The Epidemic of Covid Complacency - Eric Topol

[swag]

https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-epidemic-of-covid-complacency

Isn’t it great? The pandemic is over. We don’t need masks. The virus is contained. Forget about vaccines since they don’t work. The vulnerable are protected. Future variants will be benign.

The only problem is that none of this is true. Any proclamation that the pandemic is over ignores the potential recrudescence of a new variant with high transmission and immune escape. We will still benefit from using masks for many situations including protecting immunocompromised and vulnerable people, which also includes nearly 100 million Americans who haven’t been vaccinated, many without infection-acquired immunity. We are still averaging nearly 50,000 confirmed new cases a day, at a time when rapid tests are increasingly being used and not factored in. This is more than 3-fold the level of new cases, and 2-fold the number of Covid hospitalizations, than in June 2001. The metrics do not lend any support to the mission of containment accomplished.

The vaccines, particularly with a booster shot, work exceptionally well to protect against hospitalizations and deaths, as I previously reviewed. The newly updated CDC data indicates a 3-shot 92% reduction of hospitalizations and a 96% reduction of deaths during the Omicron wave, through the end of January 2022, across all ages 18+. For only 2-shots, the reduction of hospitalizations was 75% and for deaths 85%.

Notably, the United States ranks 55th in the world for booster shots and 67th for 2-shot vaccinated.

. . . more

https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-epidemic-of-covid-complacency

[SheltieLover]

1. And BA.2 incoming...ramping up.

30% more contagious than Omicron, with serious lung involvement, from what little I've been able to find about it.

Nothing to see here...

Not losing my 3M N-95 masks anytime soon!

😷

[wnylib]

3. In 2020, before vaccines, the grocery store

where I shopped enforced masks for all employees and customers. Nobody was allowed in without one or to push it down after entering. I felt reasonably safe there.

Two days ago when I went there I was the ONLY one wearing a mask. Same in most other stores in the area except for one suburban store where most people wore masks last week.

I still wear my N95 although I am conspicuous now as one of the rare few who do in my area.

Our county health department announced on its last posting of local infection rates that it will no longer keep track of infections, only of the number of hospitalizations and deaths. But they also explained that the reason is that infection statistics have become meaningless since the actual numbers are higher than get reported now, since positives from home tests don't get counted.

So they warned people not to consider the infections gone from the community, just unreported.

[SheltieLover]

4. FFS!

Following CDCs no reporting model.

I am always the only one with mask on.

[luv2fly]

2. Found this interesting chart yesterday

Dane County Wisconsin's covid rates as compared to the rest of the state. Important to note that Dane County was the only place with a mask mandate outside of the city of Milwaukee.

The graph says everything about the effectiveness of masks.

https://www.nbc15.com/2022/03/04/new-cdc-covid-19-map-puts-dane-co-most-wisconsin-lowest-category/

[wnylib]

6. Impressive. I will keep wearing mine.

[Rebl2]

7. So will I

[Skittles]

5. just look at DUers

some of them, even when they know better, just no longer seem to care

it is very disturbing indeed