Corona-zona

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending yesterday: Things this week look better than last week. Case rates are down at the state level by a little, as is Maricopa County, with a four-week decrease as well. Again we should take case statistics with a grain or two of salt.  But the graph shows that we've been basically flat for the last six weeks. Deaths are up a little—the percentage is up though the raw numbers look the same because of rounding. Hospital inpatient beds are up a little too. Neither of these is increasing at rapid rates. Wastewater signals continue to skyrocket in Yavapai County, which set another 2022 record this week. After setting records last week, Pima and Mohave counties are down. Tempe is showing a big increase, however. Posts from Earlier This Week You May Have Missed Why Are There "NOVIDS" Who Never Get COVID-19?

I have yet to be infected with SARS-CoV-2—as far as I know, at least not to the point that I became ill. I am knocking on wood as I write this.  Why have I not become infected? I know lots of other people who are not COVIDiots and take precautions. They are fully vaccinated and boosted (as am I). Still they've gotten infected, some of them more than once.  What is going on with us " NOVIDS ," then? Scientists are wondering this too, and over the past week this has been the subject of several articles I've run across.  This one says scientists are starting to close in on some explanations for why an estimated 30% of people in this country have never gotten COVID-19. One possibility is lucky genetic breaks. A study a couple of years ago identified a whole slew of genetic markers associated with people who've not become ill with COVID-19. Many of these are associated with "up-regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis" and "sequestration of ACE2 receptor

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending yesterday: After dips last week almost every measure is up. As one Redditor suggested, it must have been the holiday that made things look better last week. The only green spots on the table are hospital beds and Tempe wastewater, and even those are up over one month. All the county wastewater values set new 2022 records, and Yavapai has more than doubled. Sigh.  

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending yesterday: Three weeks ago the summary showed some signs that the wave might be moderating, only to have the numbers bounce right back the next week. This week it looks like things might be moderating again. Will they bounce back next week? Case rates are down by a quarter in the state and 7.5% in Maricopa County. As we know by now these numbers are probably not reliable because of closing of free testing programs and use of home tests. Some experts estimate cases are being undercounted by 10X . Another good sign is that wastewater signals are down everywhere expect Mohave County (where they set a new record). Also for the first time since spring we are seeing reductions over a four weeks in many of the measures.   Hospitalizations and deaths are up by 4%-5% but those are lagging indicators, and the increases aren't huge. All this as variants BA.4 and BA.5 are accounting for over 7

  A couple of months ago, I blogged about the possibility of an endless wash-rinse-repeat cycle of COVID-19 infections. It's possible because of the rate at which the virus is mutating, the genetic space it has left to mutate, and the fact that the mutations seem to be in the direction of greater contagiousness and immune evasion. That is a depressing prospect even if there is no particular reason to fear reinfection except  inconvenience. But this week I have seen a couple of articles that paint a darker picture. One article  on a Canadian independent journalism site invoked the possibility of a "forever plague." They cited cases where people have been reinfected within 23 days .  A CNN story summarized findings of a  VA study  (preprint) looking at cases of reinfections in five million participants. It showed that  compared with those with just one Covid-19 infection, those with two or more documented infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times th

  Image by  mohamed Hassan  from  Pixabay Everybody has now come around to the idea that COVID-19 is mainly caused by airborne virus particles . So instead of reaming our sinuses or making us spit in a tube, why can't they detect it directly in breath? Now they can. The FDA recently approved a breathalyzer for SARS-CoV-2. It uses  gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) to separate and identify chemical mixtures and rapidly detect five Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in exhaled breath. The results are available in three minutes. The test seems to be pretty accurate too. According to the FDA release, it correctly detects 91.2% of cases where people are known to be infected (via normal PCR tests). Better yet, it correctly identifies 99.3% of cases where people are known to be negative for infection.  Unfortunately the units are a little bigger than the alcohol breathalyzers the cope use. They are more like the size of a suitcase.  They

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending yesterday: Given that most counties in Arizona are now under high community levels , I was expecting the table to look a lot worse. But case rates, while up in the state overall, are actually down a little in Maricopa County.  On the other hand, the graph shows that May-June this year is looking a lot like July-August last year. That is, to the extent we can even take case rates seriously anymore. Deaths are down and hospital beds utilization is up. However as noted before the latter is not skyrocketing like it has in previous waves. Wastewater detections are setting records again in Pima and Yavapai counties. They are down in Mohave County and Tempe, but only slightly. The high community levels come with a recommendation to wear masks indoors.  So mask up! Posts from the Last Seven Days you May Have Missed Long COVID Might be Caused by Virus Hanging Out in Your Gut Clarence Thomas Spre

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used vaccine disinformation to justify his opinion in a case before the Supreme Court. It appeared in a dissent in the ruling on DR. A., ET AL. v. KATHY HOCHUL, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, ET AL., where the majority opinion upheld New York's vaccine mandeate for health care workers. In his dissent Thomas said, in part,  Petitioners are 16 healthcare workers who served New York communities throughout the COVID–19 pandemic. They object on religious grounds to all available COVID–19 vaccines because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children.    Thomas cited this as a sound reason for objecting to vaccinations on religious grounds. The only problem? It's not true, or more accurately, it's only 1/3 true. Of the three major vaccines, only Johnson & Johnson adenovirus vaccine requires fetal cells for production. Moderna and Pfizer only used the cell lines in testing.  But still the cells were used for Moderna and Pfiz

  As noted in an earlier post , one of the risks of contracting SARS-CoV-2 is that it may turn into a chronic disease referred to in medical terms as "post-acute sequelae of COVID-19" (PASC). It is known colloquially as long-haul or just long COVID. The CDC says the condition can last anywhere from weeks to years.  They give a long list of possible symptoms, but note that some of them can be "hard to explain and manage:" Clinical evaluations and results of routine blood tests, chest x-rays, and electrocardiograms may be normal. The symptoms are similar to those reported by people with ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) and other poorly understood chronic illnesses that may occur after other infections.  Unlike other aspects of the disease where the oldest fare the worst, long COVID is more likely to affect younger people, according to a data  from people with private health insurance.  Nearly a third of victims are 35 or younger, and the mo