It's the pattern of obsessive tweeting about Covid and minimizing risk of getting it. Not normal for a physician to have such a single-minded focus. I have met him before and he seemed a lot more normal. Covid fear has done something to his brain.
There is something off with RSV (impact is much worse than usual) this season. Not sure if the virus has changed, the people have changed, or perhaps it's multiple concurrent infections (RSV + Covid for example).
This RSV has been as bad as ones on years past and it’s just there are more kids who haven’t had it due to it being dampened in 2020/21. RSV was awful before the pandemic and it will remain awful after the pandemic.
There is immunity gap at the population level (most ppl are exposed to RSV early in life). Covid suppressed RSV infection, so a larger number of people have never been exposed to it. This means there is a larger pool of opportunity for infection (and thus increased spread). But it does not explain the higher severity (especially among older kids and even adults). There is immunity debt at the individual level. The theory is less frequent reinfection means a weaker immunity response once infected. That's a hot-running social media theory. There is no data to back this up. There is the multiple infections going on at the same time which "stretches" the immune system. There is the immune system weakened after Covid infection. Most reject this but at least one immunologist is insisting this is going on. I have no idea which if any of these - but anyone (that is not an expert in this field) proclaims it must be this or that is narrow-minded.
The 0-3 age group is the primary driver of RSV transmission. They didn’t wear masks. The biggest protective factor for them to not get RSV during this time was their parents/guardians ability or decision to social distance from other families during the pandemic. Today, the US is running prepandemic so the kids are getting sick again just like they used to. It was typical to have TWELVE viral infections each year BEFORE COVID. For kids under 2, one of them would be RSV.
My anecdotal data say it's worse. My older kids went through a really bad "cold" that turned out to be RSV. Our doctor says she's seeing more unusual cases (but that could just be by chance because of higher # of cases). It's typically just a mild cold (except for babies and much older folks). Again, anecdotal. I'm not sure what the CDC is saying (last I check, I think they did mention the coinfection could be a driver for high hospitalization).
My anecdotal evidence (me being sick with RSV) says you’re right too. But I had RSV around 2010. And it kicked my ass then too. I was 12 years younger and bounced back in a few days with a persistent mild chronic cough then whereas now I am still sick with RSV and so is my toddler and it’s taken at least twice as long. I would guess lack of quality sleep has played a big role in my slower recovery. Interestingly my elementary school aged kid who has had RSV pre-COVID times didn’t get anything besides a runny nose during this episode. But he did get influenza from the rest of his booger eating friends at school and I am doing my best to avoid getting the toddler sick with flu next.
Yes, none of that contradicts what I said. The lockdowns, school closures, kindergarten closures, panic mongering in the media caused young children to have a lot less social interaction than they normally would have had, so the necessary infections to build natural immunity are happening now when things are slowly going back to normal.
Slowly? This RSV wave will done by December which is when is would typically start for the most parts of the country. Flu won’t be as bad since this years vaccine covered the dominant strain (H3N2). Your indignation is misguided. RSV and Flu will not kill a million people this year.
This is so crazy and dystopian. But I could totally see politicians like Trudeau, Ardern, Newsom, Scholz go for something like this. China has become a dystopian hellhole.
Let those people work They want to work and make iPhone 14s for us They aren’t lazy fired twitter employees
I spoke to a friend in China last night. He said citizens have been almost completely in the dark regarding Covid. The government has lied and tried to hide as much real info and data as possible. Apparently the lockdowns are worse than when they started them at the beginning of the pandemic. He is a teacher and cannot leave the school along with all others that were there at the time they shut it all down. He said the tipping point for the protests was actually the World Cup. He said the people of China sees the World unmasked and living their lives and they basically exploded. He also said there is still so much fear, and misinformation caused by their government that there are still many that think anyone that gets Covid has a high probability of dying.
It is crazy (the story is building was physically lockdown making escape from fire much harder), made possible by the gov structure of a one-man/one-party rule. No, politicians of Western Democracy would/can never do something like this.
It's been two nights since the start of the protests in China...people are still sharing videos, protesting and mocking the overzealous online censors. Literally every time something is shared, within a few hours it gets blocked and all you see is a red circle with an "!" on the inside. People are already turning that into a meme. The thing is though--people have those videos saved and keep on posting them anyway (or post some new stuff about the 大白's and local authorities overstepping their boundaries). Even some of the police have taken the side of those who refused to be closed into their community because of "covid risk lmfao" I thought that all of this would be quashed within 24 hours. I was wrong, and I am pleasantly surprised that the people only seem to be getting more upset. What will this lead to? Maybe nothing, maybe a relaxation of covid policies. I am almost certain it will not get very violent towards those protesting because that would cause all hell to break loose; far more than it has currently. As for what it's been like in Beijing? For the past two weeks or so, for seemingly no reason, the government has decided to close all gyms in the Chaoyang and Dongcheng area, as well as many restaurants for seemingly no reason. Lots of people were basically told to stay inside their communities because they were literally like in a spot where someone was next to someone who got covid. It's pretty ****ed. They did this once in the spring, and once last year too--each time lasted about a month--Shanghai and Urumqi got it way worse. What the higher-ups hadn't counted on, however, is that the people have been getting madder and madder with each successive semi-lockdown and now it's spilled out onto the streets, literally. I generally don't talk much about politics or anything too serious but this situation involves me directly and it's kind of awesome that the people are standing up for themselves. And also really sad that a few dumbass officials would rather save face than open up the country for their people. --and as an aside, I can't wait for the city opens up again so I can get back to balling thrice a week
Saw the protests in Shanghai. Cops just standing by (probably waiting for instructions from higher up). Chanting of 'we don't want dictator, we want democracy'. Feels like the start of something serious over there, potentially much bigger than Titanamen square with 10s-100s of millions under serious lockdown and social media. Def something to watch... It would be both tragic (CCP is going to crack down hard) and awesome if China starts its transition toward Democracy because of Covid.
