The New York Times released an update on a poll it has conducted on several occasions with Morning Consult. In the poll done six months ago, 47 percent of adults who described themselves as "very liberal" said that covid was a "great risk" to their personal health and well-being, a share significantly larger than those expressed by conservatives, moderates, or liberals of the not-very variety. Some 45 percent of liberals under the age of 45 thought the same despite the fact that covid has had more effect on people older than 45. According to a new poll, that 47 percent is now down to 34 percent, a drop larger than that of any of the other six ideological self-identifications. In terms of mask-wearing 28 percent of all adults said that they always wear a mask in public as do 44 percent of "very liberal" people. In the conservative end, 18 percent of "very conservative" and 16 percent of "conservatives" reported wearing masks. I do like this tweet from a "progressive activist": "The inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I'm a conservative."
The FDA this morning authorized the reformulation of coronavirus boosters. Pfizer's was authorized for people aged 12 and older; Moderna's, for people aged 18 and older. The CDC still needs to approve; that is expected to happen this week. People could be getting this third, for some, booster as early as next week. It's recommended that a person who got their second booster less than two months ago wait until that time passes before getting the third.
An Israeli study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations and deaths in older people but made no difference for people under the age of 65 and at high risk for severe covid. At the same time, a not-yet-peer-reviewed study in Hong Kong did report benefits for patients between the ages of 50 and 64, while Massachusetts General Brigham health system reported that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations among patients aged 50 to 64 and was of particular benefit to unvaccinated people and obese people. It is worth keeping in mind that Pfizer's clinical trials on Paxlovid were conducted in the days of the Delta variant and included only unvaccinated people. The Israeli study was done under the Omicron variant. That study also did not include "rebound" cases.
US life expectancy at birth is down to its lowest level since 1996--76 years. This does not mean that people aged 75 should worry about next year. The 76 is only relevant to people now being born. I'm finding age to be a very interesting concept right now. I think of something from my childhood and then remind myself that I was a child in the 1960s. I saw a Facebook comment today about reacting to a statement of something that happened 30 years ago and thinking 1970s before realizing that 30 years ago was 1992. If we really are only as young--or old--as we feel, some days I'm barely out of my teens. Others, well, let's not go there.
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