Petey posted:

The adorable 8 month old, whom I normally dawdle on my knee while interrogating him about Kant, went to the hospital, btw, unable to breath with croup, was given steroids and antibiotics, sent home, still isn’t all the way better, parents meeting with pediatrician tomorrow. everything sucks!!!!

Zugzwang posted:

gently caress, hope he gets better soon

https://www.thelocal.es/20240104/respiratory-infections-soar-in-spain-over-christmas-as-hospitals-struggle posted:

Respiratory infections soar in Spain over Christmas as hospitals struggle
Cases of viral respiratory infections such as flu, Covid and bronchitis have shot up over the past few weeks in Spain, putting an enormous strain on hospitals across the country and causing a severe lack of beds.

Winter colds and flu are common, but this year Spain has seen a spike in cases of three different viruses - flu, Covid and bronchitis at the same time.

This comes after the festive and New Year period with lots of family gatherings and meetings with friends without much thought for social distancing days of the pandemic.

Rise in cases
According to health services, there are 35 percent more cases of these infections than a year ago, a percentage that is expected to continue rising until the third week of January when the epidemic peak will be reached after more gatherings for Three Kings' Day on January 5th and 6th.

In a period of seven days, the rates of flu have gone from 532 to 908 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The cases of Covid have also grown from 12.6 percent to 13.6 percent.

The Health Minister, Monica García has published a message on social media reminding the public of the importance of getting vaccinated and maintaining prevention measures, such as ventilating rooms, washing hands and wearing a mask.
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The head of the Emergency Department at the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Murcia, explained that the profile of these patients ranges "from young people with flu pathologies who go to the emergency room because health centres have delayed their appointments and people over 80 years old with pneumonia due to the flu who end up being admitted”.

Lack of hospital beds
According to the first vice president of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES), Pascual Piñera, 10 of patients [ed. idk, 10% maybe?] with these infections end up admitted to hospital overnight and one of the biggest problems staff are facing is the severe lack of beds, "They have nowhere to put the sick”, he explained.

The situation is the same all over the country. Red Workers union of the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid has reported that there are 105 patients pending admission and beds in the hallways are in double rows, "which cannot be evacuated if the patient worsens or there is a fire”.
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https://elpais.com/espana/madrid/20...io-a-tiros.html posted:

140 patients for 86 beds in the La Paz emergency room at rush hour: “Either they give me the medical report at once or I'm shot” [ed. I think "start shooting"]
EL PAÍS spends an afternoon in the overflowing rooms of the Madrid hospital, where the sick are parked in the hallways and relatives lose their nerves
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The emergency room has six acute rooms. The largest is the third, which has 32 beds but at 5:00 p.m. it houses 49 patients.
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The former civil guard's threat to open fire is, apparently, a minor incident that does not make the call for help necessary. The affected health worker narrates minutes later what happened as if nothing had happened. She has seen worse things in her year of work here, she says: “I am sure that the number of attacks in this service multiplies any other plant [ed. healthcare?] service. We are very helpless, but the relatives rightfully demand attention that you cannot give them.”

Sometimes they have to deal with mentally ill patients who become violent.
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The Ministry of Health responds that the situation in La Paz is the usual one at the beginning of the seasonal flu epidemic to which other respiratory viruses are added. A spokesperson indicates that the hospital management has opened 44 beds in hospitalization floors and another 10 beds in the emergency department itself.
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Estrella's husband gives up. “My goodness,” he says as he returns crestfallen to the waiting room, which is a hive of coughing patients with faces as if they had spent holidays ruined by the disease.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(23)00575-8/fulltext posted:

Summary
Background
Post-COVID-19 condition has recently been defined as new or persistent common COVID-19 symptoms occurring three months after disease onset. The pathology of the disease is unclear, but immune and vascular factors seem to play a significant role. The incidence, severity, and implications of the disease after COVID-19 infection in pregnancy have not been established. We aimed to study the incidence and main risk factors for post-COVID-19 condition in an obstetric population and their implications for maternal and perinatal morbimortality.

Methods
This is a prospective observational cohort study undertaken including women during pregnancy or at admission for labour with acute COVID-19 infection from March 9th, 2020 to June 11th, 2022. The inclusion criteria were confirmed acute COVID-19 infection during the recruitment period, a lack of significant language barrier and consent for follow-up. Patients were clinically followed-up by telephone via semi structured questionnaires. The exclusion criteria were loss to follow-up, spontaneous miscarriage, and legal termination of pregnancy. Patients were classified into groups according to the severity of symptoms at onset. We included patients from the first six first waves of the pandemic according to national epidemiological data in Spain. We studied the incidence of post-COVID-19 condition and their main demographic, clinical and obstetric risk factors.

Findings
A total of 409 pregnant women were recruited at acute diagnosis, and 286 were followed-up. The mean time to follow-up was 92 weeks (standard deviation ± 28 weeks; median 100 weeks (Interquartile range: 76; 112)). A total of 140 patients had at least one post-COVID-19 symptom at least three months after acute infection. Neurological (60%) and cutaneous (55%) manifestations were the most frequent findings. The following profiles were identified as presenting a higher risk of post-COVID-19 condition: migrant women born in countries with lower Human Development Index; multiparous women; women with COVID-19 during pregnancy, mainly during the first and third trimesters, and in the first and second waves of the pandemic; women who had a higher number of symptoms; women who had a higher incidence of moderate and severe symptoms; women who required hospitalisation due to COVID-19 complications; and women who were not vaccinated before disease onset. We did not find any significant difference in perinatal results, such as gestational week at delivery, birthweight, the need for neonatal care or 5-min Apgar score, and newborns benefited from a high rate of breastfeeding at discharge. Women who were infected during successive waves of the pandemic had a significant and constant decrease in the risk of post-COVID-19 condition comparing to estimated risk in the first wave (OR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.92). Symptoms tended to resolve over time heterogeneously. Symptoms of myalgia and arthralgia took longer to resolve (mean of 60 weeks and 54 weeks, respectively). In a small but significant proportion of patients, neurological and psycho-emotional symptoms tended to become chronic after 90 weeks.

Interpretation
At least 34.2% of obstetric patients from our cohort with acute COVID-19 infection presented post-COVID-19 condition symptoms. Demographic and acute disease characteristics as well as specific pregnancy-related risk factors were identified. This is the first study to assess post-COVID-19 condition in pregnant women. Further analysis on the biological pathophysiology of post-COVID-19 is needed to explain the characteristics of the disease.

nokiddin posted:

https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-01-04-landspitali-under-great-pressure-as-masks-return-401160

“But is this the biggest strain on the hospital seen since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic?

"Yes, without a doubt. It's just the biggest workload we've ever seen at the hospital."”

https://fortune.com/well/2024/01/04/jn1-pirola-future-covid19-pandemic-omicron-pi-rho-who-greek-letter/ posted:

In late 2021, on the heels of the deadly Delta wave of infections, a new variant came flying in out of left field—one so highly mutated, so drastically different that it changed the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization, it contained more than 30 mutations that separated it from the original virus—alterations that gave it veritable wings. In short order, its lineage would become the only one of consequence, its progeny able to out-compete all other viral combinations evolution sent its way.
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Most new variants differ from each other in just one or two small ways. But with its 30-plus additional mutations, Pirola is as genetically divergent from Omicron as Omicron was from the original COVID.

In short, JN.1 is, by all appearances, a game changer. Most—if not all—variants of consequence for the foreseeable future could very well evolve from it, experts tell Fortune—until the virus throws another black swan-style curveball, anyway.

Whether the WHO will recognize it with a Greek letter—in what would be its first designation in over two years—remains to be seen.

As of Jan. 3, it had not—and some experts say that’s a mistake.

‘A very serious evolution of the virus’
Among them: Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and a leading authority on the virus.

When cases of JN.1 began skyrocketing this fall, “instead of side-stepping, the WHO could have easily given it a new Greek letter,” he told Fortune.

When the international health organization declared B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, or VOC, and assigned it the Greek letter Omicron in late November 2021, governments responded, ramping up sequencing and mitigation measures. Travel was restricted; testing was required before flight; masks were required on planes.

Aside from prompting governments to take action, Greek letters can—and should—serve as communication tools that “alert the public there is a serious variant” that could fuel a “wave around the world”—even if it isn’t pushing hospitals to the brink, Topol contends.

“But they’ve just called it a VOI (variant of interest), and that just doesn’t cut it, with the growth advantage this variant has demonstrated,” he said. “It’s just extraordinary.”

Ryan Gregory—a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and a lead variant tracker—agrees with Topol. Greek letters should be used to warn the public of an impending COVID squall, he says—not to herald it after it hits shore.

Hurricanes, as he points out, aren’t named. But all preceding tropical storms are, “to facilitate communication early, with the understanding that some of them may go on to become more serious,” he said.

Waiting to assign a Greek letter to a variant until lagging indicators like hospitalizations and deaths are on a steep ascent is akin to “naming hurricanes as they blow through, or as they’re approaching shore,” he added.
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Dr. Michael Osterholm—director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and another leading authority on COVID—says the authority to designate a new Greek letter should rest with the WHO alone, not citizen scientists or anyone else, for that matter.
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Dr. Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Medicine, agrees with Osterholm. Variants should only be named by the WHO, he says—and that day may still come.

“Given the trajectory of this, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets a new Greek letter,” he told Fortune. “I also wouldn’t be judgemental if they don’t.”
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‘Pirola’ for now
The WHO first spoke publicly about JN.1 at an Oct. 19 news conference. “It is something we have to keep a close eye on,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said in response to a question posed by Fortune.

On Nov. 21, the organization named BA.2.86 a VOI, a category second only in alert level to VOC. A few weeks later, on Dec. 19, it broke out progeny JN.1 as its own VOI.

Still, JN.1 officially remains categorized under Omicron. For more than two years, the WHO has maintained that all new variants are similar enough to share the same Greek letter. The variant trackers disagree.
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In an exclusive interview with Fortune on Dec. 30, Van Kerkhove said the WHO is ready to assign a new Greek letter on a moment’s notice, if necessary. But the organization is holding out for a variant that is “truly different,” she said—one that impacts public health.

“If we were to see any change in severity, for example, we wouldn’t hesitate to call this a VOC, or the next one a VOC,” she said. “But phenotypically, we’re really seeing similar behavior to the other circulating variants.”

As for the efforts of the variant trackers, Van Kerkhove expressed appreciation, calling them “clever minds” and noting that some are professors.

“I think it’s also really important they also see what we are trying to do,” she added. “When we use that Greek letter is to warn the public about something different, especially a change in severity. There is a reason for our classification system.”

Still, “we’re all learning,” she noted.

The WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is devising a new variant classification system it hopes to debut later this year, Van Kerkhove said. It’s discussing various ways to group variants, taking into account how genetically similar they are, which key mutations they possess, and the symptoms they cause.

But for now, labeling variants the WHO deems concerning as VOCs—something the organization hasn’t done since November 2021—works “really well, should there be something that is really, really different, really severe,” she said.

“If we were to see a variant that fell within our classification of a VOC, we would call it in a day,” she added. “We would do that immediately, no hesitation whatsoever. … Just because we’re not giving it a name does not mean it’s not a threat.”

If the WHO’s TAG-VE declared a new VOC—Greek letter and all—it wouldn’t mean an automatic renewal of the organization’s “public health emergency of international concern” status, she noted. [ed. I am mystified at what she is gunning for here, as this is very much a reason to just loving name it.]
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A new viral era, semantics aside
At the end of the day, whether or not JN.1 becomes Pi or Rho in the eyes of the WHO is a matter of semantics. Regardless, JN.1 very likely represents a new chapter in pandemic evolution, experts contend.

The highly mutated variant has ushered in “a new era,” Gregory told Fortune, and is “on track to become the lineage from which most variants are descended for the foreseeable future.”
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“Ever since BA.1 emerged, people have asked whether the original Omicron event was essentially a freak accident or something we could expect to occur repeatedly in the future,” he [ed. Ryan Hisner]said. “JN.1/BA.2.86 has really changed the outlook on this front. I think it’s now much more widely accepted that these extreme [evolutionary] events will be a semi-regular occurrence with SARS-CoV-2.”

Van Kerkhove agrees. “We could have the next sub-lineages come from JN.1,” she said. “But we could also see something quite different. We could see something like an Omicron again.”

For years now, Osterholm has predicted that COVID would proceed as a play in three acts. The initial strains, through Delta, served as the first. Omicron comprised the second. And JN.1 might very well be somewhere in the third, he says, in which the virus is still a larger threat than a routine respiratory disease like the flu and hasn’t yet found seasonality.

One day, he hopes, the play will end, with COVID joining the majority of other human coronaviruses in what usually presents as a common cold.

Today is not that day.

As for Topol, he still views the pandemic in terms of waves. “It’s something like the ninth major one,” he remarked in late December. He’s not so sure about COVID being confined to three acts, mimicking the three major waves of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

“Whether it’s a 20-act play or 22 waves or whatever, we have to do everything possible to improve our defenses,” he said. “We all want to be able to go on about our lives and not have to worry about infections and long COVID.”

Even before JN.1, a new chapter of the pandemic had already begun, Van Kerkhove maintains—one in which interest in vaccines is lost, thousands continue to die each month, and untold others develop disabling cases of long COVID.

“The biggest concern is complacency,” she said. “People think it’s over and gone, and that’s really scary.”

Pingui posted:

Follow-up on Kerkhove & Co. being a dumbasses delegitimizing the WHO. The most interesting part here (besides Osterholm continuing to disappoint), is that the WHO is working on a new classification system which should be out this year.
"‘Pirola’ JN.1 is the probable future of the COVID pandemic, experts warn—but you didn’t hear it from the WHO"

quote:

In an exclusive interview with Fortune on Dec. 30, Van Kerkhove said the WHO is ready to assign a new Greek letter on a moment’s notice, if necessary. But the organization is holding out for a variant that is “truly different,” she said—one that impacts public health.

“If we were to see any change in severity, for example, we wouldn’t hesitate to call this a VOC, or the next one a VOC,” she said. “But phenotypically, we’re really seeing similar behavior to the other circulating variants.”

Platystemon posted:

I challenge her to define “phenotype”.

She’s painted herself into a corner.

Are H1N1 influenza and H3N2 influenza phenotypically distinct?

Zugzwang posted:

Also, 'paxlovid just makes the virus rebound harder'

Pingui posted:

Pingui posted:

I am kinda getting a vibe that we aren't far (in that it won't take much more) from the WHO naming JN.1; which will naturally be too late, but should make for some positively insane rationalizations for why it finally happened, without acknowledging that the process is entirely political.

NeonPunk posted:

Good morning everyone. It's now 10am Eastern time, and the CDC still haven't updated their variant tracking graph. Have a good day!

Phlag posted:

How will your plans be changing now that you know JN.1 is responsible for 61.6% of infections as opposed to 44.2%?

Phlag posted:

It's 10:30 AM eastern time, and the CDC updated their variant tracking graph.

How will your plans be changing now that you know JN.1 is responsible for 61.6% of infections as opposed to 44.2%?

Strep Vote posted:

100% agree, lol. Grats, if that's appropriate, on spotting it before it became a problem.

All of this sucks.

Pingui posted:

What kind of bullshit is this now?


I don't like that BA.2.86 keeps producing new variants that appear to be spread all over the world (JN.1 = BA.2.86.1.1), again I submit that BA.2.86 was caught very very early and is still doing the easy single point optimization.

Zugzwang posted:

I'll go to Applebees at 3 pm on Tuesday instead of at dinnertime on Friday

Zugzwang posted:

I'll go to Applebees at 3 pm on Tuesday instead of at dinnertime on Friday

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

instead of looking trepidaciously at a new greek variant we should celebrate the defeat of omnicron

Phlag posted:

It's 10:30 AM eastern time, and the CDC updated their variant tracking graph.

How will your plans be changing now that you know JN.1 is responsible for 61.6% of infections as opposed to 44.2%?

JAY ZERO SUM GAME posted:

this is the going theory in one of my family's households. they think paxlovid made them sicker

the reality is they're in their late 70s, both smokers, and it probably saved their lives, or at least saved them hospital time (one ended up there overnight anyway)

these are also BOTH college educators

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

instead of looking trepidaciously at a new greek variant we should celebrate the defeat of omnicron

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/06/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-july-jobs-report/ posted:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. What a good morning.
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America can beat the Delta variant, just as we beat the original COVID-19.
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Pingui posted:

Great success for the "beat variants by letting more fit variants take over" strategy.

Another Biden win!

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

And eventually the fittest one will be the most mild, and all our immune systems will be stronger for it 💪💪💪

JAY ZERO SUM GAME posted:

this is the going theory in one of my family's households. they think paxlovid made them sicker

Why Am I So Tired posted:

because her sister told her Paxlovid made her sicker.

The Oldest Man posted:

the level of observation bias about the effect of paxlovid is loving nuts

Dren posted:

I thought it would be a bigger deal but if I'm being honest I'm having a pretty phenotypical day

Why Am I So Tired posted:

because her sister told her Paxlovid made her sicker.

Dren posted:

it would help if doctors hadn’t spent at least my entire lifetime just taking a wag with statements like “it’s probably a virus. yeah you’re not contagious anymore”

like it always struck me as insane, because, what virus? surely they have different levels and lengths of contagiousness. you didn’t test me for any viruses so you have no idea what i had, how the hell can you say this? but everyone just accepted this sort of advice forever. i know i did.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliaries/persistent-cough-not-covid-7596758 posted:

If You're Dealing With *That* Cough Right Now That Everyone Else Seems To Have, Here's What It Might Be
It's not COVID or the flu. If you've been sick for a few weeks and have tested negative for everything, here's what's going on.

’Tis the season of respiratory illnesses. As we spend more time indoors and gather with friends and family to celebrate the holidays, cases of flu, COVID and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are steadily increasing around the country.

There’s also been an uptick in anecdotal reports of a brutal, long-lasting cough going around. As one TikTok user put it: everyone seems to have “a hacking cough that’s been going on for weeks.”

Doctors around the country have noticed it, too. “We have been seeing an unusually large number of patients who had typical viral upper respiratory infections, but have had a lingering cough that has lasted weeks to months,” Dr. Scott Braunstein, a double-board certified internal medicine and emergency medicine physician and the national medical director of Sollis Health, told HuffPost.

It doesn’t appear to be the flu or COVID, but another pathogen that’s attacking and irritating our respiratory systems, according to experts.

Dr. Janet O’Mahony, an internal medicine physician at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, said many of her patients have recently come into her practice with a nasty cough that’s lingered for two weeks or so. Some people have also had sinus congestion, a sore throat and post-nasal drip.

“This chest cold has a real junky and persistent cough,” O’Mahony told HuffPost. They’ve tested negative for the flu and COVID. Plus, they aren’t responding to antibiotics, which suggests it’s “purely viral,” she said.

O’Mahony suspects the sickness is “caused by the regular viruses that cause colds like rhinovirus, non-COVID coronaviruses or adenoviruses.”

The reason we don’t know exactly what’s causing it is because primary care doctors and urgent care clinics don’t routinely test for these other viruses unless someone is hospitalized with severe symptoms, according to Dr. Theodore Strange, an internal medicine physician with Northwell Health. He also thinks an adenovirus or rhinovirus may be the culprit.

These viruses cause flu and cold-like symptoms that can last for a while, according to the Cleveland Clinic. When a virus enters our airways, it infects our cells and replicates. This can trigger a lot of inflammation and irritation in your throat, nose, and chest, which takes time to clear up.

In fact, Braunstein said the persistent cough is most likely due to prolonged inflammation in the airways — even after the virus is gone, the body continues to produce mucus and have bronchospasms, which is when the muscles in the airways tighten and cause a cough. For some people, this inflammation can persist anywhere from two weeks to two months, he explained.
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