The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 253 (753)endemic in the US by

I was pleasantly surprised to see the results of a recent poll showing that 59 percent of the respondents thought "people should continue to wear masks in some public places." Most Americans say that the way they conduct their lives is still affected somewhat by the pandemic. Forty-two percent say that they are now doing some but not all of the activities that they did before the pandemic. On the flip side, 17 percent say they are doing very few. The other 40 percent say that they have basically returned to normal (27 percent) or never changed their activities (14 percent). I won't go in to how these relate to political party affiliation or governmental philosophy.

Thinking about the concept of returning to normal, it's really not clear what endemic covid might look like. The basic definition of "endemic" is that the disease has a constant, predictable, or expected presence; it is a disease that persists. Some endemic diseases infect millions and kill hundreds of thousands. Some can be treated and vaccinated against. An endemic disease is by no means harmless. Endemic diseases must be watched carefully; they could become epidemic again. Malaria is considered endemic. The common cold and influenza are endemic with seasonal epidemics. The mitigation measures we took against covid also protected us from colds and flu. HIV is endemic in the US but epidemic in some subpopulations. "Endemic" has nothing to do with an "end." Living with and managing a disease that has not been or cannot be stamped out is all about control. There is general agreement that covid cannot be eradicated; an endemic state could be a yearly Omicron-like wave of cases or even deaths. That's the "predictable" or "expected" part of the definition above. We know it's coming and we know when.

Covid cases are rising in half the states even as the nationwide total is falling. New York, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia show increases above five percent, led by New York's seven percent. Idaho, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas are down over five percent, led by Arkansas's 18 percent, 

There are a couple of interesting--at least to me--new research findings being reported. A publication in the British Medical Journal shows a five-fold increase in the risk of deep vein thrombosis and a 33-fold increase in the risk of potentially fatal blood clots in a lung in the 30 days after becoming infected. This puts the small risk of clots associated with vaccines in a new light.

Preliminary work to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology reports a "inflammatory signature: in people having brain fog 10 months after they had covid. These people show high levels of two inflammatory markers--c-reactive protein and serum amyloid--and an overstimulated immune system. It may be triggered by ongoing vascular injury and repair. There was brief mention that these neurological or immune responses seem to happen more often in people who had mild cases of covid. I can't help but wonder if those cases were mild because the immune system shifted into overdrive but then couldn't slow down after the checkered flag.

The next three days are going to be busy ones. I may just be reporting on one or two things I read first thing in the morning. The quilt guild to which I belong is having its biennial show this weekend; tomorrow is setup day, with the show the next two days. On Saturday evening, I'll bake the German chocolate cake for Sunday's joint birthday celebration for The Professor and Son #2. I expect fun will be had and there will be laughter.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 28

The husband, older son, and I took the family dog to the park this morning. Once again, we were the only people there wearing masks. We passed two churches, one large and one small, on our way to and from the park. Neither had a single car in its parking lot which was a good thing. The governor here did not give any dispensation to churches for in-person Easter services. Within the subdivision, I saw no evidence of any planned Easter egg hunts. I didn't see any Easter baskets on porches either. The Easter bunny did visit our house, though, and left me a small bag of candy corn. It was the only candy in the house, so the bunny had to make do with it.

I sent an email last night expressing interest in participating in a planned NIH research study. They're looking for people who have not had any form of the new coronavirus. The aim is to quantify undetected cases of coronavirus infections. Specific details don't sound too bad. Participants will have a virtual clinic visit, complete a health assessment, and provide basic demographic information. Acceptance to participate means they want blood, which can be drawn at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, or by yourself in the privacy of your own home. I had my email ready to send when the husband decided he'd also like to volunteer. Of course, he couldn't send his own, separate email expressing interest; I had to edit my email to include him. I figure it's doing my part to help out in the quest for knowledge. I'm not making any masks, but I'll give NIH my blood.

While The Washington Post's front page is again all pandemic all the time, the local paper, The Daily Progress, has a non-pandemic lead story. For several years, the saga of the local Confederate monuments has been debated, a debate that turned violent on August 12, 2017. State law prohibited localities from removing war monuments; whether statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were war memorials or monuments to the culture of the early 1900s here was open to debate. The bill signed by the governor gives localities the ability to remove or alter Confederate monuments. That doesn't mean the ones here are gone, but it definitely makes that possible.

I must say that it was nice to read about something other than the coronavirus, even if it wasn't necessarily a feel-good story. The coronavirus is running enough of my life right now; it doesn't have to have total control. And in the spirit of not letting it run my life, I think I'll get back to work on my quilt.