Trump: Cheating Death

 

(New York Post cover at https://nypost.com/covers/)

I had turned on the Trump rally yesterday to see the size of the crowd and listen to some of the speech. Instead, I got to witness Donald Trump have a near-death experience after a would-be assassin aimed at his head. He was extremely lucky he didn't turn his head at the wrong moment, and he had great instincts in immediately ducking behind the podium. The Secret Service has a difficult job I do not envy.

And he sure has aplomb! I know I wouldn't have had the ability to immediately show character, strength, and defiance after such a shock. There's a leader for you.

Sadly, at least one attendee was killed by the gunfire. Imagine going to see a political rally on a beautiful July day and ending up a murder victim. It's just horrifying.

COVID Reporting Is Like the Joe Biden Cover-Up

I tend to trust wastewater testing, but I am usually skeptical of what the CDC says, based on their past performance.

All you hear is that COVID is "mild" and there's nothing to worry about. But from my gut instinct and from what I see around me, I see that COVID is back in force, everyone's coughing and sneezing, and the supermarket toilet paper and disinfectant aisles looks emptier.

COVID reporting is like the Joe Biden cover-up. They tell you everything's fine, but you know it really isn't. 

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Map shows states where COVID levels are "high" or "very high" as summer wave spreads

More than half of states are now seeing "high" or "very high" levels of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in their wastewater testing, according to figures published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as this summer's COVID wave reaches a growing share of the country.

Nationwide, the CDC now says that the overall level of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is "high" for the first time since this past winter. Levels remain "high" across western states, where trends first began to worsen last month, while other regions are now seeing steeper increases at or near "high" levels.

Friday's update is the first since last month, due to the Fourth of July holiday. 

The uptick is in line with a growing number of COVID-19 patients showing up in emergency rooms. The District of Columbia and 26 states are now seeing "substantial increases" in COVID-19 emergency room visits, the agency says.

Nationwide, the average share of emergency room patients with COVID-19 is also now the highest it has been since February and has increased 115% from a month ago. 

The CDC says that SARS-CoV-2 activity levels in tests of wastewater are now "high" in 19 states and "very high" in 7 states. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Overall emergency room visits and hospitalization trends remain at what the CDC deems to be "low" levels in several states, far below the deadly peaks reached at earlier points during the pandemic. 

But COVID-19 emergency room visits crossed the threshold into "moderate" levels in Hawaii last month, after a surge that topped the last two waves of the virus. Florida also is now at "moderate" levels, amid a wave that is at peaks not seen since this past winter. 

"We are seeing patterns that are consistent with what we have observed over the last couple of years in the summer, where we have seen upticks in activity that have occurred around this time of year that are not quite as large as what we see during the winter peaks," said Aron Hall, deputy director for science in the CDC's Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division.

Health authorities in some communities have said in recent weeks that the uptick is a sign that now could be the time for people looking to avoid COVID-19 infections — especially at-risk Americans, with underlying health issues — to start taking extra precautions like masking and testing in many parts of the country. 

Hall said the recent increase did not look to be any more severe than previous summer waves, but served as a reminder of the importance of getting vaccinated and other steps, like seeking out treatment for those at increased risk of severe disease.

"The activity that we are seeing now is consistent with previous trends. It is not necessarily cause for any additional alarm, but is an important reminder that there are key measures that folks can take to protect themselves," he said.

When will COVID-19 peak this summer?

Most of the first states to reach "high" COVID-19 levels in wastewater last month were in the West, where the share of COVID-19 patients in emergency rooms has also accelerated. Reported infections in nursing homes have also grown in this region.

Other countries have also seen COVID-19 trends rise this summer earlier than last year. In the United Kingdom, COVID-19 hospitalizations are at levels not seen since February. 

But there are signs now that this summer wave may have now reached its peak across some states in this region, where the virus first picked up steam.

Forecasts updated by the CDC this week estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing across almost all states, but are "stable or uncertain" in three: Hawaii, Oregon and New Mexico. 

"It's hard to predict the future. And if COVID has taught is anything, it's that things can always change. But based on previous trends, where we have seen sort of a summer wave that has peaked around July or August, is what we might expect for this year," said Hall.

Nursing home infections have slowed for a second straight week in the Pacific Northwest, in the region spanning Alaska through Oregon. 

In Hawaii, where COVID-19 emergency room trends this summer had peaked at levels worse than both their last winter and summer waves of the virus, patients have slowed for multiple weeks now.

Hall cautioned that while COVID-19 trends have slowed after summer peaks in recent years, they still remained far worse than the low levels seen during past springtime lulls in the virus.

"We don't see necessarily a nadir or bottoming out, between the summer and winter waves, at least historically. So that's important as we think about protecting people that are vulnerable," he said.

What is the latest variant in this COVID-19 wave?

The CDC last updated its every-other-week variant projections after the Fourth of July, estimating that the KP.3 variant had grown to more than a third of infections nationwide. 

Behind it were the KP.2 and LB.1 variants, two close relatives that are all descendants of the JN.1 strain that dominated infections this past winter. Put together, these three variants — KP.3, KP.2 and LB.1 — made up more than 3 in 4 infections nationwide. 

Hall said there is "still no indication of increased severity of illness" associated with any of these variants, similar to what the agency has said in recent weeks. 

Hall said the agency tracks data from hospitals and ongoing studies, as well as detailed analyses of the genetic changes to the virus, to search for signs that the risk from new variants might have grown.

"None of those data sources have given us any indication that these variants cause more severe disease than what we have seen previously," he said.

Through the end of June, the CDC estimated that all regions of the country were seeing a mix of these strains, though some more than others depending on the location.

KP.3 makes up the largest share of infections in several regions of the country, while LB.1 is larger around the New York and New Jersey area and KP.2 is bigger in New England. 

For now, Hall said KP.3 and LB.1 are the variants that are spreading fastest, though their relative growth looks to be "considerably lower" than previous highly mutated strains like the original Omicron variant.

"It's not anything as dramatic as some of the earlier shifts in the virus that we've seen," he said.

COVID & Its Differing Symptoms

From the New York Times 7/11/24:

You Have Covid Again. Why Does It Feel So Different From Last Time? Cases are rising across the United States. Here’s what to know about how symptoms of an infection can shift.

"By this point in the Covid-19 pandemic, most people have had at least one brush with the virus. Those of us who have been infected again (and again) may think we know the drill.

"But symptoms can vary from one infection to the next. The virus has felt like an entirely different illness each time I’ve tested positive: The first go-round, a fever flattened me. Once, I had barely any symptoms. The worst infection left me wrung-out on my couch, so exhausted I had to strain to pay attention to a podcast.

“No two Covid infections really have behaved the same,” said Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at Cleveland Clinic.

"Generally speaking, the more immunity people build up from vaccination or infections, the milder symptoms of subsequent infections tend to be. But for an individual, there is no guarantee that a second infection will be less severe than the first.

"That’s partly because the virus has changed, developing into new variants. If you’re reinfected, that means the virus has evolved enough to slip past your immune defenses, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego.

"Many Covid symptoms have stayed the same since 2020: fever, sore throat, coughing. But some have shifted. It used to be common for people to lose their sense of taste and smell when they got sick, for example, but that now seems to happen less frequently. Early in the pandemic, Dr. Khabbaza said, people would tell him that their Covid infections felt like nothing they had experienced before. Now, he said, patients often think they have a cold, and are shocked when they test positive.

"Dr. Smith said he has often seen patients who experienced the same symptoms as they had during past infections but in a different order. “Sometimes it starts off with a cough, and sometimes it ends with a cough,” he said.

"And an encounter with the virus changes you, too, Dr. Smith said: After a Covid infection you have new immune responses that shape how you would respond to another one. That may be why he often sees patients who had no symptoms at all the first time they were infected, but then feel sick the next time. People’s symptoms can also vary in intensity depending on how recently they were last vaccinated or infected.

"Other changes — like developing new medical conditions or aging — can affect how sick you get. Even small variations in your microbiome health can alter how you respond to an infection, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and education service at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

"The more times you encounter Covid, the faster you might feel sick after an exposure, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Your immune system rapidly recognizes the virus and marshals its defenses. This can trigger symptoms before enough virus has built up to produce a positive result on a rapid test.

"No matter how many times someone has been infected, symptoms can persist even after that person tests negative. And any Covid infection carries the risk of leading to long Covid.

“A lot of people think that if they got Covid once, they’re immune, they’re protected for the rest of their lives,” Dr. Al-Aly said. “That’s really not true.”

Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times.

 

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You can tell me in ten different ways that COVID is "mild", but I still have not gotten COVID, and I still definitely don't want COVID!

Melanie Phillips: The War Against The Jews

The gaslighting about Israel, and the daily attacks on Jews, seems to be at a fever pitch that would make Hitler and the Nazis proud.  As always, Melanie Phillips has a column on this subject that goes straight to the point:

The war against the Jews

(July 11, 2024 / JNS)

"We have to face without flinching what is now undeniable: There is a war across the globe raging against the Jewish people. It’s a war not just to destroy their national homeland but to drive them out of people’s heads, their conscience and their world.

"Led by Muslims and the left, with its base in the universities, this war has extended much further than these circles into professional and commercial life.

"The Palestinian flag, the symbol of the agenda to destroy Israel and erase the identity and history of the Jews in their ancestral land, is everywhere. Often-murderous antisemitism, once confined to cranks, Nazi supporters and the clinically insane, has been normalized and is surfacing in the most banal, everyday settings.

"A Toronto health food restaurant is using the hashtag “#zionistsnotwelcome” in social media posts. In Britain, an ordinary middle-aged Manchester woman declared that Zionist lives weren’t worth saving and that Zionists “need to be finished.”

"Palestinian flags sprouted in London at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, during Fashion Week in Berlin and on the lapel of a Delta Airlines flight attendant. In Amsterdam, Anne Frank’s statue was defaced with “Gaza” graffiti. At a Madrid rock concert, the crowd sang: “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv.”

"While this madness has liberals and left-wingers in its grip, its main impetus is coming from the Islamic world. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stated this week that the Iranian regime has been actively fueling the Gaza demonstrations by using agents posing as activists online, encouraging demonstrations and even providing participants with financial support.

"In addition to Iran, the campaign has been orchestrated by Hamas and other Muslim Brotherhood operatives. The reason for all this is that fanatical hatred of the Jews is fundamental to the religion of Islam, as is the aim of Islamizing the world.

"While many Muslims don’t subscribe to fanaticism or fundamentalism, far too many do—and the overwhelming majority subscribe to the demonization and delegitimization of Israel that flow from Muslim Jew-hatred.

"The reason the Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel sparked immediate and triumphant Muslim demonstrations was the ecstatic belief that, having destroyed Israeli invincibility by murdering and capturing so many Jews, the way was now open to destroy Israel, wipe out the Jews and conquer the West for Islam.

"The far-left, who have latched on to the anti-West aims of this campaign, also believe that their revolutionary time has come.

"In France, this is due to the desperate attempt by President Emanuel Macron to fend off the threat of political victory by the far-right National Rally party. To do so, Macron made a deal with a left-wing alliance whose dominant party is the extreme revolutionary grouping of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed). 

"Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has called French Jews and their communal organizations “aggressive,” “arrogant” and “sectarian.” He made a dismissive reference to the Jews killing Jesus, called Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a “genocide” and said that “peace-loving Frenchmen” cannot express solidarity with the victims of the Oct. 7 onslaught.

"In Britain, the left also came to power in last week’s general election with a supposedly moderate Labour government under the new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

"Whether or not the French coalition lasts, the prospects for British and French relations with Israel are dismal, as are the prospects for French and British Jews.

"Macron is relentlessly hostile to Israel. Last November, he told the BBC that Israel must stop killing babies and women in Gaza and that there was “no justification” for Israel’s bombing campaign. Now he has backed the request by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor for warrants to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and has also made an alliance with a pro-Hamas party.

"In Britain, Starmer is also taking a hostile position against Israel. Foreign Secretary David Lammy is considering whether to stop U.K. arms sales to Israel and has said that if the ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Britain will arrest them if they come to the U.K.

"Starmer has also appointed some extremely troubling ministers. The Justice Secretary Shabina Mahmood is a long-standing supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at the destruction of Israel.

"And the Attorney-General Richard Hermer KC—who describes himself as a “tikkun olam” (social justice) Reform Jew—has put his name on legal opinions and letters that defame Israel and are viciously hostile to its ability to defend itself.

"Like Hermer, Starmer spent most of his career as a “human rights” lawyer in a radical left-wing barristers’ set. The “human rights” agenda, which is misleadingly presented as the “center ground,” is in fact a radical ideology that fuels the onslaught against Israel mounted by the United Nations, the ICC and the rest of the international law and humanitarian establishment. It also underpins anti-Western “intersectional” identity politics.

"The Labour government combines support for Palestinians with an “identity politics” agenda that is likely to entrench the abuse of children and the threat to women posed by transgender ideology; put the force of law behind anti-white racism and the calumny of “white privilege”; and turn Islamophobia into a crime and thus suppress all criticism of Islam, including Muslim antisemitism.

"For these reasons, Starmer is unlikely to deal with the threat that has emerged from the arrival of Islamic sectarian politics in the rise of a Muslim political bloc.   

"Despite near-mandatory sympathy in the Labour Party for the Palestinian cause, British Muslims were angry that Starmer had supported Israel’s right to defend itself and hadn’t initially called for an immediate ceasefire. A group called Muslim Vote issued a list of demands, including turning Israel into a pariah state, as well as various ways in which Britain should adapt its society to Islam.

"As a result of this decline in Muslim support, Labour lost five parliamentary seats to independent candidates standing on a “Gaza-Palestine” ticket while a number of other Labour MPs hung on to their seats by a whisker.

"In France, Macron has long lost the battle to contain Muslim violence and rampant antisemitism. Three boys aged 12-13 have been accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl while making anti-Israel slurs against her. A 15-year-old Jewish boy was assaulted in Paris by eight men from the far-left Jeune Garde “because he was assumed to be Jewish.” He was insulted, called a Zionist, beaten and reportedly forced to chant “Long live Palestine” while being filmed. Elsewhere, crowds with Palestinian flags shout “Death to France,” “Death to Jews” and “Death to the police.”

"France’s Chief Rabbi Moshe Sebbag has said there’s no future for Jews in France and advised young Jews to go to Israel “or a more secure country.”

"Like the Biden administration in America, left-wing parties in Britain and France are displaying hostility to Israel and indifference to Jewish security when Israel is under existential attack, global Jew-hatred has reached stratospheric levels and tyrants everywhere are on a roll because of the West’s refusal to defend itself or even understand the priceless values that it needs to defend.

"Diaspora Jews ask where they can be safe. The answer is nowhere. Despite the antisemitic history of National Rally, said the French chief rabbi, the left has been antisemitic in recent times. “The Jews are in the middle because they don’t know who hates them more,” he said.

'Everyone is defined by where they stand in this war. There is no middle ground. Whether you are an activist, fellow-traveler or useful idiot; whether you are a gentile or a “tikkun olam” Jew; either you stand unequivocally with the Jewish victims of this war and support their self-defense or you are on the side of those attacking not just the Jewish people but civilization itself.

"And in Britain, France and America, the left, whether moderate or extreme, is on the wrong side."

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I can remember, soon after the September 11 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on America, people already calling you "Islamophobic" if you dared to show outrage about those attacks.   So we shouldn't be at all surprised by what's happening today.

It's not "Islamophobia". It's "Jewphobia".

Here's Kamala Harris, Possibly Your Next President (Heaven Help Us)

From National Review, July 8, 2024:

Kamala Harris Says Anti-Israel Student Protesters ‘Are Showing Exactly What the Human Emotion Should Be’

"There have been many hints at the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is more hostile to Israel than President Biden. As Democrats take a closer look at her as the most likely replacement should Biden drop out of the race, her views on Middle East policy will undergo closer scrutiny. Now, in an interview with Joan Walsh in the The Nation, Harris makes clear that she sympathizes with the anti-Israel protesters on college campuses — even though she doesn’t agree with everything they said.

"Here is the part of the interview that gets to her views on Israel’s war against Hamas:

“Listen, I strongly believe that our ability to evaluate a situation is connected to understanding the details of that situation. Not speaking of myself versus the president, not at all. From the beginning, I asked questions. OK, the trucks are taking flour into Gaza. But here’s the thing, Joan: I like to cook. So I said to my team: You can’t make shit with flour if you don’t have clean water. So what’s going on with that? I ask questions like, What are people actually eating right now? I’m hearing stories about their eating animal feed, grass … so that’s how I think about it.

“Similarly, I was asking early on, what are women in Gaza doing about sanitary hygiene. Do they have pads? And these are the issues that made people feel uncomfortable, especially sanitary pads.”

"The young people who have mobilized against the destruction of Gaza are unlikely to be mollified by these answers. What does she say to them?

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza. There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

"Harris is careful to provide herself an escape hatch — to say she doesn’t fully endorse everything the protesters say — but it’s clear that in her mind, she feels that she has to say something nice about the antisemitic protests because ultimately she is trying to win over the pro-Hamas contingent of the party."

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This is someone who has had no accomplishments as Vice President or as "Border Czar" and who isn't a supporter of Israel.  Why anyone who's Jewish or has brains would vote for such a person for President of the United States is beyond me.

COVID Mask-Wearers, Unite!

Over the years, it has always been a relief to hear about people who, like me, are COVID-cautious, immunocompromised, and who care about the other people around them.

For the COVID-conscious, Violet Affleck’s mask-wearing has made her a hero; Even before the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner urged LA County officials to resist mask bans Tuesday night, she had garnered fans on social media for ‘being one of the last face-mask-wearers in Hollywood’

She had contracted a post-viral condition in 2019 and has been seen wearing a mask for years.

Of course, it helps if you're a child of famous parents, but for her to speak out so courageously at a young age in the face of nationwide contempt for protective face masks is pretty inspirational and vindicating to those of us who have worn a mask all this time and who don't care about peer pressure. The publicity can only help.

All we care about is protecting ourselves from COVID, which is still very much with us today, and it helps to have the Violet Afflecks speak for us.

Anne Frank: Victimized Again

Is there no decency left anymore? Is nothing sacred?  Evidently not, when it comes to these rabid Nazi Islamists and their irrational hatred towards Jews, including children murdered in the concentration camps:

Anne Frank statue is defaced with 'Gaza' graffiti, sparking fury from Dutch politicians

"The statue of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank has been defaced with 'Gaza' graffiti, with Dutch politicians condemning the act.

"The Anne Frank memorial in Merwedeplein, Amsterdam, located near the Jewish diarist's first home in the Netherlands, was vandalized with red paint spelling out 'Gaza'. 

"Amsterdam councilor Stijn Nijssen took to X, formerly Twitter, to condemn the act of vandalism, saying: 'It is truly shameful that someone would think to draw attention to the Palestinian cause by smearing an image of Anne Frank, an international symbol of the Holocaust'. 

"Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the act an 'incredible disgrace' on Instagram. 

"'This young girl, who was so brutally murdered by the Nazis at the age of 15, reminds us and our city every day of humanity and gentleness in the most difficult circumstances', she said. 

"'How can you get it in your heart to make her memory so violent? Whoever it was, shame on you! No Palestinian has been helped by smearing her precious statue', Halsema added.

"She also called on potential witnesses to report the incident."

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Those vile animals should be jailed and forced to read Anne Frank's diary. She had more courage and intelligence in her shortened life than these Hamas-lovers could ever have in their miserable existence.

Dropping The Ball on COVID

Here's a good article by Bruce Y. Lee at Forbes: Summer 2024 Covid-19 Surge Occurring With FLiRT Variants Taking Over

"You could say that the U.S. is more than flirting with yet another Covid-19 surge. Chances are that a surge has already been occurring for at least a month—since early June. And the “FLiRT” variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been front-and-center of this surge.

"Now, the U.S. still doesn’t have a comprehensive surveillance system that can catch surges before they happen or soon after they start happening even though it’s been over four and a half years since the the SARS-CoV-2 first surged in the U.S. Plus, nowadays, you don’t see the public health alerts about Covid-19 surges that you saw during the first three years of the pandemic. So, these days if you want to know whether Covid-19 is surging, you have to rely on checking Covid-19-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths to see if a surge has already been occurring with an emphasis on the words “has already been.”

"Indeed, emergency room visits due to Covid-19 from June 16 through June 22—that’s two weeks ago—were up 23.3% from the previous week, according to data posted on the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. Also, Covid-19-related hospitalizations during the week of June 9 through 15 were 13.3% higher than they were than the week before. Recall that it can take a week or two after someone gets infected to develop symptoms severe enough to require an emergency room visit or a hospitalization. All of this suggests that Covid-19 cases were rising throughout most of June.

"It shouldn’t be too surprising that yet another Covid-19 Summer surge has been happening. Many political and business leaders are not advocating for Covid-19 precautions such as face mask use and indoor air filtration and purification. And take a wild guess as to what may happen to a virus that’s still spreading and mutating when you don’t really do much to prevent its spread. The answer is not that it will go away on its own. Moreover, it’s been about 10 months since the last Covid-19 vaccine update was rolled out last fall, and protection offered by the vaccine tends to wane significantly after four to six months.

"Then there are the “FLiRT” variants, a new group of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants that have two key mutations in their spike proteins. If you recall, the spike proteins are what makes the virus looks like a spiky ball and help the virus latch on to your cells to then invade them. The name FLiRT is derived from the actual amino acid changes that result from the pair of mutations: a switch of a phenylalanine (F) for a leucine (L) at position 456 and arginine (R) for threonine (T) at position 346 in the spike protein.

"These FLiRTs are descendants of the JN.1 variant that was dominant in the United States earlier this year and encompass a group of variants with names that begin with the letters JN and KP. In the first week of June, KP.3 accounted for an estimated 33.1% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the U.S., KP.2 for an estimated 20.8% and KP.1.1 for an estimated 9%. And these percentages have been growing, which is not surprising since preliminary data has suggested that the R_e—the effective reproduction number—for KP.2 may be 1.22 times higher than the R_e for JN.1.

"Whenever new variants emerge, the big question is whether they will be able to evade the existing protection that you may have from vaccination or previous Covid-19 infections. Well, the two mutations in the FLiRT variants do affect important locations in the spike protein—namely where antibodies against the virus typically bind. Nevertheless, so far, there’s no indication that vaccination will not be effective against the FLiRT variants. But—and this is big “but,” one cannot lie—more data are needed to determine how effective vaccination will be against the FLiRT variants.

"Covid-19 is less of a concern now than it was in the earlier days of the pandemic. Your immune system is probably more used to the spike protein and the virus now. You are likely less likely to get hospitalized and suffer more severe consequences when infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the risks of more severe outcomes are still there. There is still a significant chance of suffering long Covid. Therefore, it is a good idea to maintain appropriate precautions such as making sure that indoor locations are well-ventilated and wearing a face mask when you may come into close sustained contact with others who may be infected. And a summer surge does increase the latter possibility."

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COVID may be less of a concern now for some people, but being immunocompromised, I am still as concerned now as I was in 2020.  Being cautious. vaccinated, masked,  and lucky have made me COVID-free ... so far.  The lack of concern and action makes me angry, but all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that my caution continues to pay off.

"COVID Roulette"

This article is by Rong-Gong Lin II at the Los Angeles Times:

‘Playing COVID roulette’: Some infected by FLiRT variants report their most unpleasant symptoms yet

As the summer travel season picks up, COVID cases and hospitalizations are rising in Los Angeles County — and some of those recently reinfected are finding their latest bout to be the worst yet.

There are no signs at this point that the latest coronavirus variants are producing more severe illness, either nationally or in California.

But some doctors say this latest COVID rise challenges a long-held myth: Although new COVID infections are often mild compared with a first brush with the disease, they still can cause severe illness. Even if someone doesn’t need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized, people sometimes describe agonizing symptoms.

“The dogma is that every time you get COVID, it’s milder. But I think we need to keep our minds open to the possibility that some people have worse symptoms,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert.

Each time you get COVID, he said, is “kind of like playing COVID roulette.”

This underscores the need for caution during summer travel and activities, even though the overall risk remains relatively mild.

Since everyone’s experience with COVID is different and influenced by a number of factors, it’s difficult to quantify how many are experiencing more acute symptoms now compared with previous infections. But anecdotally, including on social media sites, people are expressing shock at how sick they’ve become from the latest subvariants, which have been collectively nicknamed FLiRT. 

“I’ve had COVID a few times but this is the worst I’ve had it,” wrote one person on Reddit. The person reported recurring fever, being so congested they couldn’t breathe out of their nose, “terrible sinus pressure and headache ... and I can’t stand up for too long without feeling like I’m about to pass out.”

“Previously COVID just felt like the common cold, but this strain is [wreaking] havoc,” the person wrote. “I don’t like to complain like this, but I’m shocked at how much it’s taking me out.”

Another person wrote that their “throat feels like razor blades” and that they feel like they’re “in living misery.” 

“I have so much phlegm, but it hurts so bad to cough because my throat is on literal fire!!” the person wrote. “This is my 4th time having Covid and I swear I feel like this is the worst it’s ever been!!”

Others who eluded COVID for more than four years got infected this summer.

One person fell ill and tested positive for the first time after hosting a Father’s Day gathering for 12 people. The person described “uncontrollable body-shaking chills so bad I couldn’t feel most of my fingertips.”

A 42-year-old nurse, who has had COVID four times, said their latest illness has been “intense with fevers, cough, head pressure and pain. It’s attacking my throat and ability to swallow.”

Others, though, have said each subsequent COVID illness has been easier to recover from. And one first-time infected person wrote that they had “super mild symptoms [that] just feels like a seasonal allergy” flare-up.

Some studies back up the idea that subsequent COVID infections pose additional risks. A 2022 report in the journal Nature Medicine, focused on veterans, found that, “Compared to noninfected [people], cumulative risks and burdens of repeat infection increased according to the number of infections,” heightening the risk of medical problems, hospitalization and death. 

And while the prevalence of long COVID appears to be declining, doctors note there is risk of developing the syndrome with each infection. A report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last summer said the prevalence of long COVID among U.S. adults was 7.5% in early June 2022, but had decreased as of mid-June 2023 to 6% — still a notable share of the population.

There are a number of potential reasons why a subsequent COVID illness might feel worse than the first. Say a person who was vaccinated and last boosted in 2021 got infected in 2022 and then again in 2024. The relatively long gap of not being exposed to infection, or a booster, “maybe led to [their body] not having as much immune memory. And the variants have changed so much anyway, it’s like getting exposed to something relatively different from what virus the immune system had seen earlier,” Chin-Hong said.

Without staying up-to-date on COVID vaccinations, which “remind the immune system of what the more current variants look like,” a recent infection may cause the body to act relatively surprised to the FLiRT subvariants that are now dominant nationwide.

“It’s evolved so much, and the body is, like, ‘O-M-G, what is this thing that I’m seeing?’ ” Chin-Hong said.

The logic is much the same for annual flu shots, which are formulated each year in hopes of priming the immune system against the dominant circulating versions of that virus.

For the week ending Saturday, an estimated 70.5% of COVID specimens nationwide were of the FLiRT subvariants — officially known as KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1.1 — up from 54.9% a month earlier. Another closely related subvariant, LB.1, is estimated to comprise 14.9% of specimens, up from 10% a month earlier.

Prior immunity from old vaccinations can still do a decent job of protecting many people against getting seriously ill. But without the refresher that comes with an updated vaccine, Chin-Hong said the immune system “probably won’t be able to stop the virus in its tracks, or neutralize the virus as soon as it comes in, because it looks so different, before kicking in memory immunity.”

“In the meantime,” he added, “this virus is infecting cells happily, while the body is trying to use its current memory to make new immune cells.”

It’s also notable that, even for younger adults who are considered up-to-date on their COVID immunizations, it’s been nearly a year since their last vaccination, and the effectiveness of the vaccine weakens over time.

A report published by the CDC in February found that getting the updated 2023–24 COVID vaccine provided about 54% increased protection against symptomatic illness compared with not getting the shot. Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection is higher in the first few months after getting the updated shot.

The vaccines continued to provide good protection against hospitalization and death.

In L.A. County, COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. For the week ending June 30, there were an average of 229 coronavirus cases a day reported, up from 106 a month earlier. And for the week ending June 29, there were an average of 197 coronavirus-infected people in hospitals per day, up from 117 a month earlier. And while COVID hospitalizations are now higher than they were at this same point last year, they remain below the relatively mild peak seen in summer 2023.

Officially reported cases are an undercount, as they only factor in tests done at medical facilities, and don’t account for at-home tests or those who don’t test. In L.A. County, last summer’s COVID spike peaked in late August at 571 cases a day, and hit a maximum of 620 coronavirus-infected people per day in hospitals in early September.

Viral levels in L.A. County wastewater have been relatively stable. For the week that ended June 22, the most recent available, viral levels in sewage were at 17% of the peak from the winter of 2022–23, the same as the prior week. Last summer peaked in early September, where viral levels in sewage were at 38% of the prior winter’s peak.

The rate at which coronavirus tests are coming back with positive results continues to climb across California. For the week ending July 1, 10.6% of coronavirus tests statewide came back positive, up from 4.1% a month earlier. Last summer’s positive test rate peaked at 13.1%, toward the end of August.

There has been relatively low uptake of the updated COVID vaccine, which became available in September. Since then, 36.7% of California’s seniors age 65 and up have received at least one dose of the updated vaccine, as have 18.5% of adults age 50 to 64, and 10% of the youngest adults, up to age 49.

For people who haven’t gotten an updated vaccine within the last year, “you should think about getting it, especially if you’re older and immune compromised,” Chin-Hong said. There continue to be hundreds of COVID deaths reported nationally every week, with seniors and immune-compromised people most at risk.

Even getting the 2023-24 vaccine now will still allow you to get the updated COVID vaccination that is on track to become available this fall. The CDC will recommend everyone 6 months and older get the updated 2024-25 version of the vaccine.

A good time to get the 2024-25 COVID vaccination is in October, Chin-Hong said. 

Chin-Hong said that even healthcare workers need to be reminded of proper COVID infection control protocols, like the importance of testing when you feel sick, and reporting your illness to your employer.

“It’s like everybody seems to be thinking COVID is just like normal now,” Chin-Hong said. But taking sensible measures — like coworkers deciding to not go into work when sick, and testing themselves when symptomatic — can make a world of difference in keeping COVID limited to a smaller number of people.

And with COVID rising, it’s also a reminder that it’s sensible to keep a mask in your pocket to don if you happen to be near an ill person, Chin-Hong said.

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If the above severe symptoms reported by people on social media are considered "relatively mild",  I'll eat my hat.   And I'll keep hoping that being fully vaccinated, boosted, and masked will help me avoid this latest "mild" surge!

Got Milk With Bird Flu In It?

Whatever happened to common sense? Read this STAT headline and then explain to me what Delaware is thinking:

Bird flu snapshot: Live H5N1 virus grown from raw milk samples as Delaware moves to legalize its sale

"Last week, following an unusually udder pun-laden discussion, lawmakers in Delaware voted to become the latest state to legalize the sale of raw milk. Not part of the discussion was the fact that an ongoing outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in U.S. dairy cattle has scientists increasingly concerned that the virus could be transmitted to humans through raw milk.

"While there have not yet been any confirmed human cases of bird flu transmission as a result of raw milk consumption, with the number of affected herds continuing to rise — the figure hit 141 in 12 states at the end of last week — public health officials worry it’s just a matter of time. (The USDA’s count was 140 on Friday, which did not include the latest detection in Iowa.)

"Results of a recently released study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture show that commercial pasteurization techniques effectively reduce virus in milk to undetectable levels. But the study — which was released as a preprint, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed — also found an alarming amount of infectious virus is getting off of farms in contaminated milk.

"Over two weeks in late April, officials from four states with infected herds collected 275 raw milk samples from bulk tanks — large storage tanks used to cool and store milk until it can be picked up and pooled for processing. Scientists from the FDA and the USDA were able to grow live virus from 14% of raw milk samples.

"Don Prater, the FDA’s acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told journalists Tuesday that the study’s results “provide broad assurance that pasteurized milk and dairy products made from pasteurized milk are safe.”

"But they also underline shortfalls in the dairy industry’s ability to identify contaminated milk and divert it from the food supply. Those lapses are not necessarily due to negligence; researchers suspect that cows may be able to shed virus into milk before showing clinical signs of illness, and studies evaluating this possibility are currently underway.

"Raw milk also remains a concern because people who are exposed to it on the job continue to fall ill."

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If you know that pasteurized milk is safe, then why don't you just drink pasteurized milk rather than tempting fate with raw milk? I just don't get it.