The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 439 (939)

"We can no longer guarantee the safety of our patients." These are not exactly the words one wants to hear or read about a medical facility. They are supposedly the words put out by a clinic in Munich, Germany, after half the medical staff went out with covid. Germany just hosted Oktoberfest, where covid was likely a chaser to beer, an Autumn superspreader, not unlike the coming Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Years. I just ordered more rapid antigen tests, hoping, of course, that I eventually have to discard them as too far out of date. The covid situation here typically follows that in Europe by several weeks. I figured we should be ready. Another reason is the increase of covid in wastewater analyses. Covid was up 3.1 percent over the past week in Boston, and up nearly 100 percent over the past two weeks.

Here's a troubling statistic. While 40 percent of Americans got the first covid booster, only four percent have gotten the latest, bivalent booster. Interestingly, I have spoken with three people yesterday and today who have been trying to find somewhere locally that they can get the booster. The usual drugstore or grocery store pharmacies have not gotten it yet, got it labelled as expired, or just don't answer the phone. I hope that explains some of the low percentage, but I doubt even 40 percent of Americans would line up for shots were they readily available. 

There is a growing body of evidence linking SARS CoV-2 with maternal complications. Pre-eclampsia rates have increased during the pandemic. And while fertility appears unaffected, the vaccine appears to cause a slight, temporary change in menstrual cycles. It seems that the placenta after a miscarriage or stillbirth, appears radically different if the mother suffers from covid. Most of the women who miscarry with covid are in their second trimester, unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, and were infected with covid within two weeks before the miscarriage. Interestingly, cases of stillbirth or miscarriage somewhat disappeared with the arrival of Omicron. 

China is seeing its largest surge of cases in one month as daily counts have more than doubled in the past week. Just as Oktoberfest likely contributed to the surge of cases in Germany, China's week-long National Day holiday began on October 1. The concern now is whether the surges will move into Beijing before the party congress starts on October 16.

Don't blame Bill Gates for covid, but the pandemic has given new life to personal computers. The pandemic has seen a 20 percent monthly increase in the use of Windows. While Windows remains dominant, Apple also gained significant ground. Chrome OS is also growing, especially in educational settings. 

Finally, three in five Americans said that they either misled others about an infection or vaccination status or did not follow public health guidelines. Out of a sample of 1,733 people, 41.6 percent said they had either misrepresented and/or not adhered to at least one of nine public health items. Also, 24.3 percent said that they had been taking more precautions that they really were; 22.5 percent admitted having broken quarantine; 21 percent had avoided testing when they had or thought they had covid; and 20.4 percent said they had not mentioned having had or possibly having had covid during a screening at a doctor's office. Being adherent or truthful increased with age. I'll give a big "Doh!" to the finding that misrepresentation or non-adherence was more commonplace among those with a greater distrust of science. No relation was seen between misrepresentation or adherence and gender identity, political affiliation, attitude toward vaccination, race or ethnicity, education level, or wearing a mask in stores.  When asked where they had gotten their information about the coronavirus, 62 percent cited medical personnel, 53 percent cited the CDC, 51 percent cited the local health department, 7 percent cited a certain population, and 5 percent cited a certain celebrity. I wonder if they counted the former President as a celebrity.