"This week, March 11 marked four years since the WHO declared a global pandemic for COVID. Remember the run on toilet paper and cleaning supplies? We have come a long way since then, but COVID is still a serious disease.
"JN.1 and its descendants still make up most COVID cases now. Emergency department visits are down more than 21% this week and hospitalizations are down 13.6% from the week prior. The CDC’s wastewater monitoring shows that the entire United States is down to a “MODERATE” level of wastewater SARS-CoV-2 virus now. We see from Sara Anne Willette’s analysis that Tennessee’s wastewater SARS-CoV-2 levels are extremely high, followed by high levels in Kansas, Virginia and Georgia. Here in the Bay Area, levels have come down in most places to a moderate level.
"According to JP Weiland’s March 15th update, COVID infections continue to decrease significantly to “Medium” levels in most places and he calculates that about 1 in every 77 people is currently infected reflecting 430,000 new COVID infections each day in the United States.
Variants
"New variant BA.2.87.1 was found in South Africa and Asia, but it does not have the ability to outcompete dominant variant JN.1. In the future, it may or may not pick up mutations, but for now it does not appear to be a threat.
"There is a new variant called KP.2 that is JN.1 with an additional “FLiRT” (F456L and R346T) mutation in its spike protein that is growing exponentially in some places. According to Mike Honey, “Globally, KP.2 is showing a very strong growth advantage of 14% per day (101% per week)” over JN.1 and other Pirola (BA.2.86) descendants. He predicts that KP.2 could take over as the dominant variant sometime in late March. I am interested to see if the 2023-2024 XBB.1.5 vaccine will protect against KP.2 as it does against JN.1. Some seniors are waiting to get their next booster of the XBB.1.5 COVID vaccine, but it may be wise to get the booster sooner if future studies show that it protects against KP.2.
"JP Weiland posted yesterday regarding the evolution of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants. He said “What we've seen over the past 2 years is an evolutionary pattern of big saltations (a new variant appears with many new mutations all at once) , then a lot of quick convergent evolution to optimize the new variant. I can't think of another virus that has a similar trend. Usually they have stepwise mutations.”
Acute COVID infections, General COVID info
"With the fourth anniversary of COVID being announced as a global pandemic, some authors have written summary articles of what we have learned over the last 4 years of the COVID pandemic. In a post titled “Covid, 4 years on”, Eric Topol MD looked at partisan gaps in COVID death rates, the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the fact that vaccines protect not only against COVID infections, but also against blood clots, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes in the post-acute phase of the disease (see below). He also reflected on his disappointment with the CDC's March 1st recommendations that tell COVID positive people that they can return to work if they have no fever and have improving symptoms. I wholeheartedly agree that it makes no sense for people with COVID to return to work before they are negative on a rapid antigen test.
"COVID infection is known to increase the risk of heart attack, strokes, blood clots and other cardiovascular complications acutely and in the long term. Looking at 10 million vaccinated people vs. 10 million unvaccinated people from the UK, Spain, Estonia, vaccination was found to significantly reduce (by 45–81% in the acute phase and 24-58% in the post-acute phase) the risk of blood clots and cardiac events including heart attack, heart failure and stroke. “If you are vaccinated, your risk of having post-Covid cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications is reduced quite dramatically,” Prieto-Alhambra said.
"Yesterday, March 15th, was Long COVID Awareness Day. People from the Long COVID community posted photos of themselves before and after they got Long COVID. In Australia, people with Long COVID had a Long COVID Awareness lay down in front of Parliament House in Melbourne. People gathered together in many other countries as well. The CN Tower in Canada and the Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow sculptures in Scotland were lit with teal, gray and black representing Long COVID’s ribbon. In the tricolored Long COVID ribbon, teal represents hope and support, gray represents loss and grief, and black loneliness and isolation.
"In honor of Long COVID Awareness Day, the CDC posted a message with a photo of able bodied people standing and hugging on a beach looking at the sun with their backs turned to the viewer. Some Long COVID folks on Twitter said that the picture reflected the CDC turning their backs on people with Long COVID. They also commented that people with Long COVID are not represented by this stock photo as they are at home in bed, too weak to walk on a sandy beach and they wear eye masks because light from the sun hurts their eyes and heads.
"On Long COVID Awareness Day, Queensland, Australia’s Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said that the term "Long COVID" is harmful and that long term post-COVID viral symptoms are no different than the flu and other respiratory illnesses."
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These Long COVID-deniers make me so angry! The term "Long COVID" isn't harmful -- it's the disease of Long COVID that is!
I can remember when these LC sufferers, looking for support online early in the pandemic, referred to themselves as Long Haulers and tried to make sense of their symptoms, since they were not believed by doctors. Here it is, 4 years later, and they are still not believed.
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