Coronavirus, Early February, 2023
The Numbers:
More in keeping with reality, the number of people hospitalized with Covid for this wave is dropping, from around 42,000 on Jan 8 to 27,300 now.
And more importantly, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so 6 more weeks of winter, bundle up!
The New York Times Interactive graph ( It can be found here...) has different numbers and is reporting a drop off of new cases as well. My source may not be as accurate as theirs, but I'll stick with it because it is an easy scrape, and is good enough. This is more about trends than anything else.
Dominant Variants in the US:
BQ's 31% Dropping 24 points
BN.1 1.4% Down from 3 last report
CH1.1 1.5% Up from naught
Of note is the XBB variant, which is immune to treatment with monoclonal antibodies.
Per CDC tracker...
Two interesting studies came across my desk.
Good News...
The first is one that says that Omicron infected people are protected against reinfection by Omicron for 8 months. It did not say in the article how long previous infections would offer protection, but if memory serves, there were reports of reinfection in as little as 3 months.
The explanation is because Omicron tended to infect the nasal passages, and they are basically first contact, that the body generates more effective antibodies sooner, preventing reinfection. See here...
Bad News...
Post Mortem studies on 27 people that had tested negative for Covid for up to 9 months indicates they still died from the type of pneumonia that Covid has been know to produce. This ability to avoid testing positive offers some insight to "long Covid" symptoms, and Rebound infections. See here...
Paxlovid Reminder.
A recent New York Times article, see here, reports that Paxlovid is under prescribed for Covid cases. The why's seem to be resistance by doctors. Some are waiting for more information, some are concerned by drug interaction, and some have a political slant. Blue states see less prescription than red states.
When my son contracted Covid about 6 weeks ago, I pushed for him to get it. But he got no response from his doctor on it. In this case, his doctor had left the practice, and no one in the practice told my son about it until he was recovering. The practice just left him hanging.
Paxlovid has been proven, that if taken immediately after a positive test, it can reduce the severity and recovery times from Covid. And with that, reduction of long Covid effects. It makes sense, shorter times, less time for the virus to do long term damage.
