I would guess that the elderly will continue to be at risk from COVID. Anything which can cause pneumonia at that age has a good probability of leading to serious consequences. This is a major factor with the flu. Even a minor case of the regular flu can bring on pneumonia in older people which can lead to hospitalization or death. The younger you are, the less likely you are to catch pneumonia when you get sick, so it’s not as much a factor. I would suspect that this means that the elderly will make up the greater percentage of deaths regardless of vaccinated state. The elderly may need to take additional measures going forward, like wearing masks more often, to avoid the risk of pneumonia regardless of their vaccinated state. And, of course, due to the reduced ability to heal at their age, the elderly would have a harder time recovering from any cell damage caused by COVID. That could lead to health issues which shortened their lifespan.
Also, strokes, heart attacks, embolisms, diabetes, kidney failure. Covid is an acute cardiovascular disease. Nasty bug.
Yeah, my mom had pneumonia, but the bad part was that all her nerves were inflamed, and she was in pain, especially when anyone touched her. It also triggered her myasthenia (the reason she’d been on immune suppressing drugs for years) so she didn’t have the strength to hold a spoon, let alone roll over by herself – so we had to move her regularly, and each time, she cried out in pain, and looked terrified.
My uncle (no blood relation) had very similar symptoms when he died of covid at the start of the pandemic, (except for the “can’t move”) so I think the pain and confusion and fear is a somewhat typical covid thing. It attacks the nerves, including the brain, as well as blood vessels and the heart.
puzzlegal, I am sorry for you and your mother. I did not mean to say that omicron is mild for the people who are hospitalized or die from it. I would say that “what would typically be a mild case in a younger or non-immunocompromised individual.”
Percentagewise, IMO with Delta vaccination was more important. The percentages of deaths were increasing among younger groups, probably most if not all of these were unvaccinated.
Now the percentage of Covid deaths that are age 75+ is trending sharply upward, and 50 or lower is approaching zero. So IMO, protecting the most vulnerable is more important, vaccination of the less vulnerable less important. Again, these are percentages, so when I say something is trending sharply upward, that is the percentage of all deaths.
Jeez sorry, again, to hear your Mom went through so much.
In NZ, the Govt secured supplies of AstraZeneca vaccines to give those concerned about the Pfizer vaccine an option. Most of those doses expired, with something like 10000 doses taken. They also secured doses of Novavax for the same reason - I am expecting that the majority of those doses go unused, as well.
Well, options are always good, and once it’s approved it can be an option. And unlike both adenovirus and nRNA vaccines, Novavax is a very traditional vaccine, which may make some more comfortable with it. I think it was also supposed to be fairly cheap. And it keeps 6 months in the fridge, and doesn’t require any fancy dilution or anything, which might make it more practical for doctor’s offices.
Welp, my 80-something in-laws decided to go through with a river cruise in Europe (I don’t blame them). They’re vaccinated. And now they’re quarantined in Switzerland because they’re both symptomatic. Neither is super healthy. No bueno.
My gf was invited to go to New Orleans for JazzFest with a group of her lady friends. Because we just returned from St Martin, she very reluctantly declined.
One of the women woke up symptomatic and tested positive. They’re all vaccinated, but what an awkward mess. Luckily they drove, but imagine riding NOLA to Pittsburgh with a contagious sick friend, squeezed into a crowded car.
So, as I said above, my in-laws are Covid-positive and symptomatic, and supposed to be isolating in a Swiss hotel. They’re not dumb people (although I haven’t seen them in a year and can’t speak to their mental state). When my wife talked to them this morning they said they’ve been going out and getting food and going to the pharmacy! “We can’t just sit here and eat room service 3 meals a day!” You damn well can. Jesus. At least Switzerland is probably 90% vaxxed, but still. I don’t approve of China welding people’s doors shut, but… Her brother is an EMT–maybe he can talk some sense into them.
So, my SIL talked to them and read them the riot act. They were planning museum outings and sit-down restaurants! She told them she would fly over and babysit. They promised they would be good. What the everlasting fuck? These are people with master’s degrees, former CEO.
I don’t know if this is, “we’ve been locked down for two years and I’m old and just don’t GAF”, or mental decline.
I could almost understand them going to the pharmacy or grocery store while masked but sit-down restaurants knowing they’re covid-positive? What the hell is wrong with people?
When we were in St Martin last month we had to buy COVID-19 insurance. If we tested positive the day before leaving, our policy paid for a room, which we would not be allowed to leave. Three meals a day would be dropped off, but other than that the door would stay closed with you inside.
The negative test after two weeks on the island was a relief.
Only 70%. From here.
I hope that, if they were on a river cruise, they are in Basel. I guess there’s a good reason I’m staying close to home and away from the tourist crowds.
They are probably not the only covid-positive people out and about, unfortunately.
They are in Basel, although I know nothing about that city. My apologies to you Swiss!
Hadn’t checked in here for awhile. Assumed that the infection and death rates were c. 10% of their peak…
Only to see the stats in the other thread showing they’re still runniny ~50%, to my utter shock. But if you read the news you’d think the pandemic was mostly history now.
I’m not following here – what numbers are you using in your comparisons? U.S. alone, or another specific country, or the world overall?
In the U.S. right now, COVID case counts and death counts are less than 10% of their peaks (see link below, scroll down to graphs). When you sat “rates”, what are you looking at?
The news thread-guess I misread the most recent data post, which I thought said 2000 deaths per day,vs. 4000 in a January post I scrolled back to.
Edit: Just checked, and it indeed showed 4k in Jan, 2k now. Yes, US.
As a data point, my county in Connecticut had been listed as having a “Community Level” of Low for the past few weeks, but as of a few days ago that changed to Medium.
So today, for the first time in a few weeks, I masked up for my weekly grocery shopping. I was in the minority but nobody around here cares who masks anymore. Including me, really.
My rule of thumb is mask unless my county’s community level is listed as Low.