It’s great news (as far as I’m concerned) that covid infections, per the CDC and Biobot, are dropping — for the moment — to the point where updates are a background noise rather than a non-stop battery of bad news. (Until the next peak comes along, possibly during summer vacation season, almost certainly by the year-end holidays.) There’s liable to be an ongoing shortage of news articles for me to aggregate… mostly updates on long covid research, and historical updates (recriminations) on the past four years. For the moment, I’ll keep putting up a post every Wednesday morning, but I can’t promise much actual news.
On the other hand, there’s a ‘new’ nightmare virus keeping pandemic watchers on high alert. Specifically: H5N1 ‘bird flu’, which is now infecting dairy cows in multiple U.S. states (all probably tracing back to the same herd in Texas), as well as cats sharing those cows’ barns, and at least one dairy worker. The good news: Public authorities are very much aware of H5N1’s potential; we have — thanks to Covid-19 — a global network in place to monitor, research & treat H5N1 hotspots; and there’s a considerable history of similar ‘bird flu’ outbreaks for medical personnel to draw on. (Including the 2002-2004 ‘Hong Kong SARS’ outbreak, which is when I first started paying attention to the word ‘coronavirus’.) Here’s a gift link to a NYTimes article that pretty much summarizes current information:
#H5N1: Is #BirdFlu headed toward human infections? Are people next? Are we ready?
Unlike the coronavirus, H5N1 has been studied for years. Vaccines and treatments are available should they ever become necessary https://t.co/fNEHEdFEiW— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) April 7, 2024
Again: Gift link
As a committed carnivore and major dairy consumer, I am going to continue my lifelong practice of avoiding raw milk. (I took a Dairy Science 101 semester almost fifty years ago, and even in those ancient days the advice from all the best global experts was ‘Never drink raw milk from a cow you haven’t met.’ I will, for my own reasons, continue to monitor the various twitter feeds of health experts (many of whom are gradually transitioning from covid-19 to H5N1), and will of course let you know if anything changes.
***********
Kind of wild that it took this long to have generic branded covid tests. Of course, they cost the same as the highway robbery rated branded ones. pic.twitter.com/bkJQYQnMH2
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) April 4, 2024
As the United States eased into spring, only two states had increases or likely increases in coronavirus infections as of March 30, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.https://t.co/NUSEGOfhvp
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 8, 2024
As the United States eased into spring, only two states had increases or likely increases in coronavirus infections as of March 30, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition, the CDC reported a decline or likely decline in coronavirus infections in 29 states and territories and called infections “stable or uncertain” in 19 areas. Even so, a national covid-19 forecast predicts up to 3,400 daily covid hospital admissions in late April.
All told, nearly 1.2 million U.S. residents have died of covid-19, according to the CDC’s Covid Data Tracker.
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 10, 2024Post + Comments (31)