Eric Topol is a physician and scientist whom I've followed on Twitter during much of the pandemic. I first heard of him when he was a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. He's now at the Scripps Research Institute. He recently started a series of articles under the title Ground Truths. His latest, "The Epidemic of Covid Complacency," is pretty compelling. You should be able to get to it without subscribing, though I'm glad I subscribed and hear when new articles appear. There is no cost to subscribe.
The organizers of the convoys now descended upon the nation's capital are threatening a week of traffic disruptions. Their loose collection of demands includes an end to all pandemic-related restrictions. Given the speed with which localities and states are loosening or removing restrictions, it's not clear to me just how meaningful this demand is. The plan is for vehicles to fill all the traffic lanes of the Capital Beltway and drive at the minimum legal speed twice daily. The drivers are mostly white, middle-aged men. One of the organizers explained yesterday, "We're not anti-vaxxers. We're not. We just want freedom, freedom. We want to choose. We just want the choice. So tomorrow is a basically a show of just how big we are and how serious we are."
In terms of pandemic restrictions, the CDC reports that over 90 percent of the US is now at low or medium risk, meaning requirements for masks and other precautions can be loosened. Still, only 65 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. Some physicians and public health officials are worried people as well as public leaders will think the pandemic is over. These experts caution that we need to prepare for another variant which could be more transmissible. They advise that we continue investing in masks, tests, ventilation, vaccination, wastewater monitoring, and other response measures. Above all, we need to expect the unexpected and not prepare for the best-case scenario.
China is facing its biggest covid outbreak since the early days of the pandemic. There were over 800 new cases over the weekend, almost as many as there were in the previous week. Cases in 17 of 31 provinces are really testing the nation's zero covid policy. The policy has changed somewhat from trying to lock down entire cities to locking down residential districts or work sectors. People coming in from Hong Kong, which is battling its own surge, are being required to quarantine for two weeks.
New York City public schools are mask-optional as of today for all students ages five and older. Four-year-olds in preschool and kindergarten must still wear masks. One problem is that vaccination rates are not consistent across schools and districts. Teachers are not thrilled with the program and want to make sure that in-school and take-home testing continues. I liked the description offered by a fifth grader: "It feels like Covid is kind of over, even though it is not. It feels like everyone just kind of gave up on it." Out of the mouths of babes?
An article in Nature suggests that covid may cause greater loss of grey matter and tissue damage in the brain than naturally occurs. The general implications are not clear; the study was done on people between the ages of 51 and 81. It seems that the shrinkage and tissue damage is primarily in brain areas related to smell. That would be consistent with the number of covid sufferers who report that the sense of smell they lost while having covid never completely returned.
Last but certainly not least, the global death toll is said to have passed six million. That would be the clearly undercounted global death toll.
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