Dr. Klotman focuses on Influenza this week with just a passing nod to Covid. I read an item earlier this week that noted that the CDC estimates that 94% of Americans have now been infected by one of the SARS-CoV-2 viral strains. Becoming infected doesn’t mean that one gets ill – especially if one has been vaccinated. Infections among the vaccinated can be minimally symptomatic or entirely asymptomatic.
Because the majority of Americans has been vaccinated if not also boosted, most Covid infections requiring hospitalization are now occurring among individuals who are vaccinated but who have some underlying vulnerability to the illness (think a weakened immune system.) So, we can no longer call this a pandemic of the unvaccinated – for what little that matters.
I’m still wearing a mask when I go to the store or any other enclosed space where strangers are thrown together by circumstance or need. The same mask offers some protection from both Influenza and RSV.