The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 217 (717)

The war in Ukraine did not bump the coronavirus from POTUS's State of the Union address last night, though covid might otherwise have gotten more attention. POTUS said that the country is "moving forward safely, back to more normal routines" and that "covid-19 need no longer control our lives." He said we must stay on guard so as to be ready if a new variant arises. He specifically used the word "if" almost as if doing so made "when" not likely. I differ with him on that one. There will be new variants probably sooner rather than later. They may not be as deadly or transmissible as Delta or Omicron, but they will be out there.

The glut of undistributed covid tests should get smaller. Starting next week, families can request more free tests--four per household--from covidtest.gov. POTUS also announced a "Test & Treat" program in which someone who tests positive at a drugstore can immediately obtain, free of charge, antiviral treatment pills. I guess you could test at home and, if positive, go to a drugstore for another test and then get the treatment.

The CDC no longer recommends universal case investigation and contact tracing for anything but cases in high-risk settings. Home testing with no required notification of positive results makes it hard to run a formal program. I would like to think that someone who tests positive would do some contact notification on their own, but that may be presumptuous.

Hawaii is moving to loosen restrictions, though an indoor mask mandate will remain in effect. Testing and quarantine requirements have ended as has the requirement that state and county employees show proof of vaccination or negative test results. 

For the men out there, it seems that the coronavirus invades cells in the penis and testicles of rhesus macaques. This may help explain why 10 to 20 percent of covid patients report "male genital tract dysfunction" otherwise known as erectile dysfunction. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, and the study was based on only three monkeys; still, it might be worth investigating further.