Corona-zona

Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending Wednesday: There are some big drops in cases this week, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt because of the holiday. Hospital beds have barely changed, deaths are up, and so are a couple of the wastewater measurements. It will take another couple of weeks for these numbers to stabilize and recover from holiday reporting delays. Meanwhile, Happy New Year!  Previous posts you may have missed: SARS-CoV-2 Can Reactivate Other Dormant Viruses Anti-vaxxers' Efforts Spilling Over to Other Diseases

  SARS-CoV-2 is a nasty bug. As we know, it can cause serious illness and death. But we also know a certain percentage of cases—about 7.5% according to the CDC —turn into "long COVID" where symptoms can persist for weeks, months, or even years. In July I blogged about research on places where the virus can hang out after acute symptoms subside. The leading candidate is the gut, with people shedding viral DNA in their feces months after the initial infection. Today I read a study published earlier this fall that looked at SARS-CoV-2's ability to reactivate viruses laying dormant in our systems. They looked at people who had lingering fatigue from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). In the saliva of these people they found evidence of reactivation of herpesviruses 1-6 (HSV1, HSV2, VZV, EBV, CMV, HHV6), and human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K). This happened 3-6 months after a COVID-19 illness, even after mild/asymptomatic cases.  The researchers

  I have blogged a lot about anti-vaxxers and their efforts. The main players are scumbags who are in it for the money .  They frighten people about COVID vaccines that have been administered to over five billion people by now (with, by the way, zero cases of spontaneous combustion or limbs falling off). They do this so they can sell people quack cures, raking in millions. It would be bad enough if they were just stopping people from getting a life-saving COVID vaccine. But  recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that there is a spillover effect to vaccinations for other diseases. Here is a table showing a decrease from pre-pandemic to present in the number of people who say the benefits of childhood vaccinations outweigh the risks: As noted in the caption, the good news is that most people feel like the benefits outweigh the risks. On the other hand all the figures have decreased, and 20% parents of children who are young enough to get vaccinations don't them to h

Gov. Florida Man in Full Anti-vaxxer Pander Mode  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending Wednesday: All the numbers are down except two. Deaths increased slightly, but are nearly level with last week. The only other increase is Mohave County wastewater, but that is also a fairly small increase. Everything else is down. And this includes COVID-19 hospital beds, which is our only remaining reliable indicator of cases.  If we can rely on the case graphs, this is looking like a much smaller and shorter wave than we had even this summer. So Merry Christmas to us! Previous posts you may have missed: Gov. Florida Man in Full Anti-vaxxer Pander Mode

  Governor Ron "Florida Man" DeSantis, no doubt ginning-up for a presidential run, has decided he needs to do some pandering to extremists who don't think he's conservative enough. So he's turning to his superpower, spreading pandemic disinformation. DeSantis's COVIDiocy has been  well-covered  in this blog. Who can forget his  lying about case numbers in this state? Or his refusal to preorder pediatric vaccine? Or his hiring a guy as State Surgeon General who distributes pandemic misinformation? I could go on at length. Now he wants to empanel a grand jury to investigate "'wrongdoing' linked to the Covid-19 vaccines, including spreading false and misleading claims about the efficacy of the doses." His petition to the Florida Supreme Court says: "the pharmaceutical industry has a notorious history of misleading the public for financial gain,” and asks for a grand jury to probe “the development, promotion, and distribution of vaccine

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending Wednesday December 14: I sure didn't expect this. The only concerning thing is a 50% increase in deaths. But as I've mentioned before we can't be sure when those deaths occurred because of unreliable AzDHS reporting. COVID inpatient beds are up just a tiny bit over the week and not by much more over the month. As noted before, this is probably the best indicator of current infections and it seems to have leveled off. Maricopa County and Tempe wastewater numbers are both down by about the same amount. Yavapai County is up a little and Mohave County is up more substantially.  Pima data was missing this week. It's worth noting that the latest f igures from Lim Lab show that over half the cases sequenced are caused BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants. Yet the numbers seem to be stabilizing, not shooting up. Perhaps this means these new variants are not the threats public health offici

  Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending Wednesday: Sorry this is posted later than usual. The power company cut my cable line and I've been without internet since Tuesday. This week everything except two wastewater measurements are back on the increase after some decreases last week. I suspected this because last week's data included a holiday and this slows down reporting. That said, cases had been increasing at a rate of 25-30% per week. That's what it is this week so we did not double these figures like we have have after previous holiday reporting lulls. Maybe this wave is cresting? We can only hope. There are two other notable figures. First, the death rate nearly doubled. Second, Pima set a new 2022 record for wastewater.  Be careful out there. Previous posts you may have missed: Authoritarian Cave-In Weekend: China Punting on COVID Restrictions

This appears to be cave-in weekend for authoritarians around the world. First, Iran's attorney general announced it would abolish its "morality police." Then China announced it was going to back off its zero-COVID policy. It doesn't appear that all restrictions are being lifted everywhere. Instead the plan is to make the policy "more targeted and less onerous." Still the reversal seems significant, with restrictions—including the requirement to test negative before venturing anywhere in public—being lifted in most major cities. The authorities are spinning this as evidence of a "win" of sorts. The idea is that China weathered the Delta storm and can now relax because the Omicron variant is less deadly.  That is pretty much hogwash, a ccording to Linda Bauld , professor of public health at Edinburgh University: “With Omicron, certainly from the studies [so far], there may be some small reduction in disease severity but not a huge one.” It's g

Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers and graph of statewide cases for the seven day period ending yesterday: Statewide cases are down a little and Maricopa County cases are up a little, but I'm skeptical that this indicates we have passed a peak. There was a holiday last week and holidays always screw up AzDHS reporting. I expect to see a large increase next week. Supporting the idea that we are still surging is the hospitals number increasing by 17%. Deaths are down, which is good, but there's no telling when those numbers are from. As noted previously, some public health people I know thinks those could have something like an 8-10 week lag. Wastewater numbers are up or down a little, except Yavapai which more than doubled. Pima is still increasing and set a new 2022 record.