Here is BCM Dean Paul Klotman’s weekly COVID update. Things are looking a little better, and here in Austin, as in most of Texas, the pandemic has quieted substantially. Still there are Omicron sub-variants circulating and causing new outbreaks along the east coast, northern states and along the west coast too.
The masking situation is confusing enough that it has an ill effect on the public. The mask mandate from the CDC has been rescinded by a federal judge because it is clearly, in her mind, a matter of law rather than a matter of public health. Colleges and Universities are seeing higher numbers of COVID outbreaks, and masking requirements are a hodgepodge of rules that vary from one classroom to the next.
Vaccinating middle- and high school kids is an effective way to stem the spread of COVID (influenza too) among older adults, but we are all too self-absorbed to do it, I think. The Japanese did this with influenza for a number of years – vaccinating school-age kids to protect the old folks. Japan is a gray society, after all.
An estimated 2.5 billion earthlings have been infected by one or more variants of the virus, and the immunity resulting from vaccination, infection or both is probably what is quelling the pandemic at this point. That’s good news, but it is too bad that it has taken 6+ million deaths to get us here. Sigh.