Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 201 address on COVID and related matters. The highlights remind me of that tense if somewhat humorous scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex is in pursuit of a jeep with Jeff Goldbloom looking into the passenger side mirror that says, “Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.” And so, it is with the COVID statistics now – fewer hospitalizations, lower wastewater viral loads, etc. The highlights are:
- COVID hospitalizations are declining
- The leading COVID subvariant is JN.1 – now 80-90% of cases
- The current COVID vaccine reduces the risk of severe disease by 50-60%
- Paxlovid is not being used as often as it could be to prevent severe COVID
- ER visits for Flu-like illness are falling – the leading Flu strains are H1N1 and H2N3
- RSV A&B cases are decreasing
- Vaccine hesitancy in Europe has caused a wave of Measles cases, hospitalizations and childhood deaths. Alas!
All of this is good news, of course, but we shouldn’t take it for granted (as Maverick tells his Dagger team in Top Gun: Maverick.) When I go to the store these days, the rate of mask wearing is less than 5% – perhaps two or three percent. I try to go to the store early when younger folks are at work and the kids are in school. This limits my exposure to healthy people who might be sick with COVID and still out in public because they feel well. Color me jaded.
With regard to lower rates of vaccine uptake, we should observe that this becomes an issue whenever a society’s healthcare infrastructure becomes overwhelmed – by a pandemic, by war, or any other cause. So, I am concerned that childhood vaccination rates in Gaza, Ukraine, and other conflict zones will set up conditions for epidemics of vaccine-preventable illnesses. Merde!