The people who railed at mask mandates and the other mitigation measures used here in the US should be glad they don't live in China. The daily count of cases in Beijing is dropping, and is now at the lowest since mid-March. Still, the restrictions there are being tightened, not loosened. Schools are closed indefinitely, and many of the city's office workers are working from home. Shanghai has essentially been locked down since April 1. There, it only took one positive test for all the residents of an apartment building to be sent to a quarantine camp. It had been just the floor on which the person testing positive resided, but that, too, has been tightened. Sort of puts mask mandates in perspective, eh?
As one school year draws to a close, people are already looking forward to the next one. Both the mayor of New York City and the governor of the state of New York say that they support making vaccination required for public school students. It likely won't happen, though. The FDA has yet to grant full approval for a vaccine for children under the age of 16. The vaccine also seems not to work as well in children under the age of 12. Right now, there are striking differences in vaccination rates between groups of students--ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status. Trying to get around all those would not be easy.
Attention is being given to what's been termed "Paxlovid rebound," a resurgence of covid seen after finishing the five-day course of Paxlovid. The latest "name" to suffer from this seems to be Stephen Colbert. Pfizer, maker of Paxlovid, says this happens in only 0,005 percent or less of cases. They also note that in clinical trials, two percent of patients had a rebound infection regardless of whether they were in the Paxlovid or placebo group. Some experts suggest starting a second five-day course of Paxlovid when the rebound infection starts, especially for high-risk patients such as immunocompromised patients. Unfortunately, there is no real data that says the second course works.
POTUS is holding a covid-19 summit of world leaders on Thursday. The call from other world leaders for additional global aid from the US is likely not to be answered. There was talk of working such aid into a bill for military aid to Ukraine, but its presence would slow approval of the military aid needed as soon as possible.
Who are the latest "names" to test positive? Try Presidential aide Susan Rice and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. More are coming, I am sure.
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