Covid-19 Tracker: Optimistic? – Mission Local
Good morning, Mission, and welcome to Virus Village, your (somewhat) regular Covid-19 data dump.
Hospitalizations are up while recorded infections and positivity rates are slightly down, as is the covid in our toilets. The R Number models are essentially the same as they were last month.
What would a winter solstice be without covid? The virus does what the virus does,
And what the virus does can now be clearly seen in China. Remember “flatten the curve”? Like San Francisco, China apparently did not use the restrictions to buy time to create systems for ongoing control. And this is what they’ve got. They? Do I mean we?
If you scroll through the thread by the notorious “Dr. Doom” you will find a positive sign, the development and production of an inhaled (mucosal) vaccine.
It has been known for some time now that a mucosal vaccine would be a significant improvement over the current batch of vaccines. So will we also see that coming here? It’s not a part of the Biden Administration’s late and inadequate remix of last year’s unpreparedness plan.
Speaking of plans, has anyone received reimbursement for rapid tests from their health insurance provider? I haven’t.
It appears the government is running out of covid funds. Remember last spring before the BA5 surge when Uncle Joe urged cities and states to spend covid relief funds on law enforcement? No new financing for a mucosal vaccine, treatments, or anything else is on the horizon.
Not to worry, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be meeting in January to consider another vaccine tweak. Does this mean a sixth shot in March or April? Why not?
Only this time, the new vaccine, like the Paxlovid treatment, won’t come free.
Not to worry, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures us that if you have the original two-shot regimen, you are “fully vaccinated”. So what if you’ve gotten five shots? There’s some kind of scientific nuance here that I can’t quite grasp (another symptom of “long covid”?).
In case you were wondering, which I’m sure you were, there are over 200 symptoms of “long covid” even though no one knows what “long covid” is.
Though it doesn’t do much for infection, the latest booster comes with impressive data showing increased protection against hospitalization/severe disease for humans as well as mice. Let’s see what it looks like in six months.
If you want to be up to date, the correct terminology for the current surge is a “senior wave,” which means that seniors (65 and older) are getting hit harder by the virus as far as hospitalizations and deaths go. In San Francisco, we don’t know that to be a fact as the authorities consider any demographic information on the hospitalized to be Top Secret!! However, the SF Department of Health has released data showing relatively more SF seniors are getting infected now than last year, so an increased proportion of hospitalization/deaths among seniors could be a possibility.
Not to worry. Although the virus has always held a grudge against Boomers, governments at all levels have pledged to…
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