(link)
The meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 12, and some observers are guessing the updated vaccine could be released by the weekend of September 15:
… The CDC’s immunization panel is scheduled to vote on the vaccines at a Sept. 12 meeting, a notice posted on the federal register website showed.
Vaccine makers such as Pfizer (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), Moderna (MRNA.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus.
CDC Director Mandy Cohen said earlier this month the vaccines were anticipated to be available by the third or fourth week of September, after being recommended by the CDC and authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration…
26 states are currently seeing a 20%+ surge in #Covid cases.
How do you know if those #Covid19 home tests in your cabinet are still useful?
https://t.co/xA1bj8nWOj— Michael Conn (@michaelconn_ny) August 29, 2023
======
WHO: Latest global Covid case numbers
*Excludes ALL of the Americas.
An entire continent engages in concealing vital medical data.
https://t.co/omCjlUL54N pic.twitter.com/gWXCq6ihQJ
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) August 27, 2023
(link)
China’s unexpected decision to end its strict Covid Zero policy in December 2022 led to nearly 1.9 million excess deaths in just two months, according to one of the first independent studies to estimate the virus’s devastation as it rampaged across the vast country.
The shocking figure — even more so considering fewer than 7 million deaths worldwide have been formally attributed to Covid — applies only to adults over the age of 30 who died between December 2022 and January 2023, according to the paper published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The Chinese government had previously disclosed about 60,000 Covid-related deaths in health facilities from early December to the middle of January…
“Despite being the first place to be hit by Covid-19, China was able to quickly suppress the disease through stringent measures over an extended period,” said Joseph Unger, the senior author of the paper and a biostatistician and health services researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. “Because the Chinese population had been largely shielded from infection with limited natural immunity and was not fully or well vaccinated, the sudden introduction of widespread Covid-19 infection had a devastating impact.”
The Fred Hutchinson researchers used a unique approach that they deemed quasi-experimental to come up with the figure.
They combined information gleaned from published obituaries for employees at three of the country’s most prestigious universities and data collected about queries for terms like funeral parlor, cremation and burial on Baidu, a search engine that accounts for almost all internet queries in China.
The result was a calculation of “excess deaths” among adults in China during the two months after Covid Zero ended. A higher-than-expected mortality rate was found in every province except Tibet, and older people were particularly vulnerable, the study found…
Estimating the number of deaths from Covid has been difficult the world over for a myriad of reasons, including the challenges of diagnosing infections early on in the outbreak and tracking everyone affected during the massive waves that followed. Experts agree the figures are almost certainly an underestimate in every nation and that it may take years to calculate the true toll.
The US has the highest number of confirmed number of deaths cumulatively throughout the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University, followed by Brazil and India. The estimated number of excess deaths, another way of calculating mortality that compares death rates among the same groups during different periods of time, puts India at the top with 6.2 million deaths, followed by China at 1.9 million, Russia at 1.5 million and the US at 1.3 million…
True counts were made even more difficult in China because the government narrowed the definition of Covid death shortly after three years of stringent Covid Zero controls were suddenly abondoned in December 2022. That spurred calls for data transparency from the World Health Organization and experts outside the country…
Japan: Weekly COVID-19 cases per hospital up by 26%.
Gifu prefecture had the highest average, at 31.03, followed by 30.42 in Iwate, 28.48 in Akita and 27.42 in Ibaraki.https://t.co/7oRvnOneo7 https://t.co/ompOOu6Oho
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) August 26, 2023
(link)
(link)
Swedish newspaper asks if anyone has LongCovid. Forced to close down comments after only 4 hours because there is so much Swedish LongCovid.
PUBLISHED YESTERDAY 20:30
Today02:34 – reporter closes it.
Today02:33 – comment. https://t.co/pUXVmuGWWJ pic.twitter.com/1o9N910sC3— Lazarus Long (@LazarusLong13) August 28, 2023
(link)
Scotland: 237 covid-related ward closures vs. 93 closures from other infections (e.g. flu/norovirus) in 🏴 in 1st 7 months of 2023https://t.co/NxHTiC5HF4
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) August 27, 2023
(link)
Canada has detected its first case of COVID-19 from the BA.2.86 variant of Omicron in a person in British Columbia who had not traveled outside the Pacific province, health officials said on Tuesday. https://t.co/xbwCALgH2v
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) August 30, 2023
======
Getting Covid from being in the hospital (nosocomial infections): Features of nearly 7,700 of such infections in 288 US hospitals that should be preventedhttps://t.co/RXOEw48NJr pic.twitter.com/NBGRndkOKg
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 28, 2023
Age-standardised mortality on only deaths that involved COVID as a factor (according to the judgment of the certifying physician).
You can't read vaccine efficacy directly from these figures (there are important confounders) but the difference pre- and post-Omicron is striking. pic.twitter.com/YFmrrvDTwn— Paul Mainwood (@PaulMainwood) August 29, 2023
Now 11 studies for #LongCovid at 2 years
A new prospective one from Germany https://t.co/A0SB4qHg2N @eClinicalMed
Summary Table below
Reviewed https://t.co/kPD76eH2rE pic.twitter.com/V54OEwZRh4— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 29, 2023
(link)
Heart damage is a long-term consequence of #Covid: The #coronavirus has taken a toll on heart health around the world & even in the U.S. doctors are still grappling with how to help https://t.co/1wwiRHYfF1
& https://t.co/WHf4q8AUk6— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 28, 2023
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) August 22, 2023
Retrospective study of COVID-19 experiences in elite multinational aquatic athletes – “Reinfection occurred in 13%, and 10% of initial infections led to long COVID, with fatigue (65%) and shortness of breath (48%) being the most common long-term symptoms.” https://t.co/T1w9yFufuy
— Dr. Sean Mullen (@drseanmullen) August 28, 2023
… Questions posed over SARS-2’s lack of seasonality aren’t purely academic. Knowing when to expect a disease is critical for health care labor force planning. The tsunami of RSV-infected babies struggling to breathe in the late summer and early fall of 2022 was made worse by the fact that hospitals weren’t as prepared as they could have been; they normally see RSV peaks in the winter months. Likewise, knowing when to expect SARS-2 surges helps the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention time the rollout of Covid booster shots. The protection against infection generated by the vaccines wanes quickly, so giving them too soon or too late would undermine the efficacy of this countermeasure.
Van Kerkhove thinks waning immunity in the population is the reason for the periodic swells of transmission. Protection against severe disease — whether induced by infection, vaccination, or the two combined — appears to hold up reasonably well. But when it comes to SARS-2, protection against basic infection is short-lived. That’s not a surprise given what’s known about the four human coronaviruses that predate the arrival of SARS-2. A study in the Netherlands that followed healthy volunteers for more than 35 years found that people can be reinfected with human coronaviruses within about a year after infection, and sometimes after a mere six months. With SARS-2, there are reports of intervals that are shorter still…
A break from seasonal transmission of respiratory pathogens can be a sign something is amiss, with off-season spread having been observed during flu pandemics going back to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. The first observed cases in that pandemic occurred in the spring, at a time when flu season would normally have concluded. The 1957 pandemic began in Asia in February of that year, but the virus arrived in, and started spreading through, the United States, during the summer. The 1968 pandemic began in July. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was first detected in April and the pandemic’s major wave ran through the summer, peaked in September and trailed off in October.
“Pandemic influenza doesn’t follow a seasonal pattern in any way, shape or form,” said Osterholm.
It remains to be seen when it will be apparent that SARS-2 has lost its override capabilities, when we’ll feel confident that we know when to expect — plus or minus a month or two — Covid’s annual onslaught…
======
(link)
I’m far from a COVID contrarian or minimizer. I’m immune compromised so I barely socialize indoors, I wear an N-95 or something close when I shop, & when one of the kids gets a sniffle we test
I take it seriously
But, I gotta ask, is Deborah Birx unaware of wastewater testing? https://t.co/kRVOAnaZ9N
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 30, 2023
*Taps Mic*
We are 3.5years into this pandemic. Let’s drop the “if you are old or have preexisting conditions” narrative when we KNOW COVID has literally killed babies.Moment of silence
Everyone, hear me: wear N95 mask & get booster. https://t.co/gi7EPdpD6y
— Ebony Jade Hilton, MD (@EbonyJHilton_MD) August 25, 2023
These charts show the percentage increase in obituaries using the words "suddenly" or "unexpectedly" is far greater, on average, in red states with low vax rates than in blue states with high vax rates. But Kirsch ignores that and says "it's only happening to the vaccinated." https://t.co/hVBNOAv0Zc
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) August 28, 2023
(link)
— Bad Vaccine Takes (@BadVaccineTakes) August 23, 2023
On The Road – BillinGlendaleCA – Astromod!
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
21 new cases on 08/23/23.
43 new cases on 08/24/23.
50 new cases on 08/25/23.
37 new cases on 08/26/23.
46 new cases on 08/27/23.
26 new cases on 08/28/23.
35 new cases on 08/29/23.
Deaths now at 2305, up 3 from last week.
I’m masking in public again because I don’t like the new cases numbers.
eclare
Really wished the govt had been more on the ball with the new vaccine and had not decided “We’ll just make it a fall vaccine. And we’ll roll it out after school starts.”
My last booster was 9/17/22 because of the ridiculous eligibility requirements. I am anxious
Ramalama
Learned the hard way that France is particularly bad wrt to COVID. People testing positive are still required to go work. There is no Paxlovid treatment available in France, despite websites proclaiming that France has a stockpile. Nothing other than Zinc supplements are the treatment du jour for people with COVID.
Nukular Biskits
Waiting for the new vaccine to roll out.
Plan on getting boosted for COVID and getting my flu shot.
Suburban Mom
I was last boosted in September of 2022. My strategy of holding out for the updated vaccine was a dismal failure, and I’m now on day 5 of what I hope will continue to be a mild case of COVID.
Lapassionara
Thanks again, AL, for compiling this information. There was an article in our local newspaper yesterday about rising COVID rates here in the St Louis area. I’m still masking in public, but one of the very few.
brantl
Why does Dana Houle think wastewater testing is prevalent? I don’t think it is. I have heard of it as a good measure, but it doesn’t work outside of cities and towns. And these anti-vax assholes need to be slapped. Goddamn RFKJr., anyway.
Maxim
@eclare: Agreed. I asked my doctor for a booster six weeks ago; they wouldn’t give me one because I’d had everything I was eligible for (my last booster was in November 2022).
I was infected by my (non-symptomatic) cousin the following week.
Chris T.
Side note: Front page “cut here” thingy (click to expand) is not working, it’s expanded without clicking.
Maxim
@Ramalama: That’s terrible. I’m sorry to hear that.
@Suburban Mom: Oh, no. Were you able to get Paxlovid?
eclare
@Maxim:
So frustrating! I would get a booster every six months if I could.
New Deal democrat
Biobot has updated through yesterday, and it shows that the summer wave which began in late June is peaking, with only an 1% increase in particle levels in the past week. The Midwest census region shows a marked decrease, while the other three regions show slight increases. This is similar to the summer waves of 2020-22, all of which peaked in late July through the end of August. The current level is consistent with about 150,000 new cases per day.
The CDC’s hospitalization data is only updated through August 19, showing 15,000 new hospitalizations for the week, about 2.5x their lowest level in June before the wave began. Likely these will continue to increase to near 20,000 in the next several weeks. This would still be lower than at my other time during the pandemic except for the late spring 2021 and 2022 lulls.
Deaths did not begin to increase from their low of 467 until the week of July 15. For the week of August 15 the partial death count is up to 551. I suspect this will increase to about 1200 per week by the end of September. But this will also be lower than at any other time except for the 2021 and 2022 late spring lulls.
The CDC’s latest variant update, now almost two weeks old, does not separately break out BA.2.86. It shows XBB subvariants still the predominant strain, with EG.5 increasing considerably.
I have returned to wearing a mask indoors in public spaces. I notice there has been an increase in others wearing masks as well, although it is still no more than 10% of people.
I suspect we will get a typical autumn decline from after Labor Day until Thanksgiving.
(Off topic comment. Until a few weeks ago I did not realize that every single Thanksgiving dish, except for bread stuffing, was exclusively from the New World.)
lowtechcyclist
We tested the kiddo for Covid last night, when we found out that one of the regulars in his theatre troupe had tested positive. And sure enough, he’s finally got Covid. He’d had a cough since late last week, and apparently this was his only symptom. No sign of fever. School just opened day before yesterday, so he didn’t get it there. (We’re keeping him home today, of course.) My wife and I have both tested negative, fortunately.
Matt McIrvin
It does seem like the late-summer wave is peaking here, according to wastewater data… but as always, the peak is locally variable and spiky, and some towns are having major outbreaks while others are on the downslope. I would love to get a booster shot for all this stuff but we may have to wait until late September or October. Wearing my mask on the bus right now.
Kristine
Had my annual physical last week and asked my doctor about boosters. Guess they’ll be available in late September or so, and I will definitely be getting one.
She also said that the infection rate in Lake County IL was still pretty low. I hope it stays that way. Seeing a small uptick in mask-wearing, but the overall rate is still pretty low.
p.a.
Assume YKW, you know what, is the covid vaccine? As a multi-vax ‘guinea pig’, I guess I’m a “symptomless carrier”?
Wow. Just wow. These people could probably be convinced to believe in witchcraft.
Matt McIrvin
I’m a little puzzled by the claims of no seasonality because in the US, it’s pretty clear we’ve had a significant wave every winter since 2020, much like colds and flu. It’s just that that’s not all there is. Are they looking for something more consistent than that?
Matt McIrvin
@brantl: Biobot’s site collects data for counties across the US that participate in their program. Coverage is spotty but covers a large portion of the US, so it’s not as if the national situation is impossible to ascertain. Massachusetts has weekly reports for individual towns.
These days, I regard wastewater as one of the few reliable indicators remaining. Case rates aren’t. Hospital numbers are pretty good as a general indication of how much infection there is– these days, most of those cases are people hospitalized for something else who happen to have COVID.
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: I agree with you. There was a pretty good article about a year ago cited by Dr. Topol, Hotez, or Bergstrom (sorry, don’t have the link) that forecast that COVID would evolve to show marked seasonality with a relatively high background rate.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: It’s hilarious when their convoluted theories cycle back around to almost being correct.
Soprano2
@Lapassionara: That’s interesting, the MSD wastewater monitoring points at their treatment plants show mixed results – some higher, some about the same. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f7f5492486114da6b5d6fdc07f81aacf
Here in Springfield, our wastewater levels are about as low as they’ve ever been.
Soprano2
@brantl: But lots and lots of people work in and visit the cities where wastewater monitoring is happening. The monitoring we do in Springfield also catches the vast majority of people who live in the communities around Springfield. It’s honestly the best measure we have of Covid prevalence, because it catches all cases. You’re right, out where there are towns of less than 1,000 they probably aren’t monitoring Covid in wastewater, but that’s a relatively small amount of the population.
trnc
@Maxim:
Sorry to hear that, but glad you got through it. I hope your symptoms weren’t too bad.
I also asked in July and was told that only immunocompromised or elderly people were eligible, although it seemed like they would have taken my word on the former. I agree that having to wait until Sep 15 seems pretty late, but this Birx claim with no pushback chapped my ass:
Of course, they are at different rates, based on what every pharmacy told me and my wife when we asked about getting a booster.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: If you look at wastewater data, it’s even clearer that there are seasonal waves of Covid.
Matt McIrvin
@Ramalama: I do think Americans have an exaggerated idea of how much better every other place is, especially 3 years in.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Summer 2022 was still pretty hairy, I think because Omicron was getting the remaining uninfected, but nothing like the previous winter. And the wave we’re in now is relatively small, a lull by last year’s standards.
Matt McIrvin
…One way to look at it is to think of Omicron as a whole new pandemic that hit in late 2021 and reset the clock. It certainly changed the characteristics of infection.
Mike in NC
I can guarantee everybody that in 5 years the Republicans will be campaigning on the “fact” that COVID was all a Deep State hoax and that nobody died from it.
lee
I’m scheduled to go to a massive convention in San Francisco mid Sept. I’m hoping the new vaccine is going to be rolled out by then.
Mel
@eclare: Me, too. I’m on immunosuppressive therapy, have a heart issue, and have to go into the hospital (where NOBODY, including the medical staff, is masking) for a major surgery next week. Schools right scross the state line from me are having to close because of such high Covid numbers / absences, and when I went in for my presurgical eval, the waiting room at the hospital was packed with sniffling, coughing, unmasked people.
It would have been nice to be able to have the updated vaccine (the only real protection available for me in these circumstances) on board beforehand. Instead of all of us having to wait as you noted so the vaccines could be “back to school”.
Ascap_scab
Windham Rotunda aka WWE SuperStar Bray Wyatt died this week of a heart attack induced by long Covid at 36yo.
https://www.cinemablend.com/wrestling/bray-wyatt-reportedly-hospitalized-week-before-his-death-heart-attack
jonas
You can’t really roll out new vaccines too far in advance because we don’t know what variant(s) will be circulating at a given point.
lowtechcyclist
@Mike in NC:
Given >1M excess deaths, I wonder if they’re doing an OJ and searching for the *real* killer.
No, I don’t wonder that, of course. My WAG is that few of them even know about the excess-deaths number, but if you asked them, they’d make up some gibberish on the spot about the Deep State rigging the numbers.
lowtechcyclist
@jonas:
Yeah, but maybe shortly before the school year begins in most places, rather than after they’re all open? Early August rather than mid-September?
Cliosfanboy
I’m always a tad surprised when I see Fred Hutchinsons name on medical news. He was a great Cincinnati Reds manager in the early 60s. He died of cancer (heavy smoker) and the Center was named after him. So when I see his name I think of Frank Robinson, and Vada Pinson, and Pete Rose, not medical research. 😀
jonas
I probably shouldn’t be, but I continue to be surprised at just how bad things were in Sweden and how utterly misguided their response to the pandemic was. It just devastated the senior population, especially in nursing homes, and now everyone has Long Covid. While some people with LC seem to recover after a few months, others have symptoms lasting years and are completely debilitated. Fortunately Sweden has a comprehensive social medicine system, so people aren’t left scrambling for basic health care, but resources even in a wealthy Scandinavian country like Sweden aren’t limitless and this will really put a strain on things going forward. Talk about penny wise, pound foolish.
mvr
@trnc: I got boosted a few days after my 65th birthday in late June – waiting until I was eligible due to my now advanced age.
But I got the impression that I probably could have gotten it before that birthday by asking for it. So it may be worth trying the pharmacy route if your doctor doesn’t want to give you a booster.
I was a bit worried that getting boosted in late June/early July might make me ineligible for the new boosters when they come out in the fall. But I wasn’t confident that they’d come out soon enough for that to be an issue.
Good thing I got it since a friend who we spent a good deal of time with this weekend just tested positive. So far we are testing negative.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: The standard denialist line is that the pandemic mitigation measures killed them.
The antivaxxers, of course, think of the vaccines as a kind of deadly pandemic that you can catch through imaginary “shedding”.
But that doesn’t explain the deaths before the vaccines– that, they attribute to supposed effects of wearing masks, or to people committing suicide because of lockdown, or to fake numbers cooked up by Big COVID. it’s all completely innumerate, of course.
Suburban Mom
@Maxim: I actually turned down the Paxlovid because it has some side effects that could be problematic for me and my symptoms are improving already.
Stacy
@Maxim: My husband and I were able to get a second bivalent booster at CVS back in late April even though we’re just 50. No questions asked. We were headed to Europe and wanted the extra protection.
Joke was on us though when my husband got a campylobacter infection from chicken instead. Then he had a case of shingles a few months later which I think was related. Luckily we’ve both had shingrix so he had no nerve pain just the itchy rash.
way2blue
I wonder how many Americans are left who haven’t gotten CoVID at least once. Seems to be getting harder to dodge the sneaky morphing virus. With no end in sight.
YY_Sima Qian
While it is clear the official death toll from the exit tsunami is orders of magnitude off from the actual toll, & 1M+ is about the right order of magnitude, the study published in JAMA is using really iffy methodology: they are extrapolation from obituary announcements from 3 Chinese universities, as well as Baidu (Chinese counterpart to Google) searches. That is a very flimsy basis to extrapolate from, evidenced by the 95% confidence interval of 700K – 4M deaths.
Mai Naem mobileI
@Ascap_scab: it doesn’t matter. I don’t follow WWE but if the Vax was required by WWE the anti vaxers will blame him getting COVID from the Vax. Otherwise they’ll blame it on the ‘shedding’. To me a lot of the WWE people look like they use or have used steroids and that isn’t going to help with COVID or cardiac issues. The way TFG handled COVID should be one of the top 3 reasons he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an elected office. His handling allowed all this anti vax info get so out of control.
RaflW
@Lapassionara: I attended two large events this past weekend. I was the only masked person among 50 ppl at a lake management district annual meeting. :/
Then Sunday I went to a Tammy Baldwin fundraiser. Probably 100, maybe more ppl. I succumbed to peer pressure. Absolutely zero masked guests or dignitaries.
It’s Wednesday and so far I seem to be fine, but I hate that even among Dems, who I think should know better, there’s not yet any apparent awareness to return to masking.
Chetan Murthy
@New Deal democrat: I guess you’re right in the sense that turkey, cranberries, potatoes, are all from the New World. But OTOH, turkey is a stand-in for goose (I cooked T-day for friends in our dorm in Paris in the early 90s, and we got a stuffed goose) and cranberries are a stand-in for lingonberries, no? [and honestly, lingonberries are *so* much better.]
Chetan Murthy
@Stacy:
Oof! Wow! I had three thoughts:
cckids
The spouse and I are here in WA fuming at his sister, who just spent 4 days with their 93-year old diabetic mom, then flew home and discovered the next day that the sniffles she’d had for the past week were Covid. So he’s getting his mom to test daily at home, though she’s oddly resistant to doing it. (“I feel fine!”)
A pox on his sister though. She’s a proud non-vaxxed Louisiana Repub, no masks ever, of course. Hopefully she hasn’t killed her mother.
cckids
And, as far as I know, I haven’t ever had Covid, which is a minor miracle given that my #2 job is cashiering in a grocery store. I’m in the minority still wearing a mask, even with the amount of crap some of the public give me for it. (it’s always a man who feels the need to share his opinion).
So many members of the public are so grossly thoughtless about being around others when they are ill, just basic hygiene like covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough, etc. I may wear a mask there forever. It also lets me swear under my breath and not get caught.
Chetan Murthy
@cckids:
Can I say: “good for you!” I also wear a mask religiously/automatically in foreign buildings, and I DGAF if I’m the only masked person there. And if my checker is masked in the grocery store, I always thank them for doing so. So thank you for wearing your mask.
ETA: AFAIK I’m Novid too!
luc
The term “full reopening” applied to North Korea in one of these tweets should make the intertubes explode – if there is any AI out there.
New Deal democrat
@Chetan Murthy: As are squash, green beans, sweet potato, pumpkin, and pecans.
Tony G
@Mike in NC: A lot of people are the right are already saying that — and have been saying that for 3.5 years. A nation of very stupid children in adult bodies.
Tony G
@Ascap_scab: The standard dogma amount the anti-vaxxers now is that there is no long-covid (really, no covid at all) and that heart attacks are caused by the vaccine. Stupid and evil people.
RaflW
@jonas: I have many cousins in Sweden, several of whom I am pretty close to and see at least every couple of years.
I’ve been just shocked at how bad the Swedish government response has been (and perhaps, too, the Swedish public response, because I don’t see all that much pushback — my visit last fall my family barely talked about Covid, though we talked plenty about the next Swedish elections).
That they’re now suppressing long Covid is terrible. My past high esteem for my mother’s home country has dropped a fair bit.
karen marie
Please, Universe, let me not get COVID now – or ever.
I wear my mask (KN95) every time I enter an enclosed public space but yesterday I went to see Barbie. Of course, I had to have popcorn, which meant removing my mask. There were only two other people in the largish theater aside from my companion and me, but, as we know, aerosols can remain in the air for an hour or more.
I’m glad I saw Barbie on a big screen but after all the hype, I wasn’t impressed. It was very pretty but, to me, the storyline was overly compressed and the rushed ending a letdown. I will be super pissed if I wind up with COVID as a result of the outing.
hrprogressive
This weekly thread is still basically the only source of COVID news I can find now since I’m on hiatus from other social media, and even then, what was out there before was…of dubious quality.
Thanks to the governments of the world for deciding this wasn’t a big deal anymore to them.
As of this writing I’ve still never had it, but only because I don’t really live any sort of life, and haven’t, in 3 years.
For those commenting on “Seasonality” I think the “hope” was that one day, COVID would become “like the flu” in the sense that we’d have a single “COVID Season” every year, and then for the rest of the year, it would fade into the background and we’d all be able to “live normally” again.
The way things are going, absent transmission-blocking vaccines, I don’t see how we achieve that tbh.
RE – Bray Wyatt – The recent reporting is that he had an underlying heart condition that COVID made worse, and, recent reporting suggests he was given a defibrillator by a doctor to keep on his person because of this heart issue, and wasn’t wearing it when he passed. Broke all of our hearts in the “wrasslin'” community. Man was only a year younger than me. I don’t know that he specifically had “Long COVID”, and it doesn’t seem like the acute infection itself killed him, but…well, stories like his are one of the reasons I’m trying so damn hard (to the sacrifice of the rest of my life, really) to not catch the damn thing.
I hate everything about this timeline.
sab
@New Deal democrat: For families that do cornbread stuffing, even the bread pudding is New World.