A bit from The Washington Post: "America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has other ideas." Among those ideas is Omicron subvariant BA.2.75, an evolutionary jump away from Omicron variant BA.2. It has more and different spike mutations than BA.5, eight as opposed to BA.5's three. In other words, immunity from infection with BA.5 may not protect against BA.2.75. BA.2.75 is most prevalent in India but has been identified in other countries including the US. It seems to be showing an exponential increase in the rate of transmission.
The assisted living facility in which My Mom resides is finally giving residents a second covid booster; I dropped her consent form off this morning. It's about time, I say, having had my second booster in early April. The US now ranks 67th in the world for boosters, below such countries as Iran, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. I've read several sources recently touting high-quality, well-fitted masks; physical distancing; air filtration; ventilation; and vaccines as the best protection from BA.5 infections. Mitigation is not an all-or-none proposition. Wearing a high-quality, well-fitted mask is better than doing nothing. Right now, one in three Americans lives in a medium-risk county while one in five lives in a high-risk county. Hospitalizations hit a pandemic low in April and have been steadily rising since then. Of concern is that hospitals could get overwhelmed if a new wave comes too soon.
At least three Chinese cities are now in partial lockdowns, Xi'an, Lanzhou, and Haikou. Macau has again closed all its casinos. All non-essential businesses have been closed, and residents have been told to stay at home unless they need to buy food. There are new cases in Shanghai of a subvariant BA.5.2.1. Enough testing is going on that more lockdowns could be coming.
European Union agencies are recommending a second shot of vaccine for people over the age of 60 as cases and hospitalizations rise. Boosters have been recommended for people over the age of 80 for some time. The European wave is, so far, driven by BA.5. The European Medicines Agency is reviewing data for two adapted vaccines.
Back in the US, Novovax is predicted to get emergency use authorization soon. The government has announced that it will buy 3.2 million doses. Novovax ia a protein-based vaccine that may appeal to people skeptical of mRNA vaccines.
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I'm struggling to find any reference to covid in the news I read. What with politics, the heat and the rising cost of everything there's no space left for what is effectively the same story over and over. My handy guide to real risk is the visiting restrictions at the local teaching hospital, they reintroduced masks for visitors from last week.
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