"JN.1 and its descendants continue to dominate both in the U.S. and globally. Hospitalizations and Emergency Department visits continue to decline, although national levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater are still “HIGH”, mostly related to high levels in some southern states. Walgreen’s map of COVID positivity shows that there is a plateau or a decrease this week in virus positivity in many U.S. states. Mike Hoerger’s modeling shows that there are still about 650,000 new COVID cases each day in the United States and he expects this to decline to about 350,000 new cases daily by March 25, 2024. His data shows that the US, Canada and the UK are “following a similar pattern, though Canada and the U.K. appear to have peaked earlier, and are likely seeing earlier declines in transmission.”
"The CDC’s new recommendations
"On Friday afternoon, the CDC changed their isolation recommendations for COVID stating that if someone is COVID positive, but they do not have a fever and their symptoms (if they had them) are improving, they no longer need to isolate from others. This goes against what we know about COVID infections. Being positive on a rapid antigen home test for COVID means that the viral load is high enough that the person is contagious to others. The CDC said that for “simplicity”, they put COVID into the same category as the flu or RSV. But, COVID is not the flu.
"The CDC said in their new recommendation that “Due to the effectiveness of protective tools and high degree of population immunity, there are now fewer hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19.” Hospitalizations and deaths from COVID are lower than earlier in the pandemic, but we see from the CDC’s curve below that COVID infections still cause significantly more hospitalizations and deaths than the flu or RSV.
"Hospitalizations and deaths are not the only consequences of a COVID infection. The CDC admitted that “Although COVID-19 is becoming more similar to influenza and RSV in terms of hospitalizations and death over time, important differences remain, like the potential for these post-infection conditions” including Long COVID and other chronic diseases. Each new reinfection with COVID increases the risk for Long COVID, an awful, disabling disease for which there are no treatments. In the year after a COVID infection, there are increased risks of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes (both Type I and Type II diabetes) and many other debilitating diseases. A study this week shows that each COVID infection can cause people to lose IQ points representing cognitive decline.
"We do not know the long term effects of repeated COVID infections on children. We do know that asymptomatic children who had prior COVID infections have been found to have SARS-CoV-2 virus lingering in their tonsils. Long COVID may affect fewer children than adults, but children can get Long COVID. What will happen to children who get COVID infections over and over again because the Center for Disease Control and Protection is no longer controlling or protecting children and adults from potentially disabling, chronic disease?
"A new article this week shows that babies infected with SARS-CoV-2 are developmentally delayed when tested as toddlers at 18 to 24 months of age. Children under 6 months of age are not able to get a COVID vaccine. Without COVID testing or isolation, siblings may give a young infant COVID which could affect their development long term.
"In their recommendations this week, the CDC also said, “Protective tools, like vaccines and treatments, that decrease risk of COVID-19 disease (particularly severe disease) are now widely available.” Vaccines only work if you actually get them. Only 22% of adults got the XBB.1.5 updated COVID vaccine so far this year. The CDC also wrote about their decision to stop isolation, “There is a high degree of population immunity against COVID-19. More than 98% of the U.S. population now has some degree of protective immunity against COVID-19 from vaccination, prior infection, or both.” A new study this week shows that "protection [against COVID infection] wanes rapidly and is entirely lost one year after the previous infection...The findings support considerable immune evasion by JN.1." The CDC is giving people a false sense of protection.
"Two Marriage and Family Therapist trainees named Olivia Belknap and Erin Batali made an amazing presentation on “What therapists (MFTs) need to know about COVID and Long COVID”.
Their presentation is important for many people to read, not just
therapists, as they dove into the research on many pertinent topics
including what is COVID, COVID’s impact on the brain and the body,
social justice concerns, clinical implications and resources. Here is
one of their slides on misconceptions and truths about COVID
Seniors
"Two days before the CDC changed isolation guidelines for COVID, they recommended that older adults age 65+ should get a spring COVID booster
with the XBB.1.5 COVID vaccine. They discussed that every year there
has been a COVID wave in the winter peaking in January and another in
the summer peaking in August. Seniors should get the new booster four months after their last vaccine dose if they got one, or at least three months after a COVID infection. The CDC recommends that immunocompromised people may need additional booster doses as well.
Long COVID and the Brain
"There were two important studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine this week on COVID and the brain. The first looked at 112,964 adults in England who underwent online cognitive testing. People who had an acute COVID infection but no Long COVID, had a small decrease in cognitive function. People with Long COVID had the largest cognitive defects in memory, reasoning, and executive function.
"This study measured IQ points lost (cognitive deficit) as compared to uninfected controls and found:
3 IQ points loss for mild COVID infection, resolved
6 IQ points loss for Long COVID (symptoms not resolved)
9 IQ points loss for severe COVID with ICU stay
Additional 2 IQ points loss for COVID reinfection
"COVID is bad for the brain."
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That chart above of COVID misconceptions and truth should be made into handouts to be distributed at every school, workplace, doctor's office, and hospital.
The CDC is gaslighting us. COVID is NOT like the flu at all. I hope intelligent people will trust their instincts and realize that they are risking their health if they continue to disregard COVID mitigations.
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