Last night's update: 126,117 new cases, 1,311 new deaths https://t.co/unxgGtwFlN
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) March 18, 2024
So far this year, nearly 2.7 million cases of COVID have been reported in the U.S., causing 223,000 hospitalizations and more than 22,000 deaths.
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) March 18, 2024
Healthcare workers w/ #Covid still have to isolate. This aspect of the CDC's guidance shouldn't be glossed over https://t.co/yHgechbUIU
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) March 18, 2024
======
Granular details, from the Lancet:
Estimates of demographic metrics are crucial to assess levels and trends of population health outcomes. The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations worldwide has underscored the need for timely estimates to understand this unprecedented event within the context of long-term population health trends. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 provides new demographic estimates for 204 countries and territories and 811 additional subnational locations from 1950 to 2021, with a particular emphasis on changes in mortality and life expectancy that occurred during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic period…
Global all-cause mortality followed two distinct patterns over the study period: age-standardised mortality rates declined between 1950 and 2019 (a 62·8% [95% UI 60·5–65·1] decline), and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020–21; 5·1% [0·9–9·6] increase). In contrast with the overall reverse in mortality trends during the pandemic period, child mortality continued to decline, with 4·66 million (3·98–5·50) global deaths in children younger than 5 years in 2021 compared with 5·21 million (4·50–6·01) in 2019. An estimated 131 million (126–137) people died globally from all causes in 2020 and 2021 combined, of which 15·9 million (14·7–17·2) were due to the COVID-19 pandemic (measured by excess mortality, which includes deaths directly due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and those indirectly due to other social, economic, or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic). Excess mortality rates exceeded 150 deaths per 100 000 population during at least one year of the pandemic in 80 countries and territories, whereas 20 nations had a negative excess mortality rate in 2020 or 2021, indicating that all-cause mortality in these countries was lower during the pandemic than expected based on historical trends. Between 1950 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth increased by 22·7 years (20·8–24·8), from 49·0 years (46·7–51·3) to 71·7 years (70·9–72·5). Global life expectancy at birth declined by 1·6 years (1·0–2·2) between 2019 and 2021, reversing historical trends. An increase in life expectancy was only observed in 32 (15·7%) of 204 countries and territories between 2019 and 2021. The global population reached 7·89 billion (7·67–8·13) people in 2021, by which time 56 of 204 countries and territories had peaked and subsequently populations have declined. The largest proportion of population growth between 2020 and 2021 was in sub-Saharan Africa (39·5% [28·4–52·7]) and south Asia (26·3% [9·0–44·7]). From 2000 to 2021, the ratio of the population aged 65 years and older to the population aged younger than 15 years increased in 188 (92·2%) of 204 nations…
New Zealand: 4,666 new cases of Covid-19 last week
There were 55 cases in hospital, and 20 further deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in New Zealand was 667 per day.
New Zealand Doctorhttps://t.co/VZE7DU1Aax
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) March 18, 2024
Netherlands: More young people than adults have Long Covid
"Young people between 12 and 25 years old with long-term complaints appears to be relatively larger than the group of adults"https://t.co/KheVXk2nju pic.twitter.com/wsmjWCFEaY
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) March 19, 2024
Covid-19: Kites made to remember people who died https://t.co/4a3n9fiDRb
— BBC Health News (@bbchealth) March 15, 2024
… ‘Ascension’ is a memorial project created by artist Luke Jerram.
On 23 March, the four-year anniversary of the first UK lockdown, the kites will be flown at a memorial event in Bristol.
Mr Jerram said he hoped it would give people the opportunity to grieve when “much of the world is moving on” from the pandemic.
He added: “There’s something wonderful about flying kites. It’s a way for me to help connect the ground, to the sky.”
At the start of 2024, people were asked to contribute photographs of someone they had lost during the Covid-19 pandemic who they want to remember.
Around 20 special memorial kites have since been made, using black and white portraits sewn on to the colourful kites, which will be flown by family and friends…
Brazil's Bolsonaro indicted for suspected fraud on vaccine records
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) March 19, 2024
… An investigation by the comptroller general’s office had already found that Bolsonaro’s vaccination records were falsified to suggest he was vaccinated against COVID-19 in Sao Paulo in July 2021, when he was not in the city…
Bolsonaro told Reuters that he had not taken the COVID vaccine or done anything wrong: “It’s a selective investigation. I’m calm,” said the former president. “The world knows that I didn’t take the vaccine.”
The police said that the fraudulent certificates were issued “to obtain undue advantages related to the evasion of sanitary rules established during the pandemic period”.
During his tenure, Bolsonaro repeatedly downplayed the importance of immunization and social distancing measures during the pandemic, which killed more than 700,000 people in Brazil.…
He (barely) lived his convictions, though — IIRC, he had at least three separate hospitalizations for repeated covid infections, so many that people were joking about him single-handedly distorting Brazil’s health stats.
Canadian COVID Forecast: Mar 16-29, 2024
SEVERE: SK
VERY HIGH: MB, NL
HIGH: CAN, AB, BC, NB, North, NS, ON, QC, PEI
ELEVATED: none
MODERATE: none
LOW: noneAbout 1 in 47 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected. pic.twitter.com/4LgOYva2S4
— Tara Moriarty (@MoriartyLab) March 17, 2024
======
#Covid now linked to an increased risk for rheumatic disease. Rates of new-onset autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis & systemic lupus were high in Japan & S. Korea following Covid infection https://t.co/IMA4WjhApb
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) March 18, 2024
In long COVID patients with brain fog (brain scan at right), dye injected into the bloodstream tends to leak into the brain (see colored speckles) more so than in people without brain fog (left).https://t.co/NHFyjgrwpL pic.twitter.com/JsRg3L8EbZ
— Science News (@ScienceNews) March 18, 2024
Vaccines cut risk of post-#Covid heart failure, blood clots for at least 6 months, new data suggest https://t.co/DLdyZ4A7g9
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) March 17, 2024
A #SciencePerspective by @zalaly and @EricTopol identifies key issues that need to be prioritized in the study of #LongCovid.
Learn more on #LongCovidAwarenessDay: https://t.co/PaYw6CF7Pf pic.twitter.com/qpUaSPdAfU
— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) March 15, 2024
Increased Infection Risks After COVID-19 Infections
Dramatically higher risk of other infections after COVID infections, consistent with many studies showing immune system deterioration
Including over 4X higher viral infections#LongCovidAwarenessDay
1/https://t.co/8w1jZiuYly pic.twitter.com/UmNtNSagFL— Yaneer Bar-Yam (@yaneerbaryam) March 15, 2024
A very good @scifri segment on what we've learned about Covid and #LongCovid over the past 4 yearshttps://t.co/hyNdSpPxtk @iraflatow
w/ @ahandvanish and @VirusesImmunity— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 16, 2024
CDC update of genomic surveillance today
JN.1 and a subvariant JN.1.13 account for nearly all cases, which are on the decline
A favorable outlook for now
High risk (e.g. age 65+) beyond 6 months from Fall booster should consider getting a 2nd shot pic.twitter.com/d1KB2PsOLa— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 15, 2024
======
‘Alarming’ rise in Americans with Long Covid symptoms
Nearly 18m people, some 6.8% of American adults, are currently experiencing Long Covid symptoms according to a new survey from the US CDC.
The Guardianhttps://t.co/WxPl3TLPkq
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) March 15, 2024
The pending Supreme Court case is basically about people who know this fact, when they were in government, asking the social media companies to knock down content that denied this reality.
The rest is all distortionary bullshit from right wing anti-vaxxers and COVID deniers. https://t.co/oCqvZcsQEG
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) March 18, 2024
Four years after the emergence of #Covid, misinformation is still endangering public health. Anti-vaxxers and other scoundrels are still spreading lies https://t.co/vWEfBtQZEp
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) March 18, 2024
There needs to be accountability for the folks who blew the Covid response. From Trump, to pence, to Kushner on down. It was the greatest national security and public health failure in American history. pic.twitter.com/WKfp4Q0dBR
— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) March 14, 2024
Four years ago today, Trump went on national TV to brag that he has “tremendous control” over COVID as masses of Americans lost their jobs
Over 1 million Americans would go on to die pic.twitter.com/LCNNMMIjqu
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 15, 2024
Republicans: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
America 4 years ago. pic.twitter.com/W9zC5yy2qa
— Jodie ????????????? (@JodiePP1948) March 16, 2024
"I don't take responsibility at all." — #Trump on his botched rollout of COVID testing, 3/13/20. Those six words sum up his tenure. #FourYearsAgoToday https://t.co/2QrQdpm8US
— Jack Pitney (@jpitney) March 13, 2024
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Q. Am I better off today than I was 4 years ago?
Dow Jones Industrial Average on 3.20.2020 – $20,287
Dow Jones Industrial Average on 3.20.2024 – $39,911
A. Hell, yes I’ m better off. Thanks, Keynesian economics and a President who gets it.
Matt McIrvin
What is Fleischman’s “The government doesn’t want you to know this” about? CDC timidity on boosters or is he claiming Biden went antivax somehow?
Lapassionara
Wow. What a great collection of information. You continue to find these important bits of information, AL. Many thanks. Some good news for me: I already have RA, so I guess that is one COVID-related bullet I can dodge.
Princess
A cautionary anecdote: I am recovering from Covid which I caught from my husband which he caught at an out of town family gathering. A sibling crossed an ocean to be there knowing they were already sick and infected 75% of the people in attendance. The only ones who escaped were a couple who had been very recently ( in the past month) vaxxed and a few of the kids (who may well have been asymptomatic). The fully vaxxed, the unboosted, and the completely unvaxxed all ended up about the same — no difference in severity or infectious. Everyone had had it before. Before spouse walked in the door on returning home, we were both fully masked. We slept on different floors of the house, opened windows, ate separately, air purifier, the whole drill for 36 hours before I went out of town. Nothing helped – I had a raging case the next day.
It has long been my suspicion that the reason the CDC has stopped pushing masks is that Covid is so contagious they don’t do much good any more. In fact in our case they did more harm than good — believing them to be effective, we relied on them to protect me. I don’t know if the strain sibling asshole brought with himwas especially pernicious or what
The CDC’s current guidelines are: if you feel sick, stay home. They’ve received a lot of crap for that stance but frankly, if it had been followed in this case, none of us would have gotten sick.
The good news is everyone is doing okay so far, even the 90 year olds.
Jay
As always, thank you Anne.
Anne Laurie
@Matt McIrvin: Fleischman is being sarcastic — check out his feed if you’re dubious. Half the posts from idiot anti-vaxxers start by proclaiming The government doesn’t want you to know…
Jay
@Princess:
there are masks, and then there are masks.
The wife and I wear masks that are 3mbd cotton, MS113 filters, (N95 +10) and a 1mbd bamboo liner.
The key thing is the fit.
They have a moldable wire upper, a moldable wire “below the chin”, and I took lot’s of training on CBW protection.
When we fit a mask, we always huff exhale,
make sure any gaps are sealed.
Last job, everybody got covid, came to work, until they couldn’t stand up, ( 5 days sick time, really?), they had to close the store, for 3 weeks,
Would have been cheaper to pay people to stay home sick.
Me, nope.
Matt McIrvin
@Anne Laurie: OK. I read so many people who are sounding the alarm daily about long COVID and cheesed off that the Biden administration isn’t going way harder on COVID prevention that my ability to detect sarcasm on this subject is breaking.
Princess
@Jay: sure, but most people aren’t wearing those or taking those precautions.
WereBear
A friend and I invested in a box of N95 and I like them. If they get hard to breathe through, discard. And not expensive.
Don’t forget we also started the Pandemic with no stored masks, swabs, etc because it was all moved to China by our Alien Ant Overlords. /s
Been reading a lot about the QAnon and True Crime crossovers, and so, I was being sarcastic about the origin of the overlords, because MAGA believes in Trump and Reptilians.
Yarrow
Anne Laurie, thank you as always for these posts and for your consistency in doing them. I know it’s much harder to find info now but I still really appreciate them. Thank you for all your work.
One thing that Covid has made clear, at least to me, is that many long term chronic illnesses may have some sort of initial infection as a cause. I personally knew someone who had post-polio syndrome. I also know people who struggle with all sorts of chronic health issues after a lyme infection. But the relationship of things like Epstein-Barr to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME was something I didn’t know. I wonder how many other chronic diseases are a result of some kind of infection. Things like MS, lupus, etc.
I would like to think that the prevalence of Long Covid will lead to research into these kinds of post-infection chronic diseases but given how Long Covid seems to be ignored in media and popular discussion, I don’t know if the funding and interest is there.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin: Long COVID is finally studied and surprise! It’s been around since the Fifties, at least, known as CFS/ME or CFIDS or now, simply, a long viral syndrome.
And any virus can trigger it. We didn’t have COVID-19 then, but I am very familiar because of my husband of two decades.
So they have a leg up if they would get their misconceptions about autoimmune and chronic inflammation up to date.
This is the website that has helped him the most. By a doctor in the UK.
Dr. Sarah Myhill
https://www.drmyhill.co.uk/
There’s hope, I’m saying. Since a lot of it is connected with the Ultra Processed Food crisis going in in Britain, and that connection to immune issues.
A poor immune system can fight it off, but damage the body so that it can develop a chronic metabolic problem with mitochrondria. They are using things like benfothiamine for treatment: even thiamine IVs, with good success.
Thus endeth the Nerd Lecture. Go in peace :)
Jay
@Princess:
I was the only mask wearer in a 12 person small shop, with no Scheutler filters,
At The Orange, I wrote off some box fans, (8), taped on some HEPA filters, 2 at the back, 6 in the front. Never got sick, (everybody else did), but I was the only one wearing a serious mask. 115+ customers at close range for long periods of time.
T works front facing at a Uni. Student and Faculty issues. One of two, that mask, (proper), (used to be three, but she’s on mat leave), that havn’t been sick
3/75
WereBear
Last year, we missed our favorite holiday party because our next door apartment neighbors were quarantining from COVID. They tested and so we didn’t risk going and we didn’t catch it but who knew then?
Thing is, our neighbors are very careful and this is the first time they caught it. Asymptomatic people who don’t know is my guess. Only takes a few…
Jay
@WereBear:
there are a crap load of people who can’t afford to stay home sick,
New Deal democrat
As per Eric Topol, JN.1 and its subvariants made up 98% of all US COVID infections, per the CDC’s update last Friday.
Biobot’s wastewater update several days ago showed a very slight uptick, exclusively in the Midwest, but still down over 60% from the Holiday peak. The CDC’s update showed continued decline, to a level more than 75% lower than its recent Holiday peak, including all 4 Census regions. It would still have to decline another 15% to reach last summer’s lows.
The trends in hospitalizations and deaths also both remain good, with both declining and at levels about 2/3’s of their respective levels 52 weeks previously. As of March 9, there were 13,400 hospitalizations, vs. 20,200 the same week last year, 6,300 at last June’s low, and 35,100 at their recent Holiday peak. Similarly, as of February 17, there were 1,260 deaths, vs. 2,100 the same week last year, 489 at last June’s low, and 2,530 at their recent Holiday peak. If the current trend continues, we will be down to about 4,300 hospitalizations and 360 deaths in June.
JWR
@Princess:
I still keep one hanging off my face in the event of any close encounters. Go down a crowded grocery aisle?, on goes the mask. Usually happens with the checkout people, too. In fact it’s starting to feel like the way I feel about wearing a seat belt and shoulder strap while driving. I’m naked w/out them.
CCL
Thank you, AL. I suspect the reported numbers are way lower than actual cases. By the time we realized our bad spring head colds were COVID, we were easily a week and a half in. Finally decided to test and yikes… It took us another week and a half to recover…but very went to the doctor … wouldn’t know how to report it. So 2 cases not reflected in the official reports and I am sure that happens a lot, now that COVID is off the front pages.
EarthWindFire
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
And for the whiners who tell us March 2020 can’t count that because of COVID lockdowns:
DJIA, January 6, 2021: 30,391
Advantage: Biden
Baud
@EarthWindFire:
Regardless of any excuses about comparisons, to me the larger point is that the Republicans and the media always tell people that Dems will ruin the economy with our policies, and now we’re on our third consecutive president who has inherited a shit economy from a Republican and made it work. That’s a truth that the elites hope stays hidden.
WereBear
@Jay: Especially people in service industries.
Soprano2
@CCL: That’s why I like looking at wastewater monitoring, it’ll catch the vast majority of those cases as well as the asymptomatic ones. In Springfield we see what’s happening not just in our city but most of the surrounding towns since most people work here or come here.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: ME/CFS can come from a lot of infections, but COVID attacks the circulatory system in ways that most viruses don’t, and that seems to be a genuine difference.
One thing that worries me is that repeated mild infection doesn’t seem to reduce the risk that a later one will get you with life-changing results (if anything it may increase it), vaccination doesn’t reduce the risk as much as we’d like it to, and the chance from any given infection is worryingly high.
I’ve already gotten COVID twice myself and I suspect that with the vaccination schedule the CDC has settled on, the only thing I could do to avoid getting it about once a year would be to become a shut-in for the rest of my life, even isolating from my own family. If we assume that most people aren’t going to do that and are going to get it about once a year, that means that most of the human population is going to be living with some form of long COVID within, maybe, 20 years. It will be this gradually increasing burden.
Some reports are that nearly all people with these symptoms have significant cognitive deficits, comparable to losing several points of IQ. If that affects essentially the entire human species… at some point our civilization starts to break down–we can’t run things any more. Everything starts to subtly spin apart.
A bit of speculation: Maybe we’re already starting to see that, even in people who aren’t diagnosed–maybe the odd indifference that normal people seem to have toward Donald Trump returning to office is, in part, subtle brain damage from mass COVID infection. The weird rise in car accidents. Maybe COVID protects itself by damaging the circuits that make us want to avoid getting COVID. Maybe all of our brains are physically not functioning quite like they used to, and we’re already sliding toward the abyss.
TBone
Thank you, Anne Laurie! I will be spending hours reading up on this today, with renewed hope. Your roundups are an invaluable source of great info, all placed in one, easy to focus upon, locus. On bad fog days, I am especially grateful for that.
SFAW
I guess Clay Bennett ran out of space on the scythe, ’cause he left off “vaccine.”
Or so I am told by RFK Jr.
ETA: And a belated thanks to you, AL, for all your efforts on this, every week. You got stamina, kiddo.
TBone
@Jay: Corsi Box instructions (thanks for that reminder!):
https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/science-action-how-build-corsi-rosenthal-box
Freemark
@Baud: Much worse than that. Going back 100 years the Dems have been massively better for the economy. I mean greater than 10x better by some measures. Yet people still believe Republicans are better for the economy including a large percentage of Democrats. It seems like that might require a lot of money and effort to pull off that kind of propaganda win long-term.
TBone
@WereBear: I’ve posted this a few times, but this inspiring research (MIT Tech Review) bears repeating in the vein of your comment (infection-triggered chronic disease):
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/28/1087617/tackling-long-haul-diseases/
TBone
@Yarrow: it’s there! I was so pleased to see this, I was in tears the other day:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/18/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-and-announces-new-actions-to-advance-womens-health-research-and-innovation/
And this:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/05/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-accelerates-whole-of-government-effort-to-prevent-detect-and-treat-long-covid/
Matt McIrvin
@Freemark: I think that’s partly the result of Reagan-era propaganda about the crises of the 1970s still lingering, especially in the older pundit population… and partly because of the Hack Gap. Democrats won’t uncritically cheer the economy under Democrats because they are still worried about the structural injustices that persist in our system under either party. But Republicans WILL uncritically cheer the economy whenever a Republican is President, almost regardless of the actual situation on the ground. (I think this sometimes even results in short-term economic boosts like stock rallies, simply because the traders themselves are Republicans.) Average it all out and the result is that the average person thinks Republicans are better for the economy.
gvg
@Jay: Where do you get those masks. I have never seen on with an under the chin moldable wire. I also have never been satisfied with the fit up top even with a wire. I wear glasses, and the fog some when I breath which means the fit is not perfect. I have considered tape if I am really concerned again.
TBone
@gvg: I’ve had good experiences with this company, despite the physical location they are great IMO
https://wellbefore.com/
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: I wear their N95s. Nice and snug.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: 👍 me too, with the wire for proper fit and adjustable straps too.
Oh, and free shipping if you spend a certain amount. I stock up.
Each mask individually wrapped AND labeled for authenticity.
Victor Matheson
The insanity of Trump asking whether or not I am better off than I was 4 years ago is off the charts.
This week is literally one of the only times I can tell you exactly what I was doing precisely 4 years ago. My college closed its doors on Friday, March 13 (yup Friday the 13th), 2020, and I didn’t teach another class in person for 18 months. We had the the next week off to learn how to pivot to online. Today would have been the Friday before my first day of online “learning” on Monday.
Exactly four years ago I was locked in my bedroom at home frantically trying to change all of my courses to PowerPoint, learning how to navigate Zoom, while conserving toilet paper and wondering if my institution would even exist in four years.
So yeah, I am way, way, way, way better off today than I was exactly 4 years ago. I mean, like off the charts better off.
Matt McIrvin
Not to go all Bupalos, but for the less-urbanized parts of America, COVID didn’t really hit them hard until the winter of 2020-21 and they probably saw the deaths peaking after Biden was in office.
And the Omicron wave of 2021-22 really ruined the neat story of things getting better after Biden got in and promoted mass vaccination–that was what created the opening for DeSantis to bellyache that the government lied about vaccine effectiveness.
CCL
@Soprano2: Good point – though we’re rural and on septic. :-)
piratedan
COVID-19 Virus Can Stay in the Body More Than a Year after Infection | UC San Francisco (ucsf.edu)
more evidence that this shit sucks ass.
WereBear
Our brains are physically not functioning as they should, and UPF4 food that is spreading through our food supply; with its binders and thickeners and artificial colors and flavors and tricks they play in the lab so we can’t eat just one…
There’s increasing research that this Frankenfood deeply disturbs our metabolism, and then, our health.
Origuy
Before I went to Italy in 2022, I got a box of FFP2 masks, which are equivalent to KN95 masks. They are the European standard. I thought they were more comfortable than the KN95 masks you get here. Amazon has them. I didn’t get Covid on the trip, although I had friends who went to the same event and did.