The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 146 (646)

Omicron is a debutante, two weeks ago making an appearance in one percent of new covid cases in the US. One week ago, she was up to 13 percent. She has now come out in all her glory, making her appearance in 73 percent of all new cases in the US, a six-fold increase in one week. She accounts for over 95 percent of the new cases in parts of the Northwest and Southeast. According to a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, "All of us have a date with Omicron. If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life. Omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated." 

POTUS will address the nation this afternoon, laying out his plan for dealing with the menacing Omicron wave. The plan includes sending the military to help hospitals; deploying ventilators as needed; invoking wartime production to produce covid tests; sending free tests to people starting next month; and opening more vaccination centers. This will help in two of the three areas said by one expert to be the major shortcomings of the US in this pandemic. I would hope but not necessarily expect more vaccination centers to help with the sorry state of boosters in this country. Though 73 percent of Americans have gotten at least one vaccine dose, less than 20 percent have gotten the full course plus a booster. Producing more covid tests would help with the incredible shortage we're currently experiencing. People who want to take a rapid test before a gathering or before seeing an elderly relative can't find one. POTUS's plan does not address our other big shortcoming which is the slow rate at which anti-viral treatments are being evaluated by the FDA. Most people are being as flexible as possible with covid-related matters, but the FDA does not seem to be flexible in their evaluation and approval timing. 

Several European countries report growing instances of fake covid passes and vaccination certificates. They have detected over 180,000 since summer. France has around 400 investigations ongoing into networks suspected of providing fake passes, including some connected to health professional. Where there is money, there is a way.

POTUS spent about 30 minutes in the company of an official who later tested positive for covid. POTUS is already tested on a regular basis, though I expect tests are going to be even more frequent for a while. The official was fully vaccinated and had gotten a booster shot. Omicron is going where omicron wants to go; we're going to have to get used to that.

A couple of observations I find worth thinking about. From an ICU nurse: "The surge feels worse than ever before, and the patients are sicker."  From Dr. Fauci: "It's not going to be eradication, and it's likely not going to be elimination. It's going to be a low, low, low level of infection that really doesn't interfere with our way of life, our economy, our ability to move around in society, our ability to do things in closed indoor spaces." And, finally, from the WHO head: "An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled." I guess that, put together, those mean that while we may have descended from bad to worse, we will at some point in time slow covid down enough that we can live with it similar to influenza; in the meantime, though, we need to be realistic about how we get to that live-with-it stage. 

The voices from the backseat ... Are we there yet, Mom? From the front seat, weary of answering no, we're not, a deep sigh.