W.H.O. Director Says Covid Boosters Being ‘Used to Kill Children’ FREUDIAN SLIP AT 2:39mark, listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHgoeIdti-A … YOU DECIDE… My opinion is the vaccine compounds the problem.
Children 5 and older now have a coronavirus vaccine.But many parents of younger kids are still anxiously waiting.
Dr. Fauci Says This Is How the Pandemic Will End Now.
As we head into 2022, the U.S. will be entering its third year of COVID.
Many virus experts had previously said they expected the new year would bring about the end of the pandemic, as they predicted Delta would be the last wave and hit its peak around Thanksgiving. But that same week, a new variant of the virus was detected. Omicron has spread so quickly, it’s now the dominant variant in the U.S., accounting for more than 73 percent of infections in the country, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So what do virus experts expect to happen now that the Omicron variant is causing cases to surge once more? Read on to find out the latest prediction from top White House COVID adviser Anthony Fauci, MD.
This Makes You “Most Likely” to Die of COVID, Say Experts!
Death panels in Obamacare page 428 – Bing
RELATED: 70 Percent of Hospitalized Omicron Patients Have This in Common.
Dr. Fauci says people in the U.S. will likely have to learn to live with COVID. A true end to the COVID pandemic might no longer be in the cards, at least in the traditional sense. During a Dec. 21 interview with CBS Mornings, Fauci discussed the future of the pandemic amid the fast-spreading Omicron variant. According to the infectious disease expert, people in the U.S. will “likely” have to learn to live with the coronavirus, much like they already do with the common cold and flu.
But Fauci said this doesn’t mean that the pandemic will continue to be as much of a problem as it is now. Eventually, the U.S. will reach a point where the level of infection is low, and the virus won’t dominate everyday life. “We hope we get there soon,” he said.
Fauci also warns that unvaccinated people still need to get vaccinated. Unvaccinated people can’t just wait out the virus, however,
Fauci said that it’s “critical” for those not yet vaccinated in the U.S. to get their shots in order to help curb the spread of the virus. Only a little more than 61% of the eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of Dec. 22, 2021.
According to the latest data from the CDC. But in order to get to a level where COVID is no longer dominating the country, Fauci said that this number must go up.
“We first have to get to the 50 million or so people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not vaccinated,” he explained. “If you want to keep the level of spread as low as possible, which will get us back to that level of normality, you have to get those people vaccinated.”
He said Omicron doesn’t affect vaccinated and unvaccinated people the same. Omicron has created a rise of breakthrough cases,
which can be attributed to its “really spectacular capability of spreading from person to person,” Fauci said. With more breakthrough cases, some people might be questioning the need to get vaccinated. But these infections should not discourage people in the U.S. from getting their first shots or a booster dose, according to Fauci.
“They shouldn’t throw up their hands and say, ‘Well, if you can get infected even if you’re vaccinated, why get vaccinated?'” he said. “There is a very big difference between a vaccinated and unvaccinated person when they get infected with regard to the consequences of that infection.”
According to Fauci, both vaccinated and boosted people are significantly less likely to experience severe illness, even if they get infected with the Omicron variant. “The likelihood of a vaccinated and boosted person getting seriously
ill from the infection is very, very low. It’s the unvaccinated people who are the most vulnerable not only to getting infected, but to getting a serious outcome,” he explained.
RELATED: Dr. Fauci Warns Vaccinated People Not to Do This as Omicron Spreads.
Omicron variant helps fuel surge to record number of COVID-19 infections in Ohio since pandemic began
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The number of patients with COVID in Ohio hospitals are down 10% in Northwest Ohio in the last week, data from the Ohio Hospital Association shows.
It comes as several new studies indicate the omicron variant may be less likely to result in hospitalizations, through it also spreads faster than Delta and other variants and can better evade vaccines.
Health officials maintain that getting vaccinated is the most effective way to protect yourself and others against the virus and recommend vaccinated people get a booster dose as well
Here is the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in Ohio.
This list will be updated after 2 p.m. each day.
Ohio reports Up – to -Date new COVID-19 cases!!
Ohio sets pandemic record for cases in 24 hours for second straight day’
If You Have Omicron, This Is When You’ll Begin to Feel Symptoms
Even though it only emerged a month ago, the Omicron variant has drastically altered the pandemic’s trajectory. Data is also beginning to paint a clearer picture of how the latest version of the virus is different, including being more transmissible than Delta and evading the defenses provided by currently available vaccines. But similar to previous variants, Omicron also appears to differ in what symptoms it causes and how soon they tend to develop after infection. Read on to see how the latest viral offshoot’s timeline could change the way we handle COVID-19.
Preliminary research shows that symptoms from infection with Omicron usually develop within three days.
Part of what has made COVID-19 such a difficult virus to tackle is its cycle within the people it affects. Infamously, some remain completely asymptomatic while still being contagious, unknowingly spreading the virus without realizing it. In those that show signs of illness, previous variants such as Alpha and Delta typically take five or four days before those infected have symptoms, respectively.
But according to Dr. Ryan Noach, CEO of South Africa’s largest private health insurer, Discovery Health, anecdotal evidence suggests that Omicron may have an even shorter window, with symptoms from the variant typically showing up three days after exposure,
The Washington Post reports.
A shorter incubation period could make Omicron harder to stop than previous variants.
While the difference of one day between exposure and the appearance of symptoms may not feel like a huge change, some experts warn that it could have major consequences. They explain that a shorter incubation period likely means someone infected with the Omicron would also become contagious faster than before. This can make it easier for the virus to spread while also making it “much, much, much harder to control,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Atlantic.
The shortened window also means that a quick turnaround on checking
for the virus could be more essential than ever. “If Omicron has a shorter incubation period, that’s going to wreak havoc on how we test for it and deal with it,” Dr. Omai Garner, PhD, a clinical microbiologist in the UCLA Health system, told The Atlantic.
It may be difficult to detect the virus before symptoms develop using testing.
Unfortunately, even the existing tests we’ll rely upon to get ahead of Omicron may be more difficult to use than before. A shorter incubation period also means that low levels of a virus in the body can quickly jump, making a negative test received in the morning irrelevant by the evening. This means that the positive test results many used within one-to-three-day windows previously would no longer be feasible and make the grace period awarded
by a negative test result quite short-lived, Dr. Melissa Miller, PhD, a clinical microbiologist at the University of North Carolina, told The Atlantic.
Omicron may have tell-tale symptoms that are slightly different from other variants.
For now, experts recommend testing before any indoor gatherings, if you’ve been exposed to someone who’s infected, or if you become sick. But what kind of symptoms should you be looking for as signs of an infection with Omicron?
Preliminary data from a South African study conducted by Discovery Health analyzed more than 211,000 patients who tested positive for COVID—including roughly 78,000 who were confirmed to have been infected with the Omicron variant—and found that having a scratchy throat as opposed to a sore throat was among the most commonly reported symptoms, Noach explained during
a news briefing.
He added that nasal congestion, a dry cough, and muscle pain or aches
in the lower back were also regularly reported as early signs of the variant,
The Washington Post reports.
But as Omicron continues to surge in new areas around the globe,
doctors are getting more information about the variant and its symptoms.
In London, where officials confirmed the viral offshoot became the dominant variant on Dec. 14, experts said there were reports of certain similar symptoms in patients.
“Things like fever, cough & loss of smell are now in the minority of symptoms we are seeing,” Tim Spector, MB, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London who runs Zoe, the world’s largest COVID symptom study, told BBC Radio 4’s Today on Dec. 15. “Most people don’t have classic symptoms,” he said, adding that most were reporting similar signs to a common cold, including headaches, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, and sneezing.
The dizzying speed of omicron’s spread has left Americans questioning
much of what they know about Covid-19, especially on the cusp of holiday travel. “This is hitting us at a very inopportune time,” said Dr. Katherine Poehling, an infectious disease specialist and vaccinologist at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina.
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Though much remains unknown about omicron, experts are beginning
to understand more about the variant and how it affects people who are vaccinated, unvaccinated or who have had a previous Covid infection.
For example, people who are exposed to omicron appear to get sick faster
and may have symptoms that are different than those of other variants.
What are the symptoms of omicron?
Early evidence suggests that for most people, at least for those who are up to date on their Covid vaccines, omicron appears to result in mild illness that can resemble the common cold, another form of the coronavirus. Poehling, who is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which helps guide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decisions on vaccines, said there appear to be prominent symptoms from omicron:
– Cough
– Fatigue or tiredness
– Congestion and runny nose
Unlike in previous variants, the loss of taste and smell seems to be uncommon, she said. But Poehling and other experts say those symptoms are based on early reports of omicron cases, not scientific studies. “Anecdotal reports represent just one person,” said Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York School of Public Health. “We have to take them with a grain of salt.”
What’s more, they may only reflect certain segments of the population: young and otherwise healthy, as well as those who are fully vaccinated. “It is clear that if you’re vaccinated, particularly if you’ve had a booster, omicron tends to produce milder infections,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
“What we haven’t seen yet is a substantial body of information about what omicrons will do in unvaccinated people,” he added. Indeed, at least one person who was not vaccinated is reported to have died of omicron. Officials in Houston announced Monday that the unvaccinated man in his 50s succumbed to the virus. There is also emerging evidence that omicron tends not to burrow deep into the lungs as much as previous variants.
A study, which was posted online by the University of Hong Kong and not
yet peer-reviewed, found that while omicron is less severe in the lungs, it can replicate faster higher up in the respiratory tract. In this way, omicron may act more like bronchitis than pneumonia, said Dr. Hugh Cassiere, director of critical care services for Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at the North Shore University Hospital, on Long Island, New York.
“Usually patients with acute bronchitis tend not to be short of breath. They tend to cough and produce sputum,” he said. “Patients with pneumonia tend to be short of breath and feel more fatigued than bronchitis in general.” Still, it’s virtually impossible for people to rely on symptoms to self-diagnose an illness. In addition to omicron, the delta variant continues to circulate, along with increasing cases of the flu. For these reasons, doctors urge people who have any cold symptoms or flu-like symptoms to get tested.
How long is omicron’s incubation period?
According to early data, the time it takes for an infected person to develop symptoms after an exposure may be shorter for omicron than for previous variants — from a full week down to as little as three days or fewer.
While much more research is needed, it makes scientific sense that a highly contagious virus like the omicron variant would have a shorter incubation period. Its goal, after all, is to infect as many people as possible, as quickly
as possible.
“That’s why the spread is occurring at a much faster pace,” said Dr. Anita Gupta, an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She added that it’s possible the incubation period could
be shorter or longer depending on a number of variables, including age, underlying health problems and vaccination status.
“There is no hard and fast rule here.”
When should I get tested for Covid?
Given the potential for a shorter incubation period, Vanderbilt’s Schaffner advised that anyone who has been in contact with an infected individual get tested about 72 hours following the exposure. “If you’ve been exposed and now, you’re asking yourself, ‘When should I get tested?’
I think you would best wait at least three days to see if you’ve turned positive,” he said. For the millions of people without any known Covid exposure, but who are getting together with friends and family over the Christmas holiday, Schaffner said, it would be prudent to get a rapid test the day of the gathering. Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, agreed.
“By all means, go the extra step, go the extra mile to get tested” to alleviate any concerns about gatherings, he said on NBC’s “TODAY” show Tuesday.
“But if you don’t have the availability of the test and you are fully vaccinated and boosted, you should feel comfortable having a holiday meal or gathering with family members who are also vaccinated and boosted,” Fauci said.
Could omicron lead to long Covid?
Though much remains unknown about omicron, experts say the variant could lead to long Covid, even with a mild case. Patients with long-term symptoms can experience crushing fatigue, irregular heart rhythms and other issues months after their initial Covid infection. This occurred during the first wave of the pandemic and has continued to lead to long Covid issues through the delta wave. “We should assume that this variant can do the same thing that previous variants have until proven otherwise,” Lee, of CUNY, said. Previous research, however, suggests that vaccination can greatly reduce the risk for long Covid.
How worried should I be about omicron?
Cases of omicron are doubling about every two days. In the past week, the percentage of omicron cases in the United States rose from 13 percent to 73 percent. “The major question for everyone right now isn’t whether omicron is going to hit their area. It will,” said Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious disease expert and associate dean for global health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “The question,” he said, “is how much disease will it cause?”
Experts continue to urge people to get vaccinated and get a booster shot to reduce the risk for severe illness. As of Tuesday, about 61 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated. Just under 30 percent had the booster shot. “This is going to hit us hard,” Poehling, of Wake Forest Baptist, said. But she added that the sheer speed of omicron’s spread could mean that the variant will run its course quickly. “If you look at South Africa, they seem to be doing much better now. I don’t anticipate this as long lasting.”
4 charts show the current state of the Covid pandemic heading into 2022.
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With omicron, many vaccinated Americans will at some point test positive.
Here’s what to do. By Derek Hawkins, Lindsey Bever
With the omicron variant spreading rapidly, the United States is all but certain to see a sharp rise in breakthrough coronavirus infections among vaccinated people. These cases were relatively rare in the pre-omicron days, but the new variant has shown an ability to slip past the body’s first line of immune defenses. That means many Americans who have gotten the shots will at some point test positive.
Coronavirus vaccines act like a shield against disease, not an impenetrable barrier, and they offer protection against the omicron variant. Health authorities say booster shots of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are the best defense against serious illness, providing robust protection against severe disease. Your likelihood of developing a breakthrough infection is lowest if you’ve gotten the additional shot. The initial two-shot vaccine regimen still offers protection, but it’s not as effective against the omicron variant without boosters.
RELATED: What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
What should I do if I test positive for the coronavirus?
While some breakthrough cases are asymptomatic, experts say most tend to bring mild to moderate symptoms. A cough, a sore throat, muscle aches and a low fever are common, but keep in mind that breakthrough symptoms don’t always resemble the version of covid-19 unvaccinated people get. Some patients report headaches, nasal congestion and sneezing — signs of illness more typically associated with colds or allergies.
When you’re feeling sick, or when you think, you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus, the most important thing you can do from the get-go is to get tested. Laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR tests, are most accurate, but at-home tests do a good job detecting symptomatic cases, too.
“Even if you think it’s just allergies, it would be best for you to go ahead and get a covid test and make sure you don’t have it before you go to work or school or church, because those symptoms can be very mild,” said S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist hospital.
A positive test, whether done at home, in a doctor’s office or at a testing center, should be taken seriously, said Rob Murphy, an infectious-disease expert at Northwestern University.
Whether you have symptoms or not, you should first contact your health-care provider to determine the next steps. If you tested positive with a rapid test at home, a doctor may order a lab-based test for confirmation. Depending on your medical history, the doctor may recommend at-home care or clinical treatment.
You should also contact family members, friends, colleagues and anyone else you’ve had close contact with and tell them you have the coronavirus.
From there, follow the isolation recommendations from health officials (more on that below).
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How long should I isolate or quarantine with a breakthrough infection?
If you don’t have any symptoms but have tested positive for the coronavirus, you should isolate yourself from others for 10 full days, beginning the day after you took the test. If you develop symptoms during that time, you must start the clock over, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you are symptomatic, start the 10-day period after first developing symptoms, the CDC said.
There’s no doubt it can be tough for some people to isolate, particularly when there are multiple people under one roof. Murphy recommended using a separate bedroom and bathroom if possible and sanitizing high-touch surfaces if you have to share. He also advised wearing a mask and encouraging others in the house to do the same, staying at least six feet from other people and pets and, when weather permits, opening windows for ventilation.
The CDC also recommends avoiding sharing personal items such as dishes, utensils and towels.
While isolation is for people who have been infected, quarantine is for those who have been only exposed and possibly infected. People who have come into close contact with an infected person may need to quarantine. The CDC defines close contact as being within six feet for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.
COVID: UCSF Expert On Breakthrough Infections, Holiday Gatherings.
Those who have not been fully vaccinated should quarantine for a full 14 days after their last exposure to the person with the coronavirus, according to the CDC. Those who are fully vaccinated do not need to quarantine unless they develop symptoms, but they should get tested five to seven days after exposure and wear a mask indoors in public places for two weeks after exposure or until receiving a negative test result, the CDC said.
If others in my household are sick, too, can we be together?
Yes, assuming everyone in the household has contracted the virus, there’s no longer a need to separate from them, experts said.
How can I treat breakthrough covid-19 at home?
What supplies should I have on hand?
Many people with breakthrough infections may not need any special care. There’s a good chance your symptoms will clear in a few days. But if you are uncomfortable, some at-home and over-the-counter remedies might help take the edge off.
Dr. Sterling N. Ransone, a family physician in Deltaville, Va., and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, recommends getting a thermometer and a pulse oximeter, the fingertip device that measures oxygen in your blood. These can help you send valuable information to your doctor if your symptoms worsen. “If they can get me those kinds of numbers, I can give them much better advice on what we can do,” Ransone said.
Acetaminophen can help relieve aches and pains, and cold medications with expectorant can loosen up chest congestion. But it’s important to note that these will alleviate symptoms only temporarily — they will not get rid of the virus faster. Consult your doctor before taking them, follow the dosage recommendations on the label, and make sure they don’t interfere with any other medications you might be taking.
Electrolyte fluids such as Gatorade and Pedialyte can ease symptoms and prevent you from becoming dehydrated. It is good to have a few of these in your fridge.
It is also worth keeping extra masks handy. N95s, KN95s and surgical masks are now easy to order online.
Putting together a kit with these items can save you a trip to the store if you do end up getting sick. “We have everything ready, so if we were to start feeling ill, we could go home and we’ve already preplanned,” Ransone said. “We don’t risk exposing our friends and neighbors.”
Masks and covid-19: Explaining the latest guidance
How long will I be contagious?
You are considered contagious during the entire 10-day isolation period. Although it’s unlikely, if symptoms such as a cough or fever persist past that point you may still be contagious, said Murphy, executive director of Northwestern’s Robert J. Havey MD Institute for Global Health.
“With these breakthroughs, the whole clinical course is so mild that many of them pretty much recover in a day or two and they’re just waiting to get out of isolation,” he said.
Murphy said it may take a while for a loss of taste and smell to return, but that does not mean you can still spread the virus.
Do I need to test negative before rejoining the community?
No. Once you hit the 10-day mark, you should be fine to commingle again,
as long as your symptoms are improving, and you’ve gone 24 hours without
a fever without using fever-reducing medication. You may still test positive
after this point, but health officials say you are not contagious.
Should I ask my doctor about coronavirus therapies?
Yes. If you are vaccinated, you’re probably going to bounce back from a case of covid-19 without medical intervention. But it can’t hurt to ask, especially if you have any conditions that put you at higher risk for severe illness.
That said, our armory of tools for combating covid-19 is changing.
The omicron variant has hobbled the use of monoclonal antibodies, laboratory-made molecules that excelled against the other variants. Only one monoclonal antibody treatment, Sotrovimab, is expected to work against the omicron variant, and it’s not easy to get.
Other new treatments will become available soon. Federal regulators Wednesday authorized an antiviral drug from Pfizer that appears to reduce
the risk of severe illness in high-risk patients when it is administered in the first few days of symptoms. Merck has developed a similar drug that has not yet been authorized.
Overall, experts emphasize that vaccines and booster shots are still the best defense. “If you’re counting on monoclonals instead of getting vaccinated,”
said Long, of Houston Methodist, “it’s time to get vaccinated so your body can go and make its own, more effective antibodies.”
What should I do if my symptoms become more serious?
If your symptoms get noticeably worse after a few days, call your doctor.
You may need clinical treatment. Trouble breathing is an immediate cause for concern, said Ransone, the family physician. “If they cough so much, they can’t catch their breath, or they’re so short-winded they can’t get a whole sentence out, that’s something that needs to be evaluated in person,” he said. Other signs of an infection becoming more severe include a temperature moving above 102 degrees, confusion and blue coloration in the face.
If you feel seriously ill and you can’t reach your doctor quickly, head to the nearest emergency room, experts said. Ask a friend or family member to drive you, if possible, but note that everyone in the vehicle should be wearing a mask. If nobody is available, don’t take public transportation, which could expose more people — just call 911.
“If you need medical care, you shouldn’t delay,” said Amesh Adalja of
the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Call an ambulance.”
This was the U.S. life expectancy the year you were born – Bing
As the U.S. mourns more than 833,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC recently announced another sobering milestone: Life expectancy at birth has dropped to 77 years, a decline from 78.8 in 2019. Though a little shy of two years might not seem like a lot, it marks the steepest drop since World War II. Wondering what life expectancy was the year you were born and how it’s changed since? Here are the numbers going back to 1940.
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