People are dropping their masks in the Cesspool of Sin. The Covid positivity rate here has dropped below 5%. Hospitalizations and ICU utilization remain low. About half the customers wore masks at the grocery store on Saturday. (A week earlier, I didn’t see if the local stopped trying to enter Trader Joe’s with his seeing-eye miniature horse* wore one, or his horse.)
But just when you thought it was safe to go back into the brew pub, another Omicron variant is headed around. It’s been about six months since the last boosters. A knowledgable friend (a.k.a DocDawg) is looking for another:
April was too late for this gentleman:
Jeff Wise writes at New York magazine:
Omicron BA.2 is similar to the variant that caused this winter’s spike, BA.1. But it has 20 different mutations, four of them on a crucial region of the spike protein. These disparities are likely part of the reason BA.2 appears to be considerably more transmissible than the original Omicron — 33 percent, according to one Danish study. BA.2 is also thought to infect vaccinated people more easily than its forebear, though, fortunately, it does not appear to be any deadlier. First detected in the Philippines in November, the variant spread widely in South Africa and India in December and has since become the dominant strain around the world.
As unworldly as it seem out there lately, the U.S. is still part of it. It will show up in your town.
A couple of epidemiologists Wise cites urge calm. The new variant is not that much changed and the old vaccines still protect against it. B…u…t CDC wastewater monitoring has picked up an increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA at a quarter of its sites over the last 15 days, an early indicator another rise in cases is coming:
If U.S. cases follow Europe’s trend, what lies in store for us might well be worse than for them. U.S. vaccination and booster rates are significantly lower than most European countries. No more than two-thirds of eligible Americans have been fully vaccinated, and about half of the Americans eligible for a booster shot still haven’t gotten one, including a third of seniors. America’s relatively low vaccination rates probably explain why the first Omicron wave hit much harder here than it did in Europe. During the peak of that wave, the U.S. suffered ten times as many COVID deaths as Germany, despite having only four times as many people.
Don’t toss the N95s just yet.
Fourth shots may finally be on the way as well. Just this week, both Pfizer and Moderna announced they were seeking emergency FDA authorization for a second booster shot.
It may be time to go shopping for one.
* That’s how the TJ’s staffer described the encounter to another shopper.
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