quote:

The BA.5 Wave Is What COVID Normal Looks Like

After two-plus years of erupting into distinguishable peaks, the American coronavirus-case curve has a new topography: a long, never-ending plateau. Waves are now so frequent that they’re colliding and uplifting like tectonic plates, the valleys between them filling with virological rubble.

With cases quite high and still drastically undercounted, and hospitalizations lilting up, this lofty mesa is a disconcerting place to be. The subvariants keep coming. Immunity is solid against severe disease, but porous to infection and the resulting chaos. Some people are getting the virus for the first time, others for the second, third, or more, occasionally just weeks apart. And we could remain at this elevation for some time.

(edit - link to article added)

https://www.theatlantic.com/he...ants-forever/670514/

I hope they approve a variant vaccine soon.

quote:

Some people are getting the virus for the first time, others for the second, third, or more, occasionally just weeks apart.

Neither of us have gotten it yet... and it feels like we are the only people we know still taking precautions etc. but we don't know how to "return to normal."

quote:

I hope they approve a variant vaccine soon.

+1!!

Well, carp. I forgot to post the link to the whole article.

Fixed.

If I have gotten it at this point, I am unaware. Since late winter I have done multiple rapid tests every time I feel the least bit unwell, but no positives so far. Triple vaxxed (they just made the fourth dose available to my age group Wednesday - I will go over the next couple weeks). I am in a classroom with 6 year old kiddos who haven’t attended school under “normal” circumstances. The second masks came off all of them were sick pretty much constantly. None of them had been exposed to colds and other childhood illnesses so they are all hitting at once. There’s no way for parents to realistically keep kids home for every symptom because they would literally never be at school. Because this is my reality, I have gone back to more or less “normal” in all aspects of my life. I’m finding that people who were able to work from home and pretty much isolate throughout are still very uncomfortable, but for folks who have had to work in higher risk settings for quite some time it’s become more business as usual.

The Chicago covid website has a dial at the top for low, medium and high risk. It has been going back and forth between medium and high without any real change in numbers that I can see looking into the data. We hover around 600 reported infections/day this year. Last July we were down to around 30...

While I still mask on public transportation and while I tune, we are back to going out to eat like normal, though we pick less crowded times. Haven't gone to any crowded indoor events.

As far as we know, neither of us has caught it.

quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
I’m finding that people who were able to work from home and pretty much isolate throughout are still very uncomfortable, but for folks who have had to work in higher risk settings for quite some time it’s become more business as usual.

Bingo! You’ve just explained my kids to me. They are more cautious than we are. They’ve been working from home for 2 years, and aren’t ready to be in the world yet.

But why am I willing to be? Hmmmm.

Finally caught up with me last weekend. Sore throat and tired while on the last day of a road trip around lake Michigan. Tested positive when we got home.

MrsTuner is still testing negative and feels fine. I had a short fever, then a couple of days that felt like the sinus/cough head colds that I used to get every year...

I feel pretty normal now, but still tested positive yesterday. I'll test again tomorrow.

Sorry to hear this Ron! Hope you're well soon and Mrs.Turner stays negative!

I had a bunch of tunings scheduled this week - most rescheduled, while a few just had me enter and leave without seeing anyone... A couple of institutional ones coming up where I'll be the only one in the building.

I use 3M N95 masks that fit my face really well.

I'm really hoping I'm not one of those that continues to test positive for a long time!

I am triple vaxxed, and I had a mild case in October.

I'm done with vaccines except maybe in advance of something big, like an international trip. I think the vaccine served its purpose, which was to buy time until treatments improved. But now we seem to have vaccines with dubious benefit. They don't prevent you from getting covid at all, and they are constantly chasing variants but never catching up. I think the case for endless boosting is pretty weak.

I think I had Covid a few weeks ago, but the tests were negative. Meaning, I think I had it but my viral load was too small to register on the pcr test. I'm fine with that -- I'll get covid over and over, my system will destroy it quickly, and that's fine.

I am curious though: who are the people dying of covid nowadays? It used to be the unvaxxed, but no one says that anymore.

quote:

who are the people dying of covid nowadays?

Probably some are unvaxxed, but maybe a lot of them are people with pre-existing conditions?

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:

I am curious though: who are the people dying of covid nowadays? It used to be the unvaxxed, but no one says that anymore.

I just stumbled across this article (WaPo paywall). A quick summary, if I'm interpreting it correctly:

1. Unvaccinated are still the highest group of COVID deaths but
2. The difference in terms of mortality between unvaccinated and elderly/immunocompromised is narrowing.
3. This is likely due to the fact that the vaccines and boosters are less effective for those groups, and the benefit of the booster is shorter than expected for everyone, but significantly less beneficial for elderly/immunocompromised.

They conclude that it's still highly beneficial to receive the core and at least one booster, but you might want to time the 2nd booster to coincide with a specific event (like attending a family gathering), if applicable.

"Even though the death rates for the vaccinated elderly and immunocompromised are low, their losses numbered in the thousands when cases exploded, leaving behind blindsided families. But experts say the rising number of vaccinated people dying should not cause panic in those who got shots, the vast majority of whom will survive infections. Instead, they say, these deaths serve as a reminder that vaccines are not foolproof and that those in high-risk groups should consider getting boosted and taking extra precautions during surges.

“Vaccines are one of the most important and longest-lasting tools we have to protect ourselves,” said California State Epidemiologist Erica Pan, citing state estimates showing vaccines have shown to be 85 percent effective in preventing death.

“Unfortunately, that does leave another 15,” she said."

Non-paywall version:

https://news.yahoo.com/covid-d...ingly-132139645.html

My mom is in that potentential 15%... At one time, the hospitals were reporting that all of the deaths were non-vaccinated - exept for some lung cancer survivors.

She's still being pretty careful, even with all of her boosters up to date.

Personally,I think I'm moving closer to what Cindy describes - though I still wonder about long covid. One of my rescheduled appointments for next week responded that she is finally getting over long covid and the piano tuning can wait...