The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 361 (861)

I think that the media believe "Yes" is the appropriate answer to the question "Are we there yet?" The earliest mention of covid in The Washington Post was on the third page, in the "Digest" section of short blurbs: "Biden's symptoms continue to improve." The morning news emails came up lacking as did the news websites I checked. Most of the things that were out there were updates on POTUS or cautionary human interest pieces on mask wearing (we should be doing it), pandemic pets, etc. I did find something making the point that getting covid more than once does not raise the risk of long covid, and more research is needed to learn what predisposes someone to long covid. 

There was a New York Times list of headlines that included "What questions do you have about the coronavirus and its variants?" This morning, that was answered by "We are no longer accepting submissions." I guess we're supposed to know everything by now.

On the good side, there isn't much new to report on monkeypox either.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 352 (852)

Monkeypox moment: The demand for monkeypox vaccine exceeds the available supply. We have also had the first confirmed case here in Central Virginia. On the coronavirus front, the wastewater analyses done in Virginia suggest that we are in a post-holiday surge. Or we can hope it's just due to the July 4 holiday and not to the growing prevalence of BA.5. A post-holiday surge would be shorter and, maybe, less worrisome. 

The chronic shortage of registered nurses is worse than it's ever been in some parts of the US. That's causing more and more covid patients to lack nurses to care for them. Or, if the nurses that are in one hospital are busy with covid patients, other patients are doing without. Nursing employment seems to be somewhat cyclical. One year, graduating RNs are easily able to find employment in whatever place they want to live. Other years, graduating RNs take what they can find where they find it. Back at the start of the pandemic, there was mention of applications for nursing and medical schools increasing. Maybe we need to give it another year or two for the nursing students to graduate assuming they went to programs giving a bachelor's in nursing.

China's economy just had the lowest quarter of growth since early in the pandemic; it only grew 0.4 percent. Lockdowns and quarantines in support of zero covid are having a significant effect. Zero covid makes it hard for companies and even small businesses or shops to make investment decisions, buy property, or travel. There is a growing sense of impatience, but the government seems firmly committed to zero covid.

Research on viruses. Good or bad? In mid-2020, researchers catching bats in Laos found coronaviruses very similar to SARS-CoV-2, the one underlying the pandemic. They are experimenting with one in a high-security lab in Paris, letting it evolve and studying how it might jump to humans. So, is this a good thing? We clearly need to know more about viruses, but should research be done on a new one or the one we need to know more about? There's your starting point for a rousing dinnertime discussion.

 

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 348 (848)

I had to hunt diligently for what coronavirus news I could find today. The dearth at least gave me some time to work on a quilt, somewhat calming after a less-than-calm morning. Since there's not that much to write here, I may even get back to that quilt today.

Officially, the US count for new daily cases is around 100,000. Some epidemiologists, however, believe there could be as many as a million new cases each day. Hospitalizations are up 18 percent over two weeks. One expert called the BA.5 subvariant "the worst version of the virus that we've seen." US health officials are "urgently" working on a plan to make second boosters available to all adults. Son #1 is hoping it happens before he flies out of state in late August for a  100-mile race.

Children's physical activity declined by about 20 percent during the pandemic. The researchers looked at rates in all continents but Africa and Antarctica (I'm not sure there are any children there). The decline has been cited as one of the factors responsible for the increase in depression for children and adolescents. In my childhood, we were allowed to play outside on our own, which makes me think our activity would have gone up if schools had suddenly closed and virtual school took less time than in-person school had. The days were different over 50 years ago.

Various Canadian cities or provinces could be entering or already be in a seventh covid wave. Ontario and Quebec are already there, as is British Columbia which happens to be in its third wave of Omicron. Cases are rising there but not as significantly as hospitalizations are. Alberta's case and hospitalization rates are rising as they near that seventh wave. In The Professor's home province of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and North Battleford are nearing a seventh. The COVID-19 Hazard Index uses data on vaccine protection, current caseload and spread, impact on healthcare system, and mortality to compute what danger places are in. Newfoundland and Labrador have the highest ratings, 2.98 out of a maximum of five. 

And that's it from here--no really bad news but also no really good news. 

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 322 (822)

Let's get monkeypox news out of the way first. WHO is renaming it. The current name does not follow WHO naming guidelines that discourage the use of geographic regions or animals. When the new name has been announced, I'll let you know.

The FDA advisory panel voted to authorize Moderna's vaccine for children and teens ages six through 17. The FDA must now officially authorize it and pass the approval process to the CDC advisory panel. The FDA advisers are meeting today regarding vaccines for children ages six months through five years. The full FDA may take this on as soon as Friday. The CDC will be in session Friday and Saturday, opening the door for shots to be available as early as next week. Testing on the vaccines in these age groups was done in the day of the Omicron BA.1 variant, not the later, more transmissible subvariants. 

Canadians no longer need to prove vaccination status for travel within Canada. People entering Canada from the US still need to prove that they've been vaccinated; they no longer need to also show negative test results. All travelers must continue to wear masks on federally regulated transportation. Passengers on cruise ships must also remain masked. Truckers passing in either direction still need proof of vaccination. For comparison, 84 percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated compared with 67 percent of Americans, and 60 percent of Canadians have gotten boosters compared with only 31 percent of Americans.

Not much out there today. I wish I could take that as a good sign, but I don't. I think too many people right now are trying to be all three monkeys at once, covering ears, eyes, and mouths for the full effect.