Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

We still have time to mess this up!

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus (& H5N1) Updates: July 10, 2024

COVID-19 Coronavirus (& H5N1) Updates: July 10, 2024

by | 31 Comments

This post is in: , ,


Worth reading the whole article:

More than 3 months after the first reported H5N1 avian influenza outbreak at a U.S. dairy farm, some researchers are starting to wonder whether the virus is here to stay.

The U.S. government says it, with the help of the dairy industry, is working diligently to prevent that outcome. “We believe if we can stop the movements [of infected cattle], improve the biosecurity, and then help the producers … we can eliminate this virus,” Rosemary Sifford, chief veterinary officer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), said at a 25 June webinar organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

But given the lack of cooperation from the industry and what many see as a lackluster government response, other scientists are doubtful. Sifford’s upbeat outlook “really surprised” veterinarian Michelle Kromm, another presenter at the webinar. “None of what they’ve done publicly from a policy standpoint would indicate that they’re trying to eliminate this,” says Kromm, who was the top turkey vet at Hormel Foods during a devastating H5N1 outbreak in poultry a decade ago. “To me, all stars are aligning to say we’ve accepted that this is endemic.”…

In laboratory experiments, Beer and coworkers recently infected cows with the virus to better understand infection of the udder, which USDA has concluded is the main route of transmission as the virus moves between cows on milking equipment. If this is accurate, more aggressively disinfecting the gear between cows could have a major impact.

Cardona, Kromm, and others, however, think eliminating the virus is no longer a realistic goal. Instead, they argue, launching a vaccination scheme for cows could limit the illness in infected animals and possibly slow spread. But USDA has yet to endorse the idea, even though vaccinemakers have begun to make and test potential products. One concern is that other countries may become reluctant to import dairy products from vaccinated cows. Another hurdle is psychological: Launching a vaccination program means “admitting that this is now endemic in a domestic animal population,” Kromm says…

***********

 



There’s no shortage of available shots right now, so quibbling about a general recommendation seems unnecessary. But (as someone in the elder demographic myself, talking to fellow oldies), yeah, I’m absolutely planning on biannual boosters. And those of you who have loved ones or friends in nursing homes should make sure they get their boosters, too:

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously voted last week to replicate last year’s coronavirus vaccine guidance for the coming fall. That means everyone 6 months and older is recommended to receive a newly formulated coronavirus shot later this year.

I understand the rationale behind this decision. Guidance that applies to nearly everyone is simpler to understand and to implement. It also aligns the cadence of the vaccine with that of the seasonal flu. Americans are used to receiving a flu shot every fall; now, they can expect two seasonal shots a year…

First, the elderly continue to bear the brunt of severe illness due to covid-19. Of the approximately 50,000 covid-associated deaths in 2023, more than 44,000 — or about 88 percent — occurred in people 65 and older.

Yet, the vaccination rate among older individuals remains disturbingly low. Even among the highest-risk group, individuals 75 and older, just 36 percent received the booster shot in the fall and winter…

Second, the messaging around vaccines needs to account for both their benefits and limitations. I continue to receive countless messages from readers asking why they can’t get frequent vaccines to prevent infection. People going on cruises or family vacations want to be sure they won’t get covid, so why shouldn’t they get top-ups whenever they want?

I have long advised against this, and will continue to do so. That’s because it’s still possible to be infected despite being recently vaccinated.

The CDC’s most recent analyses show that in people 50 and older, the vaccine only reduced symptomatic infections by 44 percent. This was specifically for the seven days to two months after a shot was administered, which is when it is most effective. By four to six months after vaccination, it fell to 30 percent.

These numbers are not meant to dissuade people from getting the booster. The primary reason for the shot is to reduce severe illness, which — again — matters most for older adults.

Moreover, a 44 percent reduction in symptomatic illness is still significant. Even if someone doesn’t become severely ill with covid, it’s not pleasant to have flu-like symptoms, and there is always the chance of developing long covid after infection. Reducing that possibility, even for a short period, is a worthy goal. This is why I’ll be getting my coronavirus shot this fall…

======

======

======

… There are no signs at this point that the latest coronavirus variants are producing more severe illness, either nationally or in California.

But some doctors say this latest COVID rise challenges a long-held myth: Although new COVID infections are often mild compared with a first brush with the disease, they still can cause severe illness. Even if someone doesn’t need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized, people sometimes describe agonizing symptoms.

“The dogma is that every time you get COVID, it’s milder. But I think we need to keep our minds open to the possibility that some people have worse symptoms,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert…

And while the prevalence of long COVID appears to be declining, doctors note there is risk of developing the syndrome with each infection. A report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last summer said the prevalence of long COVID among U.S. adults was 7.5% in early June 2022, but had decreased as of mid-June 2023 to 6% — still a notable share of the population…

“It’s like everybody seems to be thinking COVID is just like normal now,” Chin-Hong said. But taking sensible measures — like coworkers deciding to not go into work when sick, and testing themselves when symptomatic — can make a world of difference in keeping COVID limited to a smaller number of people.

And with COVID rising, it’s also a reminder that it’s sensible to keep a mask in your pocket to don if you happen to be near an ill person, Chin-Hong said.


The Heritage Foundation (producers of Project 2025) decides ‘we’ can blame China for the pandemic, and presents a bunch of dubious numbers to back up their attempts:

A new report by the Heritage Foundation’s Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19 found that the COVID pandemic caused $18 trillion in economic losses to the U.S. and placed blame for the outbreak on the Chinese government…

That figure includes more than $8.6 trillion caused by excess deaths; more than $1.825 trillion in lost income; $6 trillion due to chronic conditions such as “long COVID”; and mental health losses of $1 trillion and educational losses of $435 billion pushed the total above $18 trillion.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a staggering toll on the United States, both in human lives and in economic terms. The total estimated cost of $18.007 trillion is a stark reminder of the profound impact this global health crisis has had on the nation,” the commission wrote. “By understanding and acknowledging these costs, we can lay the groundwork for holding accountable those whose negligence or overt actions exacerbated the pandemic’s severity.”…

Commissioners provided recommendations for Congress to consider as it looks to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its role in the COVID pandemic, which include:

– Establish a bipartisan national COVID commission to conduct “a review of China’s negligence and cover-up as well as an evaluation of domestic policies that were implemented” in response to the pandemic.
– Create a bipartisan reparations or compensation task force to cover claims against the Chinese government.
– Facilitate the filing of civil claims against the People’s Republic of China to allow civilians harmed by COVID to receive compensation by amending the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act with a provision letting civilians sue China for COVID claims.
– Decouple U.S. government and commercial supply chains from Chinese state-backed companies.
– Audit all U.S. government funding for biomedical research and related research activities in China.

The commission also provided recommendations for the president to take action on. Those include making it a diplomatic priority for China to allow an unfettered scientific and forensic investigation into COVID’s origins, and imposing economic sanctions on Chinese officials and entities who were complicit in or supported the “distortion and concealment” of information related to the COVID pandemic…

I’m sure this will get many rounds of applause at next week’s RNC convention, but I really doubt China will pay attention.

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Percysowner

    Okay so if “we” blame China will COVID disappear in a puff of smoke? Otherwise it doesn’t matter to me.

    I well, never understand the resistance to being vaccinated. It’s just a shot. You go into your pharmacy or your Hi store in my case grocery stores have it get a shot. Sit down for 15 minutes. Go home. Sometimes you get symptoms after sometimes you don’t. It’s no big deal!

  2. 2.

    New Deal democrat

    The CDC has not updated its wastewater analysis in two weeks, yet another dereliction of duty. BIobot’s update this week states: “ Wastewater data show COVID-19 activity and community viral load increased during week 26. The national average SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentration is now 446 copies per mL.” All regions except the Midwest participated in the increase, with the Northeast particularly showing an acute increase to 548 per mL. This contrasts with about 120 per mL nationally at the low point in May, and is equivalent to levels in March and early last autumn.
     
    The percent of e/r visits for COVID has also increased sharply, to a level last seen in early March, from about 5% to 15% of the level at last winter’s peak.
     
    The new wave is not reflected in deaths yet. In fact, during the week of June 30 the first preliminary count made an all time low at 80, and for the last week of final estimates, June 8, also made an all time low of 283. Unfortunately about a month from now we will probably see that deaths have increased to close to 1000 this week. The relatively good news is that deaths for the entire last 52 week period are also at yet another all time low, at 58,000.
     
    On a personal basis, because of the new wave, I have resumed masking indoors at public places.

  4. 4.

    TBone

    Thank you, AL, for staying on this.  The PolyBio article about persistent (chronic) infection triggering prolonged immune response is of great interest to me.

    https://polybio.org/chronic-virus-found-in-long-covid-gut-up-to-2-years-post-infection/

    Gives me renewed hope that treatments are on the way.

    The next step is to rapidly scale up clinical trials capable of treating persistent virus and immune activation in long COVID. Drs. Peluso, Henrich and team are already running clinical trials of monoclonals and antivirals to target persistent COVID, but many more trials with a wider range of therapeutics are urgently needed.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    Towards the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, Covid was mutating so fast that the testing didn’t keep up.   If you felt ill for days, there’s a chance it was Covid even though tests were negative.

  7. 7.

    eclare

    I wish that I could get biannual shots, but I’m limited to one a year.

    And yes, thank you Anne Laurie for these news roundups.

  8. 8.

    Leto

    some researchers are starting to wonder whether the virus is here to stay.

    “We turn now to the Supreme Court, who after the Chevron ruling are the only experts allowed, to see what they’ll say regarding this potential public health disaster.”

  9. 9.

    Ken

    Related, Derek Lowe on a paxlovid variant that (1) doesn’t require a simultaneous dose of ritonavir and (2) doesn’t have the bitter metallic taste. The first is more important, since ritonavir is contraindicated for people using any of a long list of other drugs, but the second is probably going to be more appreciated.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Percysowner: People outside their bubble continue to wonder why it matters, but on the right, the unspoken connotation of “blaming China” is that COVID was spread by a conspiracy involving Anthony Fauci, so you can’t trust anything health experts say.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’m sure this will get many rounds of applause at next week’s RNC convention, but I really doubt China will pay attention.

    Wait, I thought the ‘lab leak’ was from a U.S.-controlled lab, which was why they could blame Fauci for it. Besides, wasn’t it a ‘plandemic’ if it was real in the first place? I tell you, I just can’t keep up!

    Anyway, if it was China’s fault, Trump and his RWNJ cult followers sure opened the doors wide to let it in! China attacks, GOP surrenders!

  12. 12.

    Scamp Dog

    …for holding accountable those whose negligence or overt actions exacerbated the pandemic’s severity.

    I’m fine with this part. Can we start with the people who opposed masking and vaccination?

  13. 13.

    arrieve

    I caught Covid on a trip back from the West Coast last week, so I can attest it’s still out there and it’s still awful. (All the flights into Newark were delayed and a two-hour layover in Austin turned into seven hours. I tried to remember to keep the mask up but there were numerous taco and beverage breaks during those seven hours and I’m sure that’s where I caught it.)

    I don’t know if anyone else has tried Legevrio instead of Paxlovid for Covid but my experience was very positive. The teledoctor I saw was reluctant to prescribe Paxlovid because of possible drug interactions, and I was concerned about a rebound infection because I’m leaving for England tomorrow night, so I took the Legevrio. Fever, headache, nausea were mostly gone within 24 hours, and though I still have a slight cough (today is one week after the first symptoms) the worst of that was gone by the third day. And no noticeable side effects from the drug. I’m still tired, but I can live with that, though I wish I could summon a magic fairy to pack for me.

    ETA: And another thanks to Anne Laurie.

  15. 15.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for these updates, AL and everyone.

    I’ll be heading to a conference in a couple of weeks.  My first major one since May 2019 when I caught influenza A in Nara, Japan.  Perfect timing for COVID to be on the upswing!!  :-/

    Stay safe, everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Chris

    I just came out of my latest round of Covid.  I’ve had it three times, every time less severe.  The first one was fucking awful, and required Paxlovid to snap me out of it.  The second one had one horrible night and day, but otherwise passed pretty quickly.  The third one was essentially a regular cold, apart from one long night where I was unusually sleepy and achy.

    Don’t know if the variants are getting weaker or my immune system’s getting better at handling it or what.  My worst reaction so far was actually a reaction to the vaccine, which gave me all the symptoms for a week and a half.  Every other time I’ve been vaccinated has gone off without a hitch; for some reason, that one was just apocalyptic.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    We finally got our COVID biannual vaccinations last week.  We both got COVID for the first time earlier this year so we were waiting to get our spring shot for the requisite months after having COVID.  Then we kept putting it off.

    Last week my neighbor texted me that her husband was feeling sick at work and after the second day of feeling sick at work, he came home and tested. He had COVID and it was hitting him hard.  A few days later she stopped her car and chatted with us while we were on our walk.  I asked her if she had gotten COVID.  She said she did feel some symptoms and had a fever one day but was feeling better. When asked if she had tested positive, she said she didn’t test for COVID because she needed to go get groceries! 😳

    Two anecdotal examples of why COVID is spreading again so quickly.  Two days of going to work sick and “If I don’t test positive, I don’t have COVID” response.  Both far too common.

    And that’s why we finally got ourselves to the CVS and got the current vaccinations.

  19. 19.

    Mustang Bobby

    We had an outbreak at the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, a month ago with six reported cases at the conference itself and a few after everyone went home.  No one was hospitalized and masking was encouraged since the state does not allow mandates, but it was scary that it was back.  I had my fourth booster in March and I was asymptomatic and negative despite the fact that the friend I shared my hotel room with came down with it.  It’s not over, folks; just mutating.

  20. 20.

    Chris

    @Percysowner:

    Yeah, that was always my reaction too.  There were a million flavors of conspiracy theories regarding the Chinese, but the bottom line was always “so fucking what?  Okay, so it’s a Chinese bioweapon.  Okay, so they released it on the world deliberately!  What the fuck does that change about the public health response?  We could carpet-nuke all of China until every person in it was dead, and we’d still have exactly the same problem!  WTF do any of you people think you’re proving?”

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    @Chris: My worst reaction so far was actually a reaction to the vaccine, which gave me all the symptoms for a week and a half. Every other time I’ve been vaccinated has gone off without a hitch; for some reason, that one was just apocalyptic.

    This was me (& also the Spousal Unit) after our latest booster this past April.  We’d scheduled the RSV vaxx for the same visit, and were prepared for *that* to be awful, but it was the covid booster — previous doses of which had done nothing worse than making us mildly sleepy for a day or two — that knocked us both out for a solid week of low fever, injection-site rashes, headaches & general malaise.

  23. 23.

    Chris

    @Anne Laurie:

    Was it your first vaccination since catching actual Covid?  It was for me, and I wondered if it was simply my immune system massively overreacting after its first bad experience.

  26. 26.

    Scout211

    @Chris: @Anne Laurie:

    My husband had never had a reaction to any COVID vaccinations, even the first two.  I always do but the first two were the worst.  But this vaccination, five months after recovering from COVID for the first time, he had 24 hours of very uncomfortable flu-like symptoms and insomnia.  I always have that but this was his first time.  So that checks out with us, too.

  29. 29.

    MinuteMan

    @Anne Laurie:

    This was me (& also the Spousal Unit) after our latest booster this past April. We’d scheduled the RSV vaxx for the same visit, and were prepared for *that* to be awful, but it was the covid booster — previous doses of which had done nothing worse than making us mildly sleepy for a day or two — that knocked us both out for a solid week of low fever, injection-site rashes, headaches & general malaise.

    ​

    I had a similar experience with a flu vax some years ago. Normally, I was getting a yearly flu shot, but one year they bollixed things up and didn’t have enough shots available. That year I caught the flu for the first time in years. The following fall I got flu shot and felt like I had the flu for a couple of days. I think that the recent illness had caused high levels of immunity that went nuts so the normal immune reaction from the vaccine was on steroids. So, if you’ve had a case of COVID you might react rather vigorously to a subsequent vaccine. After that first post-flu flu shot I haven’t had any serious symptoms after a flu vax.  But even the strong vax response was still much better than coming down with a full-blown case of the flu!

  31. 31.

    Bill Arnold

    Even novel influenza strains have historically had a R of 1.6 or maybe 1.8.
    Masking and other public health measures would stop the spread.
    This is something the world learned with SARS-CoV-2, which even with its base/wild strain had an R of 2.5-3; public health measures basically wiped out seasonal flu worldwide. The US CDC online records make it very clear that this happened in the USA as well. (Yes, there was testing.)
    Here are some notes/urls from late 2023; basically, just adjust the url with year numbers and week numbers.
    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

Comments are closed.