With Omicron surging across the country (and world) but with lower than expected hospitalizations and deaths, a lot of fully vaccinated friends and relatives are getting infected. Not precisely how I would have wished things to turn out, but little harm as long as they’re staying out of the hospital and the ER’s, not infecting …
The CDC in two quotes
As if my rant about the CDC yesterday wasn’t enough, one of my favorite writers offered the tastiest of tidbits about the CDC’s double-speak today in her Substack blog and in her parallel piece in the NY Times. Here is the CDC’s current Executive Director, Rochelle Walensky MD, speaking on CNN on Dec 29, 2021: “We …
CDC = WTF?
Before I dive into my current concerns, let me say at the outset that historically I have great respect for the CDC. I seriously considered spending a few years there in their Epidemiology Intelligence Service (EIS), and I spent many days there for meetings of their Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — not as …
Happy new year!
I take a few days off to spend some time with family, and what happens? Everything changes. There is so much to talk about! Here are the top items I would have written about last week, and will do shortly. Bad news. The numbers. Have you seen them?Good news. Hospitalizations. Maybe good news-ish.Bad news. The …
Omicron update
Good Monday morning. Lots has been happening on the pandemic front, but no major news. Let me take a few minutes to collect where we are. Recall that we are looking for T-E-D with Omicron: transmissibility, immune evasion, and disease severity. Transmissibility The early data from South Africa and the UK is being confirmed elsewhere. …
Omicron is here, really here
We are now seeing Omicron in Seattle in rapidly increasing numbers. The UW Virology Lab is confirming Omicron in 40% of its positive samples. The infection rate is doubling every 2–3 days. At present course and speed, we will triple our cases by the end of the year. (Source: Trevor Bedford, FHCRC) We are less …
Good news, bad news
Best news of the day (and perhaps the year): Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir) from Pfizer. Why? We have great vaccines against Covid, but as Omicron is demonstrating, the virus is quick to learn how to evade our immune protection. Once Covid infection sets in, our options for treating it are limited. Leaving aside the whacky hydroxychloroquine and …
What to do about Omicron?
With Omicron gaining traction across the world, what should we do? Same as before: 1. Get your vaccine.2. Get your booster.3. Wear a mask in any of the 3-C’s: poor circulation, crowded places, and close contact. Here’s what we know so far. Vaccines make all the difference Here is the death rate for vaccinated and …
How Covid is spread
Now that Omicron is expected to become the dominant Covid strain in the UK by the middle of December, the US won’t be far behind. In fact, the US may already have similar numbers. We just don’t measure genotypes as aggressively as the UK. While we’re bracing for the full effects of Omicron to be …
UK data: Omicron fast and evasive, but boosters help
The UK released two reports yesterday (here and here), with some tantalizing preliminary data about Omicron. These data are teasers to the movie, not the full-length version. That said, here’s what we see. Omicron is definitely here Proportion of Omicron sequences as of Dec 5, 2021. Black corresponds to tests with a history of recent …
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