6-1-22 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates indicate that the share of cases tied to Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 increased 79% in the past week. Even as the more transmissible BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant became officially dominant in the U.S. last week, it’s already being pushed out by newcomers BA.4 and BA.5 (likely because they evade immunity more effectively and have a much larger population that they can potentially access via breakthrough infections). The result would seem to be overlapping waves of Omicron.

6-13-22 Last week, Moderna announced that its leading candidate for a fall booster shot is partly based on Omicron BA.1 (which is now extinct in the U.S.) rather than BA.4 and BA.5 (which represent 13% of cases and climbing). As the New York Times put it, the “worry that the virus is evolving so quickly that it is outpacing [our] ability to modify vaccines, at least as long as the United States relies on human clinical trials for results.” But the U.S. is not funding an Operation Warp Speed for next-generation vaccines or improvements in air quality. Instead, Republicans in Congress are blocking a modest $10 billion in new COVID spending, forcing the White House to cut money for testing so the U.S. is prepared to purchase the bare minimum this fall, such as existing pills and vaccines.

6-15-22 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation estimates that 25 million Americans are experiencing long COVID. They assume that 30 percent of COVID patients will develop lasting symptoms.

6-16-22 Researchers at King's College London, using data from the ZOE COVID Symptom study app, found the odds of developing long COVID after infection were 20% to 50% lower during the Omicron wave in the UK compared to Delta. The figure varied depending on the patient's age and the timing of their last vaccination. While the risk of long COVID was lower during Omicron, more people were infected, so the absolute number now suffering is higher. It also said the risk of lingering symptoms after Omicron was lower than with Delta, but only for double-vaccinated people. It found no statistical difference for those who were triple vaccinated. In the King's research, 4.5% of the 56,003 people studied during Omicron's peak, December 2021-March 2022, reported long COVID. That compared to 10.8% of 41,361 people during the Delta wave, June-November 2021. It did not compare vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

6-20-22 For two years, the coronavirus killed Americans on a brutal, predictable schedule: A few weeks after infections climbed so did deaths. But that pattern appears to have changed and people are dying from COVID-19 at a rate close to the lowest of the pandemic. Because so many Americans have now been vaccinated or infected or both, the number of people whose immune systems are entirely unprepared for the virus has significantly dwindled. COVID-19 is still killing an average of 314 people daily, one-tenth the number who were dying every day in January 2021, but the virus is killing more than twice as many Americans every day as are suicides or car crashes. And many of those who survive the virus are debilitated, some of them for long after their infections.

6-22-22 An updated version of Moderna’s Covid-19 booster shot appears to work against the fast-spreading omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the company said.