Covid variant is extremely contagious

Crushed

Covid is also  ripping back because people are tired and careless and don't pay attention.

My daughter and her husband were both vaccinated and boosted  The two older children were vaccinated  the 2 year old was not.  He was at a friends house  When a neighbor stopped  by .  No one knew she was a fervent antivaxer  and COVID positive

She infected the two year old who then  infected the whole family

jmlarue

Does anyone else find it curious that the number of confirmed cases of seasonal flu has been nearly zero since this Covid 19 pandemic started in 2020? There's a lot more negative news in recent months about the unreliability of  the PCP tests returning a false positive. It certainly makes me wonder if we're making false assumptions based on a faulty rapid test. Did your family all have their seasonal flu shot this year?

Gig Harbor

I wonder how many doctors and clinics are testing for both. If they do a Covid test and it is positive I bet most don’t go on and test for seasonal flu. If a person does a home test and it is negative I think they just stay home and don’t go in for a flu test. It would be interesting to know how many actual tests have been done for the seasonal flu. Most are only worried about Covid where in past years they might have gone in to get an Rx for Tamiflu.

David J

Covid is going through my wife’s MCF again. With every new variant, there is a spike in staff and resident illness. There haven’t been any hospitalizations or deaths as far as I know, but there are residents in isolation. Visitation is still allowed, but discouraged. They also request that guests stay in the resident’s room. My wife is a walker and only goes to her room to sleep. So when I visit during these outbreaks of covid, I just keep it short. Let’s hope this outbreak is short and harmless.

Crushed

Its hardly zero

CDC estimates* that, from October 1, 2021 through April 16, 2022, there have been: 4,700,000 – 7,900,000 flu illnesses

2,200,000 – 3,600,000 flu medical visits47,000 – 96,000   flu hospitalizations

2,800 – 8,200   flu deaths  

Widespread mask wearing is critical to reduction in influenza  

 

Crushed

rapid tests have issues but PCR positives are very reliable eg

  
 Over an eight-week period, 24,717 RT-PCR tests were performed. Of those, 6,251 came from asymptomatic patients. In that group, 288 specimens initially returned a positive result. A second test revealed 20 of these to be false positives.

https://medicine.missouri.edu/news/researchers-identify-technique-detect-false-positive-covid-19-results

 

PCR tests are not prone to false positives, despite what's on Facebook, experts say

Infectious disease experts are again pushing back against "armchair" molecular biologists who continue to make false claims about PCR tests — the primary method for diagnosing COVID-19.  These claims have circulated on social media since the beginning of the pandemic and have been repeatedly debunked, but nevertheless they persist in a variety of forums.

One of the most common false claims is that PCR tests are prone to huge numbers of false positives, and this is often rooted in a misunderstanding of how the tests work, says Jonathan Jarry, a biological scientist with McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Montreal.  Molecular biology is complicated, and Jarry said it's easy for people to pick up on a tidbit of information that, in itself, is true but then jump to much larger conclusions that are not accurate. "We're all susceptible to it," he said.

"I'm not accusing other people of being dumb or stupid or ignorant. These are biases that we all have to deal with.... It's just part of being human."

  https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pcr-tests-false-positives-myth-reality-1.6034273

 

Quilting brings calm

IF flu cases are down, it would not surprise me.  Masks and social distancing don’t just help prevent covid.  They will help reduce the number of any airborne illness. Especially if people are respectful and stay home if they have symptoms of either flu or covid. 

 Numbers  of covid are rising in my state.  Fortunately deaths are not.  I think our state is over 76% fully vaccinated. I am not hearing of cases in people I know like I was in December January and February.  That was a very bad time - several deaths of relatives  of people known to me. 

A. Marie

Um, yeah, tell me about it. I visited my DH in his SNF on Wed. 4/13, and was notified on Thurs. 4/14 that he'd tested positive for COVID. Haven't seen him since, as visitation is not absolutely verboten but "strongly discouraged." Meanwhile, I isolated for a week (as if I weren't isolated enough already), but I seem to have come through--positive at-home tests for the entire week-plus and no symptoms whatever. But, dear God, when will all this end??

Paris20

I am really angry at all those people who tell me that Covid is all done. Wishing will not make it so. In my area of upstate NY, we have a serious uptick in cases. A local doctor said that there may be a strain within the current variant that is more contagious than expected. That was just an educated guess. No one wears masks anymore (except for my husband and me, it seems) and there’s a kind of denial about the illness. I’m sorry to say that I think many of our fellow Americans are acting like recalcitrant two-year-olds. We’ve seen enough of their temper tantrums. In two weeks, my family will all be masked as we visit my mother for her 100th birthday. We are all fully vaccinated but I pray that nobody brings Grandma any Covid.

Jo C.

I am so sorry about the illness in your family, Crushed.  One single person anti-vax and dispensing her largesse wherever she goes.  So hoping no serious illness as all were vaccinated except the little two year old; hope the little one is doing alright and not too ill.

My heart goes out to your family and may they get well easily and soon.

Hugs to your little grandchild and his family -  from a distance,

J.

Stuck in the middle

My son got covid at his RCF, despite vaccinations.  His illness was mild and brief.  I hope your family has the same experience.

jmlarue

Crushed - interesting that the statistics you posted were dramatically different than those I found on the CDC website when the warnings on the Omicron variant was in full throat. I was startled by the total # of confirmed flu cases in 2021 being a mere 6,000 and change. Please don't presume that everyone relies on social media for information. I, for one, do not. The source has to have some real bona fides before I'll believe it - CDC (of course), NIH, Johns Hopkins Research, Mayo, etc. 2 1/2 years and too much media-generated hyperbole has certainly made me much more cynical, but I believe my critical thinking and research skills have improved.

Jo C.

Had to go back and edit a bit as I was a bit in the "vent" dynamic. Let us know how they are all doing, Crushed. 

J.

Crushed

jmlarue wrote:

Crushed - interesting that the statistics you posted were dramatically different than those I found on the CDC website when the warnings on the Omicron variant was in full throat. I was startled by the total # of confirmed flu cases in 2021 being a mere 6,000 and change. Please don't presume that everyone relies on social media for information. I, for one, do not. The source has to have some real bona fides before I'll believe it - CDC (of course), NIH, Johns Hopkins Research, Mayo, etc. 2 1/2 years and too much media-generated hyperbole has certainly made me much more cynical, but I believe my critical thinking and research skills have improved.

Your comment was

Does anyone else find it curious that the number of confirmed cases of seasonal flu has been nearly zero since this Covid 19 pandemic started in 2020? 
  no citation 
The flu season is a winter phenomenon  from CDC about 2020-2021
 
1,675 (0.2%) of 818,939 respiratory specimens tested by U.S. clinical laboratories were positive for an influenza virus.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm#anchor_1627000324276
  

What are possible explanations for the unusually low flu activity?

COVID-19 mitigation measures such as wearing face masks, staying home, hand washing, school closures, reduced travel, increased ventilation of indoor spaces, and physical distancing, likely contributed to the decline in 2020-2021 flu incidence, hospitalizations and deaths. Influenza vaccination may also contributed to reduced flu illness during the 2020–2021 season. Flu vaccine effectiveness estimates for 2020-2021 are not available, but a record number of influenza vaccine doses (193.8 million doses) were distributed in the U.S. during 2020-2021.

We dont have final numbers for 2021-2022 yet but what we have shows a big increase in influenza over last year They have more than ten times as many positive specimens in the system 17,938

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm