Covid seems to be fading into the background, but that doesn't mean it's gone away. We need only look out our window to be reminded that it's still around, as our neighbors got it just this past week. Three years in, however, we go about life about the same as we did pre-pandemic. I still wear a mask in crowded spaces, but Don and Sarah don't wear them often. Sarah goes to sleepovers and has friends over.
I'm even contemplating ending this blog series, but that would seem to be tempting fate....
Sun., Jan. 1
- An aggressive new offspring of omicron, XBB.1.5, was taking hold in New York and the Northeast. CDC models said the XBB variants represented about 40.5 percent of the total infections in the country. According to epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, XBB.1.5 appeared to be similar to others in terms of being evasive of immune systems; it had more capability to stick to human cells, but in laboratory tests, it was not yet clear that it was more transmissible.
- Japan joined nearly a dozen other countries, including the U.S., by saying it would soon require negative test results for arrivals from China.
- After appearing around Thanksgiving, XBB.1.5 was responsible for one-third of all cases in the U.S. and the dominant strain in the Northeast.
- The rate at which the coronavirus was being detected in wastewater, which had become a bellwether for the pandemic, had tripled or quadrupled in many parts of the U.S. in recent weeks. COVID-19 hospitalizations had jumped 70%. And 300 to 400 people were dying every day from COVID-19.
- Chinese authorities predicted 2 billion people would travel for Lunar New Year over the next 40 days, spreading covid from urban to rural areas.
- XBB.1.5 comprised well beyond 75 percent of infections in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
- Covid hospitalizations in the United States reached their highest level in almost 11 months.
- Only 15 percent of those eligible — and 38 percent of senior citizens, who are most at risk — had received the updated shots.
- The Biden administration extended the covid-19 public health emergency for another 90 days. Among many cost-saving and access benefits, the emergency declaration eased access to vaccines and treatments.
- China made a significant revision of its official death toll in the latest outbreak of the coronavirus — from just 37 to nearly 60,000 deaths linked to covid-19 since December, when pandemic restrictions were lifted and infections surged across the country.
- A study showed pregnant people infected with the coronavirus have a seven times higher risk of dying compared with pregnant individuals who are not infected, a finding that arrived amid renewed calls for vaccination of those who are expecting a baby.
- Virologists had faced online abuse and even death threats amid fears that what they do is dangerous. Above all, conjectures that the coronavirus pandemic might have originated from secret laboratory research had cast a shadow over the field.
- The FDA was considering changing the covid vaccination regime to one annual shot geared toward the latest strain, like the flu shot. The vaccine composition would be chosen each June and the shots administered each September.
- The CDC determined the bivalent vaccine was effective against the latest variant, XBB.1.5.
- Advisers to the FDA unanimously endorsed retiring the original coronavirus shot in favor of one that targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron variant. If the FDA adopted the recommendation, the bivalent shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which targeted both the original version of the virus and the omicron variant, would be used for the entire vaccination series rather than just a booster dose.
- The White House said it would extend the national and public health emergencies related to the pandemic until May 11, and then let them expire. The declaration came as President Biden opposed House Republicans’ efforts to pass resolutions to end the emergency declarations immediately.
- The World Health Organization said the coronavirus pandemic was still a global health emergency. But the agency also acknowledged the crisis was likely at an inflection point where higher levels of immunity could soon lead to lower virus-related deaths.
- Children lost out on more than one-third of a school year’s worth of learning when in-person instruction was halted during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a sweeping global study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Two years later, they still hadn’t overcome those deficits, according to the study.
- Neighbors Liz, Matt, Ruby had covid.
- Appearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, three federal officials pointed to the staggering amount of money stolen from federal aid programs since 2020. They called on lawmakers to enhance their powers to collect and monitor data on pandemic aid spending, bring civil and criminal charges, and recover taxpayer money.
- Resentment over pandemic public health measures was still running deep among activist Republicans. The issue was emerging as a cornerstone of the party’s messaging, even though many Americans had put the virus behind them.
- An average of more than 500 Americans were dying every day from covid.
- Among the most significant effects of ending the national and public health emergencies in May were that many Americans could have to start paying for coronavirus testing and treatments, depending on their insurance coverage and where they lived. Another was the termination of Title 42, a public health measure put in place by the Trump administration that limited the inflow of migrants at the border.
- Since most of our stock of covid test kits expired at the end of January, I ordered four more from the U.S. Postal Service (free for anyone) and eight more from CVS (free through our health insurance).
- The CDC community transmission level was substantial (down from high) for our county.
- The median rate for completing a primary series of coronavirus vaccines in 2022 was roughly 76 percent of adults over 60 globally, according to a new report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that found wide disparities in immunization rates based on income levels, from 30 percent in low-income countries to 90 percent in high-income countries.
- California’s coronavirus vaccine requirement for schoolchildren, which had been on hold since April, had been quietly dropped, state public health officials confirmed, terminating one of the nation’s only remaining coronavirus vaccine mandates for students.
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