I don’t doubt it is on the rise again but the percentage is probably high because the total number of tests is quite low. There is no blanket testing done anymore, I would assume most tests are being done when you suspect you might have something, so its only logical the percentage is higher than it used to be.
Were they ever blanket-testing asymptomatic people? I didn’t think the antigen tests showed positives until a few days after the onset of symptoms.
Maybe blanket-testing is calling it a bit more than what it was but there were countries that required negative tests for certain things, e.g. entering stores or swimming pools. You had to show a negative test no matter if you had symptoms or not, and that result was registered centrally.
I still mask everywhere, I don’t care what people think.
Are you waiting for something to change or will you do this for the rest of your life?
I stopped when we had as much vaccine protection as we were going to get and the virus wasn’t causing quite as severe disease any more. Forever is a long time.
Planning on forever, unless there’s some radical changes to our public health response. I haven’t had covid yet and I don’t really want to start.
I’m fine with never eating out again.
I’m fine with never eating out again.
Yeah, that would be a severe degradation of life for me, so that’s a no-go unless the probabilities shift back to where they were in 2020-22ish.
Posting from a restaurant in Sardinia.
Did anyone think that COVID was ever going away?
It’s obviously going to be the next annual vaccination, like influenza has already been. I’m waiting for the next formulation to become available before I get my sixth round.
Annual isn’t enough.
Pooled estimates of VE of a primary vaccination cycle against laboratory-confirmed Omicron infection and symptomatic disease were both lower than 20% at 6 months from last dose administration. Booster doses restored VE to levels comparable to those acquired soon after the administration of the primary cycle. However, 9 months after booster administration, VE against Omicron was lower than 30% against laboratory-confirmed infection and symptomatic disease.
There’s some early evidence that more traditional vaccines (like NovaVax) may create longer protection than the mRNA vaccines (which seem to have more robust but shorter-lasting protectection).
So far we have had between 4 and 6 waves a year, each of which is from a different variant. A variant breaks out and within 2 months its infected almost everyone at which point it dies down to become part of the background infections and a new variant takes over. There just isn’t enough time to make a vaccine and roll it out to deal with any of that problem. The vaccines that are getting rolled out now are for variant that disappeared 6 months ago. Nothing we do is going to be very effective against this until the vaccines are a lot more effective against potential future variants or we drastically reduce the number of hosts it gets to replicate in.
At first for sure, but after the first… I want to say maybe 8 months, I knew that it’d be declared endemic with how people were just ignoring it in 2021 and pretending like it wasn’t there anymore. That said, I’d be out of a job if those restrictions weren’t lifted, so its not all bad. But certainly can only help yourself, most people don’t do anything and I couldn’t even get a fourth shot, so I’m still waiting for a new round so I can go get my shot.
Even though my vaxxes are up to date, I caught the new variant recently. It was pretty nasty - a lot like strep throat.
Not a sterilizing vaccine, only expected to decrease the risk of a severe course of infection, hospitalization, and death.
I’ve got one patient, two students, and 3 friends with The 'Vid, all are vax’d, all are on paxlovid as we speak, and expected to make a good recovery. I hope that is/ was the case for you as well. Best to ya, Friend!
As of today, I have it too. Was sick since Sunday and since yesterday some foods tasted like chemicals and kept coughing like crazy. So tested just to be certain and tested positive for COVID.
My country doesn’t obligate us to self-isolate anymore and such but just out of decency, I e-mailed the people I had appointments with to cancel it due to COVID. It’s up to them if they want to continue the appointment, reschedule or do it through online now.
Shit I have had a sore throat for a few days, I took an old COVID test we had and it was negative but I’m not sure if old tests even detect new variants.
I’m immunocompromised and still mask indoors. I haven’t been sick at all since 2020 and it’s awesome! Between 40-60% of people have some form of permanent brain damage and 70-80% have long covid problems from Covid. The damage to the body compounds every time a person gest re-infected, so the numbers are terrifyingly high.
I have a postmortem science degree and it required 4 years of pre-med/pathology. With all that and what we know about the virus, I am honestly not sure I’ll stop wearing a mask indoors until we find a cure or better vaccine. I can’t stand that politicians are trying to ban masks, essentially sacrificing the elderly, disabled, and ill. A government making medical decisions, creating an environment where a person can’t mask up, regardless of if they have cancer and want to stay safe; or if they’re severely sick with something else but need to pick up medication at a pharmacy… it’s dark. It’s fucked up
Between 40-60% of people have some form of permanent brain damage and 70-80% have long covid problems
Wait what? I’m with you on masking etc., but those numbers seem a bit high, where did you get those from?
Long covid is generally definied as having any symptoms persisiting greater than 6 (?IIRC) months after first detection, so having a niggling cough that hung around that long would count as long covid. Some form of permenant brain damage is incredibly vague and sounds like it would apply to a night of heavy drinking.
I was very serious about masking, and noticed that for that two years I never even got a cold. Not once did I test positive and I did it once a week for the first year. So, fist bump for taking masking seriously.
If I do, there’s usually hand sanitizer in my bag. But no one really shakes hands anymore. Dirty habit anyway. We may as well cup each others genitalia.
