www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.772700/full
FYI
Wine KILLS Covid!!
I think it was Ben Franklin who said that “Wine is proof the God loves us and wants us to be happy”
Stay safe and be well.
AC
www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.772700/full
FYI
Wine KILLS Covid!!
I think it was Ben Franklin who said that “Wine is proof the God loves us and wants us to be happy”
Stay safe and be well.
AC
The Omicron variant, the one now raging throughout the world, the most infectious variant to date, has now given rise to 3 new variants of its own. Present in significant numbers in a few countries like Denmark and India, at least one of those sub-lineages is even MORE contagious than its predecessor, Omicron. Why they have not given them their own designations with a Greek letter is not clear. Probably to avoid confusing the already bewildered and stressed out public. It’s obviously still very early for definitive information, but so far, despite its greater contagiousness, it does not appear to result in more hospitalizations. Not yet, anyway.
Despite a sense out there that Omicron is less severe and that in some areas, infections and hospitalizations may be trending downward, that may just be smoke and mirrors. It’s all about the numbers. And they are high.
As some areas in the US are having declining numbers of infections, many others have yet to hit their peak. In addition, complicated by a healthcare workforce down 20% because of their own infections, hospitals are packed. In my own facility, elective surgeries have been curtailed once again to leave room in the hospital for Covid patients. Wait times in the ER are in excess of 10 hours. The numbers of hospitalizations nationally are higher than during the peak last winter!
Complicating the accuracy of the numbers is the availability of home tests. The numbers of infected are vastly underestimated since those positive home tests don’t get reported. In some ways this is good, because it means that the number of hospitalizations relative to infections is significantly lower than last year.
That having been said, this last week, the US averaged 2400 deaths a day, making it the second deadliest surge since the pandemic began. What’s worse about that is that the deadliest surge occurred when vaccines were not even available for the mass population yet. Covid is the leading cause of death in the US, surpassing cardiovascular deaths (1900/day) and cancer (1650/day).
Pandemic of the unvaccinated? It depends on what you are talking about. If you are looking at just infections, both groups are affected, although vaccinated people still get infected, they do so at half the rate of unvaccinated people. If you are talking about hospitalization and death, the risks of dying from Covid are 20x higher if you are not vaccinated. Even more significantly, if you are boosted, AKA fully vaccinated by today’s standards, your risk of getting infected at all is 4x less and the risk of death is 97x less than that of unvaccinated people. There is no treatment in all of medicine which boasts such protection! And after almost 10 billion doses worldwide, its safety profile is robust. It IS safe. If you are going to argue that you don’t know what the long term side effects of it are, then you have no business asking for monoclonal antibodies or antivirals when you are sick and in the hospital, since those drugs are brand new, newer than the vaccine, and we don’t known the long-term side effects of those drugs either!
Sadly, we lag behind 60 other countries when it comes to the percentage of fully vaccinated people! The rankings are even worse when you take into account those who should get the booster.
As far as relying on getting one of those newer Covid treatment medications if you get sick, which by the way I think are also amazing, good luck getting them if you really need them. You first of all need a positive PCR test. You either pay $225 for one of those, at least that’s the going rate in our area, or get in line and maybe you’ll get one. After that, you need to find somewhere they are available and those places still have to have them in stock. Don’t count on them!
Count on not getting sick by vaccinating and following practical protection measures.
PLEASE get vaccinated, and if you are 6 months out, get boosted. If you were unfortunate enough to have gotten sick, get boosted also. It’s the best combination.
MASK up. They work, assuming you are wearing a good one, properly.
DISTANCE and VENTILATE
HYGIENE. Flu is also still out there, along with all the other seasonal viruses.
GET HEALTHY!
I will be off for a few days next week and will be off line.
Have a great weekend.
Stay safe and be well.
AC