The U.S. government on Monday will start taking orders for another round of free COVID-19 tests for delivery across the country, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson said. https://t.co/6ceSqSfSzK https://t.co/6ceSqSfSzK
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) November 20, 2023
If you haven’t already sent for yours, it took me less than two minutes to fill out the form . The predictable winter-holiday rise is cases has already started, so it’s a good time to share this info with your friends & loved ones, too… each household can ask for *eight* tests, if they didn’t order any in September.
#COVID19 New Hospital Admissions and Percentage of Emergency Department (ED) Visits Diagnosed as COVID19 are trending up again..https://t.co/f7DM5dCd70 pic.twitter.com/W4lxtmwCsE
— Raj Rajnarayanan (@RajlabN) November 19, 2023
Weekly U.S. COVID update:
– New cases: 183,188 est.
– Average: 167,187
– States reporting: 50/50
– In hospital: 13,133 (+313)
– In ICU: 1,596 (-70)
– New deaths: 1,283
– Average: 13271/6
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) November 20, 2023
Last night's update: 183,000 new cases, up in most of the U.S. https://t.co/rhfziC4Ewe
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) November 20, 2023
#Covid will likely peak in colder months as the virus becomes endemic, a new study found. #SARSCoV2 will probably settle into a seasonal rhythm like the flu: active in winter, waning in summer. Knowing when surges are likely is key for public health policy https://t.co/OgGbpMIWUA pic.twitter.com/5OL84pVy5J
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) November 16, 2023
=======
The #Covid pandemic & our responses to it knocked many other respiratory bugs out of their normal seasonality. As we enter the 4th winter of the Age of Covid, it looks like they are heading back to their pre-pandemic patterns. https://t.co/0kHqkwNxMY
— Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 (@HelenBranswell) November 20, 2023
(link)
New Zealand: Highest Covid case numbers since January 2023.
Hospitalisations up from 284 to 349 week-on-week
NZ Herald report: https://t.co/mpiQMQjOL2 pic.twitter.com/nZ6csn7x03
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) November 21, 2023
Winter is coming and with it Covid-19 is back. While the variants remain dynamic, the pandemic exhaustion has led to a critically low degree of surveillance. Here are all available European sequences collected in November as of this morning. (eg 20 from Germany, seriously?!?) 1/2 pic.twitter.com/V5LZHoMSgv
— Ulrich Elling (@EllingUlrich) November 20, 2023
France: A hotspot for the emergence of the JN.1 variant, with rapid development in Île-de-France. https://t.co/QH8S4XJEdm
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) November 20, 2023
(link)
Sweden: Covid in wastewater.
Jaw dropping levels in November 2023. https://t.co/bQaqdUt95y research:
https://t.co/EWpDt56wVy pic.twitter.com/1nXXG8fC5I— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) November 20, 2023
(link)
(link)
UK Covid inquiry: Rishi Sunak said 'just let people die' of Covid.
Dominic Cummings, who was at the time Mr Johnson’s most senior adviser, told the meeting: “Rishi says just let people die and that’s okay.”https://t.co/8RniceUwtz
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) November 20, 2023
I see the Ontario covid wastewater signal is almost double what it was at this time last year (1.44 vs .76). The strongest growth last year started on November 20th. Ontario infection indicators typically peak in January, shortly after the holidays. pic.twitter.com/43SDNqpocK
— Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 (@Billius27) November 16, 2023
======
The COVID Moonshot—an open-science, crowdsourced, and patent-free drug discovery campaign targeting the #SARSCoV2 virus—has yielded a wealth of data that could pave the way for the development of new and better therapeutics.
Learn more in Science: https://t.co/m74xNw1wai pic.twitter.com/NdHaVxN6em
— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) November 18, 2023
Some support for less reactogenic side effects of @Novavax booster vs mRNAshttps://t.co/yNeAb8VF3H
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) November 20, 2023
"After 3 years, we still don't understand why some people experience symptoms after having COVID," said researcher @ShelFarFar, after a study found that spinal fluid immune profiles were largely normal in people with neurologic #longCOVID symptoms. https://t.co/MPMlJvc29A
— MedPage Today (@medpagetoday) November 19, 2023
That doesn't mean that this will cause an Omicron-like tsunami as in 2021. It won't. No variant that we've seen compares even remotely to that speed of takeover (700%+ per week).
But it does open up the door for a lot more evolutionary space in the coming months.
— JWeiland (@JPWeiland) November 19, 2023
#COVID19 increases risk of developing #Alzheimers by 50-80% in older adults, according to recent studyhttps://t.co/KRslQ4l2Z1 #SARSCoV2 #dementia
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) November 16, 2023
(link)
======
Imagine being the country that was arguably best prepared to handle a pandemic—only you handle it terribly. Then, barely a couple of years later, you’ve got the NYT out here like, ‘Hang on, we could have made everything so much worse. Why didn’t we and whose fault is it?’ https://t.co/QtO73weBc4
— Jason Karsh (@jkarsh) November 20, 2023
Not just Boston… Post-TDay gaming day at our friends’ home in northern New Jersey was just cancelled because the hosts tested positive. Take a test before travelling, folks, and maybe bring an extra or two to the dinner…
Public health officials are distributing rapid COVID-19 tests and urging people to receive an updated vaccine as levels of coronavirus in Boston area waste water rise ahead of the holiday season. https://t.co/cITDD2ZmTU
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) November 22, 2023
Politicization of the #Covid pandemic is warping how the outbreak is being remembered. Polarization between the vaccinated versus the anti-vax loonies is distorting recall. Researchers surveyed >10k people in 11 countries documenting pandemic memories https://t.co/v7hO0J9blR
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) November 16, 2023
On The Road – BillinGlendaleCA – Fall on the North Fork of Big Pine CreekReader Interactions
19Comments
Comments are closed.
bbleh
Let’s see, it’s all a hoax designed to keep us under the control of Big Pharma and let Bill Gates get control of our thoughts with his 5G microchips, but it’s also OVER and so we don’t need to do any of thing things we might have needed to do before (even though it’s a hoax), and we should have done less or done things differently because what we did caused some disruption while saving hundreds of thousands of lives (whose deaths would have been ok, even though it’s a hoax) …
Yes, it’s crazy-respiratory-disease-related-conspiracy-theory season again! Cases of published crazy conspiracy theories (now called CCTs by the CDC) have increased over 500% in the last month and are projected to increase at least another 10x before winter ends, although not to reach the peak Craziness levels of past years, except perhaps in certain highly localized areas.
Just remember to keep your Craziness filters clean, and try not to spread any CCTs you may encounter, as they are highly contagious among the
unvaccinatedStupid.Barbara
I got my flu shot yesterday but waiting on Covid booster because I had another bout of Covid two months ago, and was told to wait at least 3 months. Advice on that point is not consistent.
Skeptical about coffee as a plus factor in immune response but would LOVE to be proven wrong.
mali muso
Thanks for the reminder about the free home tests. Just ordered 8 for our household as we are running low. I need to get my booster soon so that it will be in full effect for Xmas. My mom is one of those conspiratorial anti-vaxxers (don’t get me started), and they will be visiting, so I try to do my part to save her from herself but not exposing her to lethal viruses. sigh.
Eyeroller
I was at a convention all last week with a lot of crowded events, many involving eating and drinking and noise (so people would tend to be talking more loudly than usual). No masking. I didn’t either, since I am resigned to covid being endemic now, which would require indefinite masking and it’s unclear how much very limited masking helps anyway. Started coughing at the airport on the return trip (so put on a mask immediately). I and a coworker tested positive. I’m in the age group where a prescription for Paxlovid is uncontroversial, so I’m on Day 4 of that. It doesn’t seem to be helping much with symptoms but that’s not really its purpose. I had my booster on October 13, which should have been far enough in advance for an immune response to develop. At the moment my main complaint is that I lost my sense of taste. I had no plans for Thanksgiving anyway, but am rather bummed I couldn’t even taste a Marie Callender type entree.
Soprano2
I continue to have my mind boggled at how people forget that THERE ARE ADULTS IN SCHOOLS. Lots and lots of adults, and kids are little germ carriers who could take Covid home to their parents and grandparents. What is the effect on kids when a teacher or parent or grandparent dies from Covid? I would agree that the schooling during the pandemic wasn’t ideal, but it wa an emergency and people did the best they could. I think those kids will eventually catch up on the learning; it’s the loss of social skills that concerns me more. If MAGAs hadn’t lost their shit over wearing masks, we probably could have re-opened schools quicker and they would have been relatively safe. It was their insistence that we act like everything was normal when exposure to any random person could give you a disease that could kill you that kept many places from doing that.
Soprano2
I’m sorry, that sucks. It happened to me right before Christmas 2020. All I could get from food was sweet, salty, sour and spicy. Alcohol was TERRIBLE – like sour vinegar. Worst. diet.ever. I was lucky, mine came back normal in about 3 weeks. I hope yours does the same.
ETA – our local sewer surveillance testing shows that there was a Covid peak in October, and now it’s coming down. The last day reported was 11/6, so it could be going up again. I’m sure there will be a spike after Thanksgiving.
catclub
Does anyone know how Covid is comparing to seasonal flu? I think it is still many more cases but am not sure what factor to multiply by.
Jharp
I gotta share.
Got my 6th Covid shot yesterday along with a flu shot.
And as always for the past 60 years post vaccination for anything, I felt like dogshit about 4-5 hours afterwards.
Right up until I had a monster bowl of miso soup. Heavy on the miso paste, heavy on the seaweed, and heavy on the tofu.
And minutes later felt like a new man. Quite incredible. Symptoms were virtually gone.
Anyone else ever have miso soup do that to you?
NeenerNeener
Last week I forgot to post the Monroe County results (while I still live here) so this one covers two weeks. cases are increasing as the weather gets colder around here and we spend more time indoors:
Monroe County, NY:
32 new cases on 11/05/23
54 new cases on 11/06/23
61 new cases on 11/07/23
54 new cases on 11/08/23
56 new cases on 11/09/23
53 new cases on 11/10/23
39 new cases on 11/11/23
31 new cases on 11/12/23
69 new cases on 11/13/23
89 new cases on 11/14/23
82 new cases on 11/15/23
60 new cases on 11/16/23
70 new cases on 11/17/23
2364 deaths as of 11/17/23, up 11 from 10/30/23
Glidwrith
@catclub: As I recall, roughly 10x the number of cases and deaths compared to flu.
No real seasonality has been established, more like three waves per year for the US.
California is tracking both flu and Covid. Sorry I can’t post links, on phone.
Matt McIrvin
@Glidwrith: It’s seasonal but not SEASONAL. That is, the biggest waves (after the very first one) always seem to be during winter cold/flu season. But there are other smaller waves too.
SomeRandomFellow
@Jharp: I have an invisible disability, and I guess one pleasant side effect is, I feel like crap all the time, and I’ve never noticed a problem with vaccinations.
I wonder how wide-spread that is…
I can’t speak for Miso. I really don’t like it, and really don’t understand how people like it. I mean, I’ve had stinky, ammonia-laden, cheese, and I could feel a certain sharpness that I bet some
masochistsafficionados enjoyed. I mean no disrespect, but, I didn’t get anything “I bet some people like that” from Miso.Again, I wonder…
You know, in my research, I’ve found that there’s a lot of neurological stuff in Long Covid.
Now, in the past, I used to think “neurological” meant “brain-based”. It’s not – but it’s likely to be brain *affecting*. For example, one of the most common diabetic maladies is peripheral neuropathy – you feel pain in your extremities (feet are most common), and nothing will help that pain. The brain is a kind-of victim in a nasty trick by the body.
Well, a lot of Long Covid might be just that: mis-signaling due to various damage of Covid-19, causing a mess of new and possibly unpleasant sensations in the brain, screwing up who-knows-what-else. To think of it as “brain fog” is actually an interesting metaphor – when there’s fog, it’s not because of the *air* but because of the stuff that “shouldn’t” be in the air, the water. Could be that brain fog is the same way – too many stray signals obstructing clear thought.
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
The tracking for influenza is better than for COVID-19 at this point. Anecdotally, in my circles (work, with contacts spread around the country), about a half-dozen current cases, and zero reports of influenza.
Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report (CDC, Updated November 17, 2023)
2023-2024 influenza season so far
A bit worse than 2018-2019
2018-2019 influenza season
Last year, 2022/2023, was a lot worse (at this point in the season):
2022-2023 influenza season
bluefoot
@Soprano2:
My sister is a public school teacher in Queens, and something like 20% of her students have had a close family member die from COVID, most in 2020 and early 2021. She says that closing the schools wasn’t great for education, but great for keeping people alive. She’s worked hard to help catch her students up for the slowdown in education in 2020/2021.
@Jharp:
I had a friend in CA who swore by miso soup whenever he got sick. If he started to get sniffles or whatever, a bowl of miso soup and he was good to go. My cousin’s solution was always hot and sour soup.
Geo Wilcox
@Barbara: I do not drink coffee but my husband does. He got Covid I did not even while being in the same rooms and eating in the same places. I have a very acidic body chemistry and his is very alkali. That may have something to do with why he always got sick when flying for Delta and I never got it when he was home. The last time I remember being sick was 1995 in Sandy UT during a severe RSV outbreak. And boy was I sick, yep crawl to the bathroom, keep the kid and dog out of the bedroom, leave the food at the door kind of sick
lowtechcyclist
I know it’s been said many times, but fuck the fucking NYT.
Maybe our educational systems could have handled the lost year better – like, treat it as a lost year, for one, and just graduate everyone a year later than would have otherwise happened.
But you know what would have really been a disruptive influence on a child’s education – and the whole rest of their lives? Having a parent die of a case of Covid that you brought home and infected them with.
So I repeat: fuck the fucking NYT.
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
COVID-19 can directly cause long-term cognitive difficulties, including teenagers, and maybe younger kids.
I have not seen any studies ruling this out as a cause for a significant part of the causes of the observed standardized testing deficits.
The correlations between testing deficits and school closures are curiously weak, for example, suggesting that other factors are involved. (Including serious family disruptions, as you note.)
Origuy
Stanford Medical Center has restarted requiring masks in all their facilities. They don’t have people standing at the doors handing them out yet, but if you walk in without one, someone will say something to you right away.
sempronia
@Origuy: It’s at least Santa Clara County orders that all healthcare workers wear masks in patient care areas until March. It started in the beginning of November. It might be statewide regulation, but I haven’t checked.