COVID is back. Actually, it never went away. According to the CDC, virus levels in 26 states are categorized as high or very high based on wastewater surveillance. California, Nevada and Oregon are all at very high levels, and so are Texas, Arkansas, Maryland and Florida.
President Joe Biden was delivering speeches in Nevada on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 when it was announced that he tested positive for COVID. His symptoms were an upper respiratory tract infection: runny nose, a cough and general malaise. His doctors put him on Paxlovid and he retreated to Delaware to recuperate. This is the second bout of COVID for Biden. Two years ago almost to the day in July, 2022, President Biden tested positive for COVID.
He has clearly been exposed to a lot of people in the last few weeks. And he has exposed others over the last few days. No states are reporting a decline in COVID cases. The variants causing the most infections are KP.3 and KP.2, which are mutations from omicron.
Are You in Denial?
Most people have been acting as if COVID were gone for good. Look around the next time you go to the pharmacy, supermarket, restaurant, bank or sporting event. Hardly anyone is masked or cautious.
Will you catch COVID for the first, second or third time? There’s a good chance that before it really does fade from view, virtually everyone will have caught COVID at least once. Many will catch it multiple times.
In just the last couple of weeks we have heard from several close friends and family members that they had come down with COVID either for the first time or had a repeat infection. And it’s not always mild. One relative was out of commission for about a week. She was really under the weather.
COVID Is Back in So Many Places:
California health officials will tell you that COVID is back to levels it hasn’t seen since late last summer. That’s when positive test results reached 13.1%. Last week, COVID tests in California hit 13%. Positive test results correlated closely to the levels of the coronavirus in sewage. And the L.A. County Department of Public Health has seen an uptick in patients coming to the ER and admitted to the hospital.
States Where COVID is High:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wyoming
Now That COVID Is Back, What Should You Expect?
Many of the symptoms of this COVID wave are similar to other respiratory tract infections.
Current COVID Symptoms:
- Sore throat
- Cough
- Congestion
- Runny nose
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Headache
- GI symptoms
- Fever
- Trouble breathing
One explanation for the increase in cases is holiday travel and exceptionally hot weather that is driving people inside to escape the heat. And a lot of people are going on vacations. That means airplanes, rental cars, buses and restaurants. Close contact still spreads COVID.
Some folks are going to tell us that COVID symptoms are NO BIG DEAL. Sounds like the flu or a bad cold. True enough. The difference is that long COVID can be a consequence of an infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Listen Up to Learn More:
On Saturday, July 20, 2024, we will be talking with two experts on the latest research regarding long COVID. You can listen to the broadcast on many NPR stations or repeaters. Here is a link to find one. Because the show is on at 7:00 am, you may choose not to listen so early on a Saturday morning.
No worries. The podcast will air on Monday and you can find it on this website under the podcast tab at the top of the page. Better yet, why not subscribe to our newsletter and get a link to the podcast automatically each week?
And if you encourage your friends and family to subscribe, they will get a lot of great health information for free. For example, last week we talked to a wonderful podiatrist, Dr. Jane Andersen, about foot health. You can learn how to pick the best shoes (and sandals) and what to do for a wide range of foot problems from plantar fasciitis and ingrown toenails to nail fungus and bunions. Here is a link.
Back to long COVID, though. The latest estimate is that at least 7% of the American public has been affected by PASC (post acute sequelae of COVID). That’s around 17 to 18 million people. Ask people with long COVID how it has impacted their lives and you will get an ear full.
If COVID Is Back, Why Don’t People Care?
Wherever you go, the overwhelming majority of folks appear to have put COVID out of mind. An occasional person is wearing a mask, but that is a rarity. Everyone wants to forget this pandemic and pretend that it never happened.
The trouble is that people who were especially careful and dodged the COVID bullet up until now are catching the virus for the first time. And those who already caught COVID-19 once are coming down with it for the second time…and even the third or fourth time.
Alright, I can hear you now! If someone caught COVID once, shouldn’t natural immunity protect them from a severe reinfection a second or third time around? The answer is: there are no “safe” COVID infections.
Nobody knows why some people have a “mild” case of COVID and why others get very sick. Some people have developed a bad first infection and a relatively mild second infection. For others, though, it works in reverse, for reasons that remain mysterious.
COVID Is Back, and with it a Risk of Long COVID:
For all the people who say, “the heck with COVID…I just don’t give a damn!” That’s easy to say if you have not experienced long COVID.
Just ask anyone who is still suffering with symptoms such as shortness of breath, a lingering cough, debilitating fatigue, brain fog or chronic pain if they can forget this illness. Chances are they will say that it has had a major impact on the quality of their lives.
What researchers cannot tell you is whether your chances of developing long COVID increase or decrease with each round of infection. Given that uncertainty, you may not want to be nonchalant about catching another round of COVID.
Are Masks a Thing of the Past?
What about masking? We have been inundated by messages from visitors to this website that state unequivocally “masks don’t work.”
In a quest for transparency, we absolutely admit that research has produced conflicting results. For anti-maskers, that’s all it takes to convince them that masks are a waste of time at best and counterproductive at worst.
Ask them what can be done to avoid catching COVID for the first, or fifth time, and you get a blank stare. They’ve got nothing. These are the same folks who are cheering at sporting events and having a rousing good time at the local pub.
To learn what we recommend, please visit this link:
Are There Dangerous Viruses in the Air You Breathe?
We are big proponents of high-quality air filtration. We also value fresh air! The trouble is you have no way of knowing how good the heating and air conditioning system is at your pharmacy, bank, supermarket or big box store.
How many air changes does the auditorium, doctor’s office, movie theatre, rest room or restaurant have per hour? That information is not posted anywhere that we have seen. It represents the amount of fresh air from outside that is brought into the facility each hour.
Ideally, we would like to see 10 to 12 air changes each hour. The only way you will know if the room or building you are in has decent air exchange is to carry a carbon dioxide monitor with you.
A CO2 monitor will tell you how well a room is ventilated. If you test outdoor air, it should measure about 400 ppm (parts per million). Even if the carbon dioxide levels climb to 600-800, it’s not terrible.
If CO2 exceeds 800 ppm it means that there are way too many people breathing in your space and there is not enough fresh air. If someone has COVID-19, you could be inhaling some of their viral particles.
Why Masks Still Make Sense Now that COVID is Back:
There is a reason why studies of masks have produced inconclusive results.
In a nutshell, it boils down to these three factors:
1) Not all masks are created equal. Most masks are not very effective because they are not N-95s. They may be fabric or surgical masks that have elastic behind the ears. These do not filter air effectively.
2) Most masks do not fit well. There are gaps around the nose, cheeks and chin. If you wear glasses and they fog up when you wear a mask, air is escaping. That is proof that the mask does not fit correctly.
3) Many people do not wear masks correctly. Admit it, you have seen a lot of people wearing their masks as chin straps. The other mistake is to push the mask below the nose. The mask becomes totally ineffective in such situations.
Final Words:
We understand why you want to forget about COVID-19. We want to put this virus in the rear view mirror as well! Perhaps someday it will disappear for good. Then again, it may turn into a flu-like illness and reemerge every year with a different variant. Hopefully, the virulence will gradually diminish and people will stop experiencing long COVID.
At the moment, though, we do not know if the KP.3 and KP.2 variants are stronger, weaker or about the same as the prior Omicron variants. We do not know if long COVID consequences will gradually disappear or whether we are stuck with this mysterious chronic illness for many years to come. In the meantime, please be safe.
If you feel you must refute the use of face masks in the comment section below, please be kind. We are getting fed up with rude, vitriolic responses.
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