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May 03, 2023

Comments

KC

I could get "no department stores during or after busy hours" but honestly, department store on a Wednesday morning? Not a ton of people.

You're not going to accidentally get sucked into browsing for an hour at the UPS store, either.

(please tell me you're wearing a snug-fitting no-gappy n95 even though they're ugly?)

I would be Just Fine with no sports bars in my future, personally, but that is because they are loud and have screens all over them and neither of these things is my jam (... and sports: not my jam, either; and mostly men reverting to cave man ogle-and-grunt-and-drop-garbage-on-the-floor, not my thing, either).

theQueen

KC - the department store is not fancy, and I think he fears the ultra-right who might shop there. I wouldn't browse. I have shopped there before and nothing suits me at all. And of course I wear my tailored N95 that hides my chins. I would not leave without it.

KC

Oh, that's right, because not all population density equals germ density, at least as strongly suggested by the studies on R vs. D covid deaths. (although at this point, with the bulk of more left-wards people also having quit on social distancing and mask wearing, there is probably less of a difference in airborne germs per capita than there was while there was more of a strong difference in population activities and behaviors)

TheQueen

KC - Did you hear the WHO says there isn’t a global crisis anymore? https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/05/health/who-ends-covid-health-emergency/index.html

KC

The character of an "emergency" is more substantial than a "significant threat" so that sort of makes sense. But also: we're still at over 1000 covid deaths per week in the US: maybe not emergency-grade any more, but still something we should keep trying to reduce...

TheQueen

KC - I wonder how it compares to the flu.Or if anyone thinks we have herd immunity. Those were the things I was waiting for.

KC

Herd immunity doesn't work well with this because you can catch covid repeatedly, although once you have antibodies, then your next case is likely to be less severe, as long as your previous case of covid didn't do much damage to your systems (some people's second case is way worse than their first, though).

I think we may be below 2x the normal flu deaths if amortized over a full year, though, which... still isn't great. (so, if you take total number of flu deaths in an average year, divide it by 52, we're now fewer covid deaths per year than 2x that number)

There's also the question of long covid, which we're just sort of ignoring the individual and societal repercussions of, because if 10% of the workforce is, with long covid, 50% as productive as before they got ill (or less) then that's going to add up in terms of how many people it takes to cover a certain amount of work, etc. But it's a lot harder to count and quantify "mildly to severely disabled" in general, esp. during a period of time when a lot of people *also* have burnout and higher stress and cognitive challenges related to a wide variety of current factors.

I was kind of hoping that proactive community-protective masking during flu season or while one is mildly ill would Become A Thing in the US, but apparently not. Sigh.

theQueen

KC - I am terrified that long covid will be like post-polio syndrome, which took out my Mom. Gary thinks he's 80% recovered from his long covid.

KC

It will probably be different? Different-good or different-bad, we do not know yet, but at least a bunch of the mechanisms are different?

theQueen

KC - well, Dr Gupta at CNN said today covid is endemic and we just need to have a plan for when we get sick, and that it's like the flu. And the vaccination rates for the flu are way less than covid. So, have heart, I guess.

KC

... yeah, it is not quite like the flu, due to the whole long-covid thing not being parallel to the flu.

But yeah, the public messaging is that it will Just Happen and We're Stuck With It as opposed to Wearing Masks Can Actually Prevent This, Y'all.

True that vaccine uptake was greater than is normal for an average flu year, though!

theQueen

KC - still, surprising that flu vaccination is lower than I thought in a regular year.

KC

Yeah, flu vaccination uptake is honestly pretty low, *but* it is generally greater for 1. the people at highest risk and 2. nurses and teachers, who are high-risk-of-handing-it-on groups vs. the regular population. So. A low number, but at least that low number is spread "well" in some ways?

theQueen

KC - When I get worried about Covid I remember that the seasonal flu that doesn't scare me is related to the !918 flu.

KC

Yeah. We knew someone who died in the most recent "bad" flu year, so I'm somewhat less reassured than I would have been if I hadn't known anyone to die of the flu, but yes!

(also long covid is distinctly worrying. The common cold does not haul significant long-term health effects with it, generally. Some number of POTS cases annually are postviral from some virus or other, but it has spiked beyond belief with covid, and that's just post-covid POTS, not the stroke risk increase and the funky lung stuff and the funky neurological stuff.)(and the idea of an additional maybe-5% of any given country's workforce being partly disabled is a bit daunting from an economic/strategic/adequate-elder-and-child-care standpoint)

But also, as long as one is continuing to make vigorous plans to Not Catch The Thing (rather than stopping precautions), worrying over it doesn't do much good. So there is that.

theQueen

KC - I'm still wearing masks and washing hands - I need to be careful to return to not touching my face, though.

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