Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus
11 Mar 2023, 4:15 pm
Yup.
Gotta watch out for histamines, too.
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11 Mar 2023, 10:48 pm
What's your current risk of getting long Covid? Estimates hover around 5%-10%
"Even the medical community is unclear on all of this. The data is just emerging so rapidly and the estimates are varied," said Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chair of the department of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine.
In the absence of definitive data on long Covid risk, seven researchers investigating the condition's prevalence in the U.S. offered NBC News their best guesses. Most said it's fair to assume that the current risk for vaccinated people is 10% or less, and some thought the odds were smaller — 5% or lower.
Even reinfections bring a risk of long Covid, they added.
"You may get long Covid the second time around, the third time around. That reinfection is absolutely consequential, and you’re pretty much doing Russian roulette again," said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 38 million adults in the U.S. have reported post-Covid symptoms that lasted three months or longer, according to an NBC News analysis of data from a household survey conducted by the Census Bureau. The survey results showed that as of February, around 11% of adults who'd ever had Covid were experiencing long Covid.
Those figures lump vaccinated and unvaccinated cases together, though the risk profiles differ: The researchers interviewed estimated that for unvaccinated people, the risk of long Covid is around 15% to 20%.
The U.S. is still recording more than 225,000 new Covid cases each week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so long Covid is an ever-present threat.
"Out of 100 people you see, 95 or 96 people are going to be just fine. But you could be one of those unlucky four, and I personally don’t want to take my chances," Al-Aly said.
Overall, the rate of long Covid has been decreasing since the Census Bureau started including questions about it in its household survey in June 2022. At that time, 19% of respondents who'd had Covid reported current symptoms that had lasted three months or longer.
But Sharon Saydah, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC who leads the agency’s post-Covid conditions team, said the survey is "not a good way to judge individual risk," given that it includes new long Covid cases and those that have lasted since earlier in the pandemic.
Experts offered a few likely explanations for the downward trend in long Covid cases: the uptake of vaccines and treatment, and the nature of the omicron variant.
A spate of studies have shown that even getting a single Covid shot decreases a person’s chances of long-term symptoms, and that the risk declines further with each additional shot. The antiviral Paxlovid also seems to lower the odds of long Covid, according to a study that’s awaiting peer review.
The existing data does suggest that the risk of long Covid in the post-omicron era may be less, but it's confounded by the rise in vaccination rates occurring essentially over the same time period," said Dr. Stuart Katz, a principal investigator with the National Institutes of Health's RECOVER initiative, which is studying the long-term effects of Covid.
Factors that influence a person's risk of long Covid include their age, sex, health history and the severity of their illness. According to a review in the journal Nature, women and people with Type 2 diabetes or ADHD may have an elevated risk.
Kaushal said she is seeing persistent heart and kidney problems in older men who had severe Covid, as well as sleep disorders and shortness of breath in younger women.
There is some hope that new cases of long Covid are milder than ones that developed earlier in the pandemic, due to the same factors that are causing rates to decline.
"The incidence of it, the severity of it and the duration of it seems to be decreasing," Kaushal said.
Dr. Sun Yoo, director of the Covid Ambulatory Monitoring Program at UCLA Health, said she still sees debilitating cases of long Covid, but "in general overall, I am seeing less of it and less severe versions of it."
Katz noted, however, that the sheer number of omicron infections may partly explain why doctors are seeing more patients with milder symptoms.
And some vaccinated people still face persistent, life-altering health issues after getting Covid.
"I see these patients — some of them literally cannot even read an email. They have brain fog that is so profound, it substantially impairs their cognitive abilities," Al-Aly said.
Quantifying the risk of long Covid is difficult for many reasons, and Saydah said it's also tough to compare the rates to other post-viral illnesses, since other viruses haven’t caused this level of widespread disease over a short time.
Studies of long Covid have defined the condition in distinct ways and evaluated different types of patients.
"Everybody’s kind of come up with different approaches," said Dr. Roy Perlis, who directs the Center for Quantitative Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. "There’s the health records approach. There’s the survey approach. ... All of those tell us different things. None of them are perfect."
One of the largest studies on the topic, from Al-Aly’s team in St. Louis, suggested that the overall risk of long Covid was 4% to 7% during the first year of the pandemic.
"My hunch is now that it’s lower than that," he said.
That study examined the health records of more than 181,000 patients at the VA who got Covid through March 2021, then compared that group to nearly 4.4 million veterans who did not test positive.
But relying on health records can lead to underestimates, since such studies only include patients who have sought medical care and been tested for Covid.
To account for that, Yoo and her team at UCLA directly observed more than 1,000 Covid patients who were at high risk of severe illness or hospitalized during the first year of the pandemic. Their study found that 30% had lingering symptoms up to 90 days after their diagnosis or hospital discharge.
She hypothesized that the overall risk for vaccinated people today could be around 5% to 10%.
Kaushal, too, said her "gut sense is that we're closer to 5%."
Long Covid patients face medical debt after insurance denies claims
POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, caused numbness throughout her arms and legs, a pins-and-needles sensation and sudden drops in her heart rate.
Because her heart problems didn't go away, in early 2022 her doctors began conducting a series of lab tests in an attempt to better understand her long Covid symptoms.
When Maness submitted the testing to her insurance — Anthem Blue Cross — the provider deemed the testing medically unnecessary and declined to cover the cost. She’s now on the hook for the medical bills, which have already cost her more than $10,000 out of pocket.
“I’m kind of at the point sadly where I’ve just given up,” said Maness, a Ph.D. student in Sacramento, California. Many of her insurance appeals have been denied. “I don’t have the mental bandwidth to even battle this anymore, because it’s become clear that it is most likely going to be unsuccessful.”
Maness is among several long Covid patients in the United States interviewed by NBC News who say their insurance providers are declining to provide coverage related to their illness.
But there are likely many more. Up to 4 million full-time workers are out of the labor force due to long Covid, according to research from the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
For some, the care they need to manage their chronic illness has left them in medical debt, which can easily balloon into the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, experts say. It's unclear how many are being denied coverage, but a paper published in May in JAMA Health Forum estimated that the individual medical costs of long Covid could come to roughly $9,000 a year.
Part of the problem, experts say, is the ambiguity of long Covid symptoms, which can range from extreme fatigue to loss of taste and smell to debilitating heart palpitations. There's no official test to diagnose the condition, nor is there any specific recommended treatment. That makes it more difficult for doctors to come up with a proper treatment.
Before they pay, insurance companies often want to know if the treatment is proven to work.
Long Covid patients can fight the denied claims through appeals or going to court — a time-consuming and draining approach for any patient, let alone those who may suffer from fatigue and brain fog, said Michele Johnson, the executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, a legal aid group that has helped long Covid patients get health coverage.
“They’re trying to keep their job or keep caring for their family," she said, "and there’s so much bureaucracy and red tape that they’re just drowning in it."
Experts say insurance companies will often deny claims for care related to long Covid because they don't see it as a “medical necessity.”
In order for the care a patient receives to be deemed medically necessary by an insurance provider, there has to be substantial research or evidence that shows that it works, she said.
That's "a key issue for long Covid," she said, because the illness is so new and still poorly understood.
"Research, just like everything with Covid, is all new," she said. "Nobody really quite knows what works and nobody really understands why some people have it longer than others."
To be sure, as of 2021, there are diagnostic codes for long Covid — key tools used by doctors to characterize medical diagnoses for insurance coverage, said Dr. Alan Kwan, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Those codes, however, don't always cover the myriad health problems linked to long Covid, he said.
Doctors may work hard to get a patient a formal diagnosis for long Covid to help with insurance, though there isn't an official test for long Covid and the testing that is done may not be covered by insurance.
Some patients may eventually get coverage after submitting an appeal to their insurance, but usually not before shelling out hundreds of dollars, Kwan said.
Others may not be so lucky and may be forced to pay for most of their care out of pocket.
Johnson, of the Tennessee Justice Center, said a patient can improve their chances of insurance approving their claim by making sure they have a plan before they even enter the doctor's office.
Her guidance:
Ask how much the care will cost.
Ask the doctor to explain clearly on insurance paperwork exactly why the care was needed.
Working with a doctor can be "very effective," Johnson said, as they are usually trained to know what meets insurance providers' standards for coverage.
If that doesn't work, and insurance denies the patient's claim, the patient can appeal the decision, she said. Under the Affordable Care Act, all health insurance must have an external appeal process that allows a patient to challenge the provider's verdict.
“The idea that you could deny services without an opportunity for appeal is no longer true,” she said.
If still unsuccessful at this point, patients may begin to panic, Johnson said, because the outstanding bill can be taken to collections and patients can take a hit on their credit score. Providers often provide a very short time window for payment, and appeals often take months.
What a patient does after that will depend on their health insurance, Johnson said.
People with Medicaid, for example, can take the claim to court if they feel the denial was unjustified. For people on private insurance, it's less clear what they can do, but one option is to contact the state's Department of Commerce and Insurance, which regulates insurance companies.
Johnson suggested patients frame their complaint saying, "You've licensed this insurance to do this in our state and they're denying essential benefits consistently."
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It is Autism Acceptance Month
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12 Mar 2023, 11:24 am
It does seem like it might be lower than it used to be (but how much of that is because of mitigations and how much is from mutations? etc. etc.)
Seems like most Long Haulers caught it March 2020, and the other groups are a lot smaller.
(I still wouldn't want to risk catching it, though)
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15 Mar 2023, 12:24 pm
I came across an interesting article today.
Do Masks Prevent COVID? (Spoiler Alert: Of Course, They Do)
Shortly after COVID came to the U.S. I began wearing an N95 mask when I entered indoor environments in the U.S. I also gave my entire family some and they wore it. We experienced a great deal of immunity to this virus. I wore these mask until the COVID vaccines became available.
Well there are some current articles that tend to say that masks are ineffective. But that is not the case. The news media is spreading DISINFORMATION.
Case in Point. The N95 mask is the gold standard in preventing getting COVID. Generally this virus is spread in indoor environments.
This is the actual response of those who wrote the article:
Officials at Cochrane are now clarifying the results of their analysis -- specifically, admitting that the way it summarized the review was unclear and imprecise, and that the way some people interpreted it was wrong. This is from a March 10 column in the New York Times, headlined "Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work":
-- Many commentators have claimed that a recently updated Cochrane review shows that ‘masks don’t work,’ which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation,” Karla Soares-Weiser, the editor in chief of the Cochrane Library, said in a statement.
-- “The review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses,” Soares-Weiser said, adding, “Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask wearing itself reduces people’s risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses.”
-- She said that “this wording was open to misinterpretation, for which we apologize,” and that Cochrane would revise the summary.
-- Soares-Weiser also said, though, that one of the lead authors of the review even more seriously misinterpreted its finding on masks by saying in an interview that it proved “there is just no evidence that they make any difference.” In fact, Soares-Weiser said, “that statement is not an accurate representation of what the review found.”
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A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
18 Mar 2023, 8:41 am
COVID produced many deaths in the world. One online tracker on the internet indicates around 6,818,868 died from this virus. But the actual number is unknown. This is because some countries (such as China) hid the actual numbers from the world. The actual number of deaths may be double the estimates.
One of the reasons why many countries experienced many deaths was because the approach to providing protection to its citizens were either not known or were false. Much of this pandemic could have been minimized, if the advice provided was accurate. WE HAD THE ABILITY.
So what is this so called knowledge?
When the virus first appeared it was very deadly but not very contagious. But as the months and years went on, the virus became very contagious but at the same time less deadly. At this stage in time, the virus is winding down.
How could we have protected ourselves? In my opinion there are three steps that could have been implements at a personal level.
1. Indoor humidity levels play a very important role. The virus is spread when humidity levels fall below 40%. This spread grows exponentially the lower the indoor humidity levels drop. Generally, this affects northern US states during the winter. The other part is the virus spreads when indoor humidity levels exceed 60%. This can happen in southern US states during the summer. Controlling indoor humidity levels is very easy to accomplish using modern technology.
2. The second means of stopping the spread of COVID (and the next virus) is the use of Ultra Violet Light type C (UVC). This form of light destroys viruses. Many home/building construction devices currently exist that are capable of killing this virus. THEY EXIST. Some are single small one room devices and others are built in devices that protect the entire house or structure. The devices pull air in the house into the inner part of the device and expose it to UVC radiation. I have several of these smaller devices in my home and run them 24 hours a day. Very simple, very inexpensive (around $60 each), very inexpensive to run (minimum electricity). All I have to do is remove the insides and clean them about every two months. It is really very easy to do and very effective.
3. The third element is wearing mask. Now the point is that most masks will not protect you from COVID. It takes a very efficient mask to perform this function. The rest are almost worthless. It takes an N95 mask to provide this form of protection. In general, you do not need to wear this mask all the time. Since my home was protected by applying steps 1 and 2 above, I only needed to wear this mask when I left my home and entered other buildings. So my wife and I ate out at restaurants during the early stages of the pandemic, but me only went to restaurants with outdoor seating. We did not eat indoors.
Now one of the main problems with this approach was that the moment the pandemic struck, all the N95s were taken off the market. There was none to be had. Luckily I had some stored in my garage. But they had sat there for over 10 years exposed to outdoor environments. They were mildewed. I could hardly put one on. It took me over two weeks to destroy the mildew and restore them. These were the masks that I and my family wore during the initial stages of the pandemic. AND THEY WORKED.
There are two important points to make about these mask.
One mask can last for around 2 months provided it is purified after each use. How do you purify a mask. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. You zap it with UVC radiation for around 10 minutes and then it is good to go. There are small little devices made to perform this function. They are inexpensive. [I used one called Security Knight Q3.) So every time I came back into my SAFE house, I zapped my face mask to purify it.
Another point to make is that THESE MASKS WERE UNAVAILABLE. Stores no longer had them in stock. So it is very important for everyone in the world to have a few laying around indoors FOR A RAINY DAY.
There are different types of N95 Respirators. They are called "Respirators" or "Respirators with Valves". The "Respirators with Valves" only provides one way protection. Whereas the "Respirators" provide protection both breathing and exhausting air. In other words, a full respirator prevents you from becoming infected when you breath air in and also protects other people from betting COVID if you are infected and breath air out. So the Respirator is the ideal type to use. But here you run into another problem. It is very difficult to use these devices because it is hard to breath through them. You lungs have to work very hard and it is exhausting to wear them.
But now the next point to make is there is a slightly different N95 Respirator that is the ideal choice. It is called a 4200 made by a company called Moldex. The reason why these are the best is because the filtration area is much greater than any other design. The mask uses ripples to increase the air exchange size. Really a little bit of genius went inside their development. It is like wearing no mask at all. The air exchange is perfect. I was able to get a few boxes of this respirator during the middle of the pandemic. But then they seemed to go off market. So a thought passed my mind that perhaps the distributor still sells them but does not list them on their flyer. So I called them (after I received the latest catalog from ULINE) and sure enough that was the case. So I ordered 10 boxes (a total of 100 N95 Moldex 4200 mask) and they came in the mail yesterday.
So because the world is a CRAZY place. They experiment with a virus that killed around tens of millions of people worldwide (in my humble opinion), I have taken the steps necessary to protect my family FOR THE NEXT ONE.
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Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
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21 Mar 2023, 8:07 pm
Study Suggests Long-term Damage to Immune System - by Kevin Kavanagh, MD
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States is unknown since our case reporting system has become unreliable and substantially undercounts cases. In England, as of the week ending March 7, 2023, 1 in 40 people is positive for COVID-19, and reinfections are frequently occurring. Fayette Klaassen, MD, et al estimate that as of November 9, 2022, 94% of the U.S. population has been infected by SARS-CoV-2, and 65% of the United States population has been infected multiple times. Between December 2, 2021, to November 9, 2022, almost twice as many reinfections as primary infections have occurred. During this period, it is estimated there have been over 200 (118-292) million cases of reinfections. Scott Burkholz, MD, et al concluded, "Our analysis suggests that a single infection from SARS-CoV-2 may not generate the protective immunity required to defend against reinfections from emerging Omicron lineages.”
The odds of self-reported long COVID were 28% less after the second infection. Unfortunately, the damage of long COVID from a second infection adds to the first.
One of the most concerning long-term effects of COVID-19 is immune dysfunction or hypofunction. Confirmatory research by Fei Gao, PhD, et al was reported this week and summarized in a National Institute of Health news release, which stated:
"… findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection damages the CD8+ T cell response, an effect akin to that observed in earlier studies showing long-term damage to the immune system after infection with viruses such as hepatitis C or HIV." The authors conclude that this dysfunction causes lasting damage and may “contribute to long COVID, perhaps rendering patients unable to respond robustly to subsequent infections by SARS-CoV-2 variants or other pathogens.”
These findings mirror those reported by Jacob Files, PhD, et al who stated, “Overall, expression of these activation and exhaustion markers indicated more severe immune dysregulation of CD8+ T cells in the hospitalized group.” And they found that “CD8 T cell expression of exhaustion markers increased in nonhospitalized individuals over time….” The authors’ finding of damage to the immune system “akin” to HIV is very concerning, as is the amplification of the result in the NIH news release. Mark Davis et al concluded that research is needed into new vaccination strategies which will boost antiviral T-cell immunity.
ICT previously reported that the probable cause of the surges in infections we are seeing is an immune dysfunction caused by COVID-19. With minimal public health interventions, Sweden also experienced surges in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases. Most recently, Sweden has undergone a significant surge in seasonal flu (see Figure), with reports from the Public Health Agency of Sweden of unusually severe cases. These cases have occurred in “people under the age of 18 without underlying disease or condition, have been very seriously ill with complications such as myocarditis or encephalitis. (translated)”
Other diseases are also rising, exemplified by reports of record-high severe Streptococcal infections in Wisconsin and Candida auris.
These spikes in infections caused by multiple pathogens are associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and mounting evidence finding post-COVID-19 immune dysfunction. Vaccinations can not only reduce the incidence of severe disease but also can help to prevent long COVID, reducing the incidence by 30% to 40%.
However, ICT expressed concern regarding the bivalent booster’s effectiveness on September 2, 2022. On Feb. 24, 2023, ICT reported a rapid waning of booster-induced immunity in the elderly. Recently 2 confirmatory research reports have been published. Researchers from the United States found that the relative bivalent booster effectiveness at 5 to 7 months in preventing hospitalizations relative to monovalent vaccine dosages (2, 3, or 4) was 42% and 59% compared to no vaccination. Using the third vaccine dose as a baseline, the UK Security Agency found that an additional (fourth) vaccine dosage had effectiveness against hospitalizations at 10 weeks of only 50%.
This data collectively indicates that booters should be given at a schedule more frequently than once a year. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRP), feels that “people who are 50 and older in the U.S. should be offered the chance to get a second booster.”
Although the United States is still planning to give a second booster once a year, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia plan to boost their high-risk population on a 6-month basis.
We can choose to declare the pandemic over, but SARS-CoV-2 is deaf to these pronouncements. New research regarding Long COVID and immune dysfunction is very concerning. Hopefully, the dysfunction will be temporary and progressive in most individuals. However, just the possibility makes avoiding COVID-19 infections paramount, and we must keep our immunity as high as possible. To accomplish this, vaccine boosters should be offered at least to high-risk individuals and those over the age of 65 more frequently than once a year, possibly every 6 months. All need to implement public health strategies (ie, wearing well-fitted N95 masks and avoiding poorly ventilated indoor spaces) to avoid becoming exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in the first place.
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It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
27 Mar 2023, 7:34 am
I came across an interesting article about Long Term COVID and a cure to the problem provided it is implemented quickly after infection.
The Scourge of Long COVID – And a Drug to Prevent It
Long COVID will take a toll on the nation's healthcare system for the foreseeable future, but we can reduce new cases by treating acute COVID infections with a commonly prescribed, inexpensive medicine.
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Long COVID’s manifestations can be serious, even fatal. Last year, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and his colleagues described major adverse cardiovascular outcomes at one year following COVID infections. The study exploited a huge U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs database with over five million subjects. It found that beyond the first 30 days after infection, compared to controls, patients with COVID are at increased risk of “cardiovascular disease spanning several categories, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease,” including a 1.7-fold risk of heart attack and 1.6-fold increased risk of stroke.
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Outpatient treatment with metformin at the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection decreased the development of Long COVID by 42% in this Phase 3 randomized trial, and by over 50% when started less than 4 days from symptom onset. This finding is consistent with the 42% reduction in healthcare utilization for severe Covid-19 with metformin in the first 14 days of the trial.
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
ASPartOfMe
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Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,412
Location: Long Island, New York
27 Mar 2023, 11:13 am
The Scourge of Long COVID – And a Drug to Prevent It
Long COVID will take a toll on the nation's healthcare system for the foreseeable future, but we can reduce new cases by treating acute COVID infections with a commonly prescribed, inexpensive medicine.
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Long COVID’s manifestations can be serious, even fatal. Last year, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and his colleagues described major adverse cardiovascular outcomes at one year following COVID infections. The study exploited a huge U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs database with over five million subjects. It found that beyond the first 30 days after infection, compared to controls, patients with COVID are at increased risk of “cardiovascular disease spanning several categories, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease,” including a 1.7-fold risk of heart attack and 1.6-fold increased risk of stroke.
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Outpatient treatment with metformin at the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection decreased the development of Long COVID by 42% in this Phase 3 randomized trial, and by over 50% when started less than 4 days from symptom onset. This finding is consistent with the 42% reduction in healthcare utilization for severe Covid-19 with metformin in the first 14 days of the trial.
Problem with cardio issues is that they are often are not noticeable or confused with something else. Thus COVID may be causing a lot of cardio issues that are ticking time bombs that may not explode for years, thus are not being picked up by the studies.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
29 Mar 2023, 7:56 am
This is an interesting point. Many of the people who suffered and died because of COVID were elderly and had other preexisting conditions such as diabetes. So looking at the description of Metformin:
Metformin is used with a proper diet and exercise program and possibly with other medications to control high blood sugar. It is used in patients with type 2 diabetes. Controlling high blood sugar helps prevent kidney damage, blindness, nerve problems, loss of limbs, and sexual function problems. Proper control of diabetes may also lessen your risk of a heart attack or stroke. Metformin works by helping to restore your body's proper response to the insulin you naturally produce. It also decreases the amount of sugar that your liver makes and that your stomach/intestines absorb.
Apparently Metformin can help those with the most probability of contracting COVID and dying by making them more capable of the effects of COVID. In other-words, by controlling the ticking time bombs, you allow people to live a few more years when a pandemic like COVID materializes.
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
29 Mar 2023, 8:26 am
And even when Long Haulers ask their doctors for various organ scans, most doctors refuse.
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01 Apr 2023, 8:32 am
As of the end of March 2023, the estimated variants of COVID are at:
Currently, the dominant variant nationwide is XBB.1.5, with 89.6% of cases, followed by BQ.1.1, with 6.7% of cases. "The original omicron variant is gone now," says Dr. Rupp. "Currently subvariants of omicron are circulating, including XBB.1.5, BQ.1.1 and BQ.1."
XBB.1.5 ----- 89.6 %
BQ.1.1 -------- 6.7 %
BQ.1 --------- 1.6 %
CH.1.1 ------- 0.8 %
XBB ----------- 0.7 %
BN.1 ---------- 0.2 %
BA.5 ---------- 0.1 %
BF.7 ---------- 0.1 %
BA.2 -----------0.1 %
There are currently more than 33,949 cases reported in the United States per day, with test positivity of 8.3%. When test positivity is above 5%, transmission is considered uncontrolled. There are more than 538 deaths per day, an increase of 41% over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations have declined by 9% over the last two weeks.
Source: What COVID-19 variants are going around in March 2023?
So overall nothing new has appeared and it looks like things are winding down. Most businesses and even many hospitals are removing mask requirements. Life appears to be returning back to normal. Temperatures are beginning to rise from the cold effects of winter, people will begin to open up their homes to fresh air and it seems that life will begin to heal. So far no new variant has appeared. That is good news.
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
ASPartOfMe
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07 Apr 2023, 9:44 pm
Yes, COVID Is Still Deadlier Than the Flu
Examining over 11,000 hospitalizations due to either of the two infections during this past fall and winter, 5.97% of the COVID-19 patients died within 30 days of admission versus 3.75% of the flu patients, reported Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of VA St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri, and colleagues.
In a propensity score-matched analysis accounting for age, sex, prior infection, and a host of other factors, this difference translated to a 61% higher risk for death in the group with COVID (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.29-2.02), the authors detailed in a research letter published in JAMAopens in a new tab or window.
Furthermore, COVID-19 made up the bulk of the hospitalizations during the study period (8,996 vs 2,403 from the flu), resulting in over seven times more patient deaths (538 vs 76).
"However, the difference in mortality rates between COVID-19 and influenza appears to have decreased since early in the pandemic," said Al-Aly and co-authors.
In a propensity score-matched analysis accounting for age, sex, prior infection, and a host of other factors, this difference translated to a 61% higher risk for death in the group with COVID (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.29-2.02), the authors detailed in a research letter published in JAMAopens in a new tab or window.
Furthermore, COVID-19 made up the bulk of the hospitalizations during the study period (8,996 vs 2,403 from the flu), resulting in over seven times more patient deaths (538 vs 76).
"However, the difference in mortality rates between COVID-19 and influenza appears to have decreased since early in the pandemic," said Al-Aly and co-authors.
In 2020, mortality rates for hospitalized COVID patients ranged from 17%opens in a new tab or window to 21%opens in a new tab or window depending on the study, roughly three times greater than the 6% rate in the current study, the authors noted.
Except for individuals 65 and younger, where death rates at 30 days were nearly identical between COVID and flu patients (1.29% vs 1.33%), all other groups had a higher rate of death after COVID.
Increased risk of death versus the flu was greatest among individuals unvaccinated against COVID (8.75% vs 3.86%; HR 2.32, 95% CI 1.80-3.00), and risk significantly decreased with the number of COVID-19 vaccinations, "findings that highlight the importance of vaccination in reducing risk of COVID-19 death," wrote Al-Aly and colleagues.
People with COVID were also at higher risk of death versus the flu if they were over 65 or received no outpatient treatment -- e.g., nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid), molnupiravir (Lagevrio), or remdesivir (Veklury)
Limitations cited by the study authors included the common one seen with most VA studies (an older, predominantly male population), along with the fact that the results may not reflect the risk differences for non-hospitalized cases. Also, causes of death were not analyzed and residual confounding may have occurred.
New Yorkers’ life expectancy decreased by more than 4 years after COVID-19 pandemic: study
The study by the city’s health department looked at trends in births and deaths in New York City during 2020, the year when COVID-19 arrived.
The analysis found that from 2019 to 2020, life expectancy in New York City fell to 78 years — a staggering 4.6 year drop.
The mortality rate in 2020 was 241.3 deaths per 100,000 New Yorkers, according to the health department. A rise in unintentional drug overdoses also played a role in the 42.2% increase in deaths in 2020 over the year before.
“The pain and trauma experienced] by our city is still very real to so many of us,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in a statement. “New Yorkers’ lifespans are falling, on top of years of relative flattening before COVID, and that cannot continue.”
The study highlighted how the pandemic exacerbated health inequities in the city. Black New Yorkers saw an ever bigger drop in life expectancy – down 5.5 years from 2019 and falling to 73 years. For Latinos, life expectancy dropped by six years, down to 77.3. For white people, the drop in life expectancy was three years.
NY failed to protect disabled group home residents from COVID, comptroller finds
The numbers show the cost: 657 COVID-related deaths occurred among people with developmental disabilities in New York's residential facilities prior to April 5, 2022, the period that audit focused on. (The latest OPWDD data show that there have been 707 COVID-related deaths of residents in group homes and other care facilities as of March 2023; 51 staff members also have died of COVID-related causes.)
About 34,117 New Yorkers live in residential settings overseen by OPWDD; about 83% live in facilities operated by nonprofit agencies, with the rest operated directly by OPWDD.
A lack of preparation for a pandemic, confusing and missing guidance from the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities and growing staff shortages made COVID all the more hazardous for people with developmental disabilities who live in group homes and similar facilities, an audit by the New York state comptroller found.
The numbers show the cost: 657 COVID-related deaths occurred among people with developmental disabilities in New York's residential facilities prior to April 5, 2022, the period that audit focused on. (The latest OPWDD data show that there have been 707 COVID-related deaths of residents in group homes and other care facilities as of March 2023; 51 staff members also have died of COVID-related causes.)
About 34,117 New Yorkers live in residential settings overseen by OPWDD; about 83% live in facilities operated by nonprofit agencies, with the rest operated directly by OPWDD.
Where did OPWDD fall short during COVID?
Most group homes didn't get key information
Emergency plans unchecked
PPE shortages
COVID surveys ineffective
Visitation rules, other issues plagued facilities during COVID
OPWDD’s response to COVID has drawn criticism prior to the comptroller's report.
In April 2020, OPWDD issued an advisory mandating certified residential facilities make a plan to accept group home residents who had been treated in a hospital for COVID-19 and deemed medically able for discharge, as long as they were asymptomatic.
The guidance was similar to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 2020 Department of Health advisory to nursing homes to accept asymptomatic residents who had been hospitalized for COVID. Critics have said that mandate lit the fuse for the explosion of nursing home fatalities.
Then, as Cuomo's Reopen NY plan was laid in spring 2020, group homes were left out. Residents remained unable to go home or out into the community and families unable to visit until July 2020.
Families said the exclusion made little sense. Workers were coming in and out, and even going between group home facilities to help cover staff shortages, adding to the risk of COVID spread.
Russell Snaith, a founder of New York Alliance for Developmental Disabilities, said the group formed in response to the extended lockdowns. "It put emotional distress on the individual served," Snaith said, many of whom could not understand COVID restrictions overall.
The Snaiths, who live on Long Island, decided to move their 27-year-old son, Dylan, home from his group home during the four-month shutdown, because they knew "it would break him." But many families couldn't do that.
Low wages for workers hurt system, residents
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
08 Apr 2023, 7:48 am
As you just wrote: NY failed to protect disabled group home residents from COVID, comptroller finds.
I believe this was true. I think some politicians may have used COVID to their advantage. They killed off the older segment of their society. How did they accomplish this. Well quite simply, they placed COVID infected people in with non COVID infected people. THEY SPREAD THE DISEASE instead of bringing it to a halt. Many people died earlier then they needed to die, their normal death and that saved the state money, probably lots of money. So now 4 year decrease in normal life expectancy for New Yorkers. Their bodies buried in graveyards.
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,412
Location: Long Island, New York
08 Apr 2023, 5:00 pm
I believe this was true. I think some politicians may have used COVID to their advantage. They killed off the older segment of their society. How did they accomplish this. Well quite simply, they placed COVID infected people in with non COVID infected people. THEY SPREAD THE DISEASE instead of bringing it to a halt. Many people died earlier then they needed to die, their normal death and that saved the state money, probably lots of money. So now 4 year decrease in normal life expectancy for New Yorkers. Their bodies buried in graveyards.
IMHO:
It was triage. There were not enough supplies of most everything at the beginning of the pandemic. American culture emphasizes youth and extraversion so old people and "non-social" autistic people were expendable. It is still going on in the different form of "voluntary " mitigation measures. Most have gone back to mostly pre-pandemic lifestyle. The high-risk people still social distance and mask up like "crazy" if not quarantine or die.
_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
08 Apr 2023, 8:12 pm
There are currently more than 19,508 cases reported in the United States per day, with test positivity of 6.7%. When test positivity is above 5%, transmission is considered uncontrolled. There are more than 255 deaths per day, a decrease of 36% over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations have declined by 14% over the last two weeks.
Currently, the dominant variant nationwide is XBB.1.5, with 87.9% of cases, followed by XBB.1.9.1, with 4.6% of cases. "The original omicron variant is gone now," says Dr. Rupp. "Currently subvariants of omicron are circulating, including XBB.1.5, BQ.1.1 and BQ.1."
XBB.1.5 ----- 87.9 %
XBB.1.9.1 --- 4.6 %
XBB ----------- 2.5 %
XBB.1.5.1 --- 2.1 %
BQ.1.1 -------- 1.9 %
CH.1.1 ------- 0.4 %
BQ.1 --------- 0.3 %
BA.2 --------- 0.2 %
Source: What COVID-19 variants are going around in April 2023?
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Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
14 Apr 2023, 8:44 am
So where do we stand worldwide at the moment:
Globally, 3 million new cases and over 23 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (13 March to 9 April 2023), a decrease of 28% and 30%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (13 February to 12 March 2023).
Contrary to the overall trend, important increases in reported cases and deaths were seen in the South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions and in several individual countries elsewhere. As of 9 April 2023, over 762 million confirmed cases and over 6.8 million deaths have been reported globally.
Source: Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 13 April 2023
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
