It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated on COVID-19. Here’s the state of affairs. Surveillance SARS-CoV-2 continues to decline after a small Spring Break bump. Wastewater levels are the lowest they’ve been in over a year! Hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline as well, but we are still losing
Please do everything you can to influence ACIP on a positive decision to offer the bivalent booster to the elderly and other vulnerable folks. Thank you for all you do!
A couple of comments: Healthcare workers (as do most workers) do go to work sick. Part of this is they are casual or permanent part time without sick benefits: you don't work, you don't get paid. As a full time employee all my career (and I do realize how lucky I am), I could stay home when sick, but of course didn't always do that. If I had a sore throat but no fever, I would wear a mask when taking patient's blood as part of my role as a lab technologist...long before any pandemic came around.
Second: masks should never fully go away. After SARS in 2003, the province of Ontario developed excellent recommendations for healthcare workers when working with someone with an acute, respiratory infection (ARI), which was defined as a new or worsening cough or shortness of breath and/or fever. If a patient was entering a healthcare environment there was a sign (passive screening) and a box of masks for the patient to don if they had those symptoms. Staff would wear mask and eye protection when working with that patient. I still think anyone with respiratory signs and symptoms who must leave the house should wear a mask to limit spread to others...even if their COVID rapid test is negative: if you are symptomatic...wear a mask!
I sure wish the CDC would update their guidance on masks in healthcare: they're tied to case rates which are unreliable and only getting worse. So exposure and risk are now "baked into" the guidance and immunocompromised and vulnerable people will get infected in healthcare settings--which should be a liability for the healthcare settings but isn't because they're "following the CDC".
Thanks for your continued sane and helpful reporting! Low wastewater levels of COVID-19 means that fewer people are infected. But the widespread abandonment of masks, social distancing, and even the abandonment of staying home when infected, means that in some cases, more people we know might be getting COVID.
That's true in my world where folks by and large were very cautious about exposure during the past 3+ years. Most of them are now taking more risks, and I know more people who have gotten COVID now than at any other time during the pandemic.
Contracted my first case of Covid late March 2 weeks before shoulder replacement. My husband also caught it from me. I have been vaccinated and boosted last with bivalent in October. Likely caught it in Drs office while waiting for a pre op physical. Open waiting room concept, no separation of sick-well and no masks. I hadn’t been near anyone prior to that and no contact with anyone with Covid. who Luckily I was able to undergo the surgery I had been waiting for 6 months. Recovery has been a little challenging. I’m grateful we’re healthy 70 year olds but still frustrated with healthcare in general how they e handled the pandemic. My profession was in healthcare... I loved it and believed in it. My PCP was of no help and will looking for a new PCP.
Now that the next booster is approved for the elderly, can you please give us your latest opinion of the risks involved with the "original antigenic sin" theory, which some experts warn is a real concern? As a 79 year old biologist (not MD), I have read many articles about this and still can't decide if getting shot #6 is good for the short term, but perhaps bad for the longer term, when new variants may pop up that my T-cell immunity (if I have any at this age!) will not react to. After each shot, I have gotten a test to show that my spike antibodies go way up for a few weeks, but drop to 1/10 of that level after a few months. That's OK if they let us geezers continue to get boosters periodically, but not so good if I may be harming the breadth of my T-cell response for future strains. Thanks for all you do!!!!
Recently two of my friends got Covid, but their physicians would not prescribe Paxlovid. They said that Paxlovid was not longer effective with the newer mutations. -- Any thoughts on this? BTW, I live in Chicago
I am 72, healthy and continue to mask everywhere I go in public for my and my 82 year old husband's well being. It's just not that hard.
Masking is easy and protects the most vulnerable who are usually invisible. I too have seen many new infections in those who are 100% vaccinated, healthy, and have had multiple Covid infections.
Working at the hospital with no mask mandate is heart breaking and unnecessary. Thanks for all the comments!!!
Thank you for continuing to find the limited data they’re still collecting and make some sense out of it for us. It’s not over and we’re no better prepared mentally or societally for another huge mutation event. Hope is never a strategy but it looks like it’s our number one right now
Thank you again. All of the links I find on the second bivalent booster are poorly worded, vague, "no need to rush" (??), under consideration, dodging the question. Look forward to your update when you have one.
Can anything be done to speed up the approval of alternative antivirals? Public Health placed all it's eggs in the "vaccine" basket.
In the fourth year of COVID, "we have one effective antiviral that most physicians would use," Redfield said, referring to Pfizer's Paxlovid, which he recommends taking for confirmed infections. "That's terrible."
I have to disagree that the 3 week interval was best here in the US. It probably was, at least initially, but some of us were observing trends suggesting we'd be better off with a longer interval. Likely, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, a longer interval 6 or 12 weeks, would have obviated the myocarditis issues, and likely seen a more robust T-cell training situation. That said, we kept to the original interval, things sorta worked, and now, as with the lab-leak investigation, it no longer matters, save for those very few people who are initiating their vaccine process now. At this point I'd hope we'd learned enough to increase the interval.
Having said that, thanks (one more time!) for the excellent summary. Loved it.
I intend to get the Spring booster (79 years old). All of my shots til now have been Pfizer. Stick with Pfizer or move to Moderna for this shot? Thanks.
Thank you for the great information as always. Really appreciated. Are they doing any studies on Families who haven't gotten it? My husband, myself, my daughter and her kids, and my Dad and Stepmom have not gotten it, knock on wood. Wondering if it's because we have been so darn careful or if there is some genetic component. Thank you!
Please do everything you can to influence ACIP on a positive decision to offer the bivalent booster to the elderly and other vulnerable folks. Thank you for all you do!
A couple of comments: Healthcare workers (as do most workers) do go to work sick. Part of this is they are casual or permanent part time without sick benefits: you don't work, you don't get paid. As a full time employee all my career (and I do realize how lucky I am), I could stay home when sick, but of course didn't always do that. If I had a sore throat but no fever, I would wear a mask when taking patient's blood as part of my role as a lab technologist...long before any pandemic came around.
Second: masks should never fully go away. After SARS in 2003, the province of Ontario developed excellent recommendations for healthcare workers when working with someone with an acute, respiratory infection (ARI), which was defined as a new or worsening cough or shortness of breath and/or fever. If a patient was entering a healthcare environment there was a sign (passive screening) and a box of masks for the patient to don if they had those symptoms. Staff would wear mask and eye protection when working with that patient. I still think anyone with respiratory signs and symptoms who must leave the house should wear a mask to limit spread to others...even if their COVID rapid test is negative: if you are symptomatic...wear a mask!
I sure wish the CDC would update their guidance on masks in healthcare: they're tied to case rates which are unreliable and only getting worse. So exposure and risk are now "baked into" the guidance and immunocompromised and vulnerable people will get infected in healthcare settings--which should be a liability for the healthcare settings but isn't because they're "following the CDC".
Thanks for your continued sane and helpful reporting! Low wastewater levels of COVID-19 means that fewer people are infected. But the widespread abandonment of masks, social distancing, and even the abandonment of staying home when infected, means that in some cases, more people we know might be getting COVID.
That's true in my world where folks by and large were very cautious about exposure during the past 3+ years. Most of them are now taking more risks, and I know more people who have gotten COVID now than at any other time during the pandemic.
Contracted my first case of Covid late March 2 weeks before shoulder replacement. My husband also caught it from me. I have been vaccinated and boosted last with bivalent in October. Likely caught it in Drs office while waiting for a pre op physical. Open waiting room concept, no separation of sick-well and no masks. I hadn’t been near anyone prior to that and no contact with anyone with Covid. who Luckily I was able to undergo the surgery I had been waiting for 6 months. Recovery has been a little challenging. I’m grateful we’re healthy 70 year olds but still frustrated with healthcare in general how they e handled the pandemic. My profession was in healthcare... I loved it and believed in it. My PCP was of no help and will looking for a new PCP.
Now that the next booster is approved for the elderly, can you please give us your latest opinion of the risks involved with the "original antigenic sin" theory, which some experts warn is a real concern? As a 79 year old biologist (not MD), I have read many articles about this and still can't decide if getting shot #6 is good for the short term, but perhaps bad for the longer term, when new variants may pop up that my T-cell immunity (if I have any at this age!) will not react to. After each shot, I have gotten a test to show that my spike antibodies go way up for a few weeks, but drop to 1/10 of that level after a few months. That's OK if they let us geezers continue to get boosters periodically, but not so good if I may be harming the breadth of my T-cell response for future strains. Thanks for all you do!!!!
Thank you for helping us stay informed!
Recently two of my friends got Covid, but their physicians would not prescribe Paxlovid. They said that Paxlovid was not longer effective with the newer mutations. -- Any thoughts on this? BTW, I live in Chicago
Thank you for this update!!
I am 72, healthy and continue to mask everywhere I go in public for my and my 82 year old husband's well being. It's just not that hard.
Masking is easy and protects the most vulnerable who are usually invisible. I too have seen many new infections in those who are 100% vaccinated, healthy, and have had multiple Covid infections.
Working at the hospital with no mask mandate is heart breaking and unnecessary. Thanks for all the comments!!!
Thank you for continuing to find the limited data they’re still collecting and make some sense out of it for us. It’s not over and we’re no better prepared mentally or societally for another huge mutation event. Hope is never a strategy but it looks like it’s our number one right now
Thank you again. All of the links I find on the second bivalent booster are poorly worded, vague, "no need to rush" (??), under consideration, dodging the question. Look forward to your update when you have one.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-changes-simplify-use-bivalent-mrna-covid-19-vaccines. Looks like bivalent only and one shot for primary series?
Can anything be done to speed up the approval of alternative antivirals? Public Health placed all it's eggs in the "vaccine" basket.
In the fourth year of COVID, "we have one effective antiviral that most physicians would use," Redfield said, referring to Pfizer's Paxlovid, which he recommends taking for confirmed infections. "That's terrible."
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/biden-administration-inhibiting-operation-warp-speed-antivirals-former
I have to disagree that the 3 week interval was best here in the US. It probably was, at least initially, but some of us were observing trends suggesting we'd be better off with a longer interval. Likely, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, a longer interval 6 or 12 weeks, would have obviated the myocarditis issues, and likely seen a more robust T-cell training situation. That said, we kept to the original interval, things sorta worked, and now, as with the lab-leak investigation, it no longer matters, save for those very few people who are initiating their vaccine process now. At this point I'd hope we'd learned enough to increase the interval.
Having said that, thanks (one more time!) for the excellent summary. Loved it.
I intend to get the Spring booster (79 years old). All of my shots til now have been Pfizer. Stick with Pfizer or move to Moderna for this shot? Thanks.
Thank you for the great information as always. Really appreciated. Are they doing any studies on Families who haven't gotten it? My husband, myself, my daughter and her kids, and my Dad and Stepmom have not gotten it, knock on wood. Wondering if it's because we have been so darn careful or if there is some genetic component. Thank you!