Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to a hospital Friday, news not made public until Sunday, with "flu-like symptoms." My first thought was, naturally, could those symptoms be covid rather than influenza? The Court knew I would be thinking this (along with millions of other curious people) and had a spokeswoman announce that Thomas's stay in a hospital is not covid-related.
Hong Kong appears to be stopping its zero-covid policy. It's not clear how well it was working given that researchers suggest that almost half the city may have had covid at some point. Residents stranded overseas will soon be able to return from nine countries that previously had worse covid situations than Hong Kong. Not allowing residents to return is evidently known as a "circuit breaker flight ban." Returnees will need a negative PCR test and must still quarantine for seven days, down from 14. To the north of Hong Kong, Shanghai Disneyland will be closed until further notice.
As for lessening restrictions here in the US, Dr. Fauci says we are "clearly going in the right direction" on the pandemic. He cautions, though, that now is "no time at all to declare victory because this virus has fooled us before, and we really must be prepared for the possibility that we might get another variant and we don't want to be caught flatfooted on that." He also says that while retirement is tempting, he will not consider it until the pandemic is over.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been shown to remain durable and effective even in the Omicron surge. In fact, the CDC says that Johnson & Johnson had the lowest breakthrough infection rate of the three principal vaccines since December 25, 2021. Pfizer had the highest breakthrough infection rate, while Moderna was in the middle.
As long as there is covid, there will be long covid. Seven in 10 people reporting long covid say that they have concentration and memory problems. Many under-perform on cognitive tests. Of 181 participants in one study, 78 percent reported having difficulty concentration; 69 percent, brain fog; 68 percent, forgetfulness; and 60 percent, difficulty finding the right word when speaking. Researchers found a cluster of symptoms characterized by fatigue, chest pain, body, pain, headaches, and limb weakness to be predictive of cognitive symptoms and memory-test performance six months later. There are no ways known to prevent long covid. The best protection is to get vaccinated and, if you should get infected, start treatment as soon as possible.
Ten pilots from JetBlue, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines are suing the CDC over the federal transportation mask mandate. The suit alleges that masks are ineffective and "harmful to human health in at least 68 ways." I find that intriguing. At least 68 ways? I could not begin to think of that many health hazards brought on by masks. The only one I found cited in reports on the lawsuit was mask fatigue, "the lack of energy that accompanies and/or follows prolonged wearing of a mask." I can't imagine that a mask interferes with oxygen uptake enough to wear you out, but I've been wrong lots of times before. Maybe I should spend an entire day, save for ingesting nourishment, wearing a mask and see how tired I feel.
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