Thanks, as always! Would you consider an updated post on the case for covid broadly messing with the immune system (or not)? I am with you that a return to pre-pandemic viral trends is a good sign that we are generally doing pretty ok, but the immune system damage argument is one I hear repeated all the time. I think I get where it is coming from, but I also think many of those studies are pre-vax and wild type or early variants and we may need to update our priors. This is a hard line to tow, and I appreciate you continuing to keep us updated!
Thank you for all your work. My husband and I got the updated Covid vaccine in September as we finally were caught by it last March. Hoping we'll still have some protection from it when we travel in February - will still be masking on plane and indoor areas!
A safe and effective norovirus vaccine would be huge as norovirus is responsible for more foodborne illness than any other virus, bacteria, or protozoan. Imagine the United States saving $60 billion each year in foodborne illness costs!
Your work is outstanding. May I suggest that when you include a chart or graph, that you give a key to all different colors that appear. Lately, like the USA map, there is no key for some of the colors. It takes away credibility to not appear complete.
We saw this coming for all the reasons you stated above. Despite the warnings, most of the local medical community, including my husband, takes a cowboy's approach to respiratory season (unless they are Infectious Disease or Internal Medicine). He brought home COVID last week. Now would be a pretty good time to discuss the efficacy and shortcomings of masking. . . The general public seems to have tired of all sorts of precautionary measures, at least in our community.
Thank you for this. As a scientist myself I appreciate the great information you provided.
I do have a question. Is there any research to show that receiving a flu shot each year, over many years, increases protection? Even though the individual protection is time limited?
I'm trying to understand this: why is there is a link to an article that is supposed to show why the increase RSV in this 24/25 season is not due to Covid affecting immune systems, yet when you click on it you find there is a very well done diagram that says we should be having a normal RSV season this year? If the linked article from 2023 was accurate, we would not be having a higher than normal season this year. I realize this was a guess at the time, but since the guess was wrong it is an odd choice to use this to show that Covid hasn't affected our immune systems.
Our knowledge of the immune system is not as cut and dry as we would like it to be. Using a link to an article that contradicts the point it is trying to prove is confusing. The volume and severity of illness this season around our personal circles has been like nothing we have ever experienced before. This anecdote is not consistent with the ILI findings in this article, but it is our experience. It would be helpful to see the ILI data from actual pre-pandemic years like 2016-2018. I seem to remember 2018/2019 being really bad but the previous years being very low? comparing this year to those years would be better for showing if we have fallen into pre-pandemic levels.
Thanks, as always! Would you consider an updated post on the case for covid broadly messing with the immune system (or not)? I am with you that a return to pre-pandemic viral trends is a good sign that we are generally doing pretty ok, but the immune system damage argument is one I hear repeated all the time. I think I get where it is coming from, but I also think many of those studies are pre-vax and wild type or early variants and we may need to update our priors. This is a hard line to tow, and I appreciate you continuing to keep us updated!
Thank you for all your work. My husband and I got the updated Covid vaccine in September as we finally were caught by it last March. Hoping we'll still have some protection from it when we travel in February - will still be masking on plane and indoor areas!
Norovirus vaccine- will we ever have one? I’ll be first in line! Haha! I would rather basically any other illness strike my house than this misery.
A safe and effective norovirus vaccine would be huge as norovirus is responsible for more foodborne illness than any other virus, bacteria, or protozoan. Imagine the United States saving $60 billion each year in foodborne illness costs!
If my husband brings Norovirus home, next, I will file for divorce lol
Thank you. I read this while sitting in the airport, and it was a good reminder to put an N95 mask on. I'm hearing lots of coughing.
Your work is outstanding. May I suggest that when you include a chart or graph, that you give a key to all different colors that appear. Lately, like the USA map, there is no key for some of the colors. It takes away credibility to not appear complete.
We saw this coming for all the reasons you stated above. Despite the warnings, most of the local medical community, including my husband, takes a cowboy's approach to respiratory season (unless they are Infectious Disease or Internal Medicine). He brought home COVID last week. Now would be a pretty good time to discuss the efficacy and shortcomings of masking. . . The general public seems to have tired of all sorts of precautionary measures, at least in our community.
Thank you for this. As a scientist myself I appreciate the great information you provided.
I do have a question. Is there any research to show that receiving a flu shot each year, over many years, increases protection? Even though the individual protection is time limited?
I'm confident that Bobby the Lesser and his accomplices will find a way to make things worse.
I'm trying to understand this: why is there is a link to an article that is supposed to show why the increase RSV in this 24/25 season is not due to Covid affecting immune systems, yet when you click on it you find there is a very well done diagram that says we should be having a normal RSV season this year? If the linked article from 2023 was accurate, we would not be having a higher than normal season this year. I realize this was a guess at the time, but since the guess was wrong it is an odd choice to use this to show that Covid hasn't affected our immune systems.
Our knowledge of the immune system is not as cut and dry as we would like it to be. Using a link to an article that contradicts the point it is trying to prove is confusing. The volume and severity of illness this season around our personal circles has been like nothing we have ever experienced before. This anecdote is not consistent with the ILI findings in this article, but it is our experience. It would be helpful to see the ILI data from actual pre-pandemic years like 2016-2018. I seem to remember 2018/2019 being really bad but the previous years being very low? comparing this year to those years would be better for showing if we have fallen into pre-pandemic levels.
If more people are vaccinated for Covid now vs a year ago, to what extent did releasing vaccines earlier help?
Could we have prevented the huge summer wave of 2024 if vaccines had been available in June?
Thank you, Katelyn.