Marking off the months of the COVID-19 World Pandemic

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Meanwhile

Kansas City Metro health officials reported an increase in BA.2 cases on Thursday. Infectious disease expert Dr. Dana Hawkinson said in a Friday news briefing that recent BA.2 cases may be caused by more group gatherings and fewer COVID-19 precautions in recent weeks. However, he noted that it’s difficult to tell exactly how and where cases are rising given the recent declines in the number of people testing and also how testing is reported, with more people taking at-home tests and not reporting those results to the government. Both Kansas and Missouri are treating COVID-19 as “endemic” now. It’s an election year, and the public doesn’t want to go back to pandemic restrictions no matter what. So, although the virus may not, COVID testing, reporting, and everything else is pretty much a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, getting vaccinated is still the most effective way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19, and experts recommend using increased caution if you are not yet vaccinated. Only 44.9 % of the population is partially vaccinated where we live, but 98% are continuing on like a pandemic never existed & there is now zero risk. Because the CDC has been so vague about the effectiveness of a 2nd booster, I will confess that we still haven’t gotten one ourselves. But we do continue to mask when out in public. Plus, also avoid crowds. As the weather warms and we get out more, we will probably get another booster shot. However, research has said, it doesn't last very long...

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America Is Staring Down Its First "So What?" Wave
"The United States could be in for a double whammy: a surge it cares to neither measure nor respond to."

I found this Atlantic article very interesting and so true: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/04/ba2-omicron-variant-covid-surge/629474/

“As national concern for COVID withers, the country’s capacity to track the coronavirus is on a decided downswing. Community test sites are closing, and even the enthusiasm for at-home tests, whose results usually aren’t reported, seems to be on a serious wane. Testing is how individuals, communities, and experts stay on top of where the virus is and whom it’s affecting; it’s also one of the main bases of the CDC’s new guidance on when to mask up again. Without it, the nation’s ability to forecast whatever wave might come around next is bound to be clouded. Americans’ motivational tanks are near empty; the country’s stance has, for months, been pretty much whatevs. The next wave may be less a BA.2 wave, and more a so what? wave—one many Americans care little to see, because, after two years of crisis, they care so little to respond.

“Hospitalizations and deaths are not the only outcomes that matter, as millions of people in the United States alone continue to grapple with the debilitating symptoms of long COVID, which vaccines only partly diminish. Human actions can slow rises in cases. They can also accelerate them. And when infections take off, it’s not always easy to tell who holds the steering wheel—pathogen or host.”