It’s still here, folks |

Are you like me- tired of hearing folks saying the pandemic is over?

Wishful thinking never makes something true.

OK- the pandemic has eased. It’s not longer the apocalypse. Although, those 1 million Americans who perished over the past two years- and their children, parents, and loved ones would probably argue that it hasn’t been an apocalypse.

(Hmm. Australia, another English speaking democracy, had but 10% of our death rate. Why? They believe in science and health care [76% compared to our 34%] and they trust in one another [94% compared to our 41%]. Thank you Tucker Carlson and his ilk.)

The problem- and the opportunity- is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating. And, instead of creating more virulent (that means a virus that is more harmful or produces a severe effect) species, it’s creating a far more transmissible but milder disease.

Oh, wait. Let’s get back to that “milder disease” later.

The problem is that this more transmissible variant (BA.2.12.1, 25% more transmissible than the highly transmissive BA.2 variant [which was 30% more transmissible than the original virus]) is taking its toll. Daily incidences are approaching 100,000 or higher already. (That level has been broached four times in the past month). And, that census of new cases exceeds the rate of incidence during the first summer of the pandemic (Summer 2020). Moreover, with the mild incidence and private testing, we can bet that count is much lower than is truly occurring.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the best guesstimate is that 60% of us have been infected by the virus- either the original or its variants.

(The really good news- even these highly transmissible variants do not find it as easy to infect humans as the ultra-transmissible measles is- YET!)

The problem is, however, that this virus poses way more of a problem than a cold- or even the flu. (We’re now back to that “milder virus concept.) I’ve already informed you that those infected with COVID-19 are 46% more likely to succumb to Type 2 diabetes. That’s a pretty big side effect.

And, then, there’s long-term-COVID- that still manifests with these less virulent variants. That means brain fog, extreme shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia- obviously, nothing any one of us hopes to experience.

And, now, we run into problems. How prevalent is this long term COVID? Does it manifest in 0.5% of the cases? 30%? Or, is the occasionally bandied about 10% figure the most likely?

Oops. I forgot to add another fact. Those are the rates of incidence for those who have never completed their course of inoculations. Those who have been inoculated seem to experience a 40% drop in the rate of long-term-COVID development. If we believe one of the more complete studies (Drs. Michael A Simon, and Richard Parker (Aracadia.io) and Ryan D Luginbuhl (MITRE)) of 240,648 patients, that means long-term-COVID incidence from 17% (which also is3% for those fully inoculated).

While we do have a treatment protocol for those just infected with COVID (the first 5 days post symptoms/positive results), we have nary a clue what to do about long-term-COVID.

This is why I still wear my mask indoors- at the grocery store, at the drug store, at the post office, even at the clinics that I frequent (way too frequently, I might add.) And, I’ve upped the air handling rate of my home- running fans and air conditioners (with cleaned filters) at high speeds to ensure that the virus has less chance to remain airborne in my home.

If you think I am overreacting, then consider this. You do recall that the FDA just pulled the blanket approval for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, right? Why? Because there have been 60 cases of blood clotting associated with the vaccine- and nine deaths. Hmm. That’s out of 19 million doses of the vaccine. So, we can’t take the vaccine because there is a 1/300000^th chance we’d develop blood clots or 1 in 2 million chance of death.

But, long-term-COVID has at least a 10% incidence for those who develop the disease, and that’s OK. Yeah, right.