View allAll Photos Tagged omicron
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-the-best-strategy-against-om...
Is the best strategy against omicron to keep boosting with the original vaccine?
Federal health officials are urging all vaccinated adults to get their Covid booster shot amid growing alarm over the omicron variant, a heavily mutated coronavirus strain that's already been detected in a handful of states across the U.S. But some vaccine experts worry that numerous booster doses of existing vaccines could make future vaccines, if needed, less effective.
The variant's mutations suggest it may be able to dodge some of the immunity provided by vaccination or natural infection. While federal health officials and drugmakers await highly anticipated lab results to see how much of a threat omicron poses to vaccines, for now, the existing boosters are the best defense against the new strain and the highly transmissible delta variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, epidemiologists and immunologists say.
But what is the best strategy for boosters going forward? And if boosters are needed for years to come, as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has suggested, will they need to be modified?
Studies show an extra dose of the current Covid vaccines "increase levels of neutralizing antibodies against all the variants," Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, said Friday at the White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing. "There's every reason to believe that if you get vaccinated and boosted that you would have at least some degree of cross-protection, very likely against severe disease, even against the omicron variant."
This week, the health minister of Israel, which started giving out third doses of Pfizer booster shots in summer, said that a fourth booster dose might be necessary if the country's Covid cases continued to climb.
Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are working on omicron-specific vaccines to use against the new variant if lab tests show significant declines in protection against severe disease, though it could take months before they're ready to be distributed.
Still, there is discussion among some health experts about whether it is appropriate to use the existing vaccines as boosters against new, emerging strains, as the shots are still formulated to target the original form of the virus identified in late 2019.
“The question is, if you keep priming and boosting with a strain, which is basically to make an immune response against the ancestral strain, will that limit your ability then to make an immune response to a virus, which is very much different than the ancestral?” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Offit is describing a phenomenon immunologists call “original antigenic sin” in which the body’s immune system relies on the memory of its first encounter with a virus, sometimes leading to a weaker immune response when it later encounters another version of the virus.
Vaccines can activate this phenomenon, too, said Offit, also a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee. An example is with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, following the release of an updated vaccine that targeted nine strains of the virus instead of just four in the initial shot, he said.
“If you got HPV4 and then got HPV9, knowing that the four strains in [HPV]4 were also in [HPV]9, you had a very good immune response to the four strains, but you didn’t have as good as an immune response to the other five strains,” he said.
Theoretically, it could apply to Covid, too, Offit said.
He said that some experts have argued it may be better for those not at high risk of severe disease to wait to get a booster until a variant-specific option is available.
He, along with Philip Krause and Marion Gruber, two former FDA officials, wrote an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post that argued that booster shots should be restricted to those at high risk for severe disease, such as the elderly and those who live or work in high-risk settings, like health care workers. They said the original two doses of the mRNA vaccines are still working for most healthy adults.
Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and former Covid adviser to President Joe Biden, countered that the third dose of mRNA or second dose of J&J should be considered part of the original vaccine's primary series and people should get a booster as soon as eligible. A booster dose “can actually offset the immune evasion we've seen with this particular variant,” Osterholm told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson on Friday.
Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, pointed out that for influenza as well, having too many antibodies against previous strains can interfere with vaccinations against other flu variants.
However, he said he rejects the idea that this could happen for Covid, at least right now.
The global population has not accumulated enough baseline antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 "to block any further boosting, which is the case in flu for some people," he said. He also noted influenza vaccines are "poorly immunogenic vaccines," nothing like the mRNA vaccines.
Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at Yale University, said even if boosting with the original vaccine did make future vaccines less effective, it is not "wise" to wait for a variant-specific shot to get a boost. The bottom line, she said, is that there's a life-threatening virus still spreading across the country and current vaccines have been shown to protect against it.
Will the existing shot be as good as it was against the original virus? "Maybe or maybe not, but it will probably provide at least some protection against it," she said.
"If we knew that we needed an updated booster and we knew it was going to come out next week, maybe you should wait," she said. "But the truth is, this coronavirus is going around now and it’s mostly the delta variant."
Dr. Peter Hotez agreed, adding that the 30-to-40-fold rise in virus-related antibodies generated by the booster shots may be sufficient against the new strain.
“No matter what, you can’t wait for your booster because delta is still the dominant variant and will be so, I think, for the foreseeable future,” said Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
He added that a variant-specific vaccine may not be needed and that there's a chance that the omicron-specific boosters the drugmakers are developing won't work.
“A slam dunk is not guaranteed,” Hotez said. “Waiting for an omicron-specific booster is a very high-risk strategy.”
John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Weill Cornell Medical College, said there are still some unknowns about the uses of the vaccines, and so the “best-boosting strategy” will emerge over time.
“Everyone wants instant answers, but it matters more to get the right answers. That takes time,” he said.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-un...
Estimated 73% of US now immune to omicron: Is that enough?
The omicron wave that assaulted the United States this winter also bolstered its defenses, leaving enough protection against the coronavirus that future spikes will likely require much less — if any — dramatic disruption to society.
Millions of individual Americans’ immune systems now recognize the virus and are primed to fight it off if they encounter omicron, or even another variant.
About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March.
This will prevent or shorten new illnesses in protected people and reduce the amount of virus circulating overall, likely tamping down new waves. Hospitals will get a break from overwhelmed ICUs, experts agree.
“We have changed,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”
The coronavirus — the current variant or future ones that are sure to pop up — remains a dangerous germ. It is still infecting more than 130,000 Americans and killing more than 2,000 every day. Tens of millions of people remain vulnerable.
And there will be future outbreaks. The notion of a “herd immunity” that could stop the virus has slipped away under the harsh reality of new variants, waning immunity, and the rejection of vaccines by some Americans.
But the coronavirus is no longer new. Two years ago it arrived in a nation where nobody’s immune system had seen it before. The entire population — 330 million people — were immunologically naive, that is, susceptible to infection.
“I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not,” said Mokdad, who works on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model, which calculated the 73% figure for The Associated Press.
With varying degrees of relief and caution, many Americans are starting to return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles.
Sarah Rixen, 41, of Bismarck, North Dakota, started singing again with a civic chorus after taking a year off. Now, with omicron winding down, she said she feels more confident than at any time since the crisis began.
“But I am still a little leery that there could be another variant around the corner,” said Rixen, noting that her family and most of her relatives are fully vaccinated. “I am still going to wear a mask.”
As mask mandates ease, workers return to offices and flights fill up, experts are trying to understand whether this return to normal can last, or if another setback is looming.
To address that, researchers are trying to answer questions about the virus, the vaccine, and how our bodies respond: How fast is booster protection waning against omicron? How long does protection from infection last? How many mild infections were never reported? How many people got infected but had no symptoms?
To find clues, they use health data from other countries such as Britain, Denmark, South Africa and Qatar to project what could be in store.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimate that about three out of four people in the United States will have been infected by omicron by the end of the surge.
“We know it’s a huge proportion of the population,” said Shaun Truelove, an epidemiologist and disease modeler at Johns Hopkins. “This varies a lot by location, and in some areas we expect the number infected to be closer to one in two.”
That means different regions or groups of people have different level of protection — and risk. In Virginia, disease modelers are thinking about their population in terms of groups with different levels of immunity.
They estimate about 45% of Virginians have the highest level of immunity through boosted vaccination or through vaccination plus a recent infection with omicron. Another 47% have immunity that has waned somewhat; and 7% are the most vulnerable because they were never vaccinated and never infected.
In all, the vast majority of Virginians have at least some immunity, said Bryan Lewis, a computational epidemiologist who leads University of Virginia’s COVID-19 modeling team.
“That’s going to be a nice shield of armor for our population as a whole,” Lewis said. “If we do get to very low case rates, we certainly can ease back on some of these restrictions.”
Still, while the population is better protected, many individuals are not. Even by the most optimistic estimates for population immunity, 80 million or so Americans are still vulnerable. That’s about the same as the total number of confirmed infections in the U.S. during the pandemic.
“The 26% who could still get omicron right now have to be very careful,” Mokdad said.
Andrew Pekosz, a virus researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is concerned that people — particularly unvaccinated omicron survivors — may have a false sense of security. “In an ideal world, unvaccinated individuals infected with omicron would be lining up for a vaccine shot,” he said.
Also, estimating protection is far from an exact science. It’s a moving target, as immunity wanes and new variants circulate. Protection varies widely from person to person. And it’s impossible to know for sure how many people are protected at all. The IHME model estimates a wide range — from 63% to 81% of Americans.
“We’ve reached a much better position for the coming months, but with waning immunity we shouldn’t take it for granted,” Mokdad said.
www.news-medical.net/news/20220216/Study-looks-at-COVID-1...
Study looks at COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in France and Italy
Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in accepting or refusing immunization services despite their availability. It is a complicated and context-dependent phenomenon that varies with time, place, and vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy might compromise herd immunity and have an adverse effect on vaccine campaigns.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been followed by a massive infodemic - a flood of information, some of it correct, some of it not - that has the potential to hinder public health response to a pandemic. In today's world, where information is divided into misinformation and factual information, truthfully provided facts cause challenges in comprehending reality.
Acceptance of the vaccination has been observed to be dynamic, and it is particularly responsive to current facts and emotions around the COVID-19 vaccine. A recent study posted to Research Square* preprint server, and under consideration at the journal Scientific Reports, aimed to learn more about how and to what extent vaccine hesitancy can alter over time at the individual level by considering parameters such as dynamic preferences, news reporting, and gender influence.
The study
In June 2021, the team used a designed poll to interview 1,068 persons in France and Italy about their willingness to adopt the COVID-19 vaccine in three different timeframes: three months, one month, and the same day. The option of not opting for a vaccine was also addressed to understand the volubility of preferences better. As a result, the possible answers were limited to three options: yes, maybe, and no. The questionnaire also evaluated the perceived risk and probability of COVID-19, as well as the perceived risk and expected benefit of the vaccine.
A randomized controlled trial was also performed to determine the effect of everyday stimuli, such as factual vaccine news, on audience acceptance of vaccination. To further understand individual personality features, the DOSPERT psychometric test was employed.
In the main experiment, participants were asked to read two distinct stories regarding vaccine-related thrombosis pulled from two Italian newspapers, one with a more abstract description and language and the other with a more anecdotal abstract and concrete language.
The findings
According to the study, people appeared to be voluble because of their volatile decisions when they were subjected to common stimuli that occur on a regular basis, such as reading a newspaper story. Furthermore, the data suggest that individual vaccination preferences were varied and unstable over time and that personal choices of accepting, refusing, or delaying vaccination might well be influenced by how news is reported.
In Italy, 39.7% of people would reject the vaccine today, 25.6% in a month, and 19.4% in a three-month period. 63.6% of the French refuse vaccination today, 44.2% one month from now, and 35.1% three months from now. Based on previous studies, France has higher vaccine hesitancy than Italy.
Surprisingly, after reading newspaper articles, vaccination hesitancy increased, and vaccine acceptance declined. This pattern seems to be driven by vaccination risk-return individual evaluation in the designed model based on human behavior categories. In addition, the abstract text increased vaccine hesitancy more than the concrete text, which was surprising given that the abstract text used more scientific language, and the concrete text used more anecdotal language.
In Italy, women accept vaccination more than men and are more likely to fall into category 1 – pro-vaxers: 48.2 % of women total sample (TS); 29.8 % of males TS. Anti-vaxers account for 7.1% and 23.4 % in category 7.
In France, women accounted for 21% of TS in category 1, while men accounted for 13.2%. In category 7, women made up 22.8% of the total, while males made up 35.8%.
In contrast, women accept the vaccine less than men in the abstract text group in Italy: category 1 has 23.1% of TS of women and 36.4 % of TS of men. In category 7, 38.5 % of TSs were female, whereas 3.9% were male.
Symmetrically, in the French abstract text group, in category 1, females account for 10.4% and males for 13.2%. Category 7 anti-vaxers were 40.3 percent females and 31.6 percent males. In France, females made up 13.8 percent of the concrete text in category 1, while males made up 7.8 percent. Anti-vaxers were found in 7.9 percent of cats and 32.5 percent of males.
Thus, women were keener to get vaccinated at the start of the study, but after reading the abstract text, a significant percentage of them changed their minds and became anti-vax. On the other hand, men become less willing to get vaccinated after reading the concrete text. This brings into focus gender disparities in reactions to real news.
The findings of this decision-making mechanism show that gender-specific communication could play an essential role in encouraging vaccination decisions and acquiring herd immunity.
*Important notice
Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
I was looking through my old sets and found the Bad Batch shuttle. Instead of scrapping it or selling it, I decided to use the parts to build a helicopter inspired by the shuttle.
The landing gear is retractable, the cockpit and troop cabin both have opening doors and the rotors can spin.
Koni-Omega Microfilm Camera HK-35
Manufactured by Konishiroku Photo Industries (distributed by Berkey Photo) fitted with Omicron 70mm f/5.6
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Hochul hold a joint press conference to update New Yorkers on the Omicron variant. City Hall, Thursday, December 2, 2021. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
OmiCron in the Fractal Forest (the interactive tech area of the Anon Salon NYE party, Sea of Dreams)
fortune.com/2022/08/21/is-the-pandemic-over-when-will-cov...
The CDC has guided the U.S. COVID epidemic to a soft landing—a manufactured conclusion that flies in the face of science, some experts say
In the absence of clear closure, or any closure, sometimes we’re guilty of creating our own—the way we might mentally craft a satisfying end to a movie that ends abruptly.
Earlier this month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced new COVID guidelines that brought the country’s COVID epidemic in for a soft landing, of sorts—or tried to, anyway.
It dropped the guidance that Americans quarantine if they’ve been in close contact with someone who has the virus, as well as the recommendation to social-distance.
Those without symptoms, or who are fever-free and whose symptoms are improving, can end their isolation after five days, the agency advises—even though research shows that many with COVID are still infectious at this point.
The rules belie the state of things. COVID levels in at least some parts of the U.S. were recently at or around highs seen during the Omicron surge late last year into early this year.
We’re talking all-time highs.
With testing at record lows, the only reason we know is because some communities look for the virus in wastewater. What does it say that the best indicator of disease spread in this country is now the filthy water that fills sewers?
Some experts, like chief presidential medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said the “acute phase” of the COVID pandemic is over. Others say it’s too early to tell, and point out that a milder variant next month doesn’t mean a more virulent one couldn’t emerge the following.
In the absence of clear closure, or any closure, sometimes we’re guilty of creating our own—the way we might mentally craft a satisfying end to a movie that ends abruptly.
As Traci Hong, a professor of media science at Boston University, recently told Fortune, Americans are looking for “the other bookmark, basically.” A typical TV series runs three to five seasons, with 26 weekly episodes, she said.
“That’s roughly two and a half years of watching the same show, if you watch it every week,” Hong said, adding that Americans are “binged out” when it comes to the pandemic.
“It’s well run the course of a typical series lifespan.”
History doesn’t repeat, often rhymes
This isn’t the first time we’ve buried our head in the sand when a health crisis wouldn’t go away. It’s one of many, Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York School of Public Health, told Fortune.
In September of 1918, Sen. John Weeks of Massachusetts called on Congress to set aside a million dollars to fight the Spanish Flu.
The measure passed both chambers unanimously.
Rupert Blue, the U.S. surgeon general at the time, hoped that the vote would serve as an “important precedent” for the future and the “importance of protecting the health of Americans at all times.” Congress appropriated no additional funds, however, for a strain of flu that lingers today, with genetic vestiges in the viral makeup of currently circulating strains.
Blue proposed a comprehensive national health program—but the call fell on deaf ears, as Americans sought to return to normalcy.
Sound familiar?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wouldn’t be created for nearly another 30 years. Though it began with a mission of preventing malaria from becoming endemic in the U.S., many would say it has since lost its way, focusing myopically on rare diseases and operating in silos while failing to keep a pulse on broad public health crises.
The pattern we’re witnessing in our reactions to public health crises is one the Pandemic Action Network calls the “panic-neglect cycle,” according to Lee.
“We all know people who have bad relationships,” he said. “During the relationship, they think, ‘This is awful, this is not what I want.’ Once it ends, they don’t do the introspection to change what they’re doing going forward. They just keep repeating.”
So it goes with the pandemic, nearly three years in.
We’re already forgetting key lessons we’ve learned early in the pandemic, Lee said, like the importance of face-masking. Face-masking is a population-based intervention that best works when everyone does it, he said—not a tool meant to be used by a lone person to protect themselves in a sea of blissful ignorance.
Simultaneous cycles
The panic-neglect cycle has already launched twice as its COVID iteration continues, Lee said.
Monkeypox infiltrates the country as our supply of safe smallpox vaccine, used to treat monkeypox, runs short—and as health officials approve the splitting of each dose into five to stretch the supply. Meanwhile, vast quantities of an older smallpox vaccine sits in the Strategic National Stockpile—but it contains a live virus and is considered unsafe for many, and thus, is rarely used.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a push for more funding for terrorism prevention, including bioterrorism prevention, Lee said. But interest waned with time. Had the U.S. stayed attentive and stockpiled the safer vaccine, perhaps the monkeypox outbreak could have been stopped in its tracks earlier this year, he said.
“Even if you don’t immediately have the exact same threat,” preparation for one scenario can help in a different one in the future, Lee said. “We really missed the ball on that one.”
Same goes with polio, according to Lee. The World Health Organization declared the Americas free of the potentially paralyzing, possibly deadly virus in 1979. Eventually, the evils of polio faded into textbooks, and the urgency of some parents to vaccinate their children dissipated.
But polio has recently been detected in the wastewater of multiple New York counties, and has so far paralyzed one. Each case of paralytic polio is only the tip of the iceberg and represents often hundreds of additional cases that don’t present with symptoms or look a lot like the flu.
“We have to remember that the problem hasn’t gone away, it’s been handled,” Lee said. “You have to maintain that handling of the problem. How did we make our country polio-free in the first place? We got our vaccination levels up high enough. We need to maintain those levels.”
A soft landing for now?
The plane rests on the tarmac—the CDC in the pilot’s cabin, Americans breathing heavy sighs of relief into the oxygen bags suspended from the ceiling. Meanwhile, surreptitiously COVID circulates about the cabin, as it has for months and years now.
This fall the White House predicts a surge of COVID perhaps reaching 100 million infections—a surge greater than any we’ve seen thus far. Without additional funding from Congress, America won’t have the funding it needs to be first in line for updated vaccines, should they become available, the Biden administration warned this spring.
What happens if the prediction comes true, Lee wonders. When the CDC reverses course yet again and asks Americans to mask up—not even at the first sign of increased trouble, but after hospitals potentially fill and deaths rise?
“How compliant are people going to be with face mask use? Vaccination requirements?” he asked. “You’ve already set the stage for people not paying attention.”
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
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www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
This is a Florida College or University fraternity or club. Found with other early photos from Florida.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
Simmon Omega 120 range finder camera (third model, 1954)
with 90mm f=3.5 Omicron lens in a Wollensak Rapax shutter
This is the first civilian production of the Combat camera made by the Simmon Brothers (known for their range of enlargers). Has a ratchet rapid film advance. The camera was later further developed by Konica to create the Koni-Omega Rapid.
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2011, All Right Reserved
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
OmiCron in the Fractal Forest (the interactive tech area of the Anon Salon NYE party, Sea of Dreams)
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
Koni-Omega Microfilm Camera HK-35
Manufactured by Konishiroku Photo Industries (distributed by Berkey Photo) fitted with Omicron 70mm f/5.6
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi posed for portraits at TCU's Frog Fountain prior to attending a Victory event on September 26, 2014.. (I don't have the first clue what this event was, but I'm assuming it was a formal dance of some sort.) You can learn more about the chapter at the following sites:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
www.marketwatch.com/story/cdc-study-highlights-speed-with...
CDC study highlights speed with which omicron variant infected Americans, and WHO warns testing is still crucial
Steep decline in testing is leaving world blind to potentially dangerous mutations: ‘ When it comes to a deadly virus, ignorance is not bliss’
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is highlighting just how many Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and how significantly the number has increased since the arrival of the highly infectious omicron variant late last year.
The report published on Tuesday found case numbers were particularly striking in children, with three out of every four being infected, sending the total to 75% in February from about 45% in December, as the Associated Press reported.
Among Americans of all ages, roughly 34% had signs of prior infection in December, rising to 58% in February.
The researchers examined blood samples from more than 200,000 Americans and looked for virus-fighting antibodies arising from infections, not vaccines.
“I did expect it to increase. I did not expect it to increase quite this much,” said Dr. Kristie Clarke, co-leader of a CDC team that tracks the extent of coronavirus infections.
The older people were, the less likely they had evidence of past infections, the study found. For those 65 and older, 19% had signs of prior infection in December and 33% did in February. That may be because older adults have higher vaccination rates and they may be more likely to take other COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds, Clarke said.
CDC officials stressed that the previously infected should still get COVID-19 vaccines, as they remain the best protection against severe disease and death.
COVID-19 cases are rising again in the U.S., driven by the BA.2 variant of omicron, along with two subvariants that appear to be even more infectious. The two, named BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1, were highlighted by health officials in New York state recently.
The U.S. is averaging 50,791 cases a day, according to a New York Times tracker, up 61% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in almost all states and territories, in some cases more than doubling since the start of April.
The country is averaging 15,908 hospitalizations a day, up 6% from two weeks ago, although still close to the lowest since the first weeks of the pandemic. The daily death toll has fallen below 400 to 362 on average.
But the official death toll is expected to reach 1 million within weeks, and experts are warning that with many other parts of the world still unvaccinated, new variants may emerge.
Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive Tuesday for COVID-19 on rapid and PCR tests, said her press secretary, Kirsten Allen, in a statement.
Harris “has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence. She has not been a close contact to the president or first lady due to their respective recent travel schedules,” Allen added.
Meanwhile, Pfizer PFE, +1.55% and German partner BioNTech BNTX, -0.72% have asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a COVID-19 booster dose for children between the ages of 5 and 11. Boosters are authorized for teens and adults.
The companies said data from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial yielded no new safety concerns when children in this age group received a booster six months after completing the primary series of shots.
Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
• Shanghai city authorities said Wednesday they will start rounds of COVID-19 testing over the next few days to determine which neighborhoods can safely be allowed a limited amount of freedom of movement, the AP reported. Residents in Beijing are watching carefully for word on whether the capital city will lock down. China reported 14,222 new cases, the most of which were asymptomatic. The country is battling its largest outbreak since the first outbreak was reported in Wuhan in late December 2019. The flow of industrial goods has also been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, home of the world’s busiest port, and other industrial cities including Changchun and Jilin in northeast China. That phenomenon is showing up frequently in U.S. corporate earnings during the current first-quarter season.
• The European Union is moving out of the emergency phase of the pandemic in which testing should be targeted and monitoring of COVID-19 cases should be similar to sample-based flu surveillance, Reuters reported. The shift comes amid a steady decline in cases and deaths and with more than 70% of the trading bloc’s population vaccinated and boosted.
• The EU’s move comes as the World Health Organization is warning that a steep decline in testing around the world is leaving it blind to the virus’s continuing spread and to potentially dangerous mutations, the Guardian reported. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that while falling case numbers and fatalities are a welcome trend, they could also be the result of significant cuts in testing. “As many countries reduce testing, WHO is receiving less and less information about transmission and sequencing,” he said. “This makes us increasingly blind to patterns of transmission and evolution. When it comes to a deadly virus, ignorance is not bliss.”
• Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, -0.05% has steadily expanded the use of its COVID treatment Veklury while much of the nation’s attention has shifted to the arrival of new antivirals that can be picked up at a pharmacy counter, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported Wednesday. So far this year, the Food and Drug Administration granted approval to Veklury as an outpatient treatment for COVID-19 patients who are at high risk of hospitalization or death; the regulator upgraded the authorization to full approval for use in young children; and the World Health Organization revised its conditional recommendation for Veklury, saying it now recommends treatment for patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of hospitalization. Gilead first received emergency authorization for remdesivir, as it was then called, as a treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients on May 1, 2020, making it the first new drug to demonstrate it helped hospitalized COVID-19 patients during one of the darkest points in the pandemic. The company will report first-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Here’s what the numbers say
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 511.3 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.22 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the world with 81.1 million cases and more than 992,028 fatalities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 219.4 million people living in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, equal to 66.1% of the total population. But just 100.2 million are boosted, equal to 45.7% of the vaccinated population.