silicone thrills posted:

i was just talking to my gastro for a phone visit and asked her to do a mail order on a new script and she was like "oh yeah you dont want to go into the pharmacy, theres a new major outbreak of RSV in the seattle area" lmao lol

Strep Vote posted:

Seems like there is always a respiratory outbreak in Seattle. It was only slightly better before the pandemic, too.

Oracle posted:

Given the absolutely miserable conditions there from about October to May, it makes sense. It’s like London without the smog.

Hungry Squirrel posted:

Why do the hard candies need to be sugar free? Is it just because you'll eat so many that your teeth will rot, or is it a xylitol thing?

Burn Zone posted:

after 3 years it finally got me



I pulled out my Paxlovid to find it expired March 2023. However since pills don't really expire and HHS extended the dates – I'm good to go.

however I haven't been keeping up with the thread since first of the year so if there are any new tips & tricks to getting thru this without long covid I would very much appreciate them

https://fortune.com/well/2023/12/01/flu-covid-rsv-syndemic-tripledemic-winter-2023-respiratory-virus/ posted:

Forget the ‘tripledemic.’ The U.S. is headed for a ‘syndemic’ this winter—and experts warn we’re not prepared

COVID will likely reach levels in December not yet seen this year, combining with surges of flu, RSV, and other pathogens for a winter not so different from last year’s “tripledemic,” experts say.

Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., told Fortune that the U.S. is a “sitting duck” in the face of a “syndemic” winter.

It’s a term he prefers to “tripledemic,” as it acknowledges the impact of more than three pathogens on the healthcare system, and the need for policies to address the phenomenon, in addition to medical interventions.

“Strained hospital capacities, workforce exhaustion, burnout, a lack of effective therapeutic tools, poor communication, a lack of compliance [with COVID precautions], a lack of continuity planning, and the pervasive influence of social determinants of health” only make the nation’s delicate health infrastructure more fragile, he said.
(..)
Flu surging, RSV ‘near peak’
But not all experts agree. It’s “premature to say it’s going to be a bad year here,” Dr. Michael Osterholm—director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)—recently told Fortune. While pathogens like flu and RSV peaked earlier than usual during last year’s so called “tripledemic,” the severity of the season “wasn’t beyond usual.” What’s more, low hospital bed capacity and staff levels were under-appreciated factors that contributed to the crisis, making it look worse than it was, he said.
(..)
It may take a year or two before winter viral seasons return to normal, Osterholm recently told Fortune. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Fortune he expects a more standard season this year, “with the exception that COVID-19 will remain a major force that impacts hospitalizations and death numbers.”
(..)
‘Immunity debt’ one of several theories
While some experts point to the immunity debt theory as the driver behind wonky post-pandemic viral seasons, some experts say other theories should be considered. Among them: that COVID suppresses the immune system—at least temporarily, and at least in some—making them more susceptible to other infections.

Another: that being infected with both COVID and another pathogen at the same time makes the other pathogen, like RSV, more severe.

One additional: viral interference, in which competitive viruses like COVID “cancel out” other viruses for a period of time. Such a phenomenon appears to have happened during the H1N1 bird flu pandemic of 2009, during which other strains of flu and RSV “disappeared” for a time, as Osterholm points out. [ed. for some reason, that has nothing to do with masking self-imposed social restrictions]
(..)
“There is no circumstance in which more viruses circulating is a good thing,” he said.

Pingui posted:

lmao

Osterholm does not come of great in this article, unless he is trolling, in which case he is doing a great job and it is pretty funny.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-47829-8 posted:

Abstract
Exhaled SARS-CoV-2-containing aerosols contributed significantly to the rapid and vast spread of covid-19. However, quantitative experimental data on the infectivity of such aerosols is missing. Here, we quantified emission rates of infectious viruses in exhaled aerosol from individuals within their first days after symptom onset from covid-19. Six aerosol samples from three individuals were culturable, of which five were successfully quantified using TCID50. The source strength of the three individuals was highest during singing, when they exhaled 4, 36, or 127 TCID50/s, respectively. Calculations with an indoor air transmission model showed that if an infected individual with this emission rate entered a room, a susceptible person would inhale an infectious dose within 6 to 37 min in a room with normal ventilation. Thus, our data show that exhaled aerosols from a single person can transmit covid-19 to others within minutes at normal indoor conditions.

Gunshow Poophole posted:

it's the same article as last winter??

Pingui posted:

It tickles me that this research was done by Swedes.
"Infectivity of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 aerosols is sufficient to transmit covid-19 within minutes"

Pillowpants posted:

COVID Hospitalizations since 9/1

Pingui posted:

It tickles me that this research was done by Swedes.
"Infectivity of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 aerosols is sufficient to transmit covid-19 within minutes"

Pingui posted:

lmao

Osterholm does not come of great in this article, unless he is trolling, in which case he is doing a great job and it is pretty funny.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/episode-143-immunological-chess-match posted:

So I think a lot of us are not only trying to understand where we are right now, but also trying to determine if this is actually just part of a new normal with COVID-19. And the reason I bring this up is because COVID hasn't simply gone away as much as we would all like it to. On top of that, there are certain people who really want to believe that COVID is now a predictable disease that follows the same pattern, such as seasonality. To me, there is simply absolutely no data supporting that. In fact, this is a seasonal type disease. In fact, when you break the year down into four quarters, in other words, first quarter January to March, quarter to April to June, 2:45, July to September, and quarter for October to December. And look at when each surge in the US occurred. You'll find that two happened in quarter 1st January to March, two happened in quarter two, April to June, four happened in quarter 3rd July to September, and one in quarter 4th October to December. So again, the only thing seasonal about COVID that I've seen so far is that transmission can occur in all four seasons, and even peaks in transmission. And the latest trends I've seen continue to support this reality.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobial-stewardship/episode-144-slow-motion-tsunami posted:

So but still, the numbers of RSV cases we're seeing is almost four times lower than we were seeing at this exact same time last year. As influenza and RSV cases are rising and COVID, we're not quite sure what it's doing yet. I'm beginning to hear the use of that word tripledemic. Again, this is something that's popular among some of the talking heads in the business. As you know, I have said over and over again, I never liked that term. I think it is a misunderstanding of what's happening. And if you look at what happened late last fall and early winter, we did see RSV activity pick up substantially and we saw influenza activity pick up, not, in fact, COVID. And in each of those instances, the season for that particular virus was not really a severe season. It just came early. And but people at the time were making all kinds of proclamations about how bad this was going to get. And then the seasons ended well before when we'd normally expect them to end. And so we, in a sense, had average flu and average RSV seasons last year. Now, oftentimes, you'll see the media report on hospitals that are overrun with cases of influenza, RSV, particularly in the pediatric area.

And that surely is what happens in those hospitals. But let's make one thing very clear. That is not a function necessarily of a major increase in cases. It's a statement on our capacity for health care in this country. We have basically nibbled down to the point of taking out large segments of our care capacity in hospitals today, meaning beds don't exist. That existed 10 to 12 years ago. That meant that no, someone would not have to be housed in a temporary location on a floor somewhere as opposed to an actual room. So at this point, I just want to be clear that yes, we can see big increases in cases seasonally and they can be challenging, but we have to interpret when is that a function of actual numbers of cases, and when is it a function of the decreased capacity of our health care system to care for people making it into a crisis? At this point, I don't think we have any evidence we're going to have anything other than an average flu season. We're going to have an average RSV season. And with that, I think we're just going to be watching what happens over the next few weeks.

Burn Zone posted:

however I haven't been keeping up with the thread since first of the year so if there are any new tips & tricks to getting thru this without long covid I would very much appreciate them

Pingui posted:

Is this a new page? I don't recall seeing it before. There are links to graphs on COVID, Influenza and RSV for the entire US and by state if you click the links on the side or the buttons at the bottom.

https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/snapshot.html

Steve Yun posted:

Steve Yun posted:

https://x.com/bnofeed/status/1730326887476453765?s=46

happy anniversary

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

Australia weekly update, for what it's worth. My Twitter data guy didn't post a hospitalizations graph this week and I'd been using that as my main indicator of how things are going so

The 'outbreaks in aged care' graph was my next indicator of the bigger picture, it's actually looking like the current wave has peaked. The thread has the state-by-state breakdowns

https://nitter.net/dbRaevn/status/1730732285698429423#m

The "reported covid cases by state" graph is hilariously weird, there's a big gap of several weeks where the reported data was MIA because that's how covid reporting goes now in Australia. There was pretty obviously a big peak in some states hidden in that 'fog of data war' zone but thanks to the immutable rule of 'pics or it didn't happen' I guess no it didn't. The visible graph is heading down pretty steeply now so things are going great as far as we can see!

https://nitter.net/dbRaevn/status/1730489100824895494#m

Burn Zone posted:

after 3 years it finally got me



I pulled out my Paxlovid to find it expired March 2023. However since pills don't really expire and HHS extended the dates – I'm good to go.

however I haven't been keeping up with the thread since first of the year so if there are any new tips & tricks to getting thru this without long covid I would very much appreciate them

Bald Stalin posted:

Does the PDF linked here (it contains wastewater data for Vic) open for you? It updated recently and won't work on my android phone. Earlier reports worked.

https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/victorian-covid-19-surveillance-report

Strep Vote posted:

Today marks 4 years from my last community acquired respiratory infection (easily defeated by inhaled antivirals)

Tzen posted:

at work earlier today, hmm my personal email is blowing up, what the hell is going on

lol got an email from my kids elementary school, "You are receiving this notification because there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 in your child’s classroom."
lol got an email from my other kids daycare, "You are receiving this notification because there was a confirmed case of COVID19 in _______ classroom."

quote:

In addition to the known ACE2 receptor, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can also bind to the RAGE receptor found in white blood cells.