Covid cases in the U.S. have followed the same pattern in 2020, 2021 and 2022. There is a minor peak in the summer due to super-spreader events like Memorial Day and the 4th of July. There is a major winter peak after Thanksgiving and Christmas which also corresponds with the annual flu peak. (The flu didn’t appear during 2020 and 2021 due to stringent Covid precautions but the nasty H3N2 is spreading now.)
The 14-day Covid cases in the U.S. have increased 44% in the past 2 weeks. Deaths have increased from 300 per day to 450 per day, about 90% of them over age 65.
The spike in hospitalization is mostly from age 70+.
It’s time to go “full Covid” again, including masks.
Got my Omicron vax in September. Latest variants are nearly immune to the Omicron vax, and entirely immune to the antibody treatments that had been developed.
The national wastewater viral load is up to 906 copies/mL as of December 7th, up 76% the 514 copies/mL at the “low” point of October 26th. Even that “low” point wasn’t that low. Previous low points were 108 copies/mL in March 2022, 67 copies/mL in May 2020, 65 copies/mL in September 2020, and 39 copies/mL in May 2021.
I’m glad that I got my updated COVID booster in September (just a few days after it first became available) and my flu shot a week before that. When it comes to COVID-19, it’s so much better to have one’s vaccinated immunity 1 variant behind than 7 variants behind.
I never stopped masking up in stores and other indoor public spaces. Given that the official precautions have never gone beyond the bare minimum to avoid being Darwin Award fodder, I’ve gone further.
The Swiss cheese model of protection could use some additional layers.
I’ve added xylitol nasal spray to my permanent daily routine. It only takes a few seconds, it’s safe, and I can make lots of my own in a few minutes for not much money. I wish I had been doing this all my life. As necessary as other precautions are, none of them do anything to address any viral load within the nasal passages.
I’m avoiding junk foods and restaurant foods for the third consecutive winter.
The pandemic prompted me to increase the quantity and variety of fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods in my diet. I’m sticking with this for the rest of my life. My winter diet is now healthier than my summer diet. Eating more food in general means I can buy a wider variety of vegetables and still eat them up before they spoil.
I’m making sure to get enough selenium daily for the rest of my life.
I’m supplementing with Vitamin D3 daily for the rest of my life to keep my Vitamin D level in the upper part of the normal range.
I work in a building with hundreds of employees (almost all of them under 50).
I know some who didn´t get any covid vaccine, many who got the first 3, but I don´t know anybody who got the 4th one (even if they could get it for free).
Yesterday and today I was the only one wearing a mask on the subway.
A few days ago I was one of the very few wearing a mask on the plane.
But I’m not going to get the 4th booster.
The new variants are less dangerous than the original covid 2020 version and I´ll rather take safety measures than get the new booster.
Honestly, I don’t know anyone who wants to get vaccinated anymore.
There are still obscenely high rates of hospitalizations and deaths. People are still getting Long COVID.
The updated vaccine is only 1 variant behind the current dominant variants. The original vaccine is 7 variants behind. Why would you rather be 7 variants behind then only 1 variant behind?
Then you travel in a circle of idiots. I’d like to be less blunt, but idiots who won’t get vaccinated or get an annual booster put me and those I care about at risk.
The boosted people still have lower mortality, hospitalization and long COVID rates than the others, but I treat them like smokers. As long as you keep your distance from me and my family—- free will.
Well, gambling on new variants being less dangerous vs some mutation is going to hit and the mutation is going to be far more dangerous/deadly. And wouldn’t a vaccine be one of the best ‘safety measures’ you could take?
Major vaccination centres in the three European countries I visited recently have been closed for many months. They are empty, deserted, abandoned. And I am talking about top European capital cities.
As I mentioned above, I noticed that I was one of the very few who wear a mask on public transport and on planes.
This is proof that at European level, the official vaccination campaign is almost absent.
So this is not about those close to me or those I am in contact with (some of whom are far from beeing idiots).
Current statistics show that the number of those vaccinated with the last booster is extremely small.
I hope you understand that despite your beliefs I am referring to a general attitude observed over a fairly wide area. Leaving aside that it is obvious that the media no longer propagates the vaccine as in 2021.
Which three? Has vaccination moved to alternate places, such as doctors offices or clinics? The same places you might get other vaccines?
I just took my son to a routine check up. The doctor advised both flu and covid vaccines. He already had a covid shot about two months ago, but did get the flu vaccine.
Irrelevant to vaccination. Vaccination should be more or less universal. Masking is additional protection when the risk is higher than average, such as winter or when in crowded public places.
No, it’s not.
I know several highly intelligent people who are also idiots.
Yes. And that’s a problem. Governments know their citizens are growing weary of the Covid pandemic. Many are no longer making it a high priority, mainly for political reasons. Most first world government leaders are elected. They will happily put their own re-election ahead of good public policy. If you were to talk directly to public health officials, you’d likely get an earful of warnings about covid. It is still a serious disease, with a mortality rate that is not insignificant, and potential for long-term (potentially life-long) complications.
What does that mean? The media does not propagate the vaccine. That is done in laboratories and vaccine production facilities. Perhaps you mean promote? They don’t promote anything except their own profits. They repeat what other say to get viewers or readers, and those turn into advertising dollars.
I’ll defend the poster on this. Folks have to remember that the Covid RNA vaccines are new technology for which long-term human studies have only begun. I think the data is strong that the benefits of the vaccines compared to the risks during the early months of the pandemic strongly justified mass vaccinations. That was when the impact of Covid on an immune-naive population was severe. It is much less dangerous now for healthy individuals not in a risk group.
There are multiple studies describing serious adverse effects resulting from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. These are relatively rare, but not so rare that you shouldn’t take the risks into consideration.
> “The Pfizer trial exhibited a 36 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group; risk difference 18.0 per 10,000 vaccinated (95 % CI 1.2 to 34.9); risk ratio 1.36 (95 % CI 1.02 to 1.83). The Moderna trial exhibited a 6 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group: risk difference 7.1 per 10,000 (95 % CI -23.2 to 37.4); risk ratio 1.06 (95 % CI 0.84 to 1.33). Combined, there was a 16 % higher risk of serious adverse events in mRNA vaccine recipients: risk difference 13.2 (95 % CI -3.2 to 29.6); risk ratio 1.16 (95 % CI 0.97 to 1.39).”
The Covid vaccines use proprietary Lipid nanoparticle technology as a delivery system. These probably get broadly distributed in tissues and organs with the possibility of causing inflammation. The Covid Spike protein is produced by the RNA vaccine to induce the immune response. It may have negative biological effects in some individuals as well that are suggested but yet to be conclusively documented. These are possible mechanisms for the observed adverse effects that sometimes follow vaccinations. https://www.cell.com/trends/molecular-medicine/fulltext/S1471-4914(22)00103-4
GMO corn has far fewer known adverse effects than the Covid RNA vaccines and the specific GMO technology in common use has been studied for their effects on humans for a long time. So if your risk tolerance is such that you still worry about GMO products then you probably should be concerned about the Covid RNA vaccines.
On a personal note, I recently came down with Covid after a trip to Europe. It was a bad head cold that lasted a couple of days. That seems to be the typical symptom these days. Given that, I will probably avoid future boosters unless the disease becomes more severe again.
As posted about a day or two ago, Congress has passed a defense authorization bill that repeals the covid vax mandate. This has to be ludicrous to anyone who was in the service back in the day. A large slate of vaccinations have been mandatory for a long time, but, apparently, because covid became politicized, it is now exempt from reasonable measures to protect the health of the troops.
Can you translate that into something people without a PhD in statistics can understand? I think it’s important to your argument, but I have no idea what it is saying.
This makes sense during this wave because 90% of the deaths are in over-65 patients (in the U.S.).
However, getting Covid is no picnic even if a patient isn’t sick enough to go to the hospital. (The health authorities are mainly concerned about swamping hospital facilities.)
Also, about 40% of the U.S. population is obese – and obesity is a major risk factor for Covid at all ages.
Wendy (received 5th Covid shot in early October along with flu shot)
Just a quick comment…I noticed that a post upstream was “flagged” but still available for viewing. So I viewed it. Although it contained a steaming pile of misinformation…namely that coronavirus is just a cold bug (or words to that effect )…I can’t see that flagging or the hiding it serves much purpose. Quite the reverse.
It prevents anyone from pointing out the obvious…that yes viruses of the coronavirus group can cause the common cold (along with rhinovirus and others that I’m sure anyone interested would be able to view witha quick Google)…but that SARs CoV2 isn’t necessarily related to those coronaviruses just because of a similarity in nomenclature. Thus leaving the poster in the dark over his gaffe whilst at the same time encouraging the notion that THEY don’t want The Truth to surface.