The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 227 (727)

Since March 2, 2020, the New York Times has been issuing a daily coronavirus briefing. At the time the briefing began, there had been only 100 cases in the US, but over 90,000 globally. Of those, 80,000 were in China. Most of the 3,000 deaths had also been in China. The CDC was advising avoiding all nonessential travel to Italy, China, Iran, South Korea, and Japan. This morning's email announced that the briefing would be moving to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule unless there is "big virus news you need to know about" and that this was part of moving to the "next phase of the pandemic." I was reminded of the Virginia governor's pandemic press conferences that started being held on every weekday, then Monday-Wednesday-Friday, then Tuesday-Thursday, then as needed. The times, they are a-changin'.

Two mayors have been fired in northeastern China, and Shanghai has closed its school system and moved to online instruction. China is moving from a "zero covid" mindset to a "dynamic zero" strategy. Under the new strategy, local outbreaks are tolerated with local officials depended on to control the current outbreak and curtail new cases. The two mayors who were fired obviously did not do this well enough. There are currently cases in 21 of China's 30 provinces.

Queen Elizabeth will skip next week's Commonwealth Day ceremony. That would have been her first major public event in weeks. She did have her first post-covid, in-person meeting this week, with Canada's Justin Trudeau. Prince Charles will represent the Queen at the ceremony, accompanied by his wife. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka William and Kate) will also attend. 

A new checklist of what we know about the BA.2 subvariant suggests it may not be as critical as some thought. What we know includes that it is not really new but has been around at least as long as the BA.1 Omicron variant has. BA.2 does seem to be easier to catch, but it does not seem to be more severe than the original Omicron. BA.2 is not surging in the US and likely will not surge here. Finally, its "stealth" identity is outdated. It can now be identified relatively easily. I want to believe all that, but I'm still waiting for the next covid shoe to drop.

Hong Kong has one of the world's highest fatality rates right now. With morgues full, bodies have been bagged and left in wards with live patients. There is no room at the inn. I am not at all sure how I would feel knowing that the beds next to me were occupied by dead rather than alive bodies. On the other hand, were I sick enough to be in the hospital, I might not be aware enough to realize that.