousands of likes.

    Wait ’til they all get sick from the mRNA that us vaccinated people go around shedding all the time! ;-)

  14. 14.

    BR

    Are there any updates on when they’re going to make the boosters available? The date keeps bouncing around, and that uncertainty makes it really hard to plan.

  15. 15.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lee: I think the UK is only going to recommend them for over-65s and the unusually vulnerable– the weird Tory “infect everyone and power through it” mindset strikes again.

  16. 16.

    Jean

    We’ve had all the shots here, and as far as we know, neither of us has had COVID.  Last Thursday evening, he had dinner with a group of old friends.  Someone at the table was infected (unknowingly) at the time, and since then, two from the table of 6 or so, tested positive within two days.   We are still negative six days later, but will test again today.  Thursday, tomorrow, will be a week since exposure.  Could we have escaped??

  17. 17.

    Matt McIrvin

    Monday of last week, we saw “Sweeney Todd” on Broadway starring Josh Groban. Great show. I masked up, hardly anyone else did.

    Yesterday I heard Groban caught COVID a couple days later and is out sick for now.

  18. 18.

    Yarrow

    Question – how long do people generally have increased immunity after a Covid infection? Does that change if you’re vaccinated?

  19. 19.

    Yarrow

    @Jean:

    Could we have escaped??

    Yes. Depends on many factors, like where you were sitting in relation to the infected person. What the airflow was in the area (was it blowing toward the two other people who tested positive?). What your general health is. Are you vaccinated and how recently you’ve been vaccinated.

    I don’t know if you remember the public health diagrams from early in the pandemic of seating in a choir rehearsal in Washington state and a restaurant in China. They showed the air flow and how that affected who got sick. In the restaurant there was a window air conditioner that blew air from the infected person across several tables. So people sitting further away but in the line of the a/c got infected, while people closer but not in air flow line did not.

  20. 20.

    narya

    I am really hoping to get the new booster soon. I’m planning to visit my parents and I’m taking the train (sleeping car, so somewhat isolated) to get there. Dad’s bladder cancer has returned, though it’s not clear how quickly it’s moving or how much ground it’s taken over–he does NOT want any more probing, poking, scanning, scraping, etc.–and I’d like to see him in case it’s fast-moving. His 93rd birthday is in a few weeks (I can’t make it for that–aiming for early October), and, between his and my mother’s various ailments, the last thing I want to do is bring them a covid infection. I mostly mask indoors; recently I’ve made exceptions for, e.g., running into the coffee shop for something, but I’ve not been masking outdoors.

  22. 22.

    Audrey

    @NorthLeft: I’m also in Ontario, are you reconsidering based on the case numbers?  I’m still thinking I’ll wait until fall  since I hope those doses might be more effective against the variants which seem more likely to be dominant at that time (although that’s a crap shoot of course.)

    I’m very thankful to Anne Laurie for continuing this series as the news influences my decision process.

  23. 23.

    JBWoodford

    @dmsilev: Cancer of the turbo, of course.

    (It might be a typo, though, if effluent from vaccinated individuals in SE Asia has been shown to cause cancer in food fish.)

  24. 24.

    MazeDancer

    Thank you, Anne Laurie. No doubt, it is way no fun to keep compiling these reports, but know how much good you are doing.

    Those of us who are immuno-compromised, though we are used to being ignored by most of the medical community, feel a bit of comfort from the knowledge you provide.

    My heart goes out daily reading tweets from people who have developed Long Covid being completely outraged and devastated that there is nothing to be done for them.  That there is going to be nothing, mostly because there is no money in it. And most doctors don’t want to see them,

    Welcome to the club, my friends. Not much fun to be had, but at least most of the people with Long Covid are not being constantly told it’s all in your head.

  25. 25.

    Yarrow

    So I got Covid in June. I got pretty sick and was a cautionary tale for my neighbor who had been dragging her feet on getting a booster because the previous vaccines had knocked her out for 24-48 hours. After she saw how sick I was she and her husband got the booster in late June before a trip. The kids didn’t as they were at camp.

    Fast forward to August. The whole family had just returned from a visiting other family and the son, who didn’t get the booster, got sick. She tested him and yes, positive for Covid. She talked to all the family they’d just been with and no one was sick. They don’t know how he got it as they are still very cautious and wear masks.

    She tested the kids, herself and husband. Husband tested positive but only had a mild cough and congestion for a day or two. Son had fever, congestion, fatigue for several days but bounced back quickly. Other kid tested positive but had no symptoms. She never tested positive but could tell she was fighting something for about 24 hours and then felt fine.

    So, verdict on the vaccine you can get now is that it helps against the current strains of Covid. They got the booster in late June, Covid in the house in early August. Of the two adults who got the booster, one never tested positive, the other did but had very mild symptoms for only 24 hours. Vaccines work.

  27. 27.

    Carlo Graziani

    Yes, thanks, Anne, for keeping up these timely compilations.

    Two points of order:

    (1) “Hospitalizations with COVID-19” is not the same thing as “hospitalizations for COVID-19.” Particularly in the modern era of very limited recorded testing due to the advent of home antigen tests, the meaning of COVID-19 hospitalization data has changed from what it was in 2020. It is no longer a pure indication of severe disease, but rather a (biased) sampling of population positivity, selected by hospitalizations for all causes (auto accidents, unrelated disease, etc.) including severe COVID-19. But since the advent and dominance of the Omicron variant in December 2021, severity/virulence of SARS-CoV-2 is greatly decreased, as we know. So that rise in hospitalizations is interesting mostly for what it says about positivity rates, in conjunction with rising rates in sewage data (a more precise indicator), rather than for the increasing disease outcome danger that would have been the conclusion from such data in 2020-21.

    (2) There can be no possible doubt that new variant BA.2.86 is more transmissible than existing, prevalent variants. Greater transmissibility is the mechanism by which new variants emerge, grow rapidly in prevalence, and displace previous variants: A new, more rapidly-transmitting variant tears around the host population, alarming immune systems and effectively slamming the door on slower variants. It’s the reason that there are only a small number of effectively circulating variants at a time, and the reason that cases of individual hosts infected by multiple variants are extremely rare. The issue is how much more transmissible it is. It doesn’t yet have a Nextstrain Clade name assignment, which may be the reason that it’s not yet showing up at the covariants.org site. But anecdatally, it appears to be on the rising trajectory that leads to variant displacement within a few months, in which case by late fall almost all infections are likely to be BA.2.86. So the other question is whether its mutations lead to greater virulence/more severe disease. We should know in a few more weeks. Let’s hope not.

  28. 28.

    dnfree

    Thank you again for the updates and for continuing to see this as serious.  We still mask in grocery stores (along with a few others) and in public meetings (often as the only ones) even though cases keep occurring in our community.

  29. 29.

    Chris T.

    @dmsilev:

    I just want to know what exactly “turbo cancer” is.

    Cancer of the turbo, of course. You can only get it if your car has a turbo.

    (oops, beaten)

  30. 30.

    Chris T.

    @Yarrow:

    Question – how long do people generally have increased immunity after a Covid infection? Does that change if you’re vaccinated?

    Serious answer for once: nobody knows for sure, but looks like (a) 6 months to a year, and (b) maybe, but nobody knows if it’s longer or shorter on average.

  31. 31.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Chris T.:  One clarification: The immune system is a layered set of defenses, not a single mechanism. The layer of the adaptive immune system that declines in potency against SARS-CoV-2 is the antibodies, which are a sort of first line in charge of slowing down the infection’s progress, but which do not clear the virus or prevent severe disease. The latter services are provided by the cellular immune system (killer T-cells and such). Those appear not to decay much, if at all, in effectiveness, and are not fooled by variants—T-cells “trained” on the original variant by a 2020 infection or a 2021 vaccine are still quite capable of clearing out a SARS-CoV-2 infection due to a modern variant. They just have a much more strenuous clean-up job to perform, because it takes them a certain time lag to respond, and meanwhile the declining efficacy of the antibody response has allowed the infection to progress much farther than it would have, had those antibodies been refreshed by a recent vaccination or infection.

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