How and if we can learn to live with COVID

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It is apparently low risk of getting severe COVID vs a strong risk of mental and developmental harm.

But society has always pretty much ignored their needs with regard to every other contagious disease, so it's not an unprecedented thing, not a qualitative change.

This is the exact opposite of what I have been reading. I've read articles from licensed psychologists who say that masking has no ill-effects on children, they easily adapt to other social cues. (obviously lip reading is a different matter)
Long Covid and "severe COVID" are not the same thing at all. This is a common misconception.
The current lowball estimate for Long Covid odds are 33%.
So say a child brings Covid home with them from school, infects mom and dad, statistics state that one of them will have lingering symptoms afterwards.

Don't forget, the mental harm to those affected by the virus itself. Not only does Covid cause SERIOUS neurological damage, PTSD, etc. but also severely affects the well-being of those who have to care for Long Haulers, or those who Long Haulers are responsible for taking care of.

With schools dropping mask mandates, many parents are going to be pulling their children out of school

Lack of masking means not learning social skills, remote learning, social distincing increases mental illness. It is apparently low risk of getting severe COVID vs a strong risk of mental and developmental harm. The frustrating thing with long covid is we are clueless about the risk so the decision becomes avoid strong risk of mental illness and developmental delays in children and risk something that might happen.

I would have figured with the Omicron surge over for a month plus now we should be seeing a surge of long covid at this point. Same with breakthrough cases of fully vaccinated/boosted Long Covid. I have not read anything about that. Is this because it is not there or just being ignored?

A new survey found Americans are split on how and when they can return to "normal life," even as many COVID-19 restrictions end on Long Island.

A majority of U.S. adults worry about the negative consequences of both lifting coronavirus-related restrictions and keeping them in place, even as most believe the worst of the pandemic is behind us, according to the survey by the nonprofit health organization Kaiser Family Foundation.

About 61% of 1,502 adults sampled worry that people who are immunocompromised will be left behind in a return to normal. Nearly half are concerned that lifting restrictions could lead to rising deaths in their communities and difficulties accessing medical care, according to the study released on March 1.

But larger majorities — 65% and 63% — worry that if masking and testing requirements stay in place, kids' and teens’ mental health will suffer and local businesses will lose out.

"The conventional wisdom seems to be that Americans are ready to throw off all COVID restrictions and be done with it, but the survey shows that reality is much more complicated," KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said in a statement.

"Much of the public is sensibly both anxious and eager about returning to normal," he added.

As for when returning to normal will be safe, 35% said "now" at the time of the survey, which took place from Feb. 9 to 21. Another 32% said they expected that moment to come by the fall or earlier, while 26% said they believed it would be another year or more

Still, about half of adults reported they're already living almost or largely normally, although 78% acknowledged "normal" looks different from before.

Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of the department of medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, said the survey results are "not surprising," especially as COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations have dropped to some of the lowest levels seen so far.

"A lot of people are very hopeful, and therefore they act as if [the pandemic] is over. I'm also hopeful that they're right. But I don't know if that's true," Glatt said. " … It's critically important that people understand that they not throw away everything. We've reached a good, safe point. And let's hope we can continue with that," he said.

At South Nassau, the "sickest" patients in recent times have either been unvaccinated or have had severe underlying medical conditions, Glatt said.

Glatt recommended that those who are immunocompromised continue wearing masks in indoor places with crowds where vaccination statuses are unknown. In small and vaccinated groups, "they can decide for themselves how much risk they're willing to take," he said.

They can also consider taking monoclonal antibody therapies, which reduce the risk of infection, if approved by a doctor, Glatt said.

Overall COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adults and children remains relatively unchanged since January. About one-fourth of adults remain unvaccinated including one in six who say they will “definitely not” get vaccinated. Partisanship continues to play an outsized role in vaccination and booster intent among adults and among parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children.

Larger shares of Democrats and independents than Republicans are worried that the government lifting pandemic restrictions could have negative consequences, including leaving immune-compromised people behind (82% and 62%, compared to 30%), an increased number of deaths (70%, 46%, and 23%), or hospitals being overrun and being unable to get needed medical care (66%, 46%, and 22%).

Along with concerns over children’s mental health, overall support for masking in K-12 schools has decreased among the public since this past fall. Almost six in ten support any mask requirements in schools including four in ten (43%) who say all students and staff should be required to wear masks and 14% who say this requirement should only be for unvaccinated students and staff.

The overall share who support any mask requirement has decreased 9 percentage points since September 2021, when two-thirds supported some level of masking requirement. While there are still large partisan differences in support for such requirements , overall support for mask requirements in schools has decreased since September among Democrats, independents, and Republicans.

Throughout the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats have held strikingly different views of the coronavirus and the precautions needed to prevent its spread. The same is true of views of returning to normal with two-thirds of Republicans believing it is safe to resume normal pre-pandemic activities either “now” (65%) or “in the next month or so” (2%). Democrats, on the other hand, are far more cautious with about one in ten saying it is safe to resume activities “now” and an additional 5% saying “in the next month or so.” More than one-third of Democrats say it will be at least another year before it is safe to resume activities compared to a quarter of independents and one in ten Republicans who say the same. Six in ten unvaccinated adults say it is safe for most people to resume their normal pre-pandemic activities “now” compared to one-quarter of vaccinated adults who say the same. This is consistent with previous KFF research finding unvaccinated adults were far more skeptical of the severity of the virus and less worried about them or their family members getting seriously sick.

One thing that Republicans, Democrats, vaccinated adults, and unvaccinated adults agree on is that normal life will look different going forward. Large majorities of adults, regardless of age, parental status, gender, and party identification say normal life will look like something different rather than going back to the way things were before the pandemic.

While the COVID-19 pandemic still looms large for many people in the U.S., it is not the top issue on voters’ minds as they begin to think about the 2022 midterm elections.

On Monday, Florida’s top doctor announced a controversial coronavirus recommendation for families.

“The Florida Department of Health is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” said Dr. Joseph Ladapo.

Ladapo is Florida’s surgeon general. His announcement came at the end of an hour-and-half long roundtable discussion hosted by Governor Ron DeSantis with doctors and medical experts. Both state leaders did not go into details about the new recommendation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended people age five and up get a vaccine.

THis might cause a person to wonder about the efficacy and safety of the original Covid vaccines ?

Nights in the Big Apple are once again booming into the wee hours as droves of revelers return to their old stomping grounds in full force.

In Manhattan last Friday night, Slate nightclub in the Flatiron District had lines stretching to the end of the block. Over in Chelsea at Noir, bottles of Champagne were popped, and young women in crop tops mingled with slightly older bros in ball caps, zip-up sweaters and Ralph Lauren button-down shirts. Down in the West Village, at bars such as 3 Sheets Saloon and Off the Wagon, there was plenty of PDA alongside Jägerbombs and tequila shots.

“You hit the gym at 4:30 in the morning, go to work and then you get wasted,” Rob Andersen, a 28-year-old Upper East Side neurophysiologist enthused after downing a few drinks at 3 Sheets.

The vibe is constantly improving in the city, more and more people keep coming back out,” said Raymond Kreiger, a 28-year-old physician’s assistant also from the Upper East Side.

Although Kreiger is engaged, the rapidly expanding nightlife is making for a healthy hookup scene for singles like Andersen. As he bluntly put it: “Girls are down, man.”

The women at Jeremy’s Ale House at the Seaport would not disagree.

“You’re definitely willing to put yourself out there more, you’re not like, ‘Oh s – – t, they have COVID,’ ” said Caitlin McGuire, 21, and a student at Wagner College on Staten Island. “My friend hooked up with five guys last weekend.”

Over at Noir, the worries of the past two years seemed far away from the sparklers and popping bubbles.

“Everyone who comes out now doesn’t give a f – – k about COVID,” said Natalie Delautre, a 25-year-old fashion-merchandising student who lives in the Financial District.

Whether grabbing a beer after work or ordering bottle service into the wee hours, a common sentiment prevailed throughout the city. As Joe Palumbo, a 26-year-old sales associate drinking on Stone Street at a bustling happy hour, put it, “It feels back to normal.”

As the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 continues to rise on Long Island, experts say those who didn’t contract the coronavirus in the past few months are most at risk, but if they’re vaccinated, their vulnerability drops.

The spread of the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.2 and a decline in mask-wearing are causing the rise in rates after they declined sharply following the omicron surge earlier this winter, said Dr. Leonard Krilov, an infectious disease expert and chief of pediatrics at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola.

The positivity rate likely will continue to rise somewhat, but he didn’t expect a major new wave of infections.

The immunity levels in the population are pretty good” because of vaccination and the large number of people infected with the coronavirus in recent months, he said. “I’m guardedly optimistic we won’t see major blips.”

After the Long Island positivity rate reached nearly 27% in early January, it fell to 1.52% by March 9. But it’s been steadily rising since then, with the increase accelerating in recent days, going from 1.99% on Tuesday to 2.31% on Friday.

Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology for Northwell Health, said people who both contracted the virus in recent months and are vaccinated, and especially those who also received booster shots, are most protected against new infection. But immunity gradually wanes over time, he said.

"Every month that goes by and we’re further away from January, when most of those people got infected, the number of vulnerable people is going to grow," he said.

Farber said that, to limit the spread of the virus, “the things we can do are give another booster or change our lifestyles again." But, he said, "there’s no appetite in our country" for reinstituting restrictions such as mask mandates.

"The only remaining option is really boosters," he said.

The Biden administration is planning to allow everyone 50 and older to receive a second booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, although it would only be an option, not a recommendation, according to multiple news outlets.

Data out of Israel, which for months has allowed second boosters for people 60 and older and other vulnerable groups, is promising, Farber said. But the results are from two months after the booster was given, and “normally we don’t make decisions based on two-month follow-ups,” he said. It’s unclear how quickly protection wanes after two months, he said.

Farber said people 60 or 65 and older probably should get a second booster, if authorized. For people in their 50s, it would depend on how much time they spend in crowded indoor spaces and whether they have health conditions making them more vulnerable, he said.

Unvaccinated people 12 and older are more than three times as likely to test positive for the coronavirus than boosted people, and 21 times more likely to die of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The timing of a second booster would be a judgment call, Krilov said. With the positivity rate still relatively low, it may make more sense for many people to wait until just before the fall, when the risk likely will be higher.

“On the other hand, if I have multiple risk factors, I’d probably say get it as soon as it’s approved,” he said.

On the long covid thing, I can offer my personal experience. Warning: it's not great news, but not a disaster either.

I've now had covid twice. I have always had my vaccines, and have a healthy lifestyle and have been able to work from home a lot so minimised my exposure. Achilles Heel was my son, who goes to a nursery. He caught it and passed it on to me.

1st covid: August 2021. Both had very clear flu symptoms with really high temperature for 3-4 days. Then felt a lot better. Lungs took real punishment and we were coughing whenever the slightest thing happened eg wind got up, we took a deeper breath. We couldn't even get to sleep such was the coughing, even after 'beating' covid. We had to get asthma inhalers prescribed to allow us to fall asleep. We had long covid for 3 months, and had low energy that entire time and we continually picked up minor colds that time. One day in December we both woke up and felt like our old selves, clear lungs and had energy.

2nd covid. March 2022. Same cause. Minor symptoms this time, but lasting effect in terms of foggy head and low energy and my lung capacity is reduced. Right now if I take in a deep breath and blow out my lungs sound really raspy. Finding it much harder to concentrate on things. This is consistent with some grey cell damage that I've read about in the news. But who knows. It's really very annoying and I'm so over this whole pandemic. I've done everything I can to look after myself and family and minimise my burden on the national health service but I've still caught it twice and have taken at the very least medium term damage to my system.

On the long covid thing, I can offer my personal experience. Warning: it's not great news, but not a disaster either.

I've now had covid twice. I have always had my vaccines, and have a healthy lifestyle and have been able to work from home a lot so minimised my exposure. Achilles Heel was my son, who goes to a nursery. He caught it and passed it on to me.

1st covid: August 2021. Both had very clear flu symptoms with really high temperature for 3-4 days. Then felt a lot better. Lungs took real punishment and we were coughing whenever the slightest thing happened eg wind got up, we took a deeper breath. We couldn't even get to sleep such was the coughing, even after 'beating' covid. We had to get asthma inhalers prescribed to allow us to fall asleep. We had long covid for 3 months, and had low energy that entire time and we continually picked up minor colds that time. One day in December we both woke up and felt like our old selves, clear lungs and had energy.

2nd covid. March 2022. Same cause. Minor symptoms this time, but lasting effect in terms of foggy head and low energy and my lung capacity is reduced. Right now if I take in a deep breath and blow out my lungs sound really raspy. Finding it much harder to concentrate on things. This is consistent with some grey cell damage that I've read about in the news. But who knows. It's really very annoying and I'm so over this whole pandemic. I've done everything I can to look after myself and family and minimise my burden on the national health service but I've still caught it twice and have taken at the very least medium term damage to my system.