Zorral Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Saw this regarding the fall vaccines today: https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/7/28/23808360/covid-19-2023-summer-cases-vaccines-boosters Quote .... This summer bump is not a crisis. But it is a reminder that, so soon after the US finally reached the point that there were no longer any “excess deaths” that defined the pandemic, Covid-19 is still with us. CDC Director Mandy Cohen told NBC News this week the agency is preparing for another “tri-demic” this winter — with Covid, influenza, and another respiratory virus, RSV, circulating widely — that could challenge the US health care system. .... .... This winter, an RSV vaccine will be available for the first time for people over 60. A new variation of the Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be ready as well. And then there will be an updated version of the flu shot. The vaccine campaign will be another test for a health care system that is still in the middle of a transition from the pandemic to a new normal. Last year, that transition was felt primarily by the early and wide spread of RSV and influenza. After two years of being suppressed by Covid and mitigation measures, those viruses returned with vigor. Biology was dictating the terms of the public health response. This year, Schaffner said he doesn’t expect such an early, steep spike in infections. The transition is centered more on the health system itself and its ability to take advantage of these new tools to slow the viruses. “Our challenge will be to organize ourselves to actually receive these vaccines,” he said, calling it “a learning and transitional year.” .... Fragile Bird 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 It’s being reported today that Astra Zeneca had $0 sales of it’s Covid vaccine in the US this past quarter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 I think people who would get vaxxed are waiting until fall when the new and updated version is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 COVID hospital admissions jump in what could be a new norm of summer surges https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4131057-covid-hospital-admissions-jump-in-what-could-be-a-new-norm-of-summer-surges/ Quote Total COVID-19 hospital admissions jumped by 12.1 percent in the past week, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), marking the highest jump in admissions since last winter. This week’s hospital admission rate follows last week’s rise of more than 10 percent. While this data suggests more infections, a metric the CDC does not track anymore, it remains unclear how concerned people should be. While hospital admissions have risen by more than 10 percent in each of the past two weeks, the number of patients currently hospitalized has risen by a comparatively smaller degree. Compared with last week, the number of patients hospitalized for COVID this week rose by 7 percent to 6,121. Deaths due to COVID-19 have also not changed in recent weeks as hospital admissions have risen. The most recent wastewater surveillance data from July found that the majority of sites in the U.S. are seeing lower levels of the COVID-19 virus. Only 7 percent of sites are reporting levels between 60 and 100 percent, encompassing the two highest categories of viral wastewater detection. The number of sites reporting data has been declining since June, but the majority are still providing information. .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 5 Share Posted August 5 Just for FYI, an update re the friends who returned from 6 weeks in Italy, with Covid. He took Pax, tested negative after about 4 days, she then tested positive, got Pax. Then he rebounded, testing positive and feeling awful; doctor won't give him another round of Pax, for the medical reasons one wouldn't do that right on top of a previous round; she's quite sick. He texted, "We are a mess." He also said the places they were, in order to do the project for which they had been paid to go to Italy in the first place, seem to have the later strain of Covid pretty heavy, though he wasn't aware of it at the time. It's been in the US for a while now too, it seems. So they've been back home for nearly 2 weeks and unable to do anything at all except be sick. They haven't even been able to see their son! Though he did visit for a while they were in Venice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 There’s a new variant of Omicron doing the rounds in the UK, driving up infections. Not that there’s much talk of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 12 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said: There’s a new variant of Omicron doing the rounds in the UK, driving up infections. Not that there’s much talk of it. Do you know what this varient is named? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 59 minutes ago, Zorral said: Do you know what this varient is named? Eris. Zorral 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 Eris. OK. I'll look it up. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 I just signed up with Mastadon and came across this post right away. I wonder if a C02 meter is expensive. https://sfba.social/@sysop408/110846338063768084 felice and Wilbur 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 29 minutes ago, LongRider said: I just signed up with Mastadon and came across this post right away. I wonder if a C02 meter is expensive. https://sfba.social/@sysop408/110846338063768084 $50 will pay for a handheld unit on Amazon, and there are some (less effective) means to use your phone to test air quality like CaDi. LongRider 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywin et al. Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 23 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said: There’s a new variant of Omicron doing the rounds in the UK, driving up infections. Not that there’s much talk of it. Wait the aliens from Futurama are attacking the UK? Again? Deadlines? What Deadlines? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalbear Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 The 'standard' name of the variant is EG5:https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions Calling it Eris seems mean to that goddess of discord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 (edited) On 8/6/2023 at 5:21 PM, Derfel Cadarn said: There’s a new variant of Omicron doing the rounds in the UK, driving up infections. Not that there’s much talk of it. And basically nobody under 65 is getting a booster this winter. And you still can't get it privately. Edited August 8 by Spockydog Zorral 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 Madeline Miller, the author who wrote Circe and The Song of Achilles, has written about her experience with Long Covid for the Washington Post. An interesting read. As she notes, she is lucky because she has an understanding publisher who is willing to wait and a supportive spouse and she can take time and not write and still have health insurance and be able to pay her bills while she tries to deal with this. Normally I can't access Washington Post articles because of the paywall. I happened upon the article through a link from Miller's twitter. If you find you can't access the article through the below link but you have a twitter account, maybe try to access it that way as I think it is a gifted read through her link. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/09/madeline-miller-long-covid-post-pandemic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 It's archived it so anyone can read it here haven't given it a proper read but will do so soon LongRider 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Our local media has dropped 'uptick in covid cases" to "a spike in covid cases." This took about ... a week? My first thought when seeing "uptick" is "There must have been going on longer than we're led to believe, when suddenly all the media are reporting on "uptick." " And so, it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 New vaccines this fall could curb covid variant, respiratory viruses If -- BIG IFF -- people can get them and can afford them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/17/vaccine-flu-season-covid-rsv/ Quote Health officials are unveiling a new arsenal of vaccines to protect vulnerable Americans and exhausted health-care workers from an expected wave of covid, flu and RSV as the fall respiratory virus season begins. An updated covid booster should be available by late September. Flu shots are arriving at doctors’ offices. And for the first time, infants and seniors could be immunized against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a persistent foe that public health officials had few ways to prevent. But effectively deploying these shields is challenging and confusing. “It’s absolutely overwhelming, especially for our patients,” said Sterling Ransone, a doctor in rural Virginia and board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The coming vaccine campaign is rife with complications that include higher costs for insurers and health practices because the federal government is no longer buying coronavirus vaccines for everyone — as well as outstanding questions about how to best time these shots, who is going to pay for them and other issues that can’t be addressed until all vaccines are formally approved. Doctors have to figure out how to explain the nuances and unknowns of new vaccines at a time of rampant misinformation. Patients perplexed by changing coronavirus vaccine guidance now have more shots to consider. Public health officials worry a messy rollout could further erode confidence in routine vaccination and risk overwhelming the health-care system with preventable cases of RSV, flu and covid. “If we learned nothing else from the pandemic, public health credibility is everything in how people will take your recommendations,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Clinicians need clearer guidance on how to space the shots and explain the risks of co-administering them, he said. The updated covid booster, designed for the XBB lineage of the coronavirus that became dominant this year, marks the shift from a staggered release of boosters to an annual vaccination for all age groups, similar to the fall flu vaccine. Officials say this approach would ease confusion about which Americans should be getting boosted and when. But that plan has also drawn criticism because the coronavirus can surge in spring and summer, when immunity from a fall booster has waned, and evolve into versions a fall booster was not designed to target. That scenario is happening now as infections increase with a new subvariant — EG.5 — on the rise, and seniors and immunocompromised people weigh whether to get a second booster shot designed for the long-gone BA.5 subvariant or wait for the new one. Some Biden administration officials have questioned whether approval for the updated covid boosters could have been expedited given the recent uptick in covid cases, according to three people with direct knowledge of internal conversations. Covid-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits have increased for the first time since the public health emergency ended in May. Pfizer, one of the booster manufacturers, had said in June it could have begun distributing its updated booster by the end of July if regulators approved. But neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Food and Drug Administration have acted yet. The FDA is expected to sign off on the updated covid boosters by mid-September, according to officials familiar with the plan. The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel is expected to meet shortly thereafter to recommend who should get the shots — probably everyone 6 months and older. Babies under 6 months are assumed to have antibodies passed along from their mothers. CDC Director Mandy Cohen has said the vaccines should be available for most people by the third or fourth week of September. This will also be the first time the federal government is not buying all the coronavirus vaccines and distributing them free. A federal program to provide free shots to uninsured people at pharmacies probably won’t launch until mid-October, the CDC has said. While it will be free to consumers with health insurance, doctor’s offices and other vaccine administrators will be on the financial hook for securing them and hoping there’s enough demand to get reimbursed. Demand for coronavirus vaccination has declined since they first became available, with fewer than 1 in 5 Americans receiving the last booster. .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbigski Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 Eris seems like a squib. I d much rather have the sniffles than risk myocarditis, glioblastoma, clotting issues, or straight up sudden death. Mithras 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 That didn't take long. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/08/25/covid-19-school-districs-have-suspended-in-person-learning/70675048007/ Quote Three school districts in the country have cancelled in-person learning this week as local officials report drastic drops in student and teacher attendance attributed to COVID-19 and other illnesses. .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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