Covid has never been over. As of August 26, 2024, the U.S. is grappling with an alarming surge in COVID-19 infections, with a record-breaking 1.2 million new cases reported each day.
1 in 41 people is currently infected.
This surge marks a dramatic escalation compared to previous years. The current wave is more intense than those experienced in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 4 of the pandemic.
August, 2024 LA Times:
"Each new infection also carries the risk of long COVID — in which symptoms, sometimes severe enough to be debilitating, can emerge, persist, resolve and reemerge over a period of weeks, months or years."
We will never get this vaccine.
"The [live-attenuated intranasal] vaccine offers potent protection against transmission, prevents reinfection and the spread of the virus, while also reducing the generation of new variants."
I tested positive for covid on August 12th.
I'm still symptomatic (cough, recurring fevers). In addition, I have two new rashes, a very bloody UTI, kidney injury, and liver injury.
My POTS and EDS are worse.
This was my first covid. And I'm immunocompromised.
From reporter Jason Mast: “3 yrs ago, the Biden Administration announced a $3.2B plan to build antivirals for Covid and whatever pandemic nature might throw at us next
Most of the plan was never enacted. And what was built — 9 antiviral centers — may soon be dismantled”
“Mark Zuckerberg alleged that Facebook was “pressured” by the US government to censor content related to Covid-19 during the global pandemic and that he regrets the company’s decision to accede to the demands.
‘In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire’,”
COVID virus evolves more rapidly in the CNS
New viral variants created in the brain & other parts of the nervous system could also travel back to the lungs, where they could become transmissible. That could spread new, dangerous variants of the virus.
Interview with @franhaddock_ who has Severe ME and Long COVID on BBC Sheffield (6 mins)
Interview is about being 98% bedbound and the new report on the prevalence of Long COVID and the inequalities it has highlighted. Also mentions #MECFS
Excellent essay on wearing masks and why it is important:
“How long are you going to wear a mask?”
“We didn’t mask before Covid so we aren’t going to now!”
These are two of the most common refrains covid aware people hear. They suggest that the pandemic is over & that precautions no longer make sense.
They’re wrong 🧵 /1
U.S. COVID-19 Infection Risk 10.7 Times Higher Than in 2020
📢 Recent PMC Model analyses reveal that Americans are now 10.7 times more likely to contract COVID-19 compared to August 22, 2020, highlighting a significant increase in infection rates.
“The COVID-19 pandemic took that from me. Actually, that’s not quite right. It was the perceived “end” of the pandemic that really ruined my teaching career. I am immunocompromised and rely on medication to manage an autoimmune disease. This means vaccine protection from the virus is probably less effective for me than for most people. Also, my particular illness – Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease – has been shown to put me at significantly greater risk than most for long COVID: a potentially chronic condition that can be very debilitating. And despite how it may seem, COVID circulates widely much of the year: We are still in a pandemic.”
“Covid disabled me, took away my entire life. Reinfection made me a lot sicker, twice. Experts warn about reinfection and covid isn't gone.
Yet nobody who comes to visit me masks or tests or even asks me what precaution they should take.”
Understatement: “…getting multiple Covid infections increases the chance of short- and long-term effects on the body, including the heart and lungs. So, even if we can’t totally eliminate our risk of catching it, it’s still worth trying to dodge Covid as best we can.”
