Wow!!
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I like that they say ânot as fatal as other malaria speciesâ (emphasis mine). I mean, way to spin it. Itâs like marketing it as âmalaria light.â
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Itâs a mild cold ⌠(sarcasm).
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Like my momâs âasymptomaticâ Covid while at the hospital? Yup, sure.
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Bingo card check. Anyone have âNATO
considers emergency airlift of popcorn to Ukraine while everyone watches whatever drama is unfolding in Russiaâ?
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I havenât heard anything new coming out from this about Covid vaccines. Main news was RSV:
Also, this from Australia. Not sure itâs being tracked as consistently here.
Not sure what happened to âfirst do no harm.â 
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Really good news: overall, globally, despite reporting becoming more and more sporadic, itâs pretty clear the acute impacts of Covid infection in terms of hospitalizations and mortality are likely at their lowest point since early in the pandemic. Widespread low level transmission is definitely still happening though. And there are still a few hot spots.
Really not so good news:
The legitimate debate is definitely no longer around whether Covid has a huge range of potentially long lasting health impacts on a TBD number of people that it infects. Itâs now around the frequency of the various impacts, especially with repeat infections.
https://www.science.org/content/article/who-s-new-chief-scientist-wants-look-tomorrow
If nothing else, keep up with getting every booster youâre eligible for. If you care at all about your long term health.
Also, sounds like Paxlovid as a treatment for Long Covid isnât looking promising. But it looks like it still helps as a preventative if taken early in the course of infection, so if youâre eligible for Paxlovid, definitely get it if youâve been infected. And an additional promising preventative is metformin.
However, I donât share his confidence on easily getting metformin given how people seem to struggle to get Paxlovid. 
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I think Metformin is more available than Paxlovid b/c it is the go-to Rx for T2 diabetes.
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But do you think most doctors are well informed enough to readily write an off-label prescription for it? Thatâs where I see the issue.
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Oh⌠point taken. It comes down to the patient being their own BEST informed advocate. And having the conversation about covid treatment options before it happens. Kind of like a living will or end of life directive?
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Oh goody. Iâm on metformin already.
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Likewise, for DH. He just told me to feel free to raid his pillbox for that, if I ever get Covid.
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Since March 2020 Iâve been to Orlando six times. I got COVID once (June 2022) though the symptoms appeared early in the trip and I may have caught it in London at the theatre or on the plane.
I had four COVID shots in total. Two AZ, two Moderna. The most recent before the June 2022 trip was December 2021. My last shot was October 2022. I found the side-effects of the shots to be almost as bad (but shorter in duration) than COVID itself.
I was reasonably good with masking, up to and including June 2022 (on the plane, in indoor lines) but havenât bothered since then.
(I mentioned the plane might have been the source of my June 2022 case: I had a 15 min unmasked conversation with a member of the cabin crew during the flight. I also mentioned the theatre: it was a six hour show and I was one of about three people in the entire theatre who was wearing a mask.)
I do believe that lockdowns (and the general COVID atmosphere) had a notable negative impact on my mental health.
The one permanent change in my behaviour is that I am much more consistent and thoughtful about washing my hands and I still use hand-sanitizer from time to time.
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Metformin is widely available. The generic is often one of the drugs that grocery or Walmart RX offers at little or no cost as a way to get people into their stores.
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Metformin would be great, but I am quite skeptical that doctors will prescribe it at this juncture. And having a plan ahead of time is great with a well-informed doctor. None of our primary docs seem to be.
My 85 y/o dadâs primary would not plan ahead. Just said âwe evaluate at the time.â Well, when the time came & he was positive for Covid, they wanted him to wait 5 days to come in, have them do an official test, THEN decide what to do.
My homebound sister with Down syndrome, pretty much same issue. Primary said, âcall us next weekâ (when she tested positive). âHer blood work isnât up to date, so no paxlovid.â (Blood work was 7 days past the one yr mark and only delayed because of them). They wouldnât even prescribe a cough medicine!
I talked to my own primary doc. Im Age 49.5âŚ.no comorbidities. But already have some fatigue, vertigo, etc issues. Explained research showing paxlovid May help prevent long CovidâŚwomen in my age bracket/perimenopasue/menopause age more at risk for long CovidâŚand Iâm right on cusp of 50. Nope. âWe donât like to prescribe it initially. It causes renal spikes.â (my renal blood work looks perfect).
Plus, she said omicron is milder strain than original. more like cold or flu.
I donât know if doctors say that to make us feel better, or if they think itâs actually true. But when I hear it, I think they are not keeping up with information on Covid. Itâs only perceived milder because weâre a mainly vaccinated or previously infected society. (See study on this Intrinsic and Effective Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Cases Infected With the Ancestral Strain and Omicron BA.2 Variant in Hong Kong | The Journal of Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic )
Tl;dr: âThe age-specific fatality risk in unvaccinated hospitalized Omicron cases was comparable to the estimates for unvaccinated cases with the
ancestral strain./ Conclusions Omicron has comparable intrinsic severity to the ancestral Wuhan strain.
TWiV discussion time stamp 28:58 TWiV 1020: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin - YouTube
Meanwhile, my 20 yo sonâs Asthma doc said yes, son can just call in to us and weâll prescribe.
Urgent care gave my dad paxlovid. CVS online test to treat gave my sis paxlovid.
So from our experience, primary care docsâŚ.very resistant to prescribe med, or even plan ahead for what to do. But other docs, much more willing. But I donât think any are well informed about metformin study.
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I think where many lost the legitimate storyline was that Omicron was clearly milder than Delta. Which was surely a huge blessing, but yes, from strictly a viral standpoint without factoring in protection from vaccinations and/or prior immunity, current strains seem to be roughly as virulent as original strain. And everyone also seems to forget survivor bias. Yes, not as many people are dying now, because many of those most likely to die from Covid already have died and therefore are removed from the population. 
The âprepare aheadâ expert advice is so disconnected from reality. Several times in his weekly Baylor College of Medicine briefings, Dr Klotman has said that if traveling, if youâre eligible for Paxlovid, get some to take with you. That seems delusional to me.
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Nice to see you! I was thinking about you the other day, just randomly (it happens with many liners, you all cross my mind from time to time). Seems like you havenât been around lately.
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Been busy and Covid has kind of reached a static state (and pretty much as good as itâs been since this mess started), at least for now.
DD22 got married mid-June, Iâve had a flurry of medical appointments (long story without many answers), and we left on an Oregon vacation last Saturday that I was way behind on planning for. (Food pics over in the off-topic food thread for anyone interested.)
https://forum.touringplans.com/t/what-s-for-dinner-a-place-to-argue-about-er-discuss-off-topic-food/77544/1151?u=amvanhoose_701479
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Congrats!
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Iâm still hoping to get an updated booster before my Sept 18 cruise but Iâm beginning to think it wonât be possible. Any news? When I googled I didnât find anything concrete. If itâs not possible I will at least get my flu shot, which is usually available.
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