Area schools continue to close and more and more numbers of Covid patients are being seen in the hospitals.
However, death rates are not climbing — that will take about 3 weeks but should be less than with Delta.
Personal Note:
I’m not planning on catching Covid now — not after dodging it for two years. No…I’m not going to become careless with my personal vigilance. I also realize that ultimately, I am the only person whose health I can control. After this long, nope, I’m not going to start cutting corners.
Within weeks or a few months, we’ll be in harmony with Covid-19 and its variants. We’ll have much more preventive and therapeutic control. We’ll have appropriate updated vaccines, antibody type medications for IV acute treatment, available oral medications to take with exposure or first symptoms, accessible and accurate testing, and functional masks freely available — worn as needed or as mandated. Our experienced and reorganized surviving physicians, hospital and health care workers, scientists, researchers will be rested, and active, and new recruits will be welcomed, educated, and well-compensated. Hopefully, our governmental and medical experts will be working more closely together for the common good. It might even happen that the unvaccinated in our country and the world will become vaccinated. It is almost certain that less frightening, cheaper, and easily administered vaccines will become ubiquitous and updated as needed. Ultimately, surely our leadership will modernize and intensify our acute attentiveness to world health events, diseases, and experimental laboratories as well as to our preparedness to combat and conquer each “Bat Out of Hell” type of disease as soon as they attack — and they will as we crowd the lands.
It might even happen that the fear, ignorance, hesitancy, distrust, and selfishness that grips us all to some degree will be quietened. God, I sure hope so. Don’t you?
Jim Harris, MD
BITS FROM NYT TODAY: CHILDREN AND PARTISANSHIP
1. ”… Over the past week, about 870 children were admitted to hospitals with Covid, according to the C.D.C. By comparison, more than 5,000 children visit emergency rooms each week for sports injuries. More than 1,000 are hospitalized for bronchiolitis during a typical January week…Vaccinated elderly people are at much more risk of severe Covid illness than unvaccinated children…Last week’s Supreme Court session was striking because it highlighted both halves of the country’s partisan-based self-deceptions. Many conservatives are refusing to wear masks — or, even worse, refusing to be vaccinated — out of a misplaced belief that Covid is harmless. Many liberals are sensationalizing Covid’s risks out of a misplaced belief that it presents a bigger threat to most children and vaccinated adults than continued isolation and disruption do…”
2. U.S. college enrollment has dropped by about 6 percent since the fall of 2019.
3. How to Think About Covid Data Right Now
(J. Harris: This is a short, concise, excellent predictive summary — helpful!)
Paxlovid vs. Molnupiravir for COVID-19 from GoodRX Health.
(J. Harris: Easy to read and worth the effort.)
Key takeaways:
Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) and molnupiravir are two oral antiviral treatments that are authorized to treat mild to moderate COVID-19. These COVID-19 pills are only recommended for people with a high risk of developing severe illness.
Both Paxlovid and molnupiravir are taken by mouth twice daily for 5 days. They should both be started within 5 days of first feeling symptoms.
Studies suggest that Paxlovid can lower the risk of severe COVID-19 for high-risk people by almost 90%. Studies suggest molnupiravir can lower this risk by about 30%.
BITS AND PIECES FROM HOPKINS:
”…EPI UPDATE The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 312 million cumulative cases and 5.5 million deaths worldwide as of January 12…The increase continues to largely be due to surges in the Americas (+78.8%) and Europe (+37%), but nearly all WHO regions reported increases last week. Notably, the WHO reported a decrease in the Africa region (-11%), potentially signaling the Omicron surge there has peaked. The Omicron surge in the UK also appears to have peaked, with government data showing the weekly average number of cases down 19% over the previous week…UNITED STATES
The US CDC is currently reporting 62.5 million cumulative cases of COVID-19 and 840,286 deaths. The US is averaging 761,535 new cases and 1,656 deaths per day.* Notably, the US reported 1.35 million new COVID-19 cases on January 10…”
AND LAST BUT NOT LEASED:
Don’t bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That’ll freak you right out.
When someone asks what I did over the weekend, I squint and ask, “Why, what did you hear?”
What do you say to comfort a friend who’s struggling with grammar? There, their, they’re.
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