Omicron anecdata?

[kbutton]

5 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

I REALLY wish I had an idea of what our numbers are, but with the state only reporting every two weeks, I have no way to know. The national maps I've seen seem to just use the numbers from the state, so are not accurate. 

Reposting in case this helps. It's updated weekly, but might be better than nothing. She posts to a Covid-cautious FB page I follow (Christians Against Covid Denialism).

https://redemptivehistorytheology.com/florida-statistics-what-is-really-happening-archive/ 

[Faith-manor]

Not happy with Michigan. Really not happy.

Commencement was all of the students, faculty, and staff masked, and then taking the mask off for the photo with the president receiving their diplomas, removing them if a parent came forward to snap a pick as they left the podium. But the 4000 or so people who attended were entirely unmasked. We masked as did my mom, sister, adult sibs of our graduate, and just a few people in the handicap section. They do have a new, very good filtration system and I am hoping against hope that saved us.

We are now on our outdoor, socially distanced vacation eating on the meals I cooked and froze, either microwaved in our hotel room, or warmed on park grills or our campstove. We are enjoying ourselves. Or should I say THEY are! I came down with a bacterial, sinus infection and blocked eustasion tubes, due to prolonged allergy aggregation giving that stupid bacteria room to grow. Negative for covid and adenovirus so that's good, but despite 18 hours of antibiotics from urgent care, I have nasty headache, aching ears and such. That said, I got enough relief to get a good night of sleep last night, and that is helping my outlook today. We will be seeing the Hans Christian Andersen sculpture park, the windmill, and a few things today. They will go into the Museum of Danish America masked. I will stay outside and take a long walk because I sound terrible, and don't want to make other visitors feel like they are in the presence of the plague. It has been a long two years, and I am not looking to make other people that much more nervous.

I am so tired of it, and keep reminding myself that being sick of it doesn't change a damn thing. Have to keep on keeping on. Hopefully, another day of antibiotics, and I will feel enough better to have a sunnier outlook. That said, I am so grateful that we chose to attend commencement, and are now on the road trip with our sons.

 

[Arcadia]

12 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

And DH has a cross country flight this week - going from Orlando to San Diego. I am NOT happy about it, but it's for work. He's is doing a workshop at a conference, and now is going to be the MC for some of the stuff there too. He's also teaching in person again, twice a week. 

San Diego county covid dashboard https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/96feda77f12f46638b984fcb1d17bd24
Dr Fauci said a few days ago that cases are climbing but hospitalization is not. Think it leads to further complacency among people.

[ktgrok]

7 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Reposting in case this helps. It's updated weekly, but might be better than nothing. She posts to a Covid-cautious FB page I follow (Christians Against Covid Denialism).

https://redemptivehistorytheology.com/florida-statistics-what-is-really-happening-archive/ 

Thank you, that page had a link to a CDC page that seems to have a weekly update, which says 7 day positivity is 10-14%. Which is double what we were at the last time the state health department bothered to update. 

That said, the CDC one is a bit wonky, if you click on a county, it gives you data on the top of the page that it says "may be outdated" or soemthing like that...so that the map itself shows my county as red currently, so high transmission, but the wording at the top of the page says low transmission. so. yeah. 

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, TexasProud said:

Yeah, but it doesn't have positivity rates. And it feels like the status for green and yellow have changed.  It is just in a completely different format and I don't know how to judge what to do based on them.  Before if we had positivity of over 10 percent, I went back to wearing a mask when I was out.  But maybe we are just on a different scales. I mean our hospitals have had 0 admissions according to them for quite awhile, so maybe you just live life now.  So hard to know. Flying home with my mom tomorrow. On the way out here we were the only ones on the entire plane wearing our masks.  Just don't know.

This has positivity rates - you have to click on the tab for 'past week' or you get the average since the start of the pandemic. 'past day' doesn't include positivity rates because I think it's just the 7-day average they give. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/us/texas

There are also charts for cases, hospitalization, deaths, and positivity rates over time.

Looks like you guys are at about 7% positivity in Texas atm. 

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Faith-manor said:

Not happy with Michigan. Really not happy.

Commencement was all of the students, faculty, and staff masked, and then taking the mask off for the photo with the president receiving their diplomas, removing them if a parent came forward to snap a pick as they left the podium. But the 4000 or so people who attended were entirely unmasked. We masked as did my mom, sister, adult sibs of our graduate, and just a few people in the handicap section. They do have a new, very good filtration system and I am hoping against hope that saved us.

We are now on our outdoor, socially distanced vacation eating on the meals I cooked and froze, either microwaved in our hotel room, or warmed on park grills or our campstove. We are enjoying ourselves. Or should I say THEY are! I came down with a bacterial, sinus infection and blocked eustasion tubes, due to prolonged allergy aggregation giving that stupid bacteria room to grow. Negative for covid and adenovirus so that's good, but despite 18 hours of antibiotics from urgent care, I have nasty headache, aching ears and such. That said, I got enough relief to get a good night of sleep last night, and that is helping my outlook today. We will be seeing the Hans Christian Andersen sculpture park, the windmill, and a few things today. They will go into the Museum of Danish America masked. I will stay outside and take a long walk because I sound terrible, and don't want to make other visitors feel like they are in the presence of the plague. It has been a long two years, and I am not looking to make other people that much more nervous.

I am so tired of it, and keep reminding myself that being sick of it doesn't change a damn thing. Have to keep on keeping on. Hopefully, another day of antibiotics, and I will feel enough better to have a sunnier outlook. That said, I am so grateful that we chose to attend commencement, and are now on the road trip with our sons.

 

I am sorry you are sick.  That stinks that you feel bad during vacation.  I hope you have time yet that you feel better for. 

The 4k people were unmasked?  I thought everyone had to be from when you posted before? 

[TexasProud]

2 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

This has positivity rates - you have to click on the tab for 'past week' or you get the average since the start of the pandemic. 'past day' doesn't include positivity rates because I think it's just the 7-day average they give. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/us/texas

There are also charts for cases, hospitalization, deaths, and positivity rates over time.

Looks like you guys are at about 7% positivity in Texas atm. 

Ok, that one is better than the CDC one they sent me to.  I don't live anywhere near aTm. LOL.  

Thank you for the info. That one is more understandable than the CDC one.

[Matryoshka]

16 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

Ok, that one is better than the CDC one they sent me to.  I don't live anywhere near aTm. LOL.  

Thank you for the info. That one is more understandable than the CDC one.

LOL, atm = at the moment

[mommyoffive]

The US should prepare for a predictable Southern summer surge of Covid-19, Birx says (msn.com)

[Acadie]

On 4/30/2022 at 4:18 PM, Kassia said:

Thanks. I was only looking at community level.  Our transmission rate is high, which I'm surprised about.  I really had no idea.  I know a lot of people have it and aren't being tested and also not sick enough to go to the hospital so I just assumed there are a lot of unreported cases.  We're at 10.81% positivity now.

Next county over, and it's feeling like the beginning of Omicron because we keep hearing of new cases. A handful of dd's teammates have Covid, along with dh's colleague and a family we know who went out for Easter brunch. They attribute the whole family coming down with Covid at once to that exposure. 

There's definitely a lot of virus out there. What I can't predict is if more and more people will test positive or if the fact that we had such a big Omicron wave will be protective at all. 

[Kassia]

4 minutes ago, Acadie said:

Next county over, and it's feeling like the beginning of Omicron because we keep hearing of new cases. A handful of dd's teammates have Covid, along with dh's colleague and a family we know who went out for Easter brunch. They attribute the whole family coming down with Covid at once to that exposure. 

There's definitely a lot of virus out there. What I can't predict is if more and more people will test positive or if the fact that we had such a big Omicron wave will be protective at all. 

My MIL got Covid at a family Easter gathering in Lake County.  7 out of 8 people got it and didn't test until the Friday after Easter, so who knows how many people they infected before quarantining?  I agree there's a lot of virus out there and much of it isn't getting reported with so many testing at home.

[Faith-manor]

3 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

I am sorry you are sick.  That stinks that you feel bad during vacation.  I hope you have time yet that you feel better for. 

The 4k people were unmasked?  I thought everyone had to be from when you posted before? 

We thought so too! They lifted it a day before we left!!! I couldn't believe it. Sigh. But at that point we had our hearts set on going, and decided to risk it. I.was.unhappy.

I suspect local politics had something to do with it. The college has always tried harder and been more accountable and covid cautious than the county in which is resides.

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, Kassia said:

My MIL got Covid at a family Easter gathering in Lake County.  7 out of 8 people got it and didn't test until the Friday after Easter, so who knows how many people they infected before quarantining?  I agree there's a lot of virus out there and much of it isn't getting reported with so many testing at home.

What bothers me about this stuff is that people know they aren't going to have symptoms or show positive for days--why don't they just PLAN to use a mask in the meantime? But then again, WHY am I expecting people to be reasonable? It's been proven they won't be.

We won't eat with people indoors unless they've been masking everywhere for ten days ahead of time and have also not eaten indoors with anyone not in their immediate household. We won't be able to do that next year, and I think that's going to be where we end up contracting it. DS will be going to school next year, and he has to eat. (DH has to eat at work, but he is pretty much always able to find a place to eat where no one has their mask off simultaneously.)

[Ting Tang]

I guess the good news is seeing that many cases are mild, but when I read about upticks in hospitalizations, I don't consider that to be a "mild" situation, even if people are not dying.  

I don't really know what the answer is.  I had a busy weekend.  I have been very cautious, but my son's TKD class had a demonstration, and then my daughter had a competition.  Bear in mind we haven't done anything like this since February 2020.  I wore my mask and was terribly uncomfortable, but most of the world is carrying on as normal.  Covid is not going away.  😞  It's depressing, and that's an understatement.

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

The US should prepare for a predictable Southern summer surge of Covid-19, Birx says (msn.com)

This makes some sense, but I would say that we tend to get mini-surges when the opposite direction is getting a big one with big pauses between little and big surges. It's not as clean cut as the article suggests. Our numbers are rising now after Easter/prom, etc., and they will do so again after fall holidays while waiting for the Big One from Thanksgiving through mid-January. 

We're right between north and south in SW Ohio. 

[Kassia]

10 minutes ago, kbutton said:

What bothers me about this stuff is that people know they aren't going to have symptoms or show positive for days--why don't they just PLAN to use a mask in the meantime? But then again, WHY am I expecting people to be reasonable? It's been proven they won't be.

 

Well, these are people who haven't been careful since the very beginning - even before vaccines.  I am shocked that none of them have gotten it before now because they continually put themselves in high-risk situations (and, of course, put others at high risk due to their behavior).  Oh, and even when they do mask, the masks are under their noses and they remove them constantly so they are not all that useful.  

 

My MIL has cancer and had to delay her treatment due to having covid.  

 

 

 

[Ting Tang]

Just now, Kassia said:

Well, these are people who haven't been careful since the very beginning - even before vaccines.  I am shocked that none of them have gotten it before now because they continually put themselves in high-risk situations (and, of course, put others at high risk due to their behavior).  Oh, and even when they do mask, the masks are under their noses and they remove them constantly so they are not all that useful.  

 

My MIL has cancer and had to delay her treatment due to having covid.  

 

 

 

Yeah.  Some of us are tired of doing the work for others---that is, being careful, sacrificing, making hard decisions, etc.  And for the immunocompromised, it's far worse.  They are going to do what they want with no regard for others.  We're all sick of this stuff, but that is true--some never did anything to help.   

[kbutton]

3 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Well, these are people who haven't been careful since the very beginning - even before vaccines.  I am shocked that none of them have gotten it before now because they continually put themselves in high-risk situations (and, of course, put others at high risk due to their behavior).  Oh, and even when they do mask, the masks are under their noses and they remove them constantly so they are not all that useful.  

There is a lot of that here. 

I was mostly musing out loud about people who want to rely on testing and goodwill to not infect others. It's not rational unless you actually put in contingencies like masking after a risky event. I am okay with people moving on to a degree (especially if vaccinated so that they aren't just putting themselves at risk of serious illness and death), but moving on does not in any way preclude a degree of common sense! But people seem to think that it's all or nothing, and I do.not.get.it.

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

We thought so too! They lifted it a day before we left!!! I couldn't believe it. Sigh. But at that point we had our hearts set on going, and decided to risk it. I.was.unhappy.

I suspect local politics had something to do with it. The college has always tried harder and been more accountable and covid cautious than the county in which is resides.

That is so horrible that they did that!!!  I would have been furious.  

[mommyoffive]

Australian researchers uncover clue to rare and severe response to Covid in children | Health | The Guardian

 

Pathophysiological pathway differences in children who present with COVID-19 ARDS compared to COVID -19 induced MIS-C | Nature Communications

[Faith-manor]

8 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

That is so horrible that they did that!!!  I would have been furious.  

I was! I felt dejected. My mom, whom we have been trying so hard to protect, was there and bless her she said, "I would not miss this for anything! I have waited for this day, and been able to see so many of these life celebrations for my grandchildren. Please do not feel guilty or angry if I get sick. I am ready. I am also privileged to have made it these last two years and been able to continue to love and spend time with my grandchildren, and my great grandchildren. It will be okay."

I think ds would have a hard time though because if she got covid and something  bad happened, it would cloud his memories of his big day for a long time to come.

On another note. I feel a little better tonight. Hopefully I am kicking this stupid sinus infection. Mark and the three musketeers had a wonderful time at the Museum of Danish America. Eldest has an appointment with the archivist tomorrow as well as the genealogy center so he and the other two will be going to a winery. I am going to rest again.

[Mom_to3]

24 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

That is so horrible that they did that!!!  I would have been furious.  

Yes - outrageous! Like dropping the mask mandate mid-flight. 

Also not sure why there is all that talk about a summer surge. We are in a pretty significant surge right now locally!

And in other news, there are worries about Paxlovid, which our government has been advocating like Halloween candy, is allowing for rebound in virus, which could lead to resistant strains. 

 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, Mom_to3 said:

Yes - outrageous! Like dropping the mask mandate mid-flight. 

Also not sure why there is all that talk about a summer surge. We are in a pretty significant surge right now locally!

And in other news, there are worries about Paxlovid, which our government has been advocating like Halloween candy, is allowing for rebound in virus, which could lead to resistant strains. 

 

I agree!  I would have been so upset and stressed if I had been on flight when that happened.  Dh had travel the next week that we felt okish about because of the mask mandate on the planes which would be time he was around the most people.  

I read about levels going up now, but man looking around where I am at you wouldn't know anything is going on.  Prom just happened in our town.  There have been no masks in the schools the whole year.  

Oh wow, I  hadn't heard about your last part.   UGH.

[Mom_to3]

BA.4 doesn't sound great. See the thread and tv clip (that Dr is a big name in South Africa). Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?!

 

[KSera]

1 hour ago, Mom_to3 said:

 

And in other news, there are worries about Paxlovid, which our government has been advocating like Halloween candy, is allowing for rebound in virus, which could lead to resistant strains. 

 

My understanding is that this is currently looking like it happens just as often in people who got placebo as in people who got Paxlovid, and they don’t believe it poses an issue for creating resistance. It does however mean that they might need to consider lengthening the course. Or maybe they can figure out which populations are most likely to have this happen and lengthen the course for them. It’s still greatly reducing hospitalization and death in those populations. Unfortunately, the bigger problem is that it is still extremely difficult for a lot of people to access. I’ve read many threads of people who are well resourced describing how difficult it was for them to finally obtain it for themself or a family member. Now imagine for people less well-positioned. 

[Kassia]

Just found out that my friend's toddler is hospitalized with Covid.  He'll be 2 in two weeks.  They live in TX.  😞  

[kbutton]

13 hours ago, Mom_to3 said:

BA.4 doesn't sound great. See the thread and tv clip (that Dr is a big name in South Africa). Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?!

The light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming train at this point.

I just wish we had more treatments, more considerate behavior, and some collective goodwill left if we're going to be here for a long time. Something better than "move on, nothing to see here, folks."

[mommyoffive]

4 hours ago, Kassia said:

Just found out that my friend's toddler is hospitalized with Covid.  He'll be 2 in two weeks.  They live in TX.  😞  

Oh my no.  I am so sorry.  Sending prayers to that little sweet baby.

[mommyoffive]

CDC restates recommendation for masks on planes, trains (msn.com)

[Mom_to3]

19 hours ago, KSera said:

My understanding is that this is currently looking like it happens just as often in people who got placebo as in people who got Paxlovid, and they don’t believe it poses an issue for creating resistance. It does however mean that they might need to consider lengthening the course. Or maybe they can figure out which populations are most likely to have this happen and lengthen the course for them. It’s still greatly reducing hospitalization and death in those populations. Unfortunately, the bigger problem is that it is still extremely difficult for a lot of people to access. I’ve read many threads of people who are well resourced describing how difficult it was for them to finally obtain it for themself or a family member. Now imagine for people less well-positioned. 

In the thread that I linked, Michael Mina, who would be more qualified than I am to speak of these matters, specifically says "In my view, this is a serious issue & one that may increase chance of a resistant mutation in a virus forming & spreading". 

It may well be that we need to lengthen the course of treatment, but of course that would cut the supply quite sharply (I have also heard of access issues) or increase the risk of side effects.

[YaelAldrich]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

CDC restates recommendation for masks on planes, trains (msn.com)

That will happen when kosher pigs fly to the moon!

DH just came back from visiting both of our parents. Maybe 10% were masking in the airports and airplanes. Guess who will be testing through the week?

Edited May 4, 2022 by YaelAldrich

[mommyoffive]

[mommyoffive]

SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank | Nature

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

13 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

That will happen when kosher pigs fly to the moon!

DH just came back from visiting both of our parents. Maybe 10% were masking in the airports and airplanes. Guess who will be testing through the week?

I flew out of Charlotte last night.  I saw two people masked on the full plane and my estimate would be less than 10% of the people I saw in the airport were wearing masks.  I was at a medical conference and almost nobody was masking, not even ER doctors and anesthesiologists.  I had similar observations at a similar conference a few weeks ago and was hoping maybe that was just regional, but now I’m thinking probably it’s widespread that no one is masking any longer.

[Ali in OR]

Middle dd tested positive yesterday. She's finishing her senior year in college in CA. There's no required testing anymore, so who knows how many have it. She was urged to test after someone she was working with on a theater production tested positive. I hate this virus, and it does feel like it's beginning to breakout strong again.

[ktgrok]

13 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

That will happen when kosher pigs fly to the moon!

DH just came back from visiting both of our parents. Maybe 10% were masking in the airports and airplanes. Guess who will be testing through the week?

Yup. DH is on a plane this minute. Between me having dental work and him flying we won't be seeing my mom for Mother's Day 😞

[YaelAldrich]

16 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

I flew out of Charlotte last night.  I saw two people masked on the full plane and my estimate would be less than 10% of the people I saw in the airport were wearing masks.  I was at a medical conference and almost nobody was masking, not even ER doctors and anesthesiologists.  I had similar observations at a similar conference a few weeks ago and was hoping maybe that was just regional, but now I’m thinking probably it’s widespread that no one is masking any longer.

I had a doctor's appointment today and decided to take the city bus in today since it's a direct bus from home to hospital. Our transit system just made masks optional last week. But in the very full bus everyone but two women wore masks. I was impressed but most of the people are hospital workers. I'm in the bus going home again and it's not full at all and everyone is wearing a mask. Boston Strong y'all!

[mommyoffive]

Severe Covid May Cost Survivors 10 IQ Points, Study Finds (msn.com)

[mommyoffive]

Why is U.S. national data so terrible? (substack.com)

[cintinative]

is Covid Act Now pretty much useless now? It looks like they reworked their risk criteria so it's the same as the CDC community guidelines.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Someone from the CDC called me yesterday (connected to V-safe) and asked if me I had to go to the hospital after my second vaccination. 

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

Severe Covid May Cost Survivors 10 IQ Points, Study Finds (msn.com)

I believe this, given ds's experience with a "mild" case.

 

[I talk to the trees]

19 minutes ago, cintinative said:

is Covid Act Now pretty much useless now? It looks like they reworked their risk criteria so it's the same as the CDC community guidelines.

Yeah, I noticed this too, sadly. For a while, I was depending on their daily updates to determine what activities were “safer.” Numbers mean nothing when they come from the same people who are manipulating the numbers to make everything look better. 😔

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Yup. DH is on a plane this minute. Between me having dental work and him flying we won't be seeing my mom for Mother's Day 😞

Is it too hot to mask and meet outside? I am sorry. We're having a lot of trouble with medical offices not masking, and my son's surgery date was moved up by a lot. I am so angry that we can't get medical people to keep their masks on. 

28 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Someone from the CDC called me yesterday (connected to V-safe) and asked if me I had to go to the hospital after my second vaccination. 

I am glad they are following up, but I assume you had your second shot a really looong time ago! I hope this means maybe they followed up on really severe reports first or something, lol!

[mommyoffive]

33 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Someone from the CDC called me yesterday (connected to V-safe) and asked if me I had to go to the hospital after my second vaccination. 

Did you have that reaction? 

[mommyoffive]

48 minutes ago, cintinative said:

is Covid Act Now pretty much useless now? It looks like they reworked their risk criteria so it's the same as the CDC community guidelines.

Yes it is.  I was so upset when they announced they were doing that.  They were my go to to figure things out.  Honestly I look at maps and stuff, but with all the no testing and home testing I don't think they are  a great picture. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

8 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Is it too hot to mask and meet outside? I am sorry. We're having a lot of trouble with medical offices not masking, and my son's surgery date was moved up by a lot. I am so angry that we can't get medical people to keep their masks on. 

I am glad they are following up, but I assume you had your second shot a really looong time ago! I hope this means maybe they followed up on really severe reports first or something, lol!

 

4 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Did you have that reaction? 

I have had (and reported) a booster since the second vaccination so they are a bit behind.  No, I did not have any need to go to a doctor or to be hospitalized after any of the shots.  I'm trying to remember if I had misinterpreted a v-safe question.  Did they ask me if I had been to a doctor on the v-safe questionnaire and I said yes, because I had for some other reason?  I don't know why they would ask for clarification now.  At first I was a bit hesitant because I wondered if it was a scam but I was not giving out any personal information so I just answered the question.  The young woman said, "thank you" and that was that. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Jean in Newcastle

[ktgrok]

8 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Is it too hot to mask and meet outside? I am sorry. We're having a lot of trouble with medical offices not masking, and my son's surgery date was moved up by a lot. I am so angry that we can't get medical people to keep their masks on. 

 

We'd need to go inside to use bathrooms, and would need to change if swimming, and if not swimming yeah, too hot. Really, too hot for my mom in general to be outside that long, and too humid. She has COPD and is now having issues with keeping her O2 sats up, so really, even outdoor contact is a bad idea and risky for her, when we've been so exposed lately. 

[mommyoffive]

[mommyoffive]

Long Covid in Kids Has Effects That Last Beyond Hospital - Bloomberg