Dr Ruth's COVID news & more newsletter, 6/30/24

Here's the latest information-packed edition of Dr Ruth Ann Crystal's COVID news & more newsletter for June 30, 2024.

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The summer wave of COVID infections has started. As of June 25, 2024, the CDC estimates that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 44 states, declining or likely declining in 1 state (Hawaii), and are stable or uncertain in 5 states and territories.

From https://www.cdc.gov/forecast-outbreak-analytics/about/rt-estimates.html

According to Michael Hoerger, Americans will get 500,000 to 600,000 COVID infections each day which means that 187,000 new people will end up getting Long COVID each week over the summer. COVID transmission in late June 2024 is 2x higher than in June 2023, 3x higher than in June 2020 and 5 to 6x higher than in June 2021. In June 2022, the BA.2 Omicron surge surpassed all prior summers. 

Nationally, SARS-CoV-2 test positivity is up to 8.6%, emergency department visits for COVID and COVID deaths are increasing. Hospitalizations are no longer reported for most places in the US, but those that are reporting show an increase in hospitalizations for COVID. Tests done at Walgreens pharmacies show a total COVID test positivity of 34.1% for the people that choose to be tested.

Regarding wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2, the CDC still reports the national level to be “LOW”, although we see on the chart below that the west coast virus levels are climbing, followed by increases in southern states. As the weather gets hotter, more people will need to go indoors into the air conditioning. Also, many people are traveling. JP Weiland reports that as of June 28, every 1 in 43 people in the West is currently infected and that in the South, every 1 in 76 people has COVID now. In the Midwest, 1 in 136 people are presently infected with COVID and in the Northeast it is 1 in every 189 people.

From: https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-nationaltrend.html

Regarding wastewater levels of COVID, as of 6/27/24, the CDC reports:

• “VERY HIGH” wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2 are seen in Hawaii, Nevada and Utah, followed closely by Florida and New Mexico.

• “HIGH” levels are seen in Missouri, Kansas, Washington state and Maryland, followed by California, Texas, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and Wyoming.

In California, Oceanside San Francisco (1277PMMoV) and Southeast San Francisco (1140 PMMoV) are at the highest SARS-2 wastewater levels, closely followed by Windsor (999). Three of the sewersheds in Santa Clara County are “HIGH” including San Jose which is at 650 PMMoV. Marin county is “MEDIUM”, but with an upwards trend. In Alameda County, Union City was very high at 1096 PMMoV but has now decreased to 428. Oakland is only at 210 PMMoV. In Los Angeles County, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels are fairly low still, but are starting to creep up. L.A.’s wastewater is between 81 and 129 PMMoV.

According to Raj Rajnarayanan, the top circulating lineages in California are KP.2.3, KP.2, KP.3.1, KP.3.3. In New York State, often considered the bellwether state, LB.1.7 and KP.2.3 are the top circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. COVID hospitalizations are "clearly trending up" in New York. Nationally, COVID variants are only being updated every 2 weeks by the CDC which were noted as KP.3, KP.2 and LB.1 last week.

In her June 25 “State of Affairs” newsletter, Katelyn Jetelina summarized what illnesses to watch out for this summer. She discusses the summer COVID wave, norovirus (stomach flu), whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks in Delaware and Kentucky and the UK, heat related illness, tick-borne illnesses, and recent mpox infections seen in DR Congo.

Acute COVID infections

This week, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki tweeted about an article by Lindeboom et al. on immune signatures seen in those people who get COVID infections and those who do not. The Lindeboom group infected 16 unvaccinated volunteers who did not have prior COVID infection with a low dose of SARS-CoV-2. While this is ethically problematic given that any infection can cause Long COVID, it does allow us to understand the human immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Fortunately, none of the participants got Long COVID per Dr. Iwasaki.

Of the 16 unvaccinated people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, “6 had sustained infection, 3 had transient, and 7 had abortive infection at this dose.” People with a sustained infection had a delay in local IFN I release and cellular immune responses. Volunteers who only had transient infections had rapid IFN-I and cellular recruitment into the nose and throat on day 1. Those who did not get COVID infection (had abortive infection) had higher baseline expression of HLA-QA2 mRNA.

From https://x.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1803466022218854467

An article this week describes a breath test for COVID that is very accurate. However, it is not a point of care test. During the Alpha and Delta COVID waves, exhaled breath samples were collected in 1L Tedlar bags and were then brought to a lab where they were analyzed using a novel silicon microreactor and ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS). Carbonyl compounds including 34 ketones and aldehydes were evaluated in breath samples. “The model still achieved 90.1% sensitivity, 98.3% specificity and 94.7% accuracy.”

A new cross-study comparison of two large, open-label studies reports that in 2020, giving Remdesivir for patients hospitalized for COVID infection and low oxygen was associated with a 54% lower mortality than the standard of care.

Pediatric Long COVID

In a retrospective cohort study using EHR data from the RECOVER program, 1,864,637 children and adolescents under age 21 were studied from March 2020 and May 2023. Compared to a non-infected control group, kids and teens with COVID infection had a higher risk of adverse kidney outcomes after COVID infection. Children with kidney disease prior to their COVID infection all had worsening of their kidney disease as well. 

Using levels of salivary biomarkers TOS, ADA2, total proteins, and AOPP in children, a group from Spain made a model that could predict which children had Long COVID and which were healthy controls. The addition of total proteins and ADA1 levels to the four salivary biomarkers above allowed the group to distinguish which kids had mild and which had severe Long COVID.

Vaccines

The CDC has recommended that all Americans aged 6 months and older receive one of the new fall Covid-19 vaccines. This recommendation comes in response to a summer wave of Covid-19, with infections rising in at least 44 states. The upcoming fall mRNA vaccines will be against KP.2 and the Novavax vaccine will be against older variant JN.1.

Children, especially those under 5, are particularly vulnerable to COVID infections. However, only about 14% of children were immunized against Covid-19 last fall. Many people mistakenly believe the virus is harmless to children. Children are also more likely to bring the virus home to their parents and grandparents. "By immunizing all groups, you're more likely to prevent the spread," Dr. Matthew Daley said.

The fall COVID vaccines will be especially important for pregnant individuals, not only to protect themselves, but also to safeguard their babies until they are old enough to be vaccinated at 6 months of age.

A new “megastudy” in Nature magazine shows that COVID vaccination reminders increase the uptake of COVID vaccines by 21%, with an added benefit of increasing flu vaccination by 8%. The study found that offering free-rides to pharmacies did not increase vaccination more than the behaviorally informed text message reminders.

In 2023 to early 2024, the XBB.1.5 mRNA vaccine was 62% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization and 58% effective against emergency department or urgent care visits. Older versions of COVID vaccines did not reduce the risk of COVID hospitalization, regardless of the number of prior doses received. Therefore, it is important to get updated COVID vaccines to continue to be protected. “The combination of waning vaccine-induced immunity and continuous SARS-CoV-2 strain evolution eventually renders prior versions of vaccines ineffective."

Using single-cell analysis of spike protein (S)–specific memory CD4 T cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination, the authors found that the inflammation from COVID infection durably imprinted memory CD4 T cells to be inflammatory. COVID infection primed the T cells to have epigenetic signatures of inflammation, but COVID vaccine primed T cells did not.

Rituxan (Rituximab) is a medication that depletes B cells that make antibodies. Vaccinating people with autoimmune rheumatic diseases before treating them with Rituximab allows them to have a good antibody response to COVID vaccination. If the person already had Rituximab, they will get the best antibody response to COVID vaccination if they wait at least 9 months after their last Rituximab dose to vaccinate. 

Mask Bans

North Carolina passed a mask ban, and although it has an exemption for people who need to mask for health issues, anyone can ask the person to remove their mask at any time for “identification”. Now, several other places are considering mask bans. New York Democrats have created a bill that would ban wearing masks for all “assemblies” greater than 5 people. See my notes below for phone numbers to call to request that they stop this bill. 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced on June 25 that she planned to ban masks at protests. In a twist of irony, Mayor Bass had to move her June 28 meetings to online because she became infected with COVID.

Long COVID

Science magazine reviewed the two recent articles from the Iwasaki group and from the den Dunnen group showing that giving IgG from people with Long COVID to mice caused the mice to get the same Long COVID symptoms. Drs Avindra Nath and Petter Brodin discussed that unlike most autoimmune diseases, there is not one particular autoantibody with the same target in all Long COVID patients. Recent trials show that medications efgartigimod and rituximab that work by decreasing autoantibodies did not improve Long COVID. Dr. Nath is currently studying IVIG for Long COVID.

Long COVID can be very heterogeneous with different phenotypes. Dr den Dunnen proposes using the same mouse study as a biomarker for Long COVID autoimmunity. If you inject a Long COVID patient’s IgG into a mouse and the mouse gets the same symptoms, then that person has the autoantibody-type Long COVID and could be offered a particular clinical trial. 

Dr. Iwasaki believes that Long COVID patients with small fiber neuropathy (SFN) pain may be the ones who most commonly will be found to have autoantibodies leading to their pain. She bases this on a recent study by McAlpine et al. That retrospective case series studied 16 patients with new onset SFN after COVID infection. Ninety-two percent of these patients had post-exertional malaise characteristic of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Nine patients had been tested for autoantibodies and six of them were positive for either trisulfated heparin disaccharide (TS-HDS) or fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) autoantibodies. Eight post-COVID SFN patients were treated with IVIG and had significant clinical improvement in their neuropathic pain symptoms. This study offered preliminary evidence that post-COVID SFN is responsive to treatment with IVIG and linked with neurovascular dysregulation and dysautonomia. 

A group from Stanford looked at differences between males and females and at the “immune correlates of Long COVID development, persistence, and resolution”. During the initial COVID infection, females who would later develop Long COVID showed higher levels of XIST, an RNA gene linked to autoimmune diseases. In contrast, males who would develop Long COVID three months later had significant increases in TGF-β signaling in proliferating NK cells during their acute infection. One year after the initial infection, females displayed higher IL1 signaling in their monocytes.

Both males and females with Long COVID had reduced signaling from monocytes and increased activity of NF-κB transcription factors. In both sexes, those with ongoing Long COVID showed higher levels of LAG3, a marker of exhausted T cells, lower ETS1 transcription factor expression across various lymphocyte types, and increased IL-4 levels within T cell subsets. These findings suggest that changes in ETS1 might lead to an abnormally high Th2-like response in Long COVID patients.

A huge study of 10 million people in South Korea and 12 million people in Japan shows a significant increase of neuropsychiatric issues in Long COVID including Guillain-Barré syndrome, cognitive deficit, insomnia, anxiety disorder, encephalitis, ischemic stroke and mood disorders. COVID vaccination protected against these long term symptoms.  

A study of 1,988 U.S. Military Health System beneficiaries with Long COVID symptoms identified three Long COVID phenotypes that could be identified by risk factors and early post-infection biomarkers. The sensory cluster (loss of smell and/or taste) had all been outpatients with their initial COVID infection and had elevated ICAM-1 concentrations early after their acute COVID infection. People in the fatigue/difficulty thinking cluster had elevated D-dimer and IL-1RA early after their infections, while patients in the difficulty breathing cluster were more likely to have obesity and have been hospitalized with acute COVID infection. 

At Yale, Dr. Harlan Krumholz is working with Dr. Akiko Iwasaki to create a decentralized, national clinical trial that is brought directly to the homes of people with Long COVID. Many people with Long COVID are disabled and would have difficulty traveling to Long COVID clinics. The Yale Long COVID (PAX LC) Trial sends the drug or placebo to the patients' homes. The Long COVID patients can fill out an electronic diary that is uploaded to Yale. Blood and saliva samples are collected either at home or at a lab near their home.

Are we like the proverbial frog in water who is slowly being boiled? A very important article on denial and minimization of uncomfortable things including the long term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection came out in Scientific American. I highly recommend reading it.

H5N1

In Minnesota, heavy rain caused seventeen manure pits from 15 farms in the area to overflow. Flood waters could potentially spread viruses like H5N1 if cattle nearby are infected with H5N1.

H5N1 is an Influenza A virus. Tamiflu (oseltamivir) usually can treat Influenza A viruses, but it turns out that Tamiflu is 16-times less effective against H5N1. So, if someone were infected by H5N1, they probably would need a much higher dose of Tamiflu than is usually prescribed which could potentially have side effects and would require the government to stockpile more medication. 

Finland announced this week that they will offer an H5N1 bird flu vaccine to people who work in high risk jobs.

Other news

This week, Eric Topol, Atul Butte, and colleagues put out a “state-of-the-art” review on using artificial intelligence in cardiovascular disease. 

The Texas abortion ban from 2021 was found to be associated with an increase in infant deaths in the state. "Abortion restrictions may have negative spillover effects on infant health." 

Being exposed to light between 12:30 am and 6 am was found to be associated with an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. “Light exposure at night can disrupt our circadian rhythms, leading to changes in insulin secretion and glucose metabolism,” senior researcher Andrew Phillips.

Anthony Borges was critically injured by gunman Nikolas Cruz in the 2018 Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting. In an unusual civil settlement, Borges now owns the rights to the gunman’s name. The gunman can no longer give any interviews or make money by telling his story without Borges' permission.

56-year-old golfer Frank Bensel Jr. who made back-to-back holes-in-one at the US Senior Open. “No golfer has ever made back-to-back aces in any Tour-sanctioned event on record, according to the PGA Tour Champions.” The odds of making two holes-in-one in a single round are 67 million to one. Congratulations Frank!

Have a good rest of your weekend,

Ruth Ann Crystal MD

P.S. I will be taking off from next week’s newsletter for the 4th of July weekend.

Associate Communications Director of Antisemitism

Here's the Antisemite of the Week from Stop Antisemitism: Tyler Cherry, just promoted by the Biden Administration to the post of Associate Communications Director. It's perfect for him, as he has already communicated some antisemitic remarks.

Who hires these people? Is being an antisemite or a Pro-Hamas supporter now part of the DEI program?

"Tyler Cherry, former Press Secretary in the U.S. Department of the Interior, was recently promoted to the White House’s Associate Communications Director by the Biden Administration. Cherry’s promotion has sparked significant controversy due to resurfaced tweets revealing staunch antisemitic views, raising serious concerns about his suitability for such a prominent and sensitive role.

"During 2014’s “Operating Protective Edge”, Tyler Cherry posted a now-deleted series of posts on X that perpetuated antisemitic ideologies, undue hostility, and libelous conspiracies towards Israel, such as: 

• On July 26, 2014: “Cheersing in bars to ending the occupation of Palestine – no shame and f— your glares #ISupportGaza #FreePalestine.”
• On July 31, 2014: “No words can come close to the ever-increasing disappointment of the US’s omnipotence and complicity in this massacre #FreePalestine.”
• On August 1, 2014: in response to reports by UN Ambassador Power that UNWRA employees were killed during the conflict between Hamas and Israel, he tweeted “…and yet [The United States] continues to let Israeli forces restock their arsenals with US ammunition and weapons…”. 
  

"Adding fuel to the fire, Tyler Cherry has the audacity in 2017 to promote known antisemite Linda Sarsour, posting “The right can’t STAND to see a fierce Muslim woman at the helm of the resistance and thus have to make sh*t up to smear her #IMarchWithLinda.”

"Despite Cherry’s history of antisemitic viewpoints, the White House still chose to promote him to the position of Associate Communications Director.

"When StopAntisemitism pressured the Biden Administration to reverse their decision and dismiss Cherry, the White House shockingly responded with a statement expressing their “pride” in having Cherry on their team.  StopAntisemitism continues to call on the White House and demand they reverse course on Tyler Cherry’s promotion."

We need YOUR help – EMAIL White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt to express your outrage over Cherry’s promotion."

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This is yet another reason to not reelect Joe Biden this November.

Bird Flu Safety Measures

Can you just imagine the anti-maskers' reaction to this article from Forbes? But I'd rather be prepared beforehand rather than be caught by surprise, as with COVID, and this information is very helpful.

Here’s Why COVID Measures Like Masking And New Ones Like Safety Goggles Could Return If A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Declared

Topline

An ongoing bird flu outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus’s deadly nature.

Key Facts

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Forbes it’s monitoring human and animal exposure to H5N1 bird flu and watching the situation carefully, though “the current public health risk is low.”

Although rare, bird flu typically affects humans who’ve come in contact with infected birds, and there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.

The virus may spread from animals to humans through airborne transmission and through contact with infected surfaces, Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University, told Forbes, though the exact transmission process isn’t fully understood.

Former CDC director Robert Redfield—who helped oversee the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic—told NewsNation earlier this month a bird flu pandemic is inevitable, so “it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.”

Redfield brought up bird flu’s high death rate as a cause for concern if a pandemic were to be declared: Of the 889 confirmed human cases between 2003 and May, 52% resulted in death, according to data from the World Health Organization.

WHO defines pandemics as large-scale outbreaks that can claim millions of lives, disrupt societies and devastate economies; it won’t declare a bird flu pandemic until the virus causes several outbreaks in at least one country and spreads to another with high death rates in at least one segment of the population.

Earlier this year, the CDC began including H5N1 in its influenza A wastewater surveillance data in an effort to better monitor the spread of bird flu, but due to limitations, it’s not distinguishable between other influenza A viruses, and testing can’t determine the source of the virus, so it could come from a human, animal or animal byproduct.

What Safety Measures May Be Put In Place If A Bird Flu Pandemic is Declared?

Experts have cautioned that if a bird flu pandemic is declared, safety measures will need to be put in place to mitigate the spread. Dr. Donal Bisanzio, a senior epidemiologist with the nonprofit research institute RTI International, told Forbes methods like masking and social distancing should be the first implemented. “Those are all the kinds of interventions we need to put in place to buy time for the vaccine,” Bisanzio said. Justman told Forbes new methods like protective eyewear may be effective safety measures, especially among farm workers who have daily contact with potentially infectious animals. This is because all three U.S. dairy farmers infected with bird flu had eye-related symptoms, including one with upper respiratory symptoms, like pink eye and irritation, indicating the virus may spread when humans touch or rub their eyes with infected hands. She also pointed to a recent CDC bird flu study that found ferrets—that as mammals have similar respiratory tracts to humans—became infected after eye exposure. Dr. Maciej Boni, an epidemiologist and professor at Temple University, told Forbes he doesn’t think safety measures for a bird flu pandemic will be similar to those put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic because experts don’t know yet how the virus will behave if it mutates and begins transmitting between humans. “H5N1 is not 10 or 20 times more deadly [than normal human influenza] , it’s 1,000 times more deadly,” Boni said. 

Are There Human Bird Flu Vaccines?

There are several FDA-approved bird flu vaccines, including ones made by CSL Seqirus and Biomedical Corporation of Quebec, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. The U.S. has a stockpile of FDA-approved bird flu vaccines, but they’re not enough to vaccinate the entire country. Seqirus said it expects to have 150 million vaccines ready within six months of an announcement of a human bird flu pandemic. “I think the right course of action is to simply premanufacture several 100 million doses of vaccines and just have them ready,” Boni said regarding pandemic preparation. Seqirus also announced in May it was selected by a brand of the Department of Health and Human Services to create almost 5 million doses of its bird flu vaccines as a form of pre-pandemic preparedness. Bisanzio pointed out better communication between public health agencies and the public will be needed for a bird flu vaccine rollout because “there was a lot of misinformation [about the COVID-19 pandemic], and that caused issues with the vaccine rollout, and some people didn’t even want to get a vaccine,” he said.

Key Background

As of May 21, more than 97 million poultry (primarily chickens) in 48 states have been euthanized because of bird flu since 2022, and cases have been confirmed in 118 dairy cow herds across 12 states, according to data from the CDC (unlike chickens, cows appear to recover from the virus). The Department of Agriculture believes wild migratory birds are the original source of the cow outbreaks that recently has experts concerned the virus may mutate and spread more easily in humans. Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist for WHO, called the cattle infections in the U.S. a “huge concern,” urging public health officials to continue closely monitoring the situation “because it may evolve into transmitting in different ways.” Though there’s no evidence a human has contracted bird flu from eating infected meat, the USDA urges people to eat meat prepared at safe temperatures. To be properly cooked, whole beef cuts must be cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, ground meat must be cooked to 160 degrees and poultry must be cooked to 165 degrees. Rare and medium rare steaks fall below this temperature. Properly cooked eggs with an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit kill bacteria and viruses including bird flu, according to the CDC. Consuming unpasteurized dairy products is also advised against.

Further Reading

Bird Flu (H5N1) Explained: Toddler Infected With Another Strain—Second Human Case In India (Forbes)

Just Keep Ignoring Those Terrorist Threats

Can someone please explain to me how Ajelandro Mayorkas remains at the help of the Department of Homeland Security? Because I don't feel secure at all in my homeland, and he and Biden (as well as the "Border Czar, Kamala Harris) have done nothing to change that. Just as the public has been gaslighted into believing that COVID is over, they have also been convinced that we won't be attacked. Many of those people have either forgotten about the events of September 11, or else they no longer care.

If ISIS and Al Qaeda watched the presidential debate and saw Biden's alarming weakness, they must be emboldened to attack sooner rather than later, because nobody is going to prevent an attack from happening.

This is from Politico:

 ‘Urgency’ needed on terrorism threats, ex-CIA official says. “The American public needs to understand what the threat is,” Mike Morell said.

Former CIA deputy director Mike Morell warned Sunday that there is “a lack of sense of urgency” among the Biden administration and Congress to prevent the growing threat of terrorism in the United States.

“There needs to be a sense of urgency about this, and I think the American public needs to understand what the threat is. That’s why we called for a public congressional hearing just on the terrorist threats to the homeland,” Morell told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We need to hear what the administration is doing about this in a broad sense.”

Earlier this month, Morell co-authored a piece titled “The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again” in Foreign Affairs, comparing present national security concerns to the lead-up to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. In the article, he pointed to the potential for attacks on U.S. soil motivated by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s war in Gaza, as well the vulnerability of the southern border.

As a CIA analyst, Morell delivered the President’s Daily Brief to then-President George W. Bush — including on the morning of 9/11. Offering warnings similar to the ones from then-CIA director George Tenet and Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in the period before 9/11, Morell wrote in Foreign Affairs that current FBI director Christopher Wray and other senior officials have now been sounding the alarm.

Morell said Sunday that after publishing the article, the response was “almost universal” from current and former intelligence officers and policymakers, which he said signaled to him that there isn’t enough urgency from the Biden administration in addressing these threats.

He agreed that there is an issue of resources, especially as focus has shifted from counterterrorism to China. While Morell said this was “understandable to some degree,” he acknowledged “there’s a cost to the intelligence we’re collecting.

Morell also referenced a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report from June 7 that expressed a need for the department to improve its screening of asylum-seekers and noncitizens applying for admission into the U.S. Eight men from Tajikistan who were seen as potential terrorism threats were arrested earlier this month in different American cities; reports indicated that they had crossed through the southern border into the country.

“The vetting system, beyond not having the information, the vetting system does not provide all of the information that the government has,” Morell said. “So it’s lack of information, and it is the system itself.”

“There are all sorts of issues here that need to be resolved,” he added.

COVID Is "Low", But Nobody's Reporting

I really can't trust the CDC.  They keep saying levels of COVID are "low", but if they're not tracking the disease any more, how can they -- or we -- even be sure?   The new variants may not be causing more severe disease at the moment, but that can change.  And to compare today's virus to that of 2020, when everyone was dying and there were no vaccines available, is disingenuous.

I will continue to be skeptical and continue to mask up and remain cautious.  They are saying July 4  weekend is the biggest travel day, so you can imagine all the illnesses that will be transmitted back and forth across the country!

CDC: New COVID-19 variant has potential to infect some people more easily 

From The Signal, Santa Clarita Valley, CA. By Jack Phillips, Contributing Writer 

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that a new COVID-19 variant spreading across the United States shows a higher potential to infect certain individuals, although the agency added that there is “no evidence” it causes more severe symptoms. 

"In response to a question about the LB.1 variants’ severity, CDC spokesman David Daigle said that recently discovered variant LB.1 “has the potential to infect some people more easily based on a single deletion in a spike protein.” 

"However, he noted that “there is currently no evidence that LB.1 causes more severe disease” and that “most key COVID-19 indicators are showing low levels of activity nationally, therefore the total number of infections this lineage may be causing is likely low.” 

"Daigle said COVID-19-associated hospitalizations and deaths remain low. 

“CDC will continue to track SARS-CoV-2 variants and is working to better understand the potential impact on public health,” he said. 

"While the CDC spokesman commented on the LB.1 strain, the most recent data provided by the federal health agency shows that the KP.3 variant is dominant across the United States. 

"As of June 22, the KP.3 variant makes up about 33% of COVID-19 cases reported nationwide, while the LB.2 variant makes up about 17.5%. The KP.2 variant, meanwhile, makes up about 20%, according to the CDC. 

"LB.1, KP.2, and KP.3 are all descendants of the earlier JN.1 variant, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. But LB.1 has “an additional mutation,” the group said in an update on Thursday. 

“Taken together, these results suggest that the potential for infection with an emerging variant of Omicron is substantial, even for individuals who have received the most recent COVID-19 vaccine updates,” the organization stated. “It appears that LB.1 and KP.2.3 exhibit higher infectivity and greater immune escape than KP.2 and KP.3.” 

"The organization cautioned that “due to the nature of the rapid emergence of LB.1, these results have not yet been corroborated by real-world epidemiological evidence.” 

"It comes as CDC data shows that 39 states are seeing higher levels of COVID-19 activity as of last week. However, the CDC’s historical trends show that hospitalizations and deaths from the virus are at or around all-time lows since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. 

"Last month, the CDC announced that hospitals are no longer mandated to report COVID-19 hospital admissions, capacity, or related information, while certain graphs and trackers for the virus have disappeared from the health agency’s website. 

“Most key COVID-19 indicators are showing low levels of activity nationally, therefore, the total number of infections this lineage may be causing is likely low,” a CDC spokesperson said in a statement earlier in June. The KP.3 variant is likely to become the “most common lineage” in the United States, the spokesperson said. 

"As for KP. 3, Andy Pekosz, a molecular microbiology professor at Johns Hopkins University, said the newer variant also doesn’t appear to cause more severe symptoms. Antibodies provided through prior infection or vaccines have led to better outcomes in recent months, he said in an interview posted on the university’s website. 

“You are contagious one to two days before you experience symptoms and a few days after symptoms subside. And as with previous variants, some people may have detectable live virus for up to a week after their symptoms begin, and some may experience rebound symptoms,” Pekosz said. 

"An advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in early June that vaccine makers should now target any COVID-19 variants that are derived from JN.1. Those vaccines should be rolled out in the fall of 2024, the officials said."

The COVID Summer Wave Is Here

 A summer wave of Covid-19 has arrived in the US 

(CNN) - Covid-19 levels have been rising in the United States for weeks as new variants drive what’s become an annual summer surge.

Covid-19 surveillance has been scaled back significantly since the US public health emergency ended more than a year ago — individual cases are no longer counted, and severe outcomes are based on representative samples of the population — but the data that is available is showing a consistent upward trend.

Infections are probably growing in at least 38 states, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wastewater surveillance suggests that viral activity is still relatively low, but hospitalizations and deaths are also ticking up.

Covid-19 levels are especially high in the West, where viral levels are back to what they were in February, and in the South, according to the CDC. 

“The virus tends to replicate well and to stay alive in an environment with warm and moist conditions. That fits with what we’re seeing,” said Dr. Robert Hopkins, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, a nonprofit public health organization. “The South and the West are steamy and hot right now.”

The summer bump has become a familiar seasonal pattern, but experts warn that the coronavirus can still be quite unpredictable.

“I think it’s still a bit early to say what the pattern is,” Hopkins said. “A large portion of the population has had some exposure to the virus, the peaks have been a little bit less high, and we have tended to see a summer bump as well as a winter increase. But whether that pattern is going to continue or whether it will become an all-year-round disease or whether it will stay in one particular time — I think it’s a little early to say.”

Data from WastewaterSCAN, a nationwide sewage surveillance network based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, suggests that this summer wave started weeks earlier than last summer’s wave and has reached levels similar to last summer’s peak. 

“It remains to be seen if this will be a peak level for this surge,” said Dr. Marlene Wolfe, assistant professor of environmental health at Emory and program director for WastewaterSCAN.

“We are always trying to unpack what is potential seasonality with Covid and also what are the impacts of new variants that may be coming through that drive these surges that we see more regularly, more frequently than we do for influenza and RSV,” she said.

Over the past few months, the JN.1 virus variant that drove this winter’s surge has been overtaken by newer offshoots. These so-called FLiRT variants — an acronym that refers to the locations of the amino acid mutations that the virus has picked up — have changes in some places that help them evade the body’s immune response and others that help them become more transmissible. Two of them — KP.3 and KP.2 — now account for more than half of the new Covid infections in the US, according to CDC data. 

Expect an updated vaccine this fall

Because of manufacturing timelines, experts have to make predictions now if they want a new vaccine for fall.

Earlier this month, the FDA endorsed a plan to update the Covid-19 shots to be more effective against the JN.1 lineage of the coronavirus. But the agency later updated its own recommendation. Vaccine manufacturers were advised to target the KP.2 strain if possible, in part because of the “recent rise in cases.”

“JN.1 has continued to evolve, and it makes it somewhat difficult to pick the particular specific strain to be used,” Dr. Jerry Weir, director of the Division of Viral Products in the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told an independent advisory committee ahead of the initial recommendation.

The new vaccines — some that will make the switch to target KP.2 — are anticipated to become available between mid-August and late September. That’s enough time to offer protection during the winter respiratory virus season but probably after this summer’s wave has ebbed. 

On Thursday, the CDC recommended that everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated Covid-19 vaccine for the 2024-25 season. The recommendation echoes the vote of that agency’s independent advisory committee.

“It makes sense to do that vaccine at the same time that you’re expecting flu and RSV, because you just want to reduce the overall incidence of disease,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told CNN.

Protection from Covid-19 vaccines wanes, and the timing of the shot prioritizes maximum protection when there have typically been higher and more sustained peaks, Plescia said. Unlike flu and RSV, Covid-19 is constantly circulating; it doesn’t offer a reprieve. 

“You don’t ever get a break,” he said. “We do get a break from flu and RSV. You get through the season, and then you’re done. You can prepare for the next one. [Covid] is just kind of always there.”

Flu and RSV levels now remain low in the US, according to the latest CDC update. But vaccination rates for all three major respiratory viruses lagged during the winter season, and the CDC advisers also looked ahead to the upcoming season with discussions around vaccine coverage recommendations for flu and RSV.

On Wednesday, the CDC updated its recommendations on who should get the RSV vaccine. For the upcoming respiratory virus season, everyone 75 and older is urged to get an RSV vaccine, as well as those ages 60 to 74 who are at higher risk of severe illness.

The changes are meant to “simplify RSV vaccine decision-making for clinicians and the public,” the agency said.

When it comes to infectious respiratory diseases, Plescia said, “people need to remember that there are things you can do to reduce your risk. And getting vaccinated is the main one.”

Melanie Phillips on Jew-Hatred by The West

The driver of Western Jew-hatred; Well-meaning people supporting the Palestinian cause are actually empowering Islamo-Nazis.  - by Melanie Phillips

(June 27, 2024 / JNS)

Jew-hatred in the Diaspora is out of control and escalating.

In Los Angeles last Sunday, a vicious mob swarmed the Adas Torah synagogue and violently assaulted pro-Israel counter-demonstrators and Jewish locals.

With many faces masked by keffiyehs, the mob prevented Jews from entering the synagogue. The attackers used pepper spray and bear spray. Some of their victims required medical treatment.

It took an hour before the police finally pushed back the attackers. Then the mob, chanting calls for “intifada” and the destruction of Israel, moved on to target two smaller synagogues attended by Iranian Jews. Targeting these synagogues showed that the mob’s real agenda was not to attack Israel but to attack Jews. This was not a protest against policy but an antisemitic onslaught against people.

It’s routinely claimed that the violence and intimidation perpetrated by mobs in the name of “Palestine” ever since the Oct. 7 Palestinian Arab pogrom is anti-Israel rather than anti-Jew. This is a demonstrable fiction.

Jews are being actively discriminated against in the literary and cultural worlds with publishers refusing to publish Jewish authors and with the homes of American Jewish museum directors vandalized.

Jews are being picked on by companies such as the firm of British plumbers that refused to work for someone because she had opposed the BDS movement and given “cover to the State of Israel.” And Jews are being personally attacked or abused by individuals or institutions.

In London this week, several students at the Jewish boys’ school Hasmonean were attacked at an underground station. The mother of one of the boys said one was kicked to the ground, another was elbowed and hit his head against a wall, and a third pushed towards the edge of the platform amid shouts of “Get out of the city, Jew!”

At the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, a female doctor was heckled with repeated shouts of “shame” after she said she was Jewish. Around one in 10 policy proposals being put forward at the meeting was removed from the debates on legal grounds because it related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and was said to risk “being perceived as discriminatory, more specifically antisemitic.”

The BMA was accused of becoming a “vehicle for Jew-hatred.” Such is the scale of this bigotry among doctors that some British Jews are now hiding their Jewish identity when admitted to a hospital.

The notion that such unambiguous attacks on Jews are an unfortunate but essentially fringe by-product of the “protests” over “Palestine” is a bad misreading of the situation. What’s been unleashed in the West ever since the Oct. 7 atrocities is an insurrection against the Jews that isn’t marginal to these “pro-Palestine” demonstrations and antisemitic incidents. It’s fundamental.

The alliance between left-wingers and Muslims that’s behind such attacks has been put down to “intersectionality.” This is the doctrine of overlapping victim groups that divides society into victims and oppressors, based on a Marxist view of the powerful and the powerless in which Jews are deemed to be the most powerful of all.

This venomously distorted and paranoid characterization of the Jews makes “intersectionality” itself a prime source of antisemitic bigotry. However, the Palestinian cause that’s promoted not just by these extremist culture warriors but also by the entire “progressive” world is innately anti-Jew.

This is not confined to Hamas. The Palestinian cause itself is based on the aim of exterminating Israel and falsely appropriating historic Jewish identity in the land of Israel as its own. The Palestinian cause writes the Jewish people out of their own history.

That program of cultural extermination is what all who support the Palestinian cause are actually signed up for. They may heatedly deny it. They may believe they are supporting two states existing in harmony side by side. They may claim that most Palestinian Arabs merely want to live peacefully alongside their Israeli neighbors. They may tell themselves there would be peace in the Middle East if it wasn’t for Israel’s “right-wing” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They are delusional. They have not merely contributed to the madness that is now sweeping the Western world; they have sanitized and legitimized it. They have enabled the world to claim that Palestinianism is respectable because it is anti-Israel and not anti-Jew.

This was never true.

The Palestinian Arab agenda targeted Jews from the start. During the Nazi period, the Mufti of Jerusalem—Haj Amin al Husseini, who declared Islamic holy war against the Palestinian Jews—allied with Hitler and pledged that if Germany won the war, the Mufti would exterminate every Jew in the Middle East.

Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, hero-worships al Husseini and teaches Palestinian children that their highest goal is to murder Jews and take their land. The P.A. couches its murderous incitement against Jews in the language of Islamic holy war and Nazi-style demonization.

The Palestinian Arabs are the true heirs to the Nazis. As a consequence, well-meaning people in the West who fondly believe they are supporting Palestinian rights are, in fact, supporting Islamo-Nazis.

Politicians who hand on heart profess their horror at today’s upsurge in antisemitism but push a state of “Palestine” that will have the power to destroy the Jewish state—and who then punish Israel for resisting this—are themselves deeply complicit in fueling Jew-hatred.

President Joe Biden has condemned the mobbing of the Los Angeles synagogue as “appalling,” “unconscionable” and “antisemitic.” Yet his administration does everything it can to prevent Israel from eviscerating the “appalling,” “unconscionable” and “antisemitic” regimes of Hamas and Hezbollah, while also forbidding Israel from striking the head of the genocidal snake in Tehran.

Moreover, not only does America continue to fund the P.A. despite its murderous Jew-hatred, but the Biden administration also continues to promote the Islamo-Nazi entity as the worthy rulers of a post-Gaza war Palestine state.

In Britain, the Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is expected to become prime minister in next week’s general election, has written affectingly about sharing Israel’s current trauma through his wife’s Jewish relatives.

Nevertheless, Labour’s election manifesto suggests, albeit in ambiguous and deniable form, that a Labour government might unilaterally declare a state of Palestine—a supremely hostile act that would greatly imperil Israel’s security still further and is promoted by those who want the Jewish state gone.

In a party election broadcast, Starmer also pledged to London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, that a Labour government would have a “zero tolerance approach” to Islamophobia.

Since “Islamophobia” covers any criticism of the Islamic world, Labour’s policy appears to mean stamping upon any critic of Islam with the force of law, including anyone who dares call out the wildly disproportionate level of Jew-hatred in the Muslim world.

The never-ending war between the Palestinian Arabs and Israel has been created and perpetuated by the West’s behavior in sanitizing, excusing, legitimizing, funding and incentivizing the Islamo-Nazis and their preposterous, mendacious, brain-frying “Palestinian” cause.

In The Wall Street Journal this week, Seth Cropsey, president of the Yorktown Institute and a former U.S. deputy under-secretary of the Navy, wrote that Iran has activated a network of global Islamist sympathizers to ramp up public pressure on Israel as an essential element of its strategy of attrition to destroy the Jewish state.

Tehran’s goal, he wrote, is to get Western politicians to back a ceasefire. “By slowing the conflict down and splitting Israel from the U.S. and its allies, Iran aims to make Israel an international pariah,” he said.

The Palestinian cause has been manipulated by Iran into a wedge issue. It has turned America against Israel, lined up liberals with Islamo-Nazis, and set Jew against Jew. And after Iran finishes with Israel, the West is next.

Palestinianism hasn’t just been used to give a veneer of respectability to Jew-hatred. It is being weaponized against civilization.

Biden's Debate Performance: Not A "Cheap Fake"

I turned the first debate on last night for a few minutes, enough to see that Joe Biden was not the loud, energetic, shouting man we saw at the State of The Union address, but instead sounding and looking lost, old, and pathetic. They must have given him sleeping pills rather than pep pills.

His family should convince him to withdraw from the race, in favor of any other candidate but the useless Kamala Harris.  It seems like elder abuse not to do otherwise.

Would an ordinary senior citizen in this condition be forced to maintain a grueling schedule and deal with all the stressful situations he has created? Of course not. That senior citizen would probably be brought to the doctor or hospital for a complete workup.

Even Trump, always himself as usual and never at a loss for words, looked concerned when Biden couldn't even make himself understood.

Here's an assessment from Politico, which tells you everything you need to know about the situation:

Dems freak out over Biden’s debate performance: ‘Biden is toast’; One prominent operative texted, “Time for an open convention.”

All Joe Biden needed to do was deliver a repeat performance of his State of the Union address.

Instead, he stammered. He stumbled. And, with fewer than five months to November, he played straight into Democrats’ worst fears — that he’s fumbling away this election to Donald Trump.

The alarm bells for Democrats started ringing the second Biden started speaking in a haltingly hoarse voice. Minutes into the debate, he struggled to mount an effective defense of the economy on his watch and flubbed the description of key health initiatives he’s made central to his reelection bid, saying “we finally beat Medicare” and incorrectly stating how much his administration lowered the price of insulin. He talked himself into a corner on Afghanistan, bringing up his administration’s botched withdrawal unprompted. He repeatedly mixed up “billion” and “million,” and found himself stuck for long stretches of the 90-minute debate playing defense.

And when he wasn’t speaking, he stood frozen behind his podium, mouth agape, his eyes wide and unblinking for long stretches of time.

“Biden is toast — calling it now,” said Jay Surdukowski, an attorney and Democratic activist from New Hampshire who co-chaired former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2016 presidential campaign in the state.

In text messages with POLITICO, Democrats expressed confusion and concern as they watched the first minutes of the event. One former Biden White House and campaign aide called it “terrible,” adding that they have had to ask themselves over and over: “What did he just say? This is crazy.”

“Not good,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) wrote.

POLITICO spoke to about a dozen Democrats, some of whom were granted anonymity to discuss Biden’s performance.

Biden’s team was quick to defend the president’s performance. First they said he had a cold (and that he was negative for Covid-19). Then they insisted Trump was hurting himself by insulting Biden’s presidential record.

Biden did grow stronger throughout the night, at one point seizing on Trump’s reported dismissal of fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers” to skewer the former president as the real “sucker” and “loser.” At others, he hammered Trump’s criminal conviction in New York.

“The only person on this stage who’s a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,” Biden said.

But first impressions matter — particularly to voters just tuning into the election and who were more likely to watch the first debate than the second that’s scheduled for September. And instead of setting the tone of the next phase of the presidential campaign, Biden’s shaky performance reignited fears among Democrats that the octogenarian whose mental acuity and physical fitness have stood as voters’ chief concerns about returning him to the White House might not even be able to carry the party through to November.

“Time for an open convention,” one prominent operative texted.

Biden’s team had tried to engineer the debate in his favor — pushing for it to be early and without an audience. And the president agreed to hold the event in part to calm Democratic nerves over whether he could win in November.

Afterward they didn’t try to cover up his poor performance, but instead tried to emphasize that Trump remained a threat to American interests at home and abroad.

--------------------

Read the rest at Politico. 

A Very Casual Look at COVID

If I were a careless person who considers COVID "just a cold" and never took it seriously, I would become even more unconcerned after reading this column from Slate. Fortunately, I'm not that sort of person.

It’s Another COVID Summer. This Is All You Need to Know About It. We’re at a really different place with the virus than we once were.

"Yes: COVID is going around. While many of the original pandemic tracking pages have shut down, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the number of infections is growing or “likely growing” in 39 states and territories. There’s a variant called FLiRT threatening to put a bit of a damper on summer. You may know a few people who have had COVID in the past few weeks—or possibly you’ve come down with the illness yourself.

"I was recently in this camp, and the experience was kind of weird. The other times I’ve had COVID the rules were clear: isolate, test frequently, and wait until symptoms—and that harrowing red line—were firmly gone. A positive COVID test used to feel like the end of the world. But when I had it this time, it felt … anticlimactic.

"At this point, most people in the U.S. have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and even those who haven’t are likely to have some immunity from past infections (or perhaps are just able to ward off the virus without even knowing they have it). Hospitalizations and deaths have decreased since the harrowing earlier spikes in the pandemic.

"Repeat infections aren’t always milder for everyone, though. And of course no one wants to get the people around them sick, with anything! At the same time, we’re in a fundamentally different spot with this virus than we were a few years ago. Here’s what to know about navigating the new COVID normal.

You don’t (necessarily) have to test anymore.

"The CDC’s current guidance still states that “people who have symptoms of COVID-19 or who have had known exposure to someone with COVID-19 should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection.” The agency also notes that testing without symptoms “may be appropriate in some specific settings.” (I know I’ll still be testing when I see my 90-year-old grandmother later this summer—or avoiding her altogether if I do feel sick, even with a negative COVID test.)

"But testing is no longer part of the “core prevention steps” the agency recommends to the public—and the agency no longer says you need a negative test to leave isolation, stating that you can return to normal activities so long as your symptoms have been improving for 24 hours. The National Health Service in the U.K. even states explicitly that people are not required to do at-home tests for COVID even if they have symptoms.

"This shift is an acknowledgement that COVID isn’t so different now from other respiratory illnesses (which can also be bad!). In general, if you feel sick with a cold, it’s less important to identify what exactly is causing it; just take precautions regardless.

Stay at home if you’re sick.

"If you’re sick with anything, you really should be staying home. That was always the case for any illness—but a lack of remote work options and a paltry number of sick days have always made “try to fight through it as best as possible” an appealing option (and/or requirement).

"Let it be a key lesson of the pandemic that “fight through it and head out into the world” is bad. It is important to give your body time to rest, and important not to infect others. Just like before 2020, you wouldn’t want to get an elderly relative or a friend who is undergoing medical treatment sick with a cold that’s mild for you, but might not be for them.

But also, recognize that society is broken.

"Maybe you want to stay home, but your job still requires you to be there in person and you’re out of sick days. Maybe you really wish that people would test before leaving isolation. Maybe you’re out in public and someone is actively coughing next to you.

"The choose-your-own-adventure quality to the current stage of the pandemic continues to be weird, uncomfortable, and, for some, even scary. At the end of the day, people have different comfort levels and preferences and access to resources, and may make different choices based on those things. The ongoing spread of illnesses isn’t any one person’s fault.

Consider Paxlovid.

"When the antiviral first came out, it was lauded as a miracle drug that could help fight the virus and potentially protect against long COVID. (It also was criticized for its terrible aftertaste and symptom rebound.) But two studies published this year failed to show that taking Paxlovid is associated with lower odds of having lingering COVID symptoms.

"Still, for some groups, Paxlovid is useful at reducing the risk of winding up in the hospital or worse due to an acute infection. The CDC notes that “if you are at high risk for severe COVID-19, treatment benefits outweigh the potential risks of rebound.” The agency qualifies high risk as being at least 50 or older or having underlying medical conditions. So, it might be worth checking with your doctor about.

Stay up to date with boosters. 

"Boosters offer some extra protection against severe infections, especially for adults above 65 and those who are immunocompromised. The Food and Drug Administration just announced plans to update the 2024–2025 formula to match circulating strains, meaning the shots we get the next time around will be better tailored to whatever is going around now. You can even get the vaccine at the same time as your flu shot, which could even maybe make it more effective (though the combination does have a higher likelihood of mild side effects).

"I certainly don’t want to get sick again. But when I do–because at this point it’s an inevitability‍—I know what I’ll do."