This conclusion is spot on accurate. We have friends who had been careful, used masks in all public settings, maintained their vaccines and avoided gatherings and have recently been infected. Like us, these friends are older, and we worry about them and us because the hospitalizations and daily death numbers should be unacceptable, but public awareness or possibly empathy is gone. A few folks who remain cautious are aware of the problem, but like all human suffering, if the war is not in your neighborhood and friends and family are not being drafted and sent to the front lines, it becomes easier to ignore and pretend the war is not happening. I continually forget that we are really just animals who can speak but many of us cannot reason or are just selfish brutes. This is a grim morning for me. Sorry.
COVID is not being covered in the news media-- the data is fading away and the prevailing narrative is that it’s over. The few articles that addressed that it is still a health risk for older people -- and none published recently--got many comments. When I read the papers now-- Boston Globe, NYT, WaPo-- I feel like I’m in a separate reality. I still care and try to avoid infection, but the main stream news is “post pandemic “ and considers endemic harmless. I read a Bill Hanage article in the Harvard Gazette that made me feel less crazy. He mentioned that 150,000 people die every year in the US still. I abhor Twitter, but that’s the only place where COVID exists--and even on crazy Twitter it's fading away. I follow Michael Osterholm and Eric Topol and know that my concerns aren't shared by the public or public health.
Covid slipping from a legitimate health concern to merely another topic on the news/entertainment cycle worries me. This reinforces the incorrect perception that we are not in a pandemic phase of this disease, which leads to "the public" proceeding to disregard wearing masks and getting immunized to the most recent booster level. Which, of course, only prolongs our collective suffering.
Yes, Covid has faded from the news and I have to actively look for real information. Earlier in the pandemic I figured out my go-to people when it came to big picture information (you being one of them) and I continue to specifically look for them. It really was amazing how science embraced Twitter during all of this and I joined because these people were all there. One of them was part of the Independent SAGE group in the UK and as a modeler turned out to be helpful as to what might be coming down the pike. Most of the people in my world, my over 60 year old peers included, have moved on. On a certain level the lack of media coverage validates their position. Even during a wave they have no idea of the local numbers. They have no interest in the medical data and are annoyed when it comes up. Most of them have had Covid multiple times. A 70 year old friend recently had a massive stroke after having had Covid twice and I will always wonder if there is a connection. When the numbers are low I am out and about a bit, always masking in group settings, and when the numbers are higher I live a much smaller life. Though it is upsetting that real information is not readily available, the "news" is no longer helping me figure out how to live. My go-to people are.
Thanks for this article, Jeremy. Interesting that there was an article in the Boston Globe today about how cautious covid “experts” are being these days... Have you read it? Any comments??
Perspective in Cleveland - Covid has been "over" for close to a year (when Airlines dropped masks seems to mark the date). Schools stopped providing updates, maybe 1 in 100 wear a mask at stores, 1 in 800 at schools. Two major hospitals including my wife's dropped masks over the summer with no repercussions.
Like Benjay's analysis, I also kept a note of how many times Covid was mentioned on the front page of the WSJ and watched as it dwindled to just being the occasional blurb on the side (Jan 14 for example only had quick note J&J is scaling down production of their 1 shot series as demand plunged).
Wife and friends still don't understand my utter fascination with Covid, and I get their point - if you weren't on Twitter or Substack you wouldn't really know it was a "thing" out this way, but I still find it a very interesting phenom to study.
As for the death toll, 2022 was the first year for all-cause mortality to trend down in many Western countries, while eastern countries saw spikes, especially South Korea. In the US our peak weekly deaths was at 68,000 end of December, down from 85,000 a year ago and down from 87,000 the year before that. It was still higher than our forecasted 62,000 deaths/week, but it may just be that we will continue to have a slightly elevated baseline of expected deaths moving forward.
Dr. Faust, have you heard whether there will be any updated guidelines regarding a 2nd bivalent booster for people (seniors) that received theirs this past September? Thanks!
Thank you ,as always ,for such informed writing . Excellent research. I live on cape cod and was just in the grocery store.. some people mask some don’t......
I had Covid for the first time last December and was masking diligently after that but then I wonder should I or shouldn’t I.
I definitely don’t want to become sick again with anything!!!!!!
I see hospice patients in nursing homes and they were hit hard most recently.
All healthcare facilities require masking on the cape .
Hoping you'll continue to research and report on Covid (as well as other topics). To try and keep up on Covid, I follow you, Dr. Topol, Dr. Jetalina, Dr. Osterholm, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, BNO News, Biobot Analytics, the People's CDC and Together Against Covid Transmission (T.A.C.T) newsletter. If possible, I would appreciate continuing coverage of any new developments and/or status pertaining to updated vaccines, boosters or treatments that either block Covid transmission or prevent organ damage or long Covid.
Excellenta Data. I note "Your Local Epidemiologist" reports more than 23,800 CV19 infections last week & projects about 10 percent ICU hospitalizations. Prognosis? As a layman, I posit much depends on the microbiology of the next dominant variant?
Dr. Faust - I am interested in a look back to mistakes that were made in terms of too much caution. And not hindsight but i'd rather the focus be on decisions at the time where we had more than enough information to know better. For instance, my daughter (boston public schools) had her fall 2020 cross country season canceled. And they had been required to wear masks while running at the time of cancelation!
Yes. Monroe Cty, NY had daily and then weekly countywide updates until July '22. I get it takes resources, but it makes it hard to find info and evaluate personal risk. Although my life has been back to "normal" for a long time now, except that (in addition to vaccines) I continue to wear a mask when in indoors crowded places (supermarket, etc.). With so few other people doing so, you begin to wonder who's the crazy one. I try to focus on hospital rates & excess deaths as a gauge to where we all are because testing is no longer accurate with so many people not reporting home test results. It is frustrating, however, that info is lacking and scattered and difficult to access. Thank you for filling that void.
This conclusion is spot on accurate. We have friends who had been careful, used masks in all public settings, maintained their vaccines and avoided gatherings and have recently been infected. Like us, these friends are older, and we worry about them and us because the hospitalizations and daily death numbers should be unacceptable, but public awareness or possibly empathy is gone. A few folks who remain cautious are aware of the problem, but like all human suffering, if the war is not in your neighborhood and friends and family are not being drafted and sent to the front lines, it becomes easier to ignore and pretend the war is not happening. I continually forget that we are really just animals who can speak but many of us cannot reason or are just selfish brutes. This is a grim morning for me. Sorry.
COVID is not being covered in the news media-- the data is fading away and the prevailing narrative is that it’s over. The few articles that addressed that it is still a health risk for older people -- and none published recently--got many comments. When I read the papers now-- Boston Globe, NYT, WaPo-- I feel like I’m in a separate reality. I still care and try to avoid infection, but the main stream news is “post pandemic “ and considers endemic harmless. I read a Bill Hanage article in the Harvard Gazette that made me feel less crazy. He mentioned that 150,000 people die every year in the US still. I abhor Twitter, but that’s the only place where COVID exists--and even on crazy Twitter it's fading away. I follow Michael Osterholm and Eric Topol and know that my concerns aren't shared by the public or public health.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/03/william-hanage-on-covid-lessons-we-still-need-to-learn/
Covid slipping from a legitimate health concern to merely another topic on the news/entertainment cycle worries me. This reinforces the incorrect perception that we are not in a pandemic phase of this disease, which leads to "the public" proceeding to disregard wearing masks and getting immunized to the most recent booster level. Which, of course, only prolongs our collective suffering.
Yes, Covid has faded from the news and I have to actively look for real information. Earlier in the pandemic I figured out my go-to people when it came to big picture information (you being one of them) and I continue to specifically look for them. It really was amazing how science embraced Twitter during all of this and I joined because these people were all there. One of them was part of the Independent SAGE group in the UK and as a modeler turned out to be helpful as to what might be coming down the pike. Most of the people in my world, my over 60 year old peers included, have moved on. On a certain level the lack of media coverage validates their position. Even during a wave they have no idea of the local numbers. They have no interest in the medical data and are annoyed when it comes up. Most of them have had Covid multiple times. A 70 year old friend recently had a massive stroke after having had Covid twice and I will always wonder if there is a connection. When the numbers are low I am out and about a bit, always masking in group settings, and when the numbers are higher I live a much smaller life. Though it is upsetting that real information is not readily available, the "news" is no longer helping me figure out how to live. My go-to people are.
Unfortunately that is exactly what I am finding as well.
Please keep writing about Covid. I’ll ask one question. Would you want to enter a nursing home or rehab facility now?
Undoubtedly, the interest in COVID, pandemics, and public health, in general, has diminished.
Thanks for this article, Jeremy. Interesting that there was an article in the Boston Globe today about how cautious covid “experts” are being these days... Have you read it? Any comments??
Perspective in Cleveland - Covid has been "over" for close to a year (when Airlines dropped masks seems to mark the date). Schools stopped providing updates, maybe 1 in 100 wear a mask at stores, 1 in 800 at schools. Two major hospitals including my wife's dropped masks over the summer with no repercussions.
Like Benjay's analysis, I also kept a note of how many times Covid was mentioned on the front page of the WSJ and watched as it dwindled to just being the occasional blurb on the side (Jan 14 for example only had quick note J&J is scaling down production of their 1 shot series as demand plunged).
Wife and friends still don't understand my utter fascination with Covid, and I get their point - if you weren't on Twitter or Substack you wouldn't really know it was a "thing" out this way, but I still find it a very interesting phenom to study.
As for the death toll, 2022 was the first year for all-cause mortality to trend down in many Western countries, while eastern countries saw spikes, especially South Korea. In the US our peak weekly deaths was at 68,000 end of December, down from 85,000 a year ago and down from 87,000 the year before that. It was still higher than our forecasted 62,000 deaths/week, but it may just be that we will continue to have a slightly elevated baseline of expected deaths moving forward.
Dr. Faust, have you heard whether there will be any updated guidelines regarding a 2nd bivalent booster for people (seniors) that received theirs this past September? Thanks!
Thank you ,as always ,for such informed writing . Excellent research. I live on cape cod and was just in the grocery store.. some people mask some don’t......
I had Covid for the first time last December and was masking diligently after that but then I wonder should I or shouldn’t I.
I definitely don’t want to become sick again with anything!!!!!!
I see hospice patients in nursing homes and they were hit hard most recently.
All healthcare facilities require masking on the cape .
Hoping you'll continue to research and report on Covid (as well as other topics). To try and keep up on Covid, I follow you, Dr. Topol, Dr. Jetalina, Dr. Osterholm, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, BNO News, Biobot Analytics, the People's CDC and Together Against Covid Transmission (T.A.C.T) newsletter. If possible, I would appreciate continuing coverage of any new developments and/or status pertaining to updated vaccines, boosters or treatments that either block Covid transmission or prevent organ damage or long Covid.
Excellenta Data. I note "Your Local Epidemiologist" reports more than 23,800 CV19 infections last week & projects about 10 percent ICU hospitalizations. Prognosis? As a layman, I posit much depends on the microbiology of the next dominant variant?
That's a question Doctors.
Dr. Faust - I am interested in a look back to mistakes that were made in terms of too much caution. And not hindsight but i'd rather the focus be on decisions at the time where we had more than enough information to know better. For instance, my daughter (boston public schools) had her fall 2020 cross country season canceled. And they had been required to wear masks while running at the time of cancelation!
Yes. Monroe Cty, NY had daily and then weekly countywide updates until July '22. I get it takes resources, but it makes it hard to find info and evaluate personal risk. Although my life has been back to "normal" for a long time now, except that (in addition to vaccines) I continue to wear a mask when in indoors crowded places (supermarket, etc.). With so few other people doing so, you begin to wonder who's the crazy one. I try to focus on hospital rates & excess deaths as a gauge to where we all are because testing is no longer accurate with so many people not reporting home test results. It is frustrating, however, that info is lacking and scattered and difficult to access. Thank you for filling that void.