@amvanhoose_701479 : Terrifying. I’m hoping you have some info or are tracking this.
Also, what’s going on with monkeypox these days?
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Unfortunately I’d say it’s not better. We have a shortage of nurses, respiratory therapists and mid level providers. My department is still operating on a reduced coverage model put in place in Fall 2020.
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That’s a supportive heart. Can’t like any of this. 
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It’s still hanging around. We’re on the downside of the curve but still recorded another ~900 cases last week in the US, out of ~2,000 globally. Really unclear what’s going to happen now. Will transmission chains peter out? 
Is it going to be low-level background endemic? 
Or…are we going to see subsequent waves? 
Apparently last week they finally confirmed that Texas monkeypox fatality, and now there’s a new one in Ohio to be added to the official count.
Yeah, unfortunately I feel like we’re on “same song, next verse”. Apparently we didn’t learn enough from monkeypox about how international spread works.
Good summary thread that I was just looking at with several links for anyone wanting to take a deeper dive (I haven’t chased them…several paywalls…)
https://twitter.com/craig_a_spencer/status/1578094870828576768?s=46&t=_QObubCoj7obBQuYEEzyww
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Reading all this makes me feel like the crazy lady on the plane screaming “we’re all going to die” and flails around helplessly.
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Thank you for this–you have become my source for news these days.
I wish the information was better…and I feel you @LTinNC82 !
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Supportive heart from me too. I unfortunately agree with you that it’s not any better. And in fact much, much worse than the first winter because at healthcare workers were being hailed as heroes and there was supposed to be an end in sight somewhere. It’s 2.5 years later and I’ll bet more departments than not are in the same boat as yours.
My family member who is a healthcare worker started this pandemic with a pull towards ICU & was in the first COVID unit in our state’s largest trauma hospital. She did that for just over a year from April 2020-May 2021, then took a big timeout from life (went away on a 5 month back-packing adventure, leaving a few possessions in storage & her dog with our mom). She came back right to the same ICU right as Delta was peaking (now all combined with regular ICU stuff) and is again burnt out, definitely not mentally prepared to face another winter wave and so got a job in a different hospital & unit to hopefully not have another hard, mentally draining winter for the 3rd time in a row. (She went to a NICU though so both my mom & I are a little nervous that might have its own emotional challenges, but hopefully some brighter spots than what she’s been through since April 2020 workwise).
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I’ve been in peds this whole time, and while the NICU has only had a couple of clinically significant COVID cases, the PICU has had more. What’s killer now is the other respiratory viruses…it’s nutty and everyone is stretched thin. I can’t even think about what this respiratory season could turn into. I never saw myself leaving clinical practice this early in my career but everything’s different now.
I literally got an email from work about E. Bola while writing this. They advise avoiding travel to Uganda and Tanzania…I shall comply.
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Thank you! I also take support in the form of Disney gift cards 
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Thank you and thanks for the DLR help in that thread I hijacked. I am so thankful to have my travel planning hobby alive and well these days!
Bright spot for everyone: we have learned some things. I know it can feel like a rerun, but the Bivalent booster and option to mask when sick (or around people who are potentially sick), and the new standard precautions in healthcare can help.
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Yeah, it’s pretty bad when I read the tweets along the lines of “We’re already in WWIII, we just haven’t realized it yet” and think, “Well, blowing up the entire planet would certainly resolve all this.” 
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All I have to say is this had better not eff up my trip to Africa in 267 days
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A certain scene from the movie Airplane! comes to mind…
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Hijack those threads away!! They are not nearly as active as I wish they were & I’m always happy to help with anything I can lend there.
And thank you for the bright spots too. We have come a long ways and DH & I have to remind ourselves that even though we approached COVID so carefully now that all our kids (including the one we worried about the most getting it) are vaccinated, it’s a weight off and we can now focus on what contributions we can make to doing our part for public health and slightly less about our own individual risk factors (which we treated in a very near-COVID-zero approach). So it’s good to be reminded of the bright spots.
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When I read about all the growing contagion and lack of action I feel like we’ve moved into a contemporary dark ages.
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This is the truth! We holed up for a looong time. My kids have barely been to a store or restaurant. The re-integration is a process for sure. And I’m still wearing a mask on public transport. Probably forever.
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I determined w/in the first year or so, of the pandemic, that wearing a mask in public would be a forever thing b/c I LOVED not catching colds and flu TOO much 
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I also love not being sick, period! I can’t even fathom the amount of people coughing within a small radius of me on the train, bus etc…Plus that mask is kind of nice as the temps go down.
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The first time I went out in my (then) cloth mask in cold temps I was like, screw trying to wrap a scarf around my face ever again, this is SO much better. So yea, my cloth masks will totally be a face warmer forever.
We’re still as of right now wearing masks in any public indoor place, including the kids at school but looking at maybe relaxing that some for a number of reasons. I go back & forth though. I wish they had a bivalent shot in them before we moved to making masks optional for them at school, but also, by the time we wait for the kids bivalent shot, it will probably about the time or after cases start rising again & part of the reasoning to take a break from always asking them to wear a mask now is in anticipation that we will want them back in one for any and all surges this winter.
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Variant prevalence update.
BF.7 seems to be gaining traction but not sure if that will drive the next wave or not.
Looking at our canary in the coal mine, the UK, where Covid hospitalizations are going up again.
UK variant perspective detailed here:
https://twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/1578426294089711616?s=46&t=rdmW-aglLZ0clip_TeWhfg
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