This poll is what prompted the diary for Thursday. Just because the MSM has moved on and the Biden administration has declared through their actions that COVID is over, does NOT make that true for millions upon millions of people, including me. If “crisis” means you don’t see the images of the full emergency rooms on your social media feeds and on the TV, then “Mission Accomplished”.
The problem with declaring a victory is that everyone drops their guard down. It is next to impossible to get people to take COVID seriously again once this happens. If these items were getting more news coverage than a damn slap, maybe the public at large would take more precautions again, like wearing a mask. But I’ve never trusted the MSM, whether I was a Republican, an Independent, nor now as a member of the Democratic Party.
Here are the stories that show that #CovidIsNotOver, and the reasons I keep pounding away at my keyboard are as follows:
1) The new sheriffs in town are named BA.4 and BA.5. I talked about them a week or so ago now. These two strains of Omicron are quickly replacing BA.2 wherever they have been spread so far. BA.4 and BA.5 both have a mutation L452R that made Delta so infectious and deadly. So far, cases have been mild, but will that hold?
2) The situation in Shanghai is increasingly desperate as the CCP still tries to eradicate the virus with their now misguided “Zero COVID” plan. I consider myself spiritual and I am choosing to pray for the people of Shanghai, because the anecdotal reports coming out of the megalopolis are too much for me to post here.
3) I keep posting and posting about Long COVID, hoping that this grim fate which is almost as bad as death would be the reason to reverse so much thinking. Yet as time goes by and reinfections become commonplace Long COVID risks haven’t abated with anything but the vaccine (which does NOT eliminate the risk).
Go below the fold to read about these stories, and see what “We Don’t Talk About COVID” is doing to us.
BA.4 and BA.5 — The Next Wave of Infectious Subvariants Have Established Themselves
From Reuters: WHO Says It is Analyzing Two New Omicron Subvariants
The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible omicron strain of the coronavirus to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.
It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 — now globally dominant — as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.
The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their "additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential."
Anything that can outcompete BA.2 is definitely a potential threat, but so far all cases reported as BA.4 and BA.5 have been mild. Here’s to praying it stays that way. With the reinfection rate of Omicron and the mutations that made Delta bad, it has the potential of killing many!
Meanwhile, BA.2 has soared to over 80% of sequenced infections in the USA. Cases have been rising (granted from a very low baseline) for a couple weeks now.
Dystopian Nightmare in Shanghai Isn't Going Away
It is clear that society in Shanghai is collapsing right now, but the CCP isn’t backing down from “Zero COVID” yet. Instead, they will double down and will not hesitate to sacrifice millions of people to both COVID *and* a famine in order to not admit that they are wrong.
What is it like to live in a dystopia? Complete anger, a daily struggle to survive, and worry about family (and especially pets). Welcome to a westerner’s account of Shanghai right now.
How does a modern city starve? How is this possible in the 21st Century? The Chinese government is still stuck on their 1960 model for domestic affairs — that’s how!
The citizens have to crowdsource medical help because of how strict the lockdown is..
China does seem to be putting on a show in some locations by easing COVID curbs in the area. But more factories every day are being shuttered due to the lockdown.
TRIGGER WARNING: GRAPHIC LINKS BELOW
There are reports of animals being put to death. There are the suicides. There are unprecedented mobs and riots looking for food. These are not covered in the western media or are briefly mentioned, likely in fear of the CCP banning them from reporting or doing business. Just know that Shanghai is a powder keg right now, and even the CCP is beginning to realize it.
Long COVID — The Living HELL in Which Millions Live With Daily
I am bilboteach, and I have suffered from Long COVID for 17 months now. I am one of at least 18 MILLION people in just the USA alone who have had Long COVID symptoms, according to the following poll.
A recently published study for Nature shows that in the UK, many Long COVID sufferers (including the Time Lady* Queen) aren’t showing improvements in symptoms after a long period of time.
*This is a Doctor Who reference and is meant to be a joke about her longevity.
Thing is, we know that Long COVID really does a number on the body. It literally exhausts it and attacks nearly every organ. I’ve tried rehabbing out of it twice — that doesn’t work well at all.
What will having this virus do to you 40 years down the line? 60 years? Next year? We just cannot possibly have the data to formulate any type of reasonable hypothesis simply because we fucked around. We’ll have to find out later. A VERY scary thought!
Thing is, the risk does NOT go down with each re-infection, and *points to above* we have a variant that is great at re-infection now. The risk DOES go down with vaccines, but IT IS NOT ELIMINATED. That means you aren’t out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, even with a mild or asymptomatic course of infection! Oh, and doctors don’t know how to treat or cure Long COVID.
Conclusion
If it weren’t for text-to-speech, I wouldn’t be able to write all of these diaries. I usually have to edit them several times once I say my thoughts when I have them. I add the tweets last. This is how I report COVID news and remain prolific in my coverage, because I cannot risk a bad Long COVID day ruining everything anymore. Some may marvel at my persistence, tenacity, creativity, and willingness to accommodate in order to live with this virus. I’m telling you now, if I could go back in time and change one thing about my life, it would be to not have Long COVID. It’s that bad, even 17 months later and 3 vaccines that temporarily boosted my health. It truly is a living hell.
Oh, and I am tired. So very exhausted. I had to leave the last diary to its fate because I didn’t have the mental capacity to argue for my positions that day. And there were so many who were so very dismissive. This diary and the following article will hopefully debunk those pushing "we can live with this virus, do nothing” crowd. Herd immunity is not possible. Vaccine immunity is waning and is not possible. That leaves mitigations. So put on your mask, social distance, and save yourself — even if no one else is willing to do so for themselves. Do you REALLY want to play the Long COVID roulette game?