Dr. Klotman’s Week 285 video address available here. My summary and commentary follows.

COVID

  • Test positivity, ER visits, and COVID hospitalizations are all up. COVID deaths are beginning to trend upward as well
  • The XFG strain now accounts for 50%+ of the COVID found in airport wastewater and 78% of the COVID in USA wastewater
  • The NB.1.8.1 strain now accounts for ~14% of USA wastewater COVID
  • The reason that we aren’t seeing the horrible COVID death rates that we saw during the pandemic years is because 60% of Americans have some immunity – conferred by prior non-lethal infection or by vaccination
  • Because immunity, regardless of how it is acquired, fades with time and because the virus keeps mutating, we should not become complacent regarding our vulnerability to this virus
  • In Texas, the most populous urban counties have the highest rate of COVID cases – Harris, Bexar, and Tarrant lead the way
  • This year’s Fall surge of COVID is coming in a bit later than in the prior four years
  • This Fall surge is occurring in worldwide – particularly Brazil, the UK, Romania, and Greece

West Nile Virus (WNV)

  • WNV is the most common mosquito-borne viral illness
  • 80% of individuals who contract West Nile from an infected mosquito do not develop symptoms
  • The 20% who do, experience generalized viral symptoms (fever, headache, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea or rash) within a week of infection
  • About 6-7% will go on to develop neuro-invasive disease with encephalitis and possibly death
  • There is neither a vaccine nor an anti-viral for West Nile virus
  • The best approach is prevention by avoiding mosquito bites
  • In the USA, the WNV season stretches from July through September coinciding with the life cycle of Culex mosquitos
  • This year, the number of WNV cases is quite low

My Commentary

The anti-science, anti-vaccine ideology in government continues to be a matter of concern to most of us in the health professions – nurses, doctors, pharmacists, practitioners and researchers of all stripes. HHS is under assault by its own director, and the ranks of senior scientists in the CDC and NIH have been thinned to the point that most meaningful research and public health information services are seriously threatened. The Florida Surgeon General has announced his intention to press the state’s government to eliminate all vaccine mandates. Maybe sex education will be eliminated from educational curricula, and Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine will be made OTC medications. We’re talking about Florida, after all.

We are living in a period during which science and knowledge are vilified while conspiracies and ignorance are celebrated. I am happy that I am 76yo and soon no longer for a world in which much of what I love is being trampled under the feet of the MAGA faithful.

Oh, and even though you didn’t ask, neither Ivermectin nor Hydroxychloroquine nor coffee colonics are effective against WNV infection.

By: llcPosted on