The White House is ending the COVID vaccine mandate for federal workers and international travelers starting next Thursday.
Dr. @PeterHotez believes it’s the right time to relax mandates, but says he still has “mixed feelings.”
Watch #NewsNationLive: https://t.co/rXvU4Qf6it pic.twitter.com/1Q7x18towa
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) May 2, 2023
… New subvariants are on the rise, and cutbacks in data reporting have clouded the view of recent trends. But the U.S. has broadly recorded declining numbers this year following a winter of less intense Covid-19 spread.
“This is the first week I have been in the ICU and have not had a Covid-positive patient,” said Dr. Michelle Prickett, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Federal data show the average number of adults with Covid-19 in intensive care beds hit new lows this month nationally, too…
The latest weekly data show health departments around the U.S. reported 1,052 deaths for the week ended April 26, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This caps several weeks where reports have come in below a prior low of about 1,700 reached during a summer week nearly two years ago.
Less complete recent data from states—some have scaled back Covid-19 reporting—make it harder to compare numbers over time and to determine exactly when the U.S. reaches a new low on reported deaths. Recent numbers are incomplete because several states including Florida haven’t recently reported data to the CDC, the agency said.
Death certificates that provide a more complete picture also indicate the U.S. is hovering near new lows. However, they are lagging data that take longer to compile than health-department reports. The tally from death certificates, which are based on instances where Covid-19 is the underlying or contributing cause of death, is based on the date on which people died.
The CDC may know by early May, once death-certificate data arrives from more states, whether tallies from early this month marked a new low, a spokesman said. The CDC says the lowest number of recorded Covid-19 deaths occurred during the week ended April 23, 2022: 1,348, or about 193 a day…
Covid waveletshttps://t.co/IoVuLL47bH @Nature @ewencallaway
The Spring lullhttps://t.co/fIzYrWJCIw @KatherineJWu @TheAtlantic
2 months agohttps://t.co/qTgIEjnydz pic.twitter.com/Qm00KakGSh— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 1, 2023
“I had to come into an unwanted conflict with the president,” reflects Dr. Anthony Fauci of his time during the Trump administration. “I had to come forth and say… ‘I’m sorry, I don’t mean any disrespect for the presidency, but this is not correct.’” pic.twitter.com/XGexllV79J
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) April 28, 2023
As #Covid experts leave the White House, some worry about what happens next https://t.co/Jf1334quko
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) April 28, 2023
======
China Covid whistleblower Fang Bin returns home to Wuhan after jail https://t.co/9pkTVzHGTq
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 2, 2023
(link)
(link)
Pfizer, BioNTech propose EU pays half for each cancelled COVID dose – FT https://t.co/Xu7nFbJH0y
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) April 30, 2023
======
Keeping an eye on #Omicron subvariant XBB1.16, also known as "Arcturus."
From nat'l genetic surveillance, XBB1.16 is causing ~12% of #Covid cases in the US. If indeed this strain is more transmissible, that proportion would grow significantly over time https://t.co/kQ9xnbG95V
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) May 1, 2023
The case for #SARSCoV2 persistence as a key underpinning for #LongCovid https://t.co/KpIfJtzNzu
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 2, 2023
(link)
(link)
An important thing to keep in mind with all the talk about intranasal #Covid vaccines: this type of vaccine is tough to make. If they were easier to make, we'd have more of them.@dr_kkjetelina & @ENirenberg https://t.co/EgRkV2zVls
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) May 2, 2023
People suffering #LongCOVID show different brain activity, as measured with MRIs — especially when they concentrate on retrieving memories. It appears damage from infection forces use of novel neural pathways to "find" and process memories.https://t.co/XKtKCzIqiA
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 28, 2023
(link)
Had a great chat with Prof @AliceCHughes and @PhilippMarkolin regarding the recent COVID origins Nature paper from scientists in China.
What does the paper show? What does it claim? Why are many other scientists sceptical?
All this and more below! :https://t.co/2Xt4O84gUm pic.twitter.com/ALRqZSWxYo
— Sam Gregson (@Samuel_Gregson) April 28, 2023
In this conversation, @Samuel_Gregson and I talk about Alice's recent article in the Spectator: https://t.co/alOOmoNQTm
She goes out of her way to call out #shoddy science; but also explains the difficult circumstances behind it.
— Philipp Markolin (@PhilippMarkolin) April 28, 2023
… The company has said it expects 2023 to be a low point for COVID product sales, before potentially returning to growth in 2024. But sales of both its vaccine and oral antiviral treatment came in above Wall Street estimates.
Pfizer still expects significantly lower sales of COVID products in the second quarter.
Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said it was a positive surprise that Pfizer did not lower its full-year COVID forecast…
COVID-19 vaccine sales plunged 77% to $3.06 billion in the quarter, but topped diminished estimates of $2.37 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Sales of antiviral Paxlovid nearly tripled to $4.07 billion, bolstered by demand in China. Analysts’ had estimated $3.13 billion for the quarter.
Pfizer expects a 2023 profit of $3.25 to $3.45 per share and COVID products sales of about $21.5 billion…
======
TL, DR: We’ve thrown up our hands…
… With the era of government-mandated masking at restaurants, grocery stores and schools long gone, hospitals and doctors’ offices were the last to carry the most visible reminders of the three-year-old pandemic. But regulators and some infectious-disease specialists have concluded universal masking is no longer essential in medical settings, prompting one of the starkest returns to pre-covid life.
Oregon, Washington and California were among the last states to lift such requirements in April, with Massachusetts set to follow when the state and federal public health emergency ends May 11.
The rollback of restrictions has had consequences: After a recent covid outbreak at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in northern California, the Santa Rosa facility restored its mask mandate on April 21, nearly three weeks after lifting it…
The federal government does not require hospitals to report coronavirus infections acquired within those facilities as they do with other bugs like MRSA. Nor does it release data tracking coronavirus transmission within individual hospitals from those that do disclose that information.
And the public will have less visibility into the prevalence of the coronavirus in their community after the public health emergency ends May 11 and some data about covid-19 will no longer be reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Some health-care workers who were fierce advocates for masking at the start of the pandemic say the requirements must eventually end and now is a good time — with no coronavirus surge in sight and vaccines and antivirals defanging the worst outcomes from coronavirus infections. While masking is most effective when everyone wears them, they stressed that patients could still protect themselves by wearing well-fitted N95 or KN95 masks. They contend there are downsides to continuing universal masking…
As the US pandemic hits new lows in hospitalizations and deaths, the shift to genomic dominance (from XBB.1.5) to the XBB.1.16 (and XBB.1.9.1) variants proceedshttps://t.co/jjl2AnOYb5 pic.twitter.com/BtYTqdGWRL
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 28, 2023
(link)
200,000 Americans perished unnecessarily during the delta wave in 2021 because they refused Covid vaccines that were >90% protective vs death/serious illness. Mostly in my state of Texas + other southern states. Those who died were victims of antivaccine activism/aggression https://t.co/B5Ul4kKzHd
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) April 29, 2023
A lot of Americans would hate experts even more if they'd lived through the pandemic https://t.co/mTzLoGTmQu
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 26, 2023
Reader Interactions
65Comments
Comments are closed.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
26 new cases on 04/26/23.
16 new cases on 04/27/23.
14 new cases on 04/28/23.
20 new cases on 04/29/23.
21 new cases on 04/30/23.
11 new cases on 05/01/23.
10 new cases on 05/02/23.
Deaths now at 2251, up 4 since last week. The death rate is slowing down. Yay!
I finally managed to get a 2nd bivalent booster this weekend. Pfizer this time instead of Moderna, but the unpleasant after-shot reactions were the same.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 1,050 new Covid-19 cases on 29th April, for a cumulative reported total of 5,071,840 cases. 1,049 of these new cases were local infections; one new case was imported. It also reported no deaths, for an adjusted cumulative total of 37,020 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
2,503 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 29th April, with a positivity rate of 15.5%.
There were 14,291 active cases on 29th April, 450 more than the day before. 891 were in hospital. 29 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 22 confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 600 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 5,020,529 patients recovered – 99.0% of the cumulative reported total.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 269 doses of vaccine on 2nd May: 32 first doses, 33 second doses, 155 first booster doses, and 49 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,834,033 doses administered: 28,134,809 first doses, 27,548,211 second doses, 16,330,169 first booster doses, and 820,844 second booster doses. 86.2% of the population have received their first dose, 84.4% their second dose, 50.0% their first booster dose, and 2.5% their second booster dose.
randy khan
Last week was something of a milestone in the U.S. – hospital admissions, ICU patients, and deaths all dropped to levels that were last seen in March, 2020. (Case rates were at June, 2021 levels, although that’s not really a reliable number since so many fewer people are testing these days.)
The death rates remain around the level of a medium-bad flu season, but it’s still significant progress.
Suzanne
As much as I observe this behavior, I will never truly grok it.
I love knowing things, and I love talking to people who know other things.
I love getting expert advice when I have a need.
I know that, at core, it’s about social status threat. But GOD JUST STOP FUCKEN WORRYING ABOUT IT.
p.a.
Well assholes, when you feel a lump, go to a faith healer.
satby
But it honestly hasn’t been universal pretty much ever (compliance higher in blue areas, if course). The cost of fighting constantly with non compliant people, coupled with the reduced efficacy of one way mask wearing does mean it makes some sense to drop the mandates. It’s endemic now, and people who want to will still mask up, but the majority of folks, even formerly mask compliant ones, are ready to be done until another wave inevitably starts. The debate was poisoned from the start.
New Deal democrat
Data is getting increasingly sparse and lagged, so there is little to say in depth beyond that covered by Dr. Topol.
The most recent count of deaths, now a week old, is about 150 per day. This is the lowest in the history of the pandemic. Hospitalizations, at 10,400 as of the end of April, are also the lowest for the history of the pandemic except for one week in April 2022.
Confirmed cases are also near record lows, but this is almost worthless information. What is valid is that the trend remained downward through one week ago. Biobot did update yesterday, showing a slight uptick in the past few days from 224 to 240 particles/mL. This remains the lowest in the past 12+ months, and close to the low for the last 21 months. Regionally the West was still in decline, while the other three regions showed similar increases.
The last few weeks of COVID variant updates from the CDC show XBB.1.16 increasing from 1% to 12% of cases – but remember, not causing any wave of any sort.
In my county, confirmed cases in the past week fell below 3 per 100,000 for the first time ever, with 1 hospitalization per 100,000, and no deaths for over a month. This has met all of my targets for resuming pre-COVID activity, including eating inside restaurants. But my booster is scheduled for later today, and after that I will ease in, so long as the metrics hold.
Hopefully COVID has evolved into a cul-de-sac, where the vast majority of those most susceptible have already been (pardon my language here, but it makes sense) culled from the herd, and almost the entire remaining population has some level of resistance.
O. Felix Culpa
I got my 5th (?) covid shot yesterday. Woke up in the middle of the night feeling feverish and achy, but a dose of ibuprofen took care of that. Thank you, AL and BJ denizens, for the updates! There are some (few) advantages to being an old.
OzarkHillbilly
@Suzanne: Some people* prefer ignorance to knowledge.
*and you which people I am talking about
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I will confess that I have stopped wearing masks nearly altogether. Wore an N95 on my flights to Portugual last month, just in case, but that was it. Didn’t wear one on public transportation or on the return flight; didn’t get sick. Of course, I’d start wearing masks again if some new uncontrolled variant were raging, but for now, I like not having that thing on my face.
ETA: That said, I keep a mask handy when I’m out and about, and will put it on if people around me are coughing up a lung. Consistency is the hobgoblin etc.
rikyrah
This beat by AL has saved lives. Of that, I am sure.
Amir Khalid
@O. Felix Culpa:
It’s been over three years since I last went out in public unmasked, and I’d feel naked without one now. I guess individual mileage varies.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: The MO wastewater data is the same – lots of green down-pointing triangles meaning levels are decreasing, and only eight red up-pointing triangles indicating levels are increasing. In my city one plan shows decreasing levels and one shows steady levels, and at both the levels are very low. So, progress! This will always be the best way to measure the prevalence of Covid in the population, or any infectious disease for that matter.
Steeplejack
@O. Felix Culpa:
Same, as far as wearing a mask. With my solitary lifestyle, I don’t go out much, and I’m usually in and out of a store in short order. In-person social circle is small. I do keep a mask in the car for specific situations.
O. Felix Culpa
@Amir Khalid:
I was diligently mask-compliant until recently. Frankly, it felt liberating not to wear one. I certainly wouldn’t discourage people who prefer to continue wearing masks from doing so. I’m taking a calculated risk and could end up on the wrong end of the calculations. I’m as fully vaccinated as possible, so my theory (which is mine) is that risk of severe illness is minimized.
cain
I went to Europe 2 weeks ago and it was fine – although I think Paris had high rates. I only wore a mask on the flight – but not anywhere else. We escaped with no covid – although we took travel insurance everywhere just in case.
dmsilev
@O. Felix Culpa: That’s about where I am. Usually wear an N95 on airplanes/airport, some crowded environments (indoor concerts, for instance), and that’s about it. But I certainly keep an eye on the local trends. We’re not quite at all-time lows in hospitalizations in LA, but only about 10 or 15 percent above that low, and the trend is still downwards. So that’s good.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Same. I still wear a mask when shopping because it’s easy and quick.
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: I didn’t mask a lot while I was in Spain, but occasionally did wear one on packed subway trains, and mostly did in the plane. Didn’t get sick. Not everyone I know was that lucky on their vacations that week.
Nelle
@rikyrah: I absolutely agree. AL should know, every single day, that she has made an immense difference in a very challenging time. She saved lives.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m still masking up but I have COPD.
narya
I continue to mask indoors (e.g., stores) and on public transportation; I don’t see any good reason to stop, to be honest. it’s such a low-effort bit of protection, not just from Covid but from whatever else is around. I find that the people most likely to be masking around me are the service workers (except in bars, for some reason). I tried to get a second bivalent booster yesterday, but they wouldn’t give it to me. I might try a different source (I went back to the Walgreens I’d used for a few other rounds), because I’d like some extra protection over the summer. Most of the bars where the running series is happening have outdoor spaces–that is one of the unreservedly good things that has resulted from the pandemic, tbh.
Adding my massive thanks to AL for maintaining this information! I REALLY appreciate having a source for the latest info.
Ohio Mom
@O. Felix Culpa: I have also mostly stopped wearing masks. I admit I don’t miss them.
As I was reminded the other day when I took out a light jacket I hadn’t worn since last fall, all of my coat pockets still have masks in them, so I am ready at a moment’s notice if need be. Not on purpose, I just never cleaned them out.
O. Felix Culpa
@Steeplejack: @dmsilev:
I am confident that all of us would go back to mask-wearing if the circumstances called for it. For our own health and the health of those around us.
@Ohio Mom:
Hehe, I’m still finding masks in pockets and bags too. I’m glad to have them handy.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: Me too. And Martin talked me out of taking the train to Philadelphia in March 2020.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I find masks all over the place too. I have to wear one when I take my road test tomorrow. That’s the first time in a long time I’ve seen one required
OzarkHillbilly
Probably due to the increased noise levels.
Suzanne
@O. Felix Culpa: I haven’t worn a mask in any place other than a healthcare setting in a long time.
Anyway
@Suzanne:
Same here. I was at the blood bank last week and neither the staff or other donors were masked.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I have been wearing masks at the grocery store sporadically. I took DC metro for the first time since the pandemic yesterday (been commuting by bike to work but couldn’t yesterday) and forgot to put the mask on on the way home. Generally speaking, I’d still rather mask up on a crowded metro train but my wife and son both had Covid in January and despite not socially distancing from them or even masking around them, I never tested positive or had any symptoms. After that my mask wearing in public settings dropped off a lot.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m still buying FFP2 masks in batches of a hundred. I still use them daily. If I’m flying, I use an FFP3.
Haven’t caught COVID or any aerosol-transmitted disease since I started masking. (Then again, I got my COVID shots and I do annual flu shots.)
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid:
Dude, it’s way too early for Balloon Juice After Dark!
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: et al: Same. I don’t mask unless I have to be in close contact with immunocompromised people, which is seldom.
I caught covid while still fully masked up at either the doctor’s office or at the farmers’ market because other (edit: maskless) workers at both places exposed me on the same weekend. (I live alone, eliminating the other more common transmission risk). Masks can help reduce a viral load exposure but not eliminate risk entirely, which people forget. In fact, a friend just got over covid; she’s a nurse at a facility that still required masking as of last week; health care workers still catch covid on the job occasionally. Vaccination updates are the best protection. She was very slightly ill and recovered quickly as a result of being completely vaxed and boosted. She’s too young for a second bivalent, BTW.
Steeplejack
@O. Felix Culpa:
Same. I got my car detailed a couple of weeks ago, and when I was cleaning out the center island thing I found an archeological set of mask layers going down in order from newest to oldest, based on which masks I found and was wearing at which time. Down at the bottom was an old, primitive cloth mask that I think a friend made and gave me in 2020.
Also found a cache of coins that I used to use for parking meters and to augment paper money to pay fast food bills with exact change. Another pandemic transition was going full plastic. LOL. I’m old enough to remember when places wouldn’t take credit cards unless the total was over $10 or $20.
Steve in the ATL
1. We did no masking in Spain, and none in Germany except on the train, where it is required. And Germans being Germans compliance was 100%.
2. One of colleagues has Covid for the second time. Awaiting medical evidence to prove this, but I’m certain it’s because he’s a hardcore republican and rabid abortion opponent.
NotMax
Made an appointment yesterday to get a second bivalent booster next week, which will be six months to the day since the last jab.
@Suzanne
Probably should be better about it but dependent on the venue.
Inside the cable company/ISP office when I go there to pay a bill or otherwise conduct business? Only a handful of people, if that, and super easy to maintain some distance, so no.
Inside Target, Costco or another market or big box store? You bet your boots I do.
Inside the bank? Coin toss.
Jackie
I got my bivalent booster (Moderna) this past Fri. Other than the need for a sound nap and localized soreness at injection site, no side effects. I think my body recognizes the concoction now – like my annual flu shot.
If the new normal for Covid vaccinations is twice yearly, I’m fine with that.
O. Felix Culpa
@Steeplejack:
I kept a few of those early cloth masks for nostalgic reasons. Some of them were cute, even if suboptimally effective.
Matt McIrvin
@Steve in the ATL: I recall hearing that compliance in Spain was really good while it was on, but it’s sure not on now, at least in Catalonia. It was very uncommon to see a masked person though I did see a few on mass transit.
Steeplejack
@O. Felix Culpa:
The pattern on my cloth mask was kind of cool.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I’m so grateful for the vaccines and boosters. I got my most recent booster at Costco. Super easy, efficient process: registered online, showed up at the appointed hour, got jabbed. They did ask several times if I was over 65, which I attribute to my dewy, fresh-faced youthfulness. (I crack myself up sometimes.)
satby
I’ve heard this multiple times from lots of differently aged fully vaccinated people. I think this has flown under the radar a bit and I hope more info on resistance to covid infection via vaccination develops as long term studies continue. Is it true resistance or is the viral load undetectable via normal quick tests and therefore not transmissable?
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: you crack me up too, and you’re very youthful 😀
NotMax
@O. Felix Culpa
Still chuckle a bit at going to the bank early on into COVIID.
Bank building was letting in only one or two people at a time, so there was a line snaking down the sidewalk outside.
So early into the whole thing that a majority in line were wearing bandanas as masks.
Looked for all the world like auditions for the Jesse James gang.
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: I am not fond of the lack of a six-month recommendation for under-65s, but it is what it is. I’ll be eager to get my booster in the fall.
NeenerNeener
I’m still masking up in stores, medical offices, etc. I wonder if it’s safe to start reusing the N95s I used 2 years ago.
I had a dream the other night that I was out in public and realized I didn’t have a mask on and was very upset.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: My first scary shopping expedition in March 2020 was to Butcher Boy and I was wearing a ripped T-shirt wrapped around my face (which was probably completely ineffective but we do what we can). The store was cramped and it was hard to stay away from people–very scary. I remember there was one other guy wearing a respirator and goggles–nobody else was masked at all.
Matt McIrvin
@NeenerNeener: Those N95s should be fine unless they’re visibly worn or stinky or something. The COVID virus itself is basically gone after a few days.
NeenerNeener
@Matt McIrvin: No visible wear. They’ve just been shoved into paper lunch bags that are accumulating in the laundry room.
kalakal
Frankly I’m tired of incompetents.
Espescially loudmouthed ignoramuses/cynical grifters in positions of authority
matt
Maybe we should stop calling deaths of vaccine refusers ‘preventable’.
kalakal
Still wear an N95 at work, public transport, shopping, other crowded settings. Don’t go out much anyway
randy khan
Our masking approach is not nearly as consistent as it used to be, a combination of mask fatigue and actually lower risk.
I mask when I do the food shopping, which most weeks is the time I am around the most other people. We will mask for at least parts of big events indoors. I basically don’t mask outdoors at all, although for a really big crowd I might feel like it was better.
We mask on mass transportation of any kind – busses, subways, planes, trains. On our flight back from Europe last week, maybe 10 other people were masked in the coach section. A lot of the trip was in a group, basically with people we know who’ve been going on the same trips for years, and we didn’t mask around them, but we did mask in public places – only one other person on the trip did that. In Paris, where we stopped on the way back, it seemed like the only people who masked were Americans (based on hearing them) and Asians, but even then it was a distinct minority of those groups, and many of the Asian-looking people may not actually have been from Asia.
I mask in my office in places where I could have random encounters – hallways, etc. – but not around my closest colleagues, all of whom I trust not to come to the office if they know they have COVID and all of whom are vaccinated.
We mask when we go out to dinner at a low-end chain restaurant with two of our oldest friends (both longevity of the friendship and their actual ages), in large part to protect them since they both have significant health issues, but the masks come off when we’re eating, of course, and we often forget to put them back on.
randy khan
@satby:
When Major League Baseball was doing pretty constant testing, there were a lot of examples of players who tested positive but had no symptoms. After this happened to the Yankees (inside joke about how the paper covers baseball in New York), the NYT talked to a virologist or maybe an immunologist who said, more or less, that a lot of the people who are asymptomatic but test positive after being vaccinated don’t really have COVID in the way you think of people having most diseases. Instead, what’s happened is that the virus gets a beachhead in your nose, which is where it enters the body after all, and you can test positive until the antibodies wipe it out, which can take a few days. This is, by the way, one of several reasons there’s interest in nasal vaccines, as this would increase the concentration of antibodies available in your nose to immediately fight off the virus.
And, of course, it’s true that vaccination doesn’t put some invisible shield around you, but just convinces your body to create antibodies that can rapidly fight off any incursion by the virus. We’re all infected by viruses every day, but we never know in almost every case because the antibodies knock them out before they can multiply enough to cause any symptoms.
StringOnAStick
I got diagnosed with long Covid last weekend, due to the exercise induced asthma and significant fatigue. I caught it March 24, quite sick even though fully vaccinated and boosted, 14 days until I tested negative. My mistake was not listening to my body and trying to go immediately back to my very active lifestyle; that’s when the asthma started; the doctor called in “reactive airway” so now I have two kinds of inhalers and I’m l learning to do half of less of what is normally do.
My husband didn’t get as sick and he’s back to climbing peaks to ski them. We have permits to climb My St Helens on May 22 but I know I’ll basically just be going along to look at it and maybe climb a bit; no way I can do a 5,200′ climb when I can barely do 500′.
gvg
I haven’t been masking, but I will for crowds or people I perceive as….idiots likely to carry germs. However I always have masks stashed in purse, car and desk and expect to keep a supply on hand the rest of my life. I liked not catching as many colds and such. I have used them since when I noticed I had symptoms however mild even if tests said not Covid and also if I noticed coworkers sniffling. I am not the only one. People now use them in cold and allergy season, and also more for lawn care!. If I have used them while having symptoms I toss them after that period even if they look OK. I try to keep them looking fresh. They do lose effectiveness over time. Now that they aren’t scarce, the prices aren’t bad for reputable sources. I do prefer the KN style. It fits my face better.
I also think we are going to see more home tests for the various cold type sniffles. Already there is one for strep. They are hard to find so if you see any grab a few. Its nice to know, then you stay away from people and go to the doc right away.
satby
Yes, here’s one trustworthy article on proper reuse.
StringOnAStick
The reason we didn’t get Paxlovid is we didn’t test positive until 3 days into it, and by then it’s not effective because you need to take it early. Some of the at home tests are apparently quite slow to react to a new infection, so I just assumed I had RSV until it was too late. That’s something I really regret because maybe I wouldn’t be in this position of we’d had Paxlovid in time.
satby
@StringOnAStick: Long covid is linked to severity of sickness during covid infection. Sorry that happened to you. There is some evidence exercising too soon makes it worse.
As an asthmatic of over 40 years and also a person with reactive airway syndrome, I’ll tell you you’ll probably get much better as your medications stabilize your asthma. Maybe not in time for your impending trip, but eventually. I was really sick in January (not covid) and high altitudes and I don’t get along, but I did manage ok at 8k feet Edit: in March only 8 weeks after I had recovered. I know that’s not that high, but it was great progress for me. Fingers crossed for you too.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: [Blushes] Thanks, friend.
@NotMax: That is a funny image. Although I remember there were serious reservations initially among African-Americans–especially males–about wearing masks, precisely because of the danger of looking like criminals.
@Matt McIrvin: I wish you and yours good health despite the wait for the next booster!
@kalakal:
QFT. So refreshing to have an administration that values expertise and competence. Do not want to go backwards.
@StringOnAStick:
I’m so sorry about your long covid situation. As an asthmatic since childhood, I know how awful (and exhausting) it is to struggle to breathe. I hope you have a full recovery, sooner rather than later, and that you get to enjoy your trip to the mountains.
ETA: My experience with the meds is similar to satby’s. They’re much better than they used to be and are very helpful in stabilizing and sometimes outright eliminating symptoms.
Matt McIrvin
@NeenerNeener: I recall one doctor who recommended taking three N95s, writing “1”, “2” and “3” on them and rotating them on a three-day cycle, because after three days any SARS-COV-2 on them is very likely dead–the virus just does not last long without a host to infect, especially if it’s exposed to the elements. I’ve been doing something like that more informally.
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: Thanks!
StringOnAStick
@satby:
@O. Felix Culpa:
Thanks to both of you for the supportive comments, it really helps. I had 51 days of climbing hills/peaks to ski this year, including the best powder day of my life and biggest day ever at 4,200′ of climbing, and now I can’t ride my bike without constant coughing and lung gunk clearing; so, no more biking or heavy exertion for now. I do hope it gets better but I will be patient and spend my time being low key in my garden to let myself get better.
J R in WV
I have had all the vacccinations, first with Wife in the county health center, Moderna in Feb ( county seat was deserted — power was off from hard freeze ice storm) but Medical Clinic was up on big diesel generators running loudly on natural gas. We were in and out in 25 minutes, National Guard was entering data on lap tops over in a corner, no patient contact. No immediate side effects. Second doses a month later was outdoors, beautiful sunny spring day, also Moderna, slept for two days after second shot, rest was all I needed to get over that.
Both b0osters after that in Charleston are Kanawha County Health Dept, first was another Moderna, then a Pfizer, then last a bi-valent Moderna at Kroger’s, also slept a little after that one, no stress tho.
Anne Laurie, thanks so much for these Covid updates, you have saved countless lives by educating people about this pandemic.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I remember going to Target in March 2020, and it looked like some Soviet-level shit. And I was only letting Spawn the Elder go into stores, not the younger kids, because it was so upsetting. And there were signs up about social distancing E V E R Y W H E R E, and recorded statements on the PA about it…. and yet this one fucken employee would NOT stay away from me. Kept leaning over near me. Made me really wary about going into stores.