to-the-moon

As predicted by covid variant tracker nerds on twitter in recent weeks, JN.1 is exploding. A 40% increase in covid cases since last week. Most sequences coming in to variant trackers are JN.1.

The biobot chart shows the last six months, if you zoom out we are at or approaching covid levels not seen since last winter, so not totally unexpected… but the CDC expects cases to peak in February. However JPWieland predicts it will peak after christmas due to the rapid growth of JN.1.

There are also outlier cities in Europe showing more covid in wastewater than ever measured during the pandemic. Canada isn’t doing much better. The UK isn’t doing well either.

Along with covid, flu and RSV are also hitting pretty hard at the same time, especially in the South, with a touch of mystery pneumonia in various places around the world as a treat.

Thankfully the latest vaccine helps against this variant. Unfortunatly vaccine uptake rates are abysmal now because capitalism.

I’m mainly still posting about covid out of anxiety and watching the health of friends and family who have been infected and “were fine” slowly deteriorate.

Good luck, everyone.

EDIT:

The CDC director is recommending wearing masks. So things will probably get pretty bad…

https://twitter.com/CDCDirector/status/1732547659292967203

    • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      I hope i don’t get a beat down for saying this, but i can’t afford to care anymore. The people around me won’t, and at first i tried to do my part and theirs. But it’s not ending. I see now that there’s never going to be an end.

      So hey, i used to care you know? I used to try. I knew despair and apathy would come but i did fight! I just don’t have the bottomless well of will required to keep runnin when there’s no finish line

      • borlax [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        Very understandable sentiment. But the bare minimum is better than nothing and most people won’t even do that…

        I never stopped wearing masks and everyday run into people that claim they were feeing sick, but used an expired rapid tests to absolve themselves. In reality those people could and should still wear a mask or stay the fuck home. It could still be COVID or any other illness, all of which are best avoided.

        I never stopped caring because I can’t afford too, I have my own personal/medical reasons and I act cased on those. I just wish more people cared because it’s still a problem, not because they think I just think it’s a problem.

        This isn’t directed at you in particular because I don’t know how you live your life, but I do understand the feelings you describe here. It’s extremely disheartening to feel like the end is never coming, especially when you tried soooo hard.

          • Kuori [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            if you won’t mask you’re just another threat the rest of us who can’t afford to stop caring have to contend with.

            there is no compelling reason not to mask. none at all.

          • borlax [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            Yeah, wasn’t my intent to label you that way either. The long term effects should worry everyone tho!

            So much of our ability to deal with this was hindered by systemic shortcomings and bad messaging, so I try not to blame individuals unless they are actively being a detriment.

            I wish there was a better answer too, but appreciate the well wishes.

          • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netOP
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            10 months ago

            Most people I know stopped masking.

            But on top of getting vaccinated, using anti-viral nasal sprays might improve your odds of avoiding the worst consequences of covid.

          • FishLake
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            10 months ago

            I get where you’re coming from. And thank you for being willing to wear a mask if you feel sick. COVID will likely continue to get less and less asymptomatically spread, hopefully. It’s not a really selected for trait now that it’s endemic in our global population. At least that’s what a lot of the virologists and immunologists I read have to say.

      • FishLake
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        10 months ago

        If you held out even just a day longer than the people around you then you did a good job. Thank you.

        It’s always a good idea to care for yourself enough first in order to better care for others. It’s hard out there.

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        The problem is other people, not you

        You can’t be expected to care 10x as much just because 90% of people refused to wear masks inside even back in 2020. Also it’s not like this would accomplish anything because you can’t make up for their unmasking by wearing 10x as many masks lol

        it’s not just the government’s fault for making the disease (https://imgur.com/a/CRwan3n), for hiding the urgency of it in the early days (“Don’t wear masks and ride the subway” – Fauci March 2020), and for not instituting an ACTUAL quarantine. It’s also the people’s fault because they couldn’t even wear a piece of fucking cloth over their face

    • TupamarosShakur [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      Omicron was so dominant that it pretty much outcompeted all other variants like delta and gamma and stuff. At this point nearly all variants existing are descendants of omicron in one way or another.

        • TupamarosShakur [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          yeah they need to change it already. If not for Omicron, then for BA.2.86. Also I should’ve acknowledged people have been trying to bring back the cooler names, like calling BA.2.86/JN.1 “Pirola,” I just feel like it hasn’t caught on as much. Maybe because normal people just don’t care about covid anymore, so anyone still talking about covid is a scientist/has dug into the science, and using the pango terminology is just more specific

          • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.netM
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            10 months ago

            We can appeal to the evangelicals if we stop calling it COVID at all and just pretend there’s a new disease called Leviathan or Behemoth or something else biblical.

  • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.netM
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    10 months ago

    Let’s go COVID, disrupt Christmas and cause an economic downturn! I believe in you!

    Seriously though, fuck all this shit. Everyone is coughing all the time.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netOP
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      10 months ago

      I keep wondering if I’m being unreasonable, and covid isn’t a big problem anymore, but the reality is pretty clear even if it’s a huge bummer.

      And 1000 people have been dying of covid each week in the US since August, and it’s about to get a lot worse. It’s hard to wrap my head around that and seeing hardly anyone else give a shit. All this death primarily to save the political fortunes of an octogenarian genocidal racist and his psychotic political party, who couldn’t be bothered to change anything for the better post-pandemic.

      • macabrett[they/them]@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        As an immunocompromised person, I appreciate you seeing how awful it really is. It’s now been years where I’ve continued to see excited headlines about how “only” people like me are dying now (also untrue, but that’s the narrative). It feels dehumanizing in ways that I have a hard time describing, but comrades like you make me feel a little bit less alone.

  • CrimsonSage@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    I had covid really bad two weeks ago, the whole house did actually. And my housemates girlfriend had covid a week ago. I wonder if it was this variant.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    https://twitter.com/CDCDirector/status/1732547659292967203

    I didn’t watch it. Did it at least start with a illustration showing people in masks? My guess is a big “no” because she’s a ghoul and she wears a mask or shows masks an absolute bare minimum. And it’s really great that a rando is better on this shit than she is.

    Good video. Been distributing around.

    Please

    • add filtration (HEPA and MERV13)

    • clearly direct to Health Care and Schools also.

    While sharing I only found the video on twitter

    • not yet on the CDC website
    • not yet on the youtube playlist Check with Dr. Cohen.

    Please fix.

    And update the school, community and hospital recommendations.

    Nitter

  • privatized_sun [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    “As we prepare to record “Covid Year Four,” Beatrice, Artie, and Abby discuss what is left of national covid data following the end of the public health emergency, how what’s left has become so thoroughly abstracted, and how the CDC prioritizes representing deaths as an abstract percentage even as the official death count has been over 1,000 a week since August.”

    https://podbay.fm/p/the-death-panel/e/1701907200