This is week 154 of the COVID Apocalypse, and it looks as if we, as a species, will survive despite the loss of millions of humans. Here is Dr. Klotman’s weekly COVID update.
The quick take is:
- Republican morons in Idaho are proposing to criminalize the administration of COVID m-RNA vaccines. (And here I thought that Florida had the nation’s most stupid people.)
- A new rapid test for COVID and Influenza has been developed, but the company has gone bankrupt. Go figure.
- There is new work on novel protease inhibitors like the agent in Paxlovid to add to the anti-COVID therapeutic arsenal.
- While XBB.1.5 continues to dominate the US COVID scene, the daily new case count, mortality rate, and hospitalizations all seem to be falling. We are still in a pandemic, but it is burning itself out in the US (if and until the next variant shows up).
- Our vaccination rate among children is still pathetic. Unless that improves, children will continue to be a domestic reservoir for COVID, and it will spill over to grandparents who will continue to die of it. Sigh.
- People who become infected with COVID most often develop a natural immunity that is as effective as vaccination in preventing subsequent SEVERE COVID infections. People who have both natural and vaccine immunity fare even better.
Tangentially related news include:
- The US Mpox emergency is ending. Thanks for that. It seems that gay men are smarter than Americans at large. I am not surprised.
- Two new vaccines for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) have been approved by the ACIP (Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices) for use in older adults. I haven’t reviewed the actual reports in the CDC’s MMWR yet. So, I will reserve any further comment until I have had a chance to do so.
I’m still wearing my mask in public, but very few others do. I may start living dangerously soon.