The CDC has dropped its universal masking recommendation for healthcare settings with the exception of areas with high covid transmission or other special circumstances. Currently, 70 percent of the country is at high transmission levels. Testing patients pre-procedure or pre-admission is at the discretion of each facility. The Local University's hospital is still requiring masks to enter any area; I'll have to see if that changes in the next couple of days. Both the city and the surrounding county are at low transmission levels according to the CDC website.
We may be heading toward a "twindemic" of coronavirus and influenza. The coronavirus mitigation measures taken in the last three years mean that people in general may be more susceptible to this year's mix of flu variants having not encountered flu recently. I hope the people out there who are avoiding coronavirus vaccines will at least get a flu shot.
In the course of the coronavirus, the US has been about a month behind the UK in terms of what things develop when. Alpha, Delta, Omicron, and Omicron's subvariants appeared in the UK before appearing here. We will have to hope that the fall covid wave apparently now starting in the UK is not driven by a new variant, though there is a possibility that it could easily be driven by another Omicron offshoot such as BA.2.75.2 or BQ.1.1. The seven-day average number of new cases in England and Wales rose by 13 percent in one week. The seven-day average of hospitalizations rose 17 percent. Some experts here are saying any US wave will be lessened by the fact that most of the population has some underlying immunity from vaccination and/or infection. We can only hope.
I'm reading more articles that advise waiting four to six months after a bout of covid or a non-bivalent vaccination before getting the bivalent vaccination. That suggests I should wait until late January at the earliest. As long as whatever immunity I got from my case of covid lasts long enough to help me stave off a second infection, I'm with that advice. I can certainly do without another two weeks on the couch. To help avoid that, from infection or long covid, I am being very cautious about just how much activity I let myself do. Pre-covid, I was walking several miles a day wearing 20 pounds in a weight vest plus doing 30 minutes of general aerobics. I'm still walking a couple of miles in the company of The Family Dog, without the weight vest and any added aerobics. after That's probably going to be my limit for a while.
2 comments:
I understood that the UK's current spike is being driven by the 11-18 age range, they went back to school at the beginning of the month.
I have a sibling and spouse who caught Covid a week or so after getting the bivalent vaccine. Fairly mild case for both. As for when to get the bivalent myself, I'll ask my doctor if she has any guidance on that; will still wait until the new year in any case.
Post a Comment