The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 347 (847)

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.  

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 250 (750)

Having a good day? Need something to distract you though perhaps not in a good way? I'll start with the last item I found before taking The Family Dog for her afternoon walk, a walk that took longer than usual because of the number of Nice Day Drills she did. A Nice Day Drill is when the dog lies down the better to savor the breeze or other weather.

A new covid variant has been found in England and China. It's being called XE in England and Voc/Omicron variant BA.1.1 in China. It's a recombinant form of BA.1 and BA.2 and unidentified in previously found strains worldwide. There are 637 cases so far in England. The early growth rates are not significantly different from BA.2. There's not much data so far, but some suggest that the growth rate of the new variant could be 9.8 percent above that of BA.2. So far, though, there haven't been enough cases to draw conclusions about transmissibility, severity, or vaccine effectiveness. When that information does come out, I'll let you in on it.

China is sending 2,000 military medics and 10,000 medical workers to Shanghai, where there have been over 60,000 cases in the last month. There were 9,000 on Monday alone. Those numbers may not seem large when compared to some other cities, but in zero-covid China, they're humongous. Taiwan, meanwhile, is relaxing restrictions in the middle of an outbreak. They've shortened the quarantine period for people testing positive or in close contact. Borders are still open only to international business travelers, though. 

The top groups hit hard by the pandemic are older people, residents of nursing homes, and diabetics. The last group accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all covid deaths. Diabetes impairs the immune system but also has risky underlying conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity. Diabetics in ICUs are more apt to be intubated and more apt to die. Thirteen percent of American adults have diabetes, offering the coronavirus a nontrivial number of potential patients.

The UK has expanded their list of covid symptoms from three to a dozen. The three that were (and remain) on the list are fever, new and persistent cough, and loss of or change in taste or smell. The nine new ones are shortness of breath, feeling tired or exhausted, aching body, headache, sore throat, blocked or runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and feeling or being sick. I don't know about you, but those sound quite general to me. They do come with the note that "the symptoms are very similar to symptoms of other illnesses, such as colds and flu." The lead scientist of the Zoe Covid-19 symptoms tracker app adds, "Pity they have the order wrong, but it's a start and could help reduce infection." 

Maybe it's not a bad thing that a new variant may be cropping up just as restrictions are being relaxed en masse. It's a reminder of why we had those restrictions in the first place and may need them again. And it makes me feel better about that second booster shot on Friday.