XBB 1.5 has far exceeded worst expectations, doubling its share of new U.S. covid cases, soaring from 18% to 40% last week.
The extremely immunity-proof mutation has pushed aside a dozen other covid variants by out-infecting them in a blitzkrieg wave blanketing U.S. states from coast to coast, proving itself the most-contagious covid of all.
XBB 1.5 is so robustly antibody-proof and immunity-resistant, it seems destined to last longer inside human bodies, logically leading to a jump in Long Covid cases, disabilities, and fatalities.
1.5 Strength Implies More Hospitalizations, Deaths
The September 2022 vaccines and the get-it-right-after-you-get-covid treatment Paxlovid seem to be the only medical relief Americans can get, as the XBB branch of covid shrugged off other preventions and treatments as the “stealthiest” covid yet.
That seems to indicate a more thorough penetration of the human body by the 12-member virus family’s strongest and meanest child, XBB 1.5, making for a much bigger job to clear out its stubborn self, which would seem to cause more and longer hospitalizations, longer covid illnesses & disabilities, and more American deaths.
Especially since the September 2022 vaccine shots have been taken by only 15.1% of Americans five years and older, personal masking seems very low, and some doctors [ wrongly, in my opinion ] say they’re "not recommending" Paxlovid for patients who test positive for covid.
[ → You can get the OK and the pills at a drugstore, ASAP! ← ]
Last-Minute To Get September Vaccine
We’re almost out of time to prepare for 1.5’s worst, which is definitely coming soon, if not already in your area. [ See charts below and follow this link to change it to your home county or state and see custom stats. ]
I recommend everyone who can qualify to get Paxlovid, especially seniors, no matter their vaccine history:
“Among people ages 65 and older, the updated vaccines reduced the risk of COVID hospitalization by 84% compared with unvaccinated people and by 73% compared with people who had received at least two doses of the original vaccines.” < www.cdc.gov/… >
Vaccine should help at least somewhat against this 1.5 onslaught. Masks, too.
XBB 1.5 Sweeping the Country
Here’s the latest on the 10 U.S regions tracking the “genomes” of covid cases. “Genome” is to virus as DNA is to humans.
Covid virus is extracted from its victim, put through a profiling process, and that report is sent to the CDC directly or via GISAID, a global science nonprofit for tracking influenza and coronaviruses.
XBB 1.5’s share of covid cases in New York and New Jersey grew from 1.4% a week before Thanksgiving to a whopping 72.2% on New Year’s Eve (dark blue bars). →
Over 80% by January 21
Last week, I predicted XBB 1.5 would vise-grip the entire USA by February 3, 2023. Now it looks almost certain for 1.5 to top 80% by January 21.
XBB 1.5 (dark blue slices on “pie” charts) in New York grew from 50 to 72 percent in a week. Rose in Texas, from 4 to 21 percent. Surged from 6 to 18 percent in the Pacific Northwest. →
Case reporting has become unreliable due to home testing and wildly varying methods used by places that report those numbers.
But The New York Times-reported hospitalizations and “test positivity” both increased from Dec. 24 to Dec 31: from 41,041 to 43,547 (up 6 percent), and from 13% to 15% (up 15 percent).
I would say reported case numbers should smooth out after the holidays, but I actually fear a landslide. You can check these daily New York State hospitalization and Intensive care unit (ICU) numbers.
“Stealth” Covid’s Big Danger
What happens when you have an infection and your body can’t kill it? You enter a situation like trench warfare where you don’t recover from Long Covid unless something else happens to reduce the XBB 1.5 in your body.
Or 1.5 wears you down, weakens you so it converts more of your body to copies of itself. Maybe you also get sick with something else (a cold, a flu, or maybe even XBB 1.5’s successor) and your body splits its healing effort and 1.5 gains more sway and eats more chunks of your body.
That's not a good path.
Who’s To Blame?
Everyone will clamor for science and government to come up with a solution.
Science and the Biden Administration have come up with solution after solution, but people started ignoring and even opposing them. Liars made up stories and people have believed them, and feel stuck defending them. Others are “tired” of covid. Some are angry at covid and anything related to it. Other people think they had covid before and are now immune.
But all that is as futile as not paying credit-card bills: Late fees are assessed, interest rates balloon past 30%, and minimum payments go sky-high.
There’s no mercy from the banks, and there’s less mercy from covid. Because at wit’s end, you can at least declare bankruptcy from credit cards.
But for many, the only bankruptcy from covid is death. More than a million Americans have already proven that.
The status quo of covid is death.
Quo is Death!
P.S.: “Quo is Death!” is also the name of my upcoming five-book series. The first book “Escape Covid & Climate Change” should be out next month.
Please start a free subscription to my blog at restless2024.substack.com for free copies of all five books. Plus weekly essays and monthly fiction. If you like them, you can buy me a coffee. Or not. Oh, I want the coffee, but you can always read for free. Everybody should be able to read everything for an affordable price.
LINKS: [ so you can fact-check me yourself, unlike what liars want you to do. ]
< aspr.hhs.gov/… >
< www.verywellhealth.com/… >
< covid.cdc.gov/… >
< www.cdc.gov/… >
< en.wikipedia.org/… >
< www.nytimes.com/… >
< coronavirus.health.ny.gov/… >