Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that it is time for the United States to start inching back toward normality, despite remaining risks from COVID-19 https://t.co/paLfEXwUuc pic.twitter.com/br97FpKGqf
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2022
Possibly 73% of the US population may be immune to #Omicron, according to at least 1 influential model. But is that enough? About half the eligible population has been boosted & there were ~80M confirmed #omicron infections, factors analyzed in the model https://t.co/BtUX5DST71
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 17, 2022
?I wrote about immunocompromised people—what they’ve been through, their frustrations, and their hopes.
This is a plea to think about those who don’t get to be done with the pandemic, and to prioritize them as a matter of moral and medical urgency. 1/https://t.co/DBI6ssL1a5
— Ed Yong (@edyong209) February 16, 2022
First, dispense with the fiction that immunocompromised people are rare, secluded, or easy to identify.
There are millions of them. Most don’t live in a bubble. Most look healthy. You probably have friends & colleagues you don’t know are ICd. 2/
A lot of immunocompromised people respond poorly to COVID vaccines & are mostly unprotected despite their shots.
They’re in limbo, uncertain about the odds & consequences of infections. Meanwhile, the gulf between them & everyone else widens. 3/
Policies like mask mandates that helped immunocompromised folks are vanishing. Friends & colleagues are dismissing their remaining risk because of the misleading idea that Omicron is “mild”. 4/
To be simply ignored would be bad enough. To be *mocked* is even worse. Many immunocompromised people I spoke to are tired of pundits who equate risk-aversion with irrationality. They’re sick of being a throwaway clause in someone’s callous op-ed. 5/
So many immunocompromised people I spoke to feel abandoned. Several said that Biden’s speech about “a winter of severe illness and death” for unvaxxed people felt like a gut punch for them–vaxxed but still potentially unprotected. 6/
They’ve been made to feel that they’re holding society back. The opposite is true. Losing remote options forces many immunocompromised people into risky situations, “like asking someone who can’t swim to jump into the ocean instead of trying a pool.” 7/
I spoke to 21 people for this story who are either immunocompromised or caring for those who are. I asked them what they want. Exactly no one said “permanent lockdown”. They want their lives back too. They need the world to be safer. 8/
Antivirals & antibody cocktails bring hope. But these are *really* hard to get & doses are pitifully short. Equitable, widespread access would go a long way to salving the feeling of being abandoned by a government that’s so keen on biomedical panaceas. 9/
The people I interviewed mostly wanted structural changes—easier healthcare access, paid sick leave, mask mandates during surges, better ventilation, flexibility for work. All things that would improve the health of immunocompetent people too. 10/
It wouldn’t be too onerous to build a world in which being immunocompromised requires fewer compromises. Disability is as much about society as biology. We can & should put in policies that make IC’d people less disabled in a world where COVID persists. 11/
If you don’t buy the moral argument, here’s a selfish one: Age weakens immunity. Respecting the needs of immunocompromised people isn’t about disproportionately accommodating some tiny minority. It’s about empathizing with your future self. 12/
There’s more in the piece. I’ve tried to address all the standard tropes–“but we didn’t make accommodations before”; “we can’t shut down society for a small fraction”—and why they’re problematic. That’s all in here. 13/
I hope you read this piece, even if—or, really, especially if—you feel more secure about your own risk. We cannot move forward as a society if we don’t care for those who shoulder the majority of the risk that remains. 14/
“We all share the same goal — to get to a point where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives, a time when it won’t be a constant crisis — rather something we can prevent, protect against, and treat,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky CDC director. pic.twitter.com/NL1NWwfio6
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 16, 2022
Great points. I'll add that conditions should also inform whether and when we mandate interventions versus recommend, encourage and empower people to adhere to them. After a surge, masks can still be helpful even if they are no longer mandated. https://t.co/KDodixdAbn
— Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH (@JenniferNuzzo) February 15, 2022
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#Beijing2022 organizers have reported their first day of no new COVID-19 cases among the 5,239 athletes and team officials and 63,731 workers inside the Olympic bubble. https://t.co/eDEH2cDXEN
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) February 17, 2022
Hong Kong's hospitals overwhelmed amid spike in Covid cases https://t.co/O9eueuhxvW
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 16, 2022
Hong Kong residents question the government's 'dynamic zero' coronavirus strategy as the city battles a surge in COVID-19 cases https://t.co/CfV72zY2Ye pic.twitter.com/f3rDFAL8ex
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2022
Hong Kong aims to get 10,000 hotel rooms in COVID fight amid reports of mass testing https://t.co/0fYZjmwHSf pic.twitter.com/DPxgghDKCd
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2022
Thread:
Doctors are increasingly willing to say publicly what Hong Kong staunch patriot leaders will not — a return to zero-Covid is impossible, mitigation is now the only option if we want to lower transmission, protect the vulnerable and save lives. https://t.co/PGXrCWaoMF pic.twitter.com/vikAAyJPCD
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) February 17, 2022
The use of rapid home tests has surged in India on the back of omicron cases, which have recently begun to decline. But experts have voiced caution, saying home tests are less accurate than lab-run PCR tests. https://t.co/ZwJ7Y9FNLv
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2022
Japan set to announce easing of strict border measures https://t.co/gjUyKDLvdC pic.twitter.com/VWls8xGFlK
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2022
The Omicron wave in some Asian countries/region with case surges, without increase in fatalities to date@ourWorldinData pic.twitter.com/vbGmmK3QV0
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 16, 2022
Austria and Germany decide to ease Covid rules https://t.co/q8WnnvOD2E
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 16, 2022
Swiss government lifts nearly all COVID-19 restrictions https://t.co/NYdq14tPbD pic.twitter.com/RcolxJNuIZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 16, 2022
Children aged between five and 11 in England to be offered low-dose Covid vaccine, UK government says, after similar move in Scotland and Waleshttps://t.co/geCK9sQLmB
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) February 16, 2022
Covid cases have declined for the 6th week in the Americas, but deaths are still rising, according to new data from the Pan American Health Organization —PAHO. Half of the region's 34k deaths were reported in the U.S. Deaths have surged because of #Omicron https://t.co/pHNU13cQd3
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 16, 2022
Marriott, AirBnB, others see global travel rebounding in 2022 https://t.co/E0QMPIPwHt pic.twitter.com/8n18qMidg7
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2022
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BioNTech's co-founder and top executive said the vaccine maker has no plans to enforce its intellectual property rights should organisations in Africa strike out on their own to produce unauthorised versions of the company's shot. https://t.co/6VpVqcyk4g
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 16, 2022
South Africa called the patent-first bluffs of @Moderna and @pfizer @BioNTech_Group on #COVID19 #vaccines and look what's happened. Vaccines will now be made, cheaply, in South Africa and Big Pharma's bluff was called. Ta-da! https://t.co/EjEvIdFp3V
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 16, 2022
BioNTech Covid vaccine plan to ship container labs to Africa https://t.co/cFrTXMh66e
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 16, 2022
Why is there so much complacency about #LongCovid?https://t.co/GziHCWlsZE @nature by @lfspinney pic.twitter.com/9SdDBkxoBk
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 16, 2022
We think we know where SARS-CoV-2 is heading. But the coronavirus has multiple paths open to it, Donald Burke argues here. https://t.co/VOVXEE5vh1
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) February 16, 2022
Higher estrogen levels linked to lower COVID death risk; antacid shows promise addressing symptoms https://t.co/xGWmgY8DEm pic.twitter.com/JX7qcMycwK
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 16, 2022
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Texas AG sues over U.S. airport and airplane mask mandates https://t.co/Y6w9Xhg19X pic.twitter.com/2lxNehjobI
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 16, 2022
Just how popular are indoor mask mandates? A recent poll from the COVID States Project (conducted end of December-end of January with 22,000+ respondents) found that 69% of Americans approve of indoor mask mandates, with majorities in all 50 states.https://t.co/CfMV6J5uKq pic.twitter.com/whGGnkNUdl
— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) February 16, 2022
Breathtaking how uncritically an argument about the terrible impact of making people do things they don't want to do can be used to explain literally everything — traffic deaths! — when it comes to arguing for unmasking. pic.twitter.com/pElsQX9Vat
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) February 15, 2022
I'm just responding to ease of explaining it all–crashes, deaths, addiction, inequalities that haven't been created by this, just exacerbated & made visible to those broadly justifying personal resentments–by asserting "it's because we've been told we can't do what we want!"
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) February 15, 2022
Case in point:
Rand Paul’s son was arrested for assaulting a flight attendant. https://t.co/oud9NWDC3f
— Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) February 16, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, Feb. 16-17Post + Comments (74)