Dr. Bob Wachter was an expert who diligently practiced what he preached. For three years, the eminent UCSD doctor advocated for masking and vaccination for those who, like him, wanted to avoid the coronavirus, as well as the mysterious long-term symptoms known as long COVID.
When Wachter’s wife contracted the coronavirus last year when They were on a trip to Palm Springs, California, Together, he still managed not to get sick — even after they sat next to each other in the car on the nine-hour ride home.
But The Watcher’s luck ran out earlier this month, when Finally he got corona virus. To make matters worse, he fell in the bathroom while suffering from flu-like symptoms and was hospitalized with stitches.
watcher wrote on Twitter that he wanted his experience to serve as a “teachable moment,” and a reminder that “Covid still exists (and) it can be very bad.”
Not only is the coronavirus still out there, but it appears to be making a comeback in parts of the United States.
Read more from Yahoo News: Is the COVID pandemic really over?
Little summer spike
Washington hasn’t been particularly bothered by the infection, but the cases are a reminder that the virus is here to stay. Students competing in the Solar Car Challenge in Orange County, California, for example, saw the race crash this month after about two dozen competitors Tested positive for COVID-19.
When the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, visited the White House earlier this month, several members of his delegation did Tested positive for COVID-19. In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper He also contracted the coronavirus this month. These do not appear to be isolated incidents.
sewage analysis in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Wachter lives, It shows increased levels of coronavirus. Los Angeles is seeing a similar trend.
“There is no doubt compared to our peers, or the stability that we have had, that there has been an uptick in test positivity,” California Secretary of Health Dr. Mark Ghaly told the Los Angeles Times this week.
While most people don’t lock down or send the kids home from summer camp, the virus seems to be causing a shift in the atmosphere. “The United States has seen increases in COVID-19 over the past three summers, so it’s not surprising that we’ve seen an uptick,” CDC spokeswoman Kathleen Conley told Yahoo News.
In previous coronavirus waves, cooler weather drove people indoors and allowed the virus to spread. Extremely hot weather can have the same effect. “We’re in a very warm year, and people are spending a lot of time indoors,” the infectious disease expert said doctor. Louis Ostrosky he told the Wall Street Journal. “People congregate in air-conditioned spaces, and this provides an opportunity for transmission.”
Most organizations that report cases of coronavirus using online trackers no longer produce daily updates, making it difficult to identify local and national trends. For its part, the CDC drastically It lowered its own tracking in May.
Read more from Yahoo News: Doctors warned
An “obvious high”, but nothing like the past
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased 10% in the week of July 15, compared to the previous week, from 6,444 to 7,109.
“The risk of infection is still fairly low, but it’s clearly going up now,” said Dr. Tatiana Brawell, a Johns Hopkins oncologist, wrote on Twitter. “be cerfull.”
Masking is still an easy method of protection, especially when traveling or gathering in crowded places like concert venues or sports arenas. And many people have neglected to update their vaccines, which means they lack some protection against the ever-evolving disease. The recent rally could, in part, be driven by him A variant of Omicron known as Arcturus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Only 17% of the US population Received the bivalent booster introduced last fall.
“At this time, CDC genomic surveillance indicates that the increase in infections is caused by strains closely related to the Omicron strains that have been circulating since early 2022,” the CDC’s Conley told Yahoo News.
These are the same strains that the bivalent booster was created to target. The Food and Drug Administration is also preparing an updated booster dose that should be available in September.
Read more from Yahoo News: There Will Be A New Coronavirus Vaccine This Fall, But Will People Get It?
moving forward
During Delta Rise in the summer of 2021, Nationwide Hospitalization due to COVID-19 topped 100,000. A year later, The Omicron wave has treated 16,000 people across the country.
Today’s numbers are much smaller by comparison. And as of the week of July 22nd, there was 166 deaths from COVID-19 Across the US – a far cry from the 26,000 weekly deaths recorded in the US in the first week of 2021.
People at high risk for serious outcomes should ensure they are up to date on boosters and know where to access treatment if they contract the virus, Dr. Lena Wen, a professor at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George Washington University, told Yahoo News.
Between vaccination and multiple infections, the vast majority of Americans have some immunity. Thus, many have simply accepted the coronavirus as a part of life.
“The pandemic is gone, for all intents and purposes,” said Donald Yeley, chief medical officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The Washington Post a few weeks ago.
But, he warned, “the virus has not gone away yet.”
Read more from our partners: Hardly any of the doctors accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 have been disciplined
