Also Lina Hidalgo's COVID restrictions appear to not have been a factor in her reelection. As for whether people forgot I know that ads by Walz's and Ever's opponents did try to make COVID restrictions in WI and MN an issue. from Clutchfans it sounds like many considered it an issue in Houston.
This is during Omicron. Universal Masking in School Works. New Data Shows How Well | Time In many schools across the U.S.—consistent with trends across the country—the only masks that have been seen recently were those on Halloween costumes. Mask requirements generally went by the wayside in the spring of 2022, when the first Omicron wave subsided and the CDC modified its recommendations around masking, replacing universal masking with masking triggered by high case and hospitalization rates. Since that time, even when masking has been recommended by the CDC given a high Community Levels category, schools and other indoor facilities have rarely reinstated the requirement. Sustaining kids’ health and learning is foremost on parents’ and educators’ minds. But clearly a persistent central question has been the simple one: Do universal school masking requirements actually work? A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine sheds some light on this question. The authors examined COVID-19 case rates in districts in the Boston area after the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) lifted statewide school masking requirements in February 2022, in accordance with CDC guidance. What followed was a natural experiment in the impact of mask requirements, as school districts removed the requirement at different points in time or not at all. Two school districts (Boston and nearby Chelsea) retained the requirement throughout the study period. The authors found that COVID-19 rates were similar among districts before the mask requirement was rescinded, then diverged quickly, with higher case rates in districts immediately following the removal of the mask requirement. Approximately 12,000 cases, or 30% of all cases during the study period, were attributable to rescinding the mask requirement. The resulting illnesses led to substantial loss of in-person school days— an estimated minimum of 17,500 days of school absence in students and 6,500 days of staff absence—arguing for masks as a critical component of optimizing learning.
A far-out hypothesis that nearly everyone rejected is not so easily rejected anymore. The implication is bad (for all) if his hypothesis turns out to be correct. What If COVID Reinfections Wear Down Our Immunity? | The Tyee Dr. Anthony Leonardi is a lightning rod for debate. If he’s right, this pandemic poses a greater threat than widely assumed Nearly three years into the pandemic, it’s clear early expectations about the behaviour of the coronavirus and its toll on our bodies have proven overly optimistic. Recall those early days when experts broadly assumed that once we’d withstood an infection our immune systems would adjust and fully resist another reinfection. And then hopes rose that mass vaccination would provide the path out of the pandemic. Although vaccines did reduce deaths and hospitalizations, the effort failed to produce herd immunity. But researchers saw further promise in what they called hybrid immunity: people who had been infected with COVID and then received mRNA vaccines would, it was assumed, develop a formidable protection through raised levels of antibodies (proteins made by the immune system to battle infection). However variants emerged, capable of evading those antibodies. Many people who had been vaccinated or already had endured a bout of COVID were experiencing “breakthrough infections.” What could put the brakes on this ever-evolving virus, which can kill, damage organs and linger for months? The answer from many scientists has been T cells — our bodies’ line of immune defence after antibodies. T cells can spot and attack viruses and even remember previous invaders. As virologist Vincent Racaniello titled one of his articles: “T cells will save us from COVID-19.” But what if COVID wears down T cells in people who get it, and does so increasingly with each reinfection? That concern lies at the heart of a rolling, rancorous scientific debate, a lot of it conducted on Twitter. A person at the centre of the storm, sounding alarms about T cell “dysregulation” since the early days of the pandemic, has been a U.S. immunologist named Anthony Leonardi. By dysregulation Leonardi means three effects of COVID: The hyperactivation of many T cells, which can prematurely age them The exuberant function of those hyperactivated T cells, which can then cause organ damage The exhaustion of those hyperactivated T cells, which implies they aren’t winning the battle against viral proteins they are supposed to defeat. In other words, argues Leonardi, T cells are becoming hyperactivated by SARS-CoV-2 and are prematurely aging, harming organs, and becoming exhausted trying to rid the body of an immune-evasive virus. If he is right, then no, we cannot assume that T cells will save us — not as thoroughly, at least, as we’ve been led to believe. Which is why The Tyee decided Anthony Leonardi and his controversial assertions merit a deep dive. Leonardi’s critics say he paints too dire a picture. Some prominent researchers have accused him of being misguided, their tweeted insults scathing. Reached by The Tyee, Leonardi did not apologize for the pessimistic edge to his warnings. “Optimism sells and optimism around T-cell memory sold well too.” Rather than practice a “passive conventionalism” that pretends the pandemic is over, he said, public health officials “need to be candid with the public.” In a recent tweet Leonardi punched back at his most vociferous attackers, saying: “All I have done is warn people and people find the warnings unpalatable. Not only that, people have given opinions on the trajectory of the virus and the immunology and have been blatantly wrong and are seeking a pound of flesh out of anger.” ...
Poor handling of Covid was a major factor in Republicans losing the 2020 election. People know it was an emergency and one that wouldn't last forever. The majority gave a lot of slack to the gov for doing what it needs to do. Covid is basically a non-factor now. In 10 years, we might be paying a heavy price and forget who all did what.
Zeldin ran a great campaign. I think he saved the house for Republicans( if they manage to get to 218) on the down tickets. He would have been a better governor than Hochul. She’s either clueless about crime in NY or does not give a crap.
New York has a crime index 71 points below the national average. Florida has a crime rate 106 points higher than the national average. https://www.nextburb.com/us/compare...ork, USA has a,106 above the national average.
This seems like an easy pilot study. Scoop up non-vaxxers, take blood samples, then simulate infections vs. those who have had vaccines and also re-infections. Can expand scope among those without no known infections (neg antibody count) or visible symptoms. Cross sample different age and ethnic demographics. Voila, preliminary results to argue and tinker even more.
Just putting this here Biden asked to declare emergency over RSV, flu kids hospitalizations (cnbc.com) NOV 18 2022 The Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics told the Biden administration that “unprecedented levels” of RSV combined with increasing flu circulation are pushing some hospitals to the breaking point. They asked the federal government to declare an emergency to provide hospitals with added flexibility to meet the surge. Infants 6 months and younger are getting hospitalized with RSV at seven times the rate observed before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2018, according to CDC data. Doctors are calling on the Biden administration to declare an emergency in response to an “alarming surge” of children hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus and flu this season. As respiratory viruses surge, more than three-fourths of pediatric hospital beds are occupied across the U.S., according to data from the Health and Human Services Department. Seventeen states are reporting that more than 80% of beds are full, according to the data. Children’s hospitals in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Kentucky and Utah are almost completely at capacity. An emergency declaration would provide hospitals with the flexibility needed to free up bed capacity and staffing to make sure children get the care they need, Children’s Hospital Association CEO Mark Wietecha and AAP CEO Mark Del Monte told Biden and Becerra in the letter this week. The president should declare an emergency under the Stafford Act or the National Emergencies Act, and the health secretary should declare a public health emergency, Wietecha and Del Monte wrote. “We need emergency funding support and flexibilities along the same lines of what was provided to respond to COVID surges,” they wrote. Newborn hospitalization rates double Public health officials in the U.S have repeatedly called on all eligible people to receive their Covid booster and flu shot to help ease the burden of respiratory disease this winter. There is no vaccine for RSV. About 171 out of every 100,000 infants younger than 6 months were hospitalized with RSV for the week ending Nov. 12, according to the CDC’s surveillance system that tracks 12 states. That is more than double the RSV hospitalization rate for newborns last year and more than seven times the rate in 2018, the last complete season before the Covid-19 pandemic. The flu is hospitalizing about 13 out every 100,000 kids younger than age 5, according to CDC data. The hospitalization rate for these kids is at a decade high and nearly double the overall current national rate. Seven kids have died of the flu so far this season, according to CDC.
LA and NYC people are crime deniers. All their friends who got mugged moved to Florida and Texas where they can watch a Elton John concert without getting curb stomped @AroundTheWorld @ROXRAN
It was thoughtful and represents the risk at this current moment for hosting thanksgiving. COVID is not the worry at the moment (and may not be for a while). Influenza and RSV are. Specifically RSV. My household has been ravaged by both over the last two weeks, and I would not wish RSV or flu on any household.
He (not just anyone, he's the chair of UCSF dept of medicine) happen to think the chance of long covid after infection is 5%. I completely understand why he would be careful with that thinking. Flu, RSV, Covid can all be very serious for older folks. My parents are old, so we are very careful around them this holiday.
I was with my 6 year old nephews a few weeks back and they got RSV and missed a week and a half of school due to it. Really bad fever, sneezing blood. They were miserable. I caught it from them and had a bad cough for a week, but otherwise wasn’t too bad.
This is what your consider "off the deep end"? Looks like he just laid out why he thinks/ plans the way HE does and closes with he understands why people want to return to pre-COVID days. ..
