The CDC relaxes

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#3

In other words, the CDC has been taken over by clueless wimps.

I’m actually taking more precautions this year than I was last year. The national average wastewater viral load is down only very slightly from the peak of the current surge, the second worst of the pandemic.

We’re still waiting for an updated vaccine. So far, the only one that has been available is the original one, which is horribly out-of-date because it was so many variants ago.

We’re still waiting for a sure way to prevent COVID from becoming severe COVID or long COVID. In spite of what certain people want to believe, there’s NOTHING that stops severe COVID or long COVID as effectively as Vitamin C stops scurvy.

#4

In other words, the CDC has been taken over by clueless wimps.

A smart commander does not give orders they know won’t be obeyed.

Of course, a smart leader does not give their followers information the leader knows to be false. Eventually the truth comes out, and it undermines faith in the leader - which means people won’t trust further information and won’t follow the leader’s lead. And the CDC and other government-connected experts blew that one from approximately Day 1 of the pandemic.

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#5

Eventually the truth comes out, and it undermines faith in the leader - which means people won’t trust further information and won’t follow the leader’s lead.

That doesn’t seem to hold true anymore. Increasingly, facts counter to the “leader’s” narrative are brushed off with “they hate America”, “they have a problem with strong women”, or “it’s a hoax”, without repercussions from the faithful.

Steve

9 Likes
#6

<“I think they are attempting to meet up with the reality that everyone in the public is pretty much done with this pandemic,”>

The role of science is to tell the plain truth, whether the public believes it or not. The CDC is guilty of a dereliction of duty. They should tell the unvarnished truth and let the local health officials tune it for the reality on the ground. Our local health official publishes data and recommendations in the newspaper almost every day. She still recommends masking indoors, especially for elderly and high-risk people.

The public is done with the pandemic but Covid isn’t done with the public. I won’t call it “Covid-19” anymore because the newer variants are able to avoid the immune system in a way that the 2019 version couldn’t.

Cases are beginning to fall, just as they did after the summer surge of 2020 and 2021. But deaths are still rising from 2022’s summer surge. And the case number decline is more like a plateau.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html…

It’s a fair bet that the winter surge will probably begin after Halloween. After Thanksgiving for sure. It will peak in mid-January, after Christmas and New Year’s super-spreader parties.

I got my second booster in April 2022. I plan to get the third as soon as the new version is released, probably in September or October 2022.

Meanwhile, I am following my usual Covid precautions. Early shopping when the store is empty. Mask indoors.

Wendy

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#7

We’re still waiting for a sure way to prevent COVID from becoming severe COVID or long COVID.

You need to define “sure.”
If you are looking for 100% then I think you’ll be waiting a long time.

If you are vaccinated and boosted I think there are more dangerous things to be concerned with as of now.

Mike

1 Like
#8

And the CDC and other government-connected experts blew that one from approximately Day 1 of the pandemic.

Right concept. Wrong leader.

–Peter

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#9

Didn’t our fearless leader declare that COVID was a “liberal hoax” that would “soon be gone?”

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#10

If you are looking for 100% then I think you’ll be waiting a long time.

There is a 100% sure way to avoid severe COVID and long COVID.

Don’t get COVID.

Let me expand.

First, I am not at all anti-vax. I’m vaxxed and boosted and encourage everyone to do the same. But what I am is diligent. I am trying to avoid contracting covid.

I am not in that fatalistic thinking trap that everyone is going to get covid, so accept that at some point you’re going to get it, too. Covid is serious. It can kill you. It can come close to killing you but fail. It can leave you disabled. Yes, it can also be a minor inconvenience. But how do you know which one it’s going to be?

I know, the odds say it will be a minor to moderate inconvenience. But I don’t get to run multiple trials of a covid infection on me. I get one trial. Maybe two. I have no way of knowing my personal outcome.

So, like Wendy, I wear a mask indoors in public. Definitely in the minority there. I try to shop during slow hours (personally preferring evenings since I am most definitely NOT a morning person). I avoid crowds. Mostly. We have taken an occasional risk with crowds - always outdoors.

Basically, we try to balance living life with reasonable precautions against infection.

Knock on wood, the efforts have been successful so far.

–Peter

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#11

“There have been 89,166,150 infections and 1,023,802 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.”

“United States has administered at least 597,655,035 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 91% of the country’s population.”

https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m…

While some have had 3 (and some seniors 4), I suspect it’s overall less than 91%…but who knows?

I’ve read 85% of the US population has either been vaccinated or has had COVID already.

“Nearly six of every 10 Americans has already had COVID-19, a rate of infection that increased dramatically from December to February, the CDC says. About 34% of Americans had already been infected in the final month of 2021, the agency reports in a new study, but by February that figure had grown to 58%.”

"Researchers looked at the presence of coronavirus antibodies to estimate the rate of infection. The existence of these antibodies varied by age, from as high as 75% in children and teenagers 17 and younger, to 33% in those 65 and older, for example.

The study showed that the antibodies were more common in age groups with the lowest vaccination numbers."

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220426/almost-60-percent-i…

Anti-bodies don’t seem to last long in seniors. Thus vaccination wears off quickly. Seniors catch it and die. Over a million so far have died in the USA. When your aged immune system meets up with COVID , the outcome can be bad.

However, for the large majority of Americans, with so many now either vaccinated or having anti-bodies, the CDC has recommended less restrictions. Schools have students with high levels of anti-bodies.

Seniors - still take care. Your senior immune system is not the same as when you were six or sixteen or 35.

Hoping for an effective fall vaccine to treat the variants and drive things down further.

t.

#12

I was in the same camp as you,Peter,until 7 days ago. Covid positive on August 6th with no idea how. Fortunately,symptoms were mild and are almost gone now. My wife has tested negative all the way through. We are both vaxxed and boosted once. Even though my case was mild, I would not want to go through it again. A nasty virus even in it’s current variant.

Jk

#13

We vaxed, masked, kept our distance and avoided crowds.

We took care of sick granddaughter who allegedly tested negative for COVID.

We all got COVID - parents and grandparents.

Apparently doctor did not give pcr to baby and we all relied on a false negative.

Mild cases but unpleasant.

Daughter has to keep her job and day care makes babies sick after which they refuse to take the baby that they made sick.

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#14

As I recently stated in another post, I’ve added xylitol nasal spray to my daily routine. (NOTE: This is IN ADDITION to the official precautions plus my unofficial ones like avoiding junk foods, taking Vitamin D3 supplements, eating Brazil nuts for selenium, drinking my homemade Vitamin B/C water, etc.)

I’ve read that xylitol has antiviral properties. Given that the coronavirus enters the body through the nose, it seems to be a good idea to stop viruses there. If xylitol really does work, then it pays to have traces of it lining your nasal passages.

Just keep xylitol out of the reach of dogs and cats, because it is harmful to them. (I don’t have pets, so this is not a concern for me.)

Unlike some people, I do NOT believe in the unwritten rule that limits the number of precautions we can follow or advocate for.

1 Like
#15

We’re still wearing KN95 masks - but other than the ethnic Chinese (who all seem to remain faithfully masked) - we seem to be the only ones in the neighborhood (or the whole of NYC for that matter) doing so.

The current administration seems to have adopted the “herd immunity” philosophy that it scoffed at during the prior one. The problem is that, obviously, prior infection by the original strain of COVID-19 and/or vaccinations, no longer provide significant protection against “catching” COVID and the only way we can determine if they provide ANY protection is by evaluating statistics which include those (exceedingly rare) individuals who have neither been vaxxed nor previously infected.

There is a possibility that the sole reason that people are not dying like flies is that the current variants are less likely to cause fatal events, rather than the potential protection we may have from legacy events.

Jeff

1 Like
#16

We’re still waiting for a sure way to prevent COVID from becoming severe COVID or long COVID. In spite of what certain people want to believe, there’s NOTHING that stops severe COVID or long COVID as effectively as Vitamin C stops scurvy.

to prevent COVID from becoming severe: the vaccine.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html…

As of June:
Vaccinated .03 deaths per 100,000
Unvaccinated .18 deaths per 100,000

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#covidnet-hospitali…

Hospitalization rates are 4.6 times higher in unvaccinated
Hospitalization rates are 6.3 times higher in unvaccinated adults over 65

Vitamin C stops scurvy

Scurvy is a metabolic condition, Scurvy IS the lack of Vit C
saying, “Vitamin C stops scurvy”, is akin to saying nutrition is the cure for malnutrition. Vit C is not a cure to a communicable disease, it is an essential nutrient. We will probably never have a vaccine that has the efficacy of the Polio vaccine. The practice of vaccination is prevention in terms of reducing the risks.

4 Likes
#17

There is a possibility that the sole reason that people are not dying like flies is that the current variants are less likely to cause fatal events, rather than the potential protection we may have from legacy events.

It is possible that the initial wave (or two) of COVID culled the herd of most of those that were most likely to die from the infection based on general immunity they had, comorbidities, etc.

Mike

1 Like
#18

TusconBones,

Scurvy is a metabolic condition, Scurvy IS the lack of Vit C
saying, “Vitamin C stops scurvy”, is akin to saying nutrition is the cure for malnutrition. Vit C is not a cure to a communicable disease, it is an essential nutrient. We will probably never have a vaccine that has the efficacy of the Polio vaccine. The practice of vaccination is prevention in terms of reducing the risks.

That’s the “Post of the Day”.

I also note that the current nationwide COVID death rate of 474/day (about 170,000/yr) is about 8 times the seasonal flu and 4 times annual traffic deaths.

If we accepted that kind of carnage on the highways, we’d already have “full-self driving”.

intercst

5 Likes
#19

We had to use Verifly to gain access to our boarding passes and leave Ireland on Aer Lingus. In the process we swore we’d use masks. Now my parents are older so we did. We were almost the only ones on both legs of the journey wearing masks. The system is just awkward and outdated.

The Irish take Covid to be only the flu at this point. As a nation they had the longest lockdown in Europe now really do not give a freak.

#20

We vaxed, masked, kept our distance and avoided crowds. Mild cases but unpleasant.

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I vaxed with 4 shots, masked, avoided crowds and kept my distance except to have two cavities fixed recently. It took 40 minutes - open mouth with dentist and assistant. Two days later I started to have symptoms. I tested positive the next day. I can not be sure that my infection occurred at the dentist office. Anyway I have now recovered after 10 days of feeling like it was a very bad cold.

Jaak

#21

Unlike some people, I do NOT believe in the unwritten rule that limits the number of precautions we can follow or advocate for

I’m not too sure who these Some People or the unwritten rule you mention, but most rational takes on the topic would observe that there comes a point of diminishing returns with the “every little helps” mentality. Not only that, but it’s not too difficult to slip into that reverse J-curve phenomenon where all the little things can start to become barriers to what was planned in the first place. Especially when it comes to evidence free and, more particularly, evidence proof
beliefs.

Take vitamin D, for but one example. Manifestly, there’s probably reasonable value in aiming to avoid an outright deficiency. Totally different matter to be shooting for an arbitrary high level with high dose supplementation…and advocating for that (as some people actually do) Granted, this is unlikely to create direct harm but the constant drone of " No one’s researching this…", “Why isn’t there a national dialog…” ends up with shed loads of research dollars being directed towards demonstrating no effect…at the expense of something more meaningful.

#22

The Biden Administration Ends COVID-19 Testing Aimed at Unvaccinated Workers
www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/08/biden-administration-ends-…
Employees will soon face the same safety protocols regardless of vaccination status.

DB2