Covid ba.2 in New England:

65.8 cases per 100,000. I saw more people with masks yesterday but still not many. We never stopped- n95 everywhere.

And since Canada is declining, its really the U.S. the only region with growing cases.

I might be over-simplifying a bit, but as far as regions that have high case counts and sizable populations to move the world total needle, the U.S. is it. Most of the world is moving downward with the exception of a few countries like Taiwan, and to some extent, Japan and Australia..

South America may be moving up but its at a very low level presently.

In particular, Europe, which was the world's hot spot for a long time, is declining.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html

See especially "Cases by region" where the only line moving up is the red line which is "U.S. and Canada", and like I said before, Canada is declining, so that line's upward movement is all due to the U.S..

Late Edit to add the referred to graph --

If you look at the details by country, the story is quite different. The invection rates in the US have started to increase again but are still lower than much of Western Europe (e.g. Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland) where rates are also increasing. Australia and NZ are hot spots.

Death rates are mostly still declining, in part because that is a lagging indicator.

and I specified INCREASING. I'm also well aware that the U.S. has lower rates than many countries. I wasn't enumerating hot spots, I can see the colors on the map.

I was pointing out the lines in the "Cases by Region" graph.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html



I think the U.S. + Canada is quite the anomaly in that graph as they define regions. I still do. (And I should mention again that cases in Canada are decreasing, so the strong upward trend of the red line is all due to the U.S.)

Again, I realize that there are countries here and there in other parts of the world that are also rising, and I mentioned some.

I had hoped to spur a discussion of the graph, as opposed to getting into a game of looking for individual countries and sub-regions that are bucking the overall trend.

For well over a month, I have been daily watching the world total new cases falling, as well as all those regions in the graph above, with the exception that the U.S.+Canada (really the U.S.) has been rising.

I should have included, as far as REGIONS with rising counts, Australia and New Zealand as they are slightly rising and certainly deserve the designation of region geographically. But their combined population is 31 million -- less than 1/10 of the U.S or Europe, and I also specified rising enough to move the world total needle, and their level of increase barely changes that.

As for "much of Western Europe (e.g. Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland) where rates are also increasing." I'd say most of Western Europe is decreasing. Of the 5 countries mentioned, Italy, France, and Germany are decreasing. It is true that Portugal and Ireland are increasing.

While it is true that rates are decreasing in those three countries, their rates are much higher than in the US. Rates are generally 2 or 3 times higher than in the US. Just as with US states, rates in various countries pulse up and down as variants arrive.

I have been watching these numbers very closely with a trained eye, but for personal reasons -- I will be in Italy and Portugal within a few days.

or low.

Have a good and safe time in Europe.

So we have something to look forward to.

I'm hoping it doesn't lead the world in this again like it did with original Omicron starting back last November.

Doesn't it know how much we long to get back to "normal"--you know, our usual posture of ignoring the needs of anyone other than ourselves?

After all, this is 'Merica! To defeat fascism our forebears put up with gas and food rationing, blackout curtains, curfews, a universal draft. All so we wouldn't have to bear the unbearable: wearing a piece of cloth on our faces, keeping a reasonable distance. And then, two years into the war, everyone decided they were tired with all that nonsense, declared victory, and moved on! Isn't that how it worked? So why can't we do that now?

Think of the children who can't see each other's faces during active shooter drills! Think of the mega-corporations and their millionaire and billionaire owners! How can they be expected to thrive without packed malls and subservient workers?

O the humanity!

my daughter has it I don't (as of yet), but since I'm not isolating from her, I suspect I will. (Though we're about to test the efficacy of second moderna booster. I got it a month ago!)

I'm not surprised we brought it home. While she wears her mask in school, cases are definitely high and it's everywhere right now.

Luckily she's past the worst part. (Fever for two days. Sore throat. After 3 days, symptom free. Just tired. She's 11 and a half, so got the children's Pfizer vaccine.) She's been sleeping with me (I work from home and had second booster so we felt I was more protected) so that my husband could isolate in the other room. (Missing work is more complicated for him.)

had it first and had no symptoms. A friend I play golf with had it run through his household of him, his wife, and his mother-in-law.

Of all of them, runny noses, cold symptoms, and tiredness were the primary complaints. The 90+ year old did have diarrhea, vomiting and a mild fever but all have recovered. And all were vaccinated and boosted.

they all recovered well. And I've heard so many stories about people who didn't get it even with close contacts in their households. It seems so random. My friend's son got it a day before my daughter did, and she's still covid free too. (THey're on day 6, we are on day 5.) I guess with vaccines and boosters, it makes some sense.

She rationalized that NYC is only in "medium" transmission, while the county in New York we live in (Erie County) is in "high." So she says she will be safer in NYC. But they took a plane, will be eating in restaurants, going in crowded areas, so I'm very worried.

My husband had Covid in January and my son and I didn't catch it. We took precautions and wore masks around him. I hope you stay Covid free too.

Fingers crossed for us.

Your daughter will have fun. Masks are commonly worn here, so if they try to keep them on in crowded places, they should have fun. My daughter took hers off at a dance recital, and that seemed to have dinged her. (We eat in restaurants, though try to do less crowded ones at off hours. Plus you can get good tables at hard to reserve places that way.)

in a very long line to even get in. They ate inside the restaurant. Katz's is my favorite restaurant when my husband and I visit NYC so I know how crowded it can be at lunch time.

For dinner, they went to Nobu, which I'm sure was a little less crowded.

I'm worried for her. I would have gotten the sandwiches to go!

having great food! Hope they stay healthy!

My wife and I got it at her work party a week ago tonight. We probably had about 24 hours of flu-like symptoms then it moved into a cold-like illness with some fatigue.

Glad you got past it. My daughter had two days of fever but is good now. I'm waiting for it to hit me still. lol. I feel like a sitting duck. But maybe I'll be lucky.

I've also seen the average time from infection to symptoms with Omicron is like 2.2 days. My wife and I literally got sick at the same time on Monday and have had roughly the same symptoms and recovery curve. She didn't lose her taste like I did but she's in much better shape than me so I thought it would hit me a bit harder. I wish you well.

Hospitalization and death rates matter more at this point due to the general level of vaccination

Deaths in Massachusetts have doubled to 10/day from about 5/day at the beginning of April.

Check the CDC tracker https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/

per the NY Times chart the increase is overwhelmingly among those over 70. The increase in other groups including those between 60 and 69 is quite small. I'll hazard a guess that almost all those over 70s in the hospital didn't get boosters.
David Leonhardt in the Times a year ago predicted each Covid wave would be more infectious and less fatal and that's what has happened for whatever reason.

houses are in lock down because of Covid ba-2

So far no hospitalization from any of the houses in my area 🤞🤞

Stay boosted!

People are running around without masks while Covid rips through the community. Most people don't check the case rates anymore and think Covid is over.

As an immune compromised person, I am really tired of being terrorized by Covid. My husband is an essential worker who is not careful and doesn't wear a mask unless there is a mandate.

This is a highly contagious strain and people need to take all precautions to prevent getting it. Our hospitalizations have been going back up as well. In my area, they are rationing the Paxlovid now.

Zeke Emmanuel wrote a good piece for the Washington Post about why he is still wearing a mask and taking precautions to avoid long Covid and long term complications. And he's kind of a death ghoul. He's the guy who thinks people should die at 75 years old, so I take it seriously when he wants to be cautious.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/12/stop-dismissing-long-covid-pandemic-symptoms/

We know if it gets really bad we won’t get the treatment prolly unless you are rich or have connections. I am getting my fourth shot this week and will get another in the fall if recommended then. I am so tired of this too. Also in ny but we have far less cases per 100,000 so far but who knows if many people who have it are even getting tested. We never stopped masking. N95 everywhere.

I agree with a lot of what he says but not that long covid is the main reason to keep masking. Stopping new variants, severe illness and deaths etc is imo. I have along covid, I just call it lh or damage from covid which seems chronic now. I hope it doesn’t get any worse. My father had a lot more and more severe damage than me.

That says a lot because we all know how he is. He's always been very controversial. I guess Zeke doesn't mind dying, but he doesn't want to be disabled or chronically ill.

He's right though that people should be avoiding getting infected. I live in an area that's been hit by Covid surges many times and I know a lot of people who are suffering from long haul Covid issues, including my own husband.

I am immune compromised with diabetes, lupus, and psoriasis. It's hell to be chronically ill. I'm totally puzzled that people are just lining up to get infected and gambling with their health like this.

He makes the point I've been trying to make - that it's not just dying we need to worry about. We need to worry about the known and unknown consequences. Wiring about that means focusing on prevention, in addition to decreasing severity in the short term.

it's making a comeback

who could have seen that coming?

Including a bunch of "stupid selfish assholes" who are on our side of the political aisle and proudly post here about how they are done with COVID.

...this late date. Maybe everyone has just given up. In the first days of his term, Biden did come out strong about how serious the pandemic was and the need for the country to pull together in an emergency. But then the will to follow through just never materialized. I'm sure that seeing so many MAGA chuds willing to believe the most insane conspiracy theories, attending super-spreader rallies, acting like mask mandates were the sufferings of Job--that would demoralize anyone. The problem is that even if we do get new vaccines that are better tuned to the new variants, we are still going to be a petri dish for Covid mutation for the foreseeable future if half the country refuses those vaccines.

At the very least, more vaccine mandates will be needed, and a lot more mRNA vaccines have to get shipped to the rest of the world that don't have working vaccines (or any vaccines). Good luck with that.

My county is already double that number. It's been going up since mid-March, but I keep getting told by a bunch of folks here that no one cares.

I guess all the adulation from the fall/winter was addictive. Who knew the same people were smoking cigs and dining out the whole time? Does that make them hypocrites? I think it does.

world evidence that it does much good. During Omicron the Northeast states where mask compliance was pretty good seemed to do no better than the states where mask compliance was poor.
I guess the feeling of civic virtue gives people a psychological boost. So there's that.

I should have been more clear.

contingent. I learned long ago it's a waste of time to confront them directly.
Cheers!

prevent serious illness - vaccinations and boosters - I have long ago resumed my normal life. Just got back from a plane trip to Florida, going to the theater next week, dine out all the time, have another rock concert in June.
I am long since done with Covid!