What are Covid-19 deaths? Why do we see them as a basic reminder of the epidemic? What are they? How do we manage to look at the statistics?
What are they? We are spending more time on the need for vaccinations than on the vulnerabilities of age because there is no simple or silver-bullet solution. Emphasizing the importance of getting more shots is something public health officials could help with, as well as emphasizing that different groups may need different approaches, and that even with up-to-date vaccinations, the risk of infection is still very high.
As a country, we prefer to not see those deaths, as a baseline of several hundred deaths a day as a sort of background noise or faded wallpaper. We don’t want to think about the fact that hundreds of Americans are dying from Covid-19 every day, which is the third leading cause of death in the country. This is normalization at work, but it is also a familiar pattern: We don’t exactly track the ups and downs of cancer or heart disease either.
Throughout the last few years, the country has also struggled to consider individual risk and social risk separately. In the first year of the pandemic, we seemed to build our sense of individual risk backward from the social need to limit spread — underemphasizing some of the differential threat and focusing instead on universal measures like social distancing and mask wearing. With the arrival of vaccines, we began to build a collective picture of social risk in the opposite way, up from an individual basis instead.
Zero-covid policies have been loosened by the Chinese government. 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 is moving in the opposite direction with vaccines. The House repealed the requirement for Covid vaccine in order to pass a defense bill.
Rates of Covid-19 may be more intense in some areas but the entire country is being affected by the flu and R.S.V. Anyone who lives in a high risk household should put their mask on when in public spaces. Those with adults over the age of 65 and pregnant women are among the high-risk households.
About 5% of the population lives in a county with high spread, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. CDC’s county-level data suggests more than two-thirds of Americans live in an area with low transmission, but that cases are rising.
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The most protection against the triple threat is to stay up to date on Covid-19 vaccines and to get an annual flu shot, according to Walensky. 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.
He was careful to say it was only a recommendation when he said in an exit interview that people should mask where appropriate.
Fauci was not talking about mandating anything. I think this is the perfect example of common sense saying no to sharing the disease with a vulnerable family member.
Fauci said that it shouldn’t be. “I know sometimes when you walk in and you have a mask and nobody has a mask, you kind of feel guilty. You don’t really need to feel guilty.
Almost two-thirds of Americans said they wore a mask outside of the home. Just 14% said their employer required mask wearing.
Public health officials will face a challenge if Covid-19 cases continue and they need to figure out how to get people to wear masks.
In July this year 45% of people supported local government requirements, which is less than the two-thirds support recorded in January.
N95 masks have been shown to block virus particles. There is a chance of getting sick if you don’t mask your face, but wearing a high-quality mask can cut that in half.
Though COVID cases are much lower than they were last winter, case counts are ticking up nationwide, and nearly 3,000 Americans are dying each week. Meanwhile, other respiratory viruses like the flu and RSV have surged this fall.
The data from the Department of health and Human Services shows that less than seven out of ten hospital beds are occupied, which is the highest since last winter.
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That makes staying home when sick “one of the most profoundly important things we can do this holiday season to keep other people safe,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California San Francisco. “Not going to that holiday party while you are coughing and sneezing is what it means.”
Now’s the time to look ahead and think about what plans you have for the holidays, Wu said. Which events are the highest priorities for you? What do you want to see?
Some people are comfortable getting together at a bar. Others, not so much. “If you want to protect the vulnerable person, whether they’re elderly or an infant, and you also want to reduce the chance of getting sick when you’re together, then incorporate some of the lessons from the last few years,” he said.
It is possible to decide on which safety measures you should take by thinking through those questions. “We’re going to be a little different, that’s what every family and individual is going to be,” he said.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142651228/stay-safe-holidays-covid-flu-rsv-tripledemic
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Most children are able to get the vaccine made by Pfizer and Moderna. Adults who finished an initial vaccine course at least six months ago are able to get the Novavax vaccine as a booster.
But flu shot uptake this year has been low. Only about a quarter of American adults have been vaccinated, according to the CDC. Those who haven’t gotten their shot yet should seek one soon, said Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan.
The vaccine is a good match to the strain that is circulating. And much like COVID vaccines, flu shots don’t prevent all infections, but they can help prevent hospitalizations, deaths, as well as transmission,” Malani said in an interview last week with NPR.
This was the other easy source of agreement. “If you have any symptoms and you’re not feeling well, we will ask you to stay home.” Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, spoke with NPR last week and said that they don’t want people to gather if they are unwell.
The risk of getting disease is much lower for people with no symptoms than for people with symptoms, claims a scientific review published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
If you do feel sick, get tested — COVID tests are widely available this year at pharmacies and grocery stores. And health care providers can arrange a flu test.
Respiratory diseases such as COVID have a difficult time spreading outdoors, where natural airflow is remarkably effective at dispersing droplets and pathogens.
Not everything can realistically be moved outdoors. Many religious services and social gatherings will be indoors. Spending lots of time indoors together is inescapable for family members who travel long distances to see each other.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142651228/stay-safe-holidays-covid-flu-rsv-tripledemic
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If the weather Permits, you can walk in the park, ice skate or stroll an outdoor holiday market, rather than going to a bar or restaurant, if the weather Permits.
For the indoor gatherings, Gandhi suggests doing what you can to improve ventilation. Open windows if the weather allows. If not, HEPA filters, cracked windows and ceiling fans can help too.
“I think that has really come out as the strongest non-pharmaceutical intervention that’s been revealed during this pandemic, because it just eliminates all respiratory pathogens,” she said.
A lot of people are unwell in crowded indoor spaces, whether it is on the subway or in an airplane. So put that mask on,” Malani said.
“I think a mask is not that hard to do,” said Wu. “I really encourage folks to keep that mask handy and use it” when you find yourself in a crowded and poorly ventilated indoor space.