This is Week 134 of Dr. Klotman’s COVID Updates. This update focuses on what is likely to occur this Winter. COVID activity in Europe is in an upswing suggesting that they are on the leading edge of another wave. The virus continues to mutate, and natural selection favors those variants that can escape the immunity that prior infection and/or vaccination can confer.
Influenza has been severe in Australia during their winter, and that suggests that our Flu season will likely be severe as well.
My unsolicited recommendation for my 70+ yo contemporaries are:
- Get your Flu shot for older adults
- Get your bivalent COVID booster
- Wear a mask in enclosed spaces you must share with individuals whose vaccination status you do not know
A Medscape article that I read yesterday reported on a large survey of Americans regarding COVID behaviors. More than 40% admitted that they had lied about one or more COVID-related facts including: their vaccination status, their adherence to strict isolation measures, about their COVID test results, and related matters.
This is not very surprising. There is a survey-related response bias called Social Desirability Bias – the tendency of people to respond to questions in a way that casts them in the best light. If you ask a group of people who is a safe driver, all the hands go up – even the hands of people with terrible driving records. So it goes.
I got my age appropriate Flu shot, my Covid booster shot, I’m not currently wearing a mask but I know I should.