How do you live with Covid-19, flu and R.S.V? a CDC Director says there is a “big picture” in the United States
In China, the government has finally begun to ease draconian zero-Covid policies. Meanwhile, in the US, most Americans are resigned to the idea that Covid-19 will not be gone in their lifetime and many feel a return to masking is unpleasant.
The current rise in Covid-19 cases is one leg of a triple threat – a “tridemic,” a “tripledemic” or a “trifecta,” as some news organizations are calling it – along with a bad flu season and an RSV outbreak hitting mainly children.
The federal government moves in a different direction when it comes to vaccines. The vaccine requirement for military members was repealed in the defense bill passed by the House.
Some parts of the country may be more intense than others in regards to rates of covid-19, flu and R.S.V. As a result, he urged anyone who lives in a high-risk household to “put your mask back on” when in public spaces. High-risk households would include those with adults over the age of 65, pregnant women, people with a pre-existing condition such as heart disease, diabetes or lung disease and anyone who is immune-compromised.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters Monday that about 5% of the population currently lives in a county with high spread. CDC’s county-level data suggests more than two-thirds of Americans live in an area with low transmission, but that cases are rising.
Do masks really cut down the spread of Covid-19 in the public? Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses the need to hide what you are doing during his final White House briefing
Walensky said the most important protection for people against the triple threat is to stay up to date on Covid-19 vaccines and boosters and to get an annual flu shot. Also, stay home when you’re sick, please.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, also talked about the need to mask up during his final White House briefing in late November.
In an interview with NBC News, he said people should hide what they are doing, but was careful to say it was only a recommendation.
Fauci doesn’t want to talk about mandating anything. “I’m talking about just common sense of saying, ‘You know, I really don’t want to take the risk of myself getting infected, and even more so, spreading it to someone who is a vulnerable member of my family.’”
“No, it shouldn’t be,” Fauci said. Sometimes you feel guilty when you have a mask on, but nobody else has a mask. You don’t have to feel guilty.
More than two-thirds of Americans said they were wearing a mask not often or never outside the home. Just 14% said their employer required mask wearing.
In hindsight, mask requirements may have helped drive a growing skepticism of public officials. Nearly half, 45%, agreed in the Axios-Ipsos survey with the idea that public health officials lied to the public about the efficacy of masks and vaccines at preventing the virus’ spread.
The last time Ipsos asked about support for mask requirements was in July, when 45% supported local government requirements, down from more than two-thirds support in January 2022.
Masks do cut down on the spread of Covid-19, even in schools, according to a recent Harvard University study documented in The New York Times that looked at Covid-19 cases in two school districts that continued requiring masks after the rest of Boston area districts made them optional in the spring.
The case rates have gone up by 56 percent and 24 percent in the past two weeks. The CDC estimates there have been 13 million illnesses and 7,300 deaths from the flu so far this season, and they expect that number to rise in the coming months. The annual flu deaths have ranged from 12,000 to 52,000 over the past ten years. Even though R.S.V. finally appears to be on decline, infections are still high in most of the country.
The Walking Declaration of Disease : What We Don’t Want to Learn About Face Masks or How to Wear them: A Reply to David Leonhardt
“Bret:” The mandates didn’t work, and it’s not just the recent analysis that I cited in my column. Our colleague David Leonhardt said the same thing last year. What can work at the individual level can, and often does, totally fail at the collective level.
It’s also common sense. If you’re required to wear a mask on an airplane but allowed to take it off to eat or drink, the requirement becomes useless. If you are supposed to wear a mask on your walk to a restaurant, but not when you sit down, it is useless. If you’re supposed to wear a mask but nobody is very concerned about whether it’s an N95 or a cloth mask, it’s useless.
Those folks are going to go out sometimes whether we like it or not, and if they’re the only ones who have to wear masks, it’s like a walking declaration of disease — ringing a bell to warn that the leper is coming.
There’s also the fact that, in a culture like America’s, there was never a chance we’d get the kind of compliance we need to make a real difference. Maybe in China, which could be draconian in its enforcement, but I don’t think any of us would have wanted that here.