Like viral meningitis (been through that twice and still having issues almost 20 years later, compounded by already complex neurological issues [genetic and a TBI]).
The thought of long Covid plus that other shit still has me totally sequestered and avoiding any contact.
Fun times, eh?
Yeah.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says we share the same goal to make the virus not a constant crisis, but any guidance changes to come will only be based on data and science. (AP, Feb. 16)
Uh huh.
So it looks like the next variant after Omicron might be Omicron 2.
On February 3, Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut (SSI) reported that BA.2 accounted for 69 percent of new COVID cases and was expected to account for up to 100 percent of new cases by the middle of this month.
On the bright side, in Denmark:
… while the number of “incidental” COVID-positive hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths has increased in tandem with the ongoing surge, the number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths due to COVID itself has remained flat …
Whatever model they’re using to get that 73% seems wrong. I know of three superspreader events locally where everyone was fully vaccinated and boosted and almost everyone got breakthrough Omicron.
“It looks like we might be looking at a new Greek letter here,” agreed Deborah Fuller, a virologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who reviewed the study but was not part of the research.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html
Nice correlation between BA2 infections, hospitalization and deaths in Denmark (and they speed up things by removing restrictions).
From the chart, it looks like they removed restrictions so recently that it’s too early to judge what effects it may have had.
But it is already interesting to see how the death rate is going up even though according the Danish government Covid is over
Deaths trail cases, and Omicron caused a huge spike in cases. The ICU stats going down is good news (for now).
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping a close eye on BA.2, said its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, emphasizing the preliminary nature of this new research.
“There is no evidence that the BA.2 lineage is more severe than the BA.1 lineage. CDC continues to monitor variants that are circulating both domestically and internationally,” she said Friday. “We will continue to monitor emerging data on disease severity in humans and findings from papers like this conducted in laboratory settings.”
Uh huh.
Sometimes, especially lately, it seems like the usage of the terms “liberal” and “conservative” have flipped. Is keeping a mask mandate in LA a more liberal, or a more conservative government action? It seems to be the latter, really. Similarly, with other legislation aimed at trying to have CA “lead the way” to save the world with more and more regulations, are those moves more “liberal” or more “conservative”. Things seem upside down.
Strictly speaking, there’s no evidence that BA is more severe, only a preprint of a lab study that found it may be as severe as Delta.
BA.2 … which is growing at almost 10 per cent a day, is expected to become dominant in the Republic by the end of the month … It is already dominant in Northern Ireland …
You might want to read more about the definition of liberal and conservative
I have, because it seems the lines have been blurred of late. So I looked it up.
The political meanings may differ from the common meanings, but I think of a “conservative” action as being “cautiously moderate” (as the dictionary puts it). And a “liberal” one more like “favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties” (also right out of the dictionary).
I consider myself a “liberal”, politically, but what the heck? Isn’t LA holding back on un-masking a conservative thing for them to do? Generally, being “conservative” about something means being careful, cautious, and taking it slow. Being “liberal” means being prepared to jump right in if something seems like a good idea and something that can and should be done.
I’m not a historian or a political scientist, but…
At least since the 1980s, AFAIK, “conservative” and “liberal” in a political context have never meant what they did outside of that. “Conservatives” have always backed de-regulation, while liberals generally have sought more social equality and cultural change specifically through legislation.
The more recent change (over the past 15 yrs or so) has been the more explicit alignment of economic conservatives and religious conservatives.
So being more cautious about mask wearing is completely consistent w/ being political liberal, IMHO.
But, yes, terminology does flip historically. Abe Lincoln was a Republican, right? And “Southern Democrats” used to be a thing. And neo-liberalism, w/o a context is a really confusing term (Neoliberalism - Wikipedia).
For now, I’m not particularly concerned about BA.2, and I doubt it’ll get its own Greek letter. But at the same time, I’ve become increasingly cynical about what comes out of the CDC.
