So where do we stand right now in terms of covid? Some hospitals are touting that they have no covid patients in their ICUs. Deaths are around 360 daily. That's nice, but it's still above the lowest point since March 2020, 228 daily in July 2021. Cases now run around 109,000 daily compared with 20,000 daily a year ago. That 109,000 is a serious undercounting given the current use of home tests. One influence on all the numbers is immunity. An Associated Press story this morning reported, "As many as eight out of 10 people in the US have been infected at least once, according to one influential model." Some experts say that built-up immunity from vaccines or infections puts the current covid death rate "solidly" in range of the typical flu season, though there is yet no seasonal pattern similar to that of influenza. Cautions exist, though, as an infectious disease specialist at Baylor notes, "We thought we understood it until these new subvariants emerged." He says it would be wise to assume a new variant is coming later in the summer and that there will be a fall-to-winter wave as people move back indoors.
Some sources are saying that the fall-to-winter wave could also include influenza. The restrictions during the last couple of years have helped people lose some of their natural immunity to flu. Some experts are saying that people over the age of 65 should get covid and flu shots at the same time.
As I read all the above information, my perhaps-having-read-too-much-science-fiction-as-a-youth mind asked what might happen if the many people with long covid are incubating new variants. Those variants are why the people are still having covid symptoms. I do not at all think this is happening, but I thought I'd share one of my flights of fancy.
Another public service announcement in support of covid vaccinations: Based on data from April, unvaccinated people have a six times higher risk of dying from covid compared with people with at least the basic vaccination. As they used to say on (if I remember correctly) Hill Street Blues, be careful out there.
Poor Elon Musk. Covid lockdowns in China are behind second-quarter drops in production and sales for Tesla. Sales dropped 18 percent, while production fell 15 percent.
Another, possibly more troubling, quickie. I have no details ... yet ... but it appears that an Omicron BA.2.75 subvariant has been found in India and is spreading.
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Here the flu vaccination programme has reverted back to the pre-pandemic criteria so the 50-64 year olds that were offered a free jab last year will have to arrange their own and pay for it this year. Last year some clinics were doing covid in one are and flu in the other but it depended how old you were. My cohort would only get the flu vaccine after everyone else (if stocks lasted) so it was separate arms for us, months apart.
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