TheModerateTankie

Analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau data finds 24% of U.S. adults affected by the disease have experienced COVID-19 symptoms for three months or longer. Learn which state and major metro area populations are experiencing the highest rates of long COVID.

It's fine, just keep infecting each other and it will work itself out. Haven't you sacrificed enough? It's treat time!

The data used for this report came from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, specifically Week 63 (Nov 8, 2023), the most recent data available.

There are some signs that long covid is becoming rarer, but the most optimistic estimates I've seen are a 3.9% chance of long covid per infection, after vaccination. In mid-2023 the WHO said it's a 1 in 10 chance.

If you are lucky it's just a persistant cough for a few months. If you aren't, you get disabled for life.

This is another study showing covid is harming an enormous amount of people, and I'm sure it will be met with same "nah, that can't be right, because I don't personally know anybody suffering" or "omicron is mild now" shit we get from neoliberal thought leaders.

Related article: Almost 6 Million Youth May Have Been Impacted by Long COVID, Studies Find Links to Life-threatening Conditions

It modulates the response to the virus at the level of the immune system, and is used to treat an infection.

We conducted an experimental protocol with a nasal recombinant IFNα-2b formulation (Nasalferon) in 12 healthy volunteers who received 1 MIU per nostril twice a day, three consecutive days, and studied the induction of biomarkers related to antiviral and immune responses. Nasalferon increases the antiviral biomarker OAS1 transcript levels in oropharynx and PBMCs, regulates molecular and cellular elements related to innate and adaptive immune responses and decreases granulocytes population. These effects support Nasalferon use in virally-exposed populations.

Nasalferon, a new nasal formulation of IFNα2b, modulates cellular and molecular elements associated with an antiviral response in mucosa and blood

Cuba will start applying Nasalferon to travelers and live-in family members

In Cuba, All International Travelers to Receive Nasalferon

An Experience with Cuban Biotech's Nasalferon to Prevent SARS-COV-2 Infections in International Travelers and their Contacts

Meanwhile "free" countries are destroying the lives of millions of people by pretending covid doesn't exist anymore, and paxlovid is $1000 dollars and doctors don't want to prescribe it because covid is "mild".

tl;dr: 20 million people have or had long covid in the US. 2 million in Canada. Reinfections increase risk of long covid.

I'm guessing there is a huge amount of survivorship bias going on in the world today.

Millions in Canada and US have long COVID

Al-Aly knows this aftermath well because he and his team at Washington University in St. Louis documented the first characteristics of long COVID and did the most widely cited research on the condition. The Tyee has highlighted his important work repeatedly.

Al-Aly testified that the condition of long COVID now afflicts at least 20 million Americans. Their disability represents an economic toll of $3.7 trillion in terms of lost productivity and lost lives. That’s a loss equal to the 2008 recession.

Canada shares this great burden. According to a recent Statistics Canada survey, **more than two million Canadians reported suffering from the symptoms of long COVID as of June. **That’s seven per cent of the adult population. More than half report no improvement in their condition over time. More than one in five Canadians battling long COVID on average took 24 days off from work or school.

Al-Aly also highlighted one of the key findings of that little-cited Canadian survey and even shared a graph from the study showing that reinfections heighten the risk of long COVID.

“Even if people managed to emerge unscathed after the first infection, they may get long COVID after reinfection,” warned Al-Aly.

There is a myth that frogs will stay in a pot of water until it boils and they die. This is untrue. They will only do that if you keep giving them treats.

This is unexpectadly high, and good news for anyone who got the latest vaccine.

https://nitter.poast.org/EricTopol/status/1753145017810723327#m https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1753145017810723327#m

I'm on the west coast and the latest covid wave just started hitting my town, so I hope I can continue to avoid it.

My friend in a long term care facility a few towns over got hit a couple weeks ago and three people died. They got the last vaccine several weeks ago, and then got "minor cold symptoms" when covid hit their facility, but never tested positive. Not many residents facility got the last vaccine because of the fucking privatization bullshit.

This country is Satan.

One of my favorite game series gets enshittified.

It makes it all the more baffling, then, that Sega's upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is locking its New Game+ mode behind its Deluxe and Ultimate editions, which cost an extra $15 and $40 on top of the base game respectively. This is a series which, traditionally, has had its own features locked behind a NG+ run such as the legendary difficulty mode.

Specifically, NG+ is being folded into the 'Master Vacation Bundle' which isn't included with the game's base version. According to the game's official website the bundle also includes a bonus dungeon, special sujimon (from a Pokémon-like mode), resort guests, outfits "and more."

https://www.pcgamer.com/like-a-dragon-infinite-wealth-is-making-the-utterly-bizarre-decision-to-lock-new-game-behind-a-dollar15-upgrade/

68% of COVID-19 deaths during the first year of the pandemic were adults in low socioeconomic positions

University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi's research confirmed associations between COVID-19 mortality rates and socioeconomic position, gender, ethnicity and race.

Salemi's research shows:

• The mortality rate of low SEP adults is five times higher when compared to high SEP adults, and the mortality rate of intermediate SEP adults is two times higher.

• White women make up the largest population group considered high SEP. In contrast, nearly 60 percent of Hispanic men are in a low SEP.

• When compared, the mortality rate of low SEP Hispanic men is 27 times higher than high SEP white women.

"The degree to which it takes a toll on communities is very unevenly distributed and we wanted to call attention to that issue," Salemi said.

Reminder that crackers started storming state capitols demanding lockdowns end about a week after news reported covid was harming black people at far greater rates than anyone else.

The "return to normal" was driven by complete disregard to the lives of low wage workers and outright racism.

But I'm sure things are great now that the "pandemic is over". Genocide Joe and the party of science wouldn't lie to you. Capitalism wouldn't just sacrifice workers like that, right?

Looks like there's gonna be a lot more pneumonia this round.

Highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86—close ancestor of globally dominant “Pirola” JN.1—may lead to more severe disease than other Omicron variants, according to two new studies published Monday in the journal Cell.

In one study, researchers from Ohio State University performed a variety of experiments using a BA.2.86 pseudovirus—a lab-created version that isn’t infectious. They found that BA.2.86 can fuse to human cells more efficiently and infect cells that line the lower lung—traits that may make it more similar to initial, pre-Omicron strains that were more deadly.

In the other study, researchers in Germany and France came to the same conclusion. “BA.2.86 has regained a trait characteristic of early SARS-CoV-2 lineages: robust lung cell entry,” the authors wrote. The variant “might constitute an elevated health threat as compared to previous Omicron sublineages,” they added.

We're up to 2000 a week dying from covid in the US, and that's probably an undercount due to lots of people, hospitals and states pretending covid is just a cold or doesn't exist anymore.

We did it!

https://nitter.net/luckytran/status/1742319364181787110

And we are probably a week away from the peak.

This is what we call an "exit wave", meaning we have reached super-herd-immunity!

Here's to another year of unpredictible worldwide waves and rapid mutations making vaccines obsolete before they are rolled out.

For financial reasons we shall now refer to it as an Endemic+ virus.

I look forward to having all mention of it in the news disappear as we get closer to next election.

spoiler

According to this article there are now three large scale studies analyzing covid risk, and they all indicate that your risk of negative health consequences goes up every infection.

While this risk starts (relatively) low for most of us, particularly those vaccinated and in younger people or children, there are concerning signs it may not stay low. If each new invasion of our bodies allows this insidious virus a greater chance to cause damage, such small risks will eventually add up to a big one.

Even if you only experience the symptom of the initial infection mildly.

"Each subsequent COVID infection will increase your risk of developing chronic health issues like diabetes, kidney disease, organ failure and even mental health problems," physician Rambod Rouhbakhsh warned journalist Sara Berg in an American Medical Association podcast earlier this year.

"This dispels the myth that repeated brushes with the virus are mild and you don't have to worry about it. It is akin to playing Russian roulette."

Long COVID is defined as a multisystem disease that have a devastating effect on any organ system, with potentially lifelong consequences. Rates of long COVID among people who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 vary controversially between studies and regions, from about 10 percent to a staggering 50 percent of people who've had the virus reported as having long term symptoms.

We are basically ignoring the risks and hoping for a science miracle to save us before things get too bad. Same approach we are taking with global warming. What an interesting time to be alive.

A map released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a major uptick in positive Covid-19 cases in four American states. Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas all had a 17.2 percent positivity rate in the week of December 9. These figures represent an increase from the previous two weeks' confirmed positive test percentage of 16.7.

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/map-shows-covid-cases-exploding-31710205

JN.01 making an impact. Some places around the world where JN.01 has achieved viral dominance are showing the highest levels of covid in wastewater they've ever detected.

Looks like it won't kick off in most places in the US until around the new year, with maybe a boost from Christmas. I don't know if it will be as bad as when Omicron first appeared, but it's likely to be worse than last year.

Variant trackers like JPWeiland are saying to expect hospitalizations to shoot up once JN.1 reaches 50% of covid infections an area. Hospitalizations are currently going up in NY. His predictions have been very accurate for the past year or two, and he warned the CDC and WHO about JN.01 months ago who took a wait and see approach and are now sounding the alarm, and it's lining up to be a little worse than even he predicted. New York is about a week ahead of other coastal and major cities and will be a preview of what's to come.

The WHO just recommended all healthcare workers to start masking up, and made JN.01 a variant of interest, distinct from it's direct predecessor.

Hopefully you've gotten the new vaccine, but also use air filtration if you are around other people indoors (a CR Box is kinda bulky but easy to build and very effective, just 4xMerv-13 filters, tape, and a box fan will do it), N95 Masks, avoid crowds, stay the fuck home if you are sick, jump through whatever hoops you need to wrangle up some paxlovid, and rest as much as you can for as long as you can if you get it.

Nasal Sprays like covixyl, betadine, xclear and the like should all help your odds in preventing an infection, and double as treatment if you do get infected.

If you are tired of precautions, or can't do them anymore for whatever reason, because CDC guidelines are to not give a fuck, please at least use one of these sprays to lower the viral load you are exposed to. There are no guarantees, but pretty much everything I've read about covid suggests the less virus you are exposed to the better your odds are going to be of avoiding all the numerous negative consequences of an infection.

There are also all the other respiratory diseases popping off at alarming rates, and taking precautions against covid protects you from all of them as well. We are also seeing more severe symptoms from people who get the diseases we are used to, because covid harms the immune system and makes us more vulnerable to everything else.

Despite people trying to wishcast every new variant as "mild" or "just a cold" because hospitals aren't overwhelmed with the dead anymore (1700 dead from covid last week), the risk of long covid, every time you are infected, is essentially the same as rolling dice and hitting snake eyes, which is way too fucking high for us to be repeatedly infecting ourselves with this virus.

There is a wide range of long covid symptoms because it can harm essentially every part of our body, so you might get lucky and have something relatively minor for six months or the rest of your life, but there is also no current cure and the risk of bad outcomes increases with every infection. Symptoms improve with time for some people, other people get worse, and another covid infection can bring it all back or add on new problems.

Let's hope sterilizing vaccines arrive before we have to endure several more years of this shit.

US millennial women saw their well-being decline, a first in modern times, per non-profit PRB.

Homicide, maternal mortality, and suicide rates have all increased for women aged 25 to 34.

The sudden reversal in progress for young women's safety comes despite an improved economic status.

Contributing factors to the overall rise included the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased domestic violence rates, and a recent leap in gun violence incidents, the report also said.

Homicide is now also the leading cause of death for pregnant and postnatal women, more so than typical maternal mortality causes, the report noted.

Hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America's health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC's tracking shows.

"COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly," the agency said in its weekly update. "Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas."

The CDC has been urging people to get vaccinated as the peak of this year's mix of three seasonal respiratory viruses — influenza, COVID-19 and RSV — is nearing.

In pediatric hospitals, the CDC says beds "are already nearly as full as they were this time last year" in some parts of the country. Data from emergency rooms published Wednesday tracked emergency room visits nearly doubling in school-age children last week.

JN.1 is now about 50% of cases worldwide, and at 50% it starts stressing hospitals according to variant trackers like JPWeiland.

The US, Canada, and UK will be at 50% in the next few weeks. Some states in the midwest might be at 50% already.

And all this on top of major flu and RSV outbreaks. In parts of Canada the flu season is the worst it's been since the h1n1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, and last year was almost as bad.