I just posted about this morning and here you go. It’s worse than I appreciated.
PLEASE get your kids vaccinated.
ac
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I just posted about this morning and here you go. It’s worse than I appreciated.
PLEASE get your kids vaccinated.
ac
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Hello everyone.
It’s been a little longer than normal since my last post for a few reasons.
First, there has not been a dramatic amount of news regarding infectious diseases in the last few weeks but secondly, I had a bit of an accident during the ski trip with my brother and father I was describing in my last post.
After 52 years of doing some pretty amazing and, some might say risky things on skis, I had a relatively uneventful fall resulting in a pretty nasty femur (upper leg) fracture. There are a lot of other factors contributing to the complexity of the accident, such as the temperature being -25 and being on a remote part of a mountain in British Columbia, so let’s just say that I am very grateful to be alive without any brain or neurological issues. I am still not weight bearing (8 weeks minimum) and my torn up quad muscle hurts like heck but I am slowly improving. Recovery will be long and slow, but I will recover.
I had numerous angels looking out for me that day, and since. I have a lot of people to be grateful for, like my brother who was with me and essentially saved my life and my wonderful wife who has been caring for me in my recovery. I have an amazing staff and partners who have helped me transition back to seeing patients, albeit on a reduced schedule. I had a great surgeon in British Columbia who patched me back together (I now have a lot of new hardware in my leg). The list goes on. I have been very touched by all the wellwishers, which included many patients who had much more complex and serious medical issues to deal with than me.
I was told both by my operating surgeon and my local orthopedic doctor that If I want, I will be skiing in a year. I have flashbacks to the accident when I just see commercials for the Pocono mountains locally so I have a hard time imagining skiing. We’ll see. I just want to get back to walking, running and taking care of people!
Back to Covid.
The good news is that in North America and most of Europe and some Asian countries, test positivity, hospitalization and deaths continue to drop, albeit by only small amounts.
However, there are still some places where this is not the case. In Japan for example, hospitalizations are 4x higher than they were in November. Latin American countries are also having steady increases. This again supports the fact that Covid is NOT a seasonal infection.
Deaths in the US are down 7% from the previous weeks. But still, Covid remains the 7th leading killer and over 2000 people died in the US last week.
That makes 24 straight weeks of weekly deaths over 1000 and 4 straight weeks over 2000. Each of these deaths is someone’s father, mother, brother, child… And all these deaths were potentially preventable.
Presently, JN1 is the global dominant variant, accounting for 98.6% of all cases reported and tested. However, there is growing concern about the South African variant BA 2.87.1, which has many new mutations. However it continues to remain at low levels and there is less concern about it blossoming and taking over.
The latest JN1 variant, JN1.23 has recently surfaced. It has a number of mutations in the spike protein which would give it improved binding to the ACE-2 receptor on the surface of various cells. It has been detected on 3 continents already, but information is just starting to surface so it is not clear what role it will play in the weeks to come.
The CDC has now adopted the California and Oregon policies regarding post Covid isolation. They no longer recommend even isolating for 5 days with Covid. They now state that you should isolate until you no longer have symptoms or are fever free, without medications, for at least one day. Although masks are recommended for a full 10 days, these recommendations are very loose, suggesting only wearing them around “at risk” people. These recommendations are absolutely not based on science, just wishful thinking. It is based on what these governmental bodies feel that people will be able to or are willing to follow.
What is based on science is:
These CDC and state recommendations are based on what those governmental bodies perceive as a “realistic harm reduction strategy”. Most people have few, if any sick days. Most people are not willing to isolate themselves for 5, let alone 10 days. Most people don’t even bother testing. Most people will not wear a mask, sick or not.
The FDA continues to approach Covid as a seasonal disease, trying to combine it with the flu vaccine making only an annual vaccine. There is nothing that supports this idea. As mentioned above, just look at the southern hemisphere, where it is summer, particularly Latin America, where Covid surges are occurring. This is not a seasonal disease. This again is a recommendation based on what people are perhaps willing to do, not on what they should do. Unlike the flu, which is truly seasonal, vaccination against Covid should not be a seasonal vaccine and should be administered twice a year. Is this strategy better than nothing? Probably, but being willing to accept an imperfect policy so that some people may be protected, is pretty sad, but that is modern life.
Vaccination rates remain low and there is virtually no masking or distancing going on out there. A few hospital systems have re-instituted mandatory masking but the vast majority of the masks worn, even by hospital staff, are surgical masks, which are not useless (some argue that they are), but they are certainly significantly less effective than N95 masks.
Lastly, the WHO has come out with a warning about a possible worldwide measles outbreak. With decreased childhood vaccinations against this disease, along with mumps and rubella, the MMR vaccine, there has definitely been an increase in cases in the last few years. It may be hitting a critical level worldwide however. If you are a parent or grandparent, please insist on your kids getting vaccinated.
I urge everyone to get vaccinated or boosted against Covid if it has been more than 6 months since your last infection or booster. It is still the most effective way to reduce the risk of getting sick, or of getting really sick, or of developing long-haul symptoms.
Also, if you have any medical issues and have not received the flu vaccine, it is still not too late. Remember that the flu season extends into April. For most others, it is probably fine to skip this year at this point.
If you are sick, with Covid or some other infection, be mindful of not only those at risk around you, but everyone around you. The burden of disease is a societal problem, not an individual one.
Have a great weekend.
Stay Safe and Be Well.
AC