The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 443 (943)

There were seven election officials working yesterday afternoon. Five of us wore masks. As one female voter entered, she asked if she had to wear a mask. I politely said, no, masks were optional. She removed her mask and noted that anyone wearing a mask must be immuno-compromised, which she wasn't. I handed her a pen and directed her to an electronic poll-book for check-in. I bet I know for which party she voted.

News items I've found almost seem like bookends to the pandemic: new, worrisome variants and long covid. The couple of posts written by people suffering from long covid were frightening. My Aussie friend is very slowly getting better but still has good days and bad ones. One of the good days may tire her out and be followed by a bad day. She is happy that the brain fog and constant headache have eased up.

On the variant front, Omicron's BA.5 is still the dominant variant in the US, but BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now make up over 10 percent of new cases, around 20 percent in New York and New Jersey. Those states are also seeing a rise in hospitalizations and nursing home infections. BA.4.6 makes up 12.2 percent of cases in the US but will soon be passed by the BQ pair on their way to overtake BA.5. Dr. Fauci offers, "When you get variants like that, you look at when their rate of increase is as a relative proportion of the variants, and this has a pretty troublesome doubling time." He also notes, "As much as you want to feel good about the fact that cases are down, hospitalizations are down, we don't want to declare victory too prematurely. And that's the reason why we've got to keep an eye out on these emerging variants." BQ.1 variants are also outpacing other variants in places. England and Germany already have BQ.1 surges building. 

The BQ.1.1 variant poses an added danger in that it seems to be able to elude important monoclonal antibodies, cutting the number of treatments possible. Because BQ.1.1 evolved out of BA.5, the bivalent vaccines may offer some protection. Still, only seven percent of eligible Americans have gotten that booster. I actually wonder from time to time if it will still be offered around the end of the year when I will be looking to get it. 

Aside from BA.5 fading and BQ.1.1 gaining steam, the XBB variant is surging in Singapore. Its wave may be higher than the BA.5 wave was. Singapore is among the best-vaccinated countries in the world. Around 90 percent of people have gotten the basic two doses of vaccine, and around 78 percent have gotten some boosters. In other words, they're about as vaccinated as a country can be, and they still have an active wave building. My mask isn't coming off anytime soon; that's for sure.