yeah it seems like the new guidelines are just about whether the hospital is full or not. to me, this is insufficient data to make decisions about my personal risk.
when i look at “community transmission” – the old metric – instead of the “community level” on the CDC website, most of the country is at a substantial or high level of spread. i don’t know how many people understand the differences between these two sets of metrics.
I think the case statistics are not very meaningful at this point because so many people test at home and don’t report the results to any one.
But I think that there is zero chance that Covid will go away, and you can clearly get it multiple times, so yeah - I think we’re on our own deciding risks.
yeah i look at the reported statistics as a floor and assume that the case load is much higher than reported.
There’s reason to believe caseload is as much as 20x higher than reported case figures. I forget which agency put that out. Your Local Epidemiologist referred to it in one of her recent posts
It won’t be over for our household until our youngest can get vaccinated or they officially tell us a vaccine for him isn’t coming. I think there’s a fair number of people with small children that are in that boat.
I might be misunderstanding, but I think it was a science/taxonomy question. Like we have
Epidemics
Pandemics
Endemic
In a sentence: Originally we hoped to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, however it turned into a horrific pandemic. While we have reduced severity and spread with vaccines and precautions, it appears to be endemic. At this point, the WHO has yet to declare the end of the pandemic.
Yes! It was this kind of question. Thank you
In that case, no it’s not endemic yet. Endemic implies a steady rate of cases rather than the wave pattern we are still seeing.
I don’t think we’re seeing waves here anymore…seems to just be steady
We’re definitely seeing a wave in New England.
Genuine question, is the flu considered an endemic disease? Because that definitely has waves with the seasons. So I could see covid being retroactively defined as endemic at this point if the waves resemble the flu. I’m not sure where the line is between pandemic and endemic.
Yeah. I think the last article I read said that the declaration will end up with a retroactive date, possibly to sometime like now. I think flu and smallpox might be endemic with epidemics )outbreaks)but I can’t remember and apparently I can’t type or edit wither
And ideally we get fancier vaxes and eliminate it!
I actually recently watched something on YouTube discussing that. Take away, depends on who you ask. I wish I remembered what company had made it. I watch a lot of DW news, Bloomberg quick take, MSNBC money, CNBC finance stuff. So it was probably one of those channels. I know they interviewed a bunch of epidemiologists from reputable universities and stuff. But basically the takeaway was it depends on how you’re defining endemic status, and flu in particular is one that people debate whether it qualifies or not specifically because of the wave thing that you mentioned.
I can’t watch them right now (toddler dinner) but these are the two videos with “endemic” in the title in my viewing history.
This framing helps, thank you!
I do know that malaria is endemic in certain countries and not others, but it still has seasons based on the way it spreads (mosquitos). And if you are born in a place where malaria is endemic, most adults don’t need to take preventative meds to boost your immunity. But if you move away and live somewhere without malaria for a long time and go back to visit, you have lost your immunity and need to take preventative meds. Perhaps that gives us some insight?
Also Latent TB is endemic in several countries but active TB is still controlled by public health measures
Mixing and matching boosters? Y/N/maybe? Anyone done this?
I’m all Pfizer so far but I’ve read that getting Moderna for my next booster, which I’m eligible for, “might” provoke a stronger immune response? But then I also read that the Moderna booster is a lower dose than Pfizer - so that’s confusing to me.
It looks like I can get whatever I want for this next one.
The Maderna booster is lower than the initial Moderna shot, where is the Pfizers are the same across the board. But the Madrena booster is still higher than the Pfizer shot is my understanding. Get Mad Dara if you can get it.
The Moderna booster is a half dose, but half of 100 is still more than 33. but I imagine that’s where your confusion is coming from?
My plan is to get Moderna the next time. My friend’s doctor told her not to switch but didn’t give a reason. From what I have read switching appears to be beneficial.
