Shutdown Diary
The latest stats from WaPo:
The latest vaccine stats from CDC:
I know I didn't predict we had topped the omicron wave in my last journal post but I did point we were close in the sense we were past the inflection point, with cases et al. increasing at a lower rate. Hospitalizations and deaths are a lagging indicator but single digit increases are better than 2 or 3 digit percentage increases. We're within days of the peak, if not there already,. and probably within a few weeks of rapid declines.
A few comments of an anecdotal nature. One of my sisters-in-law sent out a confusing text distinguishing rapid tests from antigen tests, talking about how my nephew had 2 tests, one of them a rapid test. Now, in fact, I haven't had one (there are some silver linings to being an anti-social nerd). but generally there are 3 basic types: the PCR, the antigen, and the antibody. The former two are focused on active infections, the latter on past ones. The PCR test is the "gold standard" and typically takes a few days to get results. The antigen gets rapid results, say within a half hour; It has a problem with false negatives, i.e., you have COVID-19 but the test indicates you don't have it. So I was confused by what my sister-in-law said, but I think she meant to say he had an antigen and a PCR test, the second more to confirm a negative finding.
Not to obsess over my feud with Tom Woods, who has been dismissive of kids with COVID-19, but as I pointed out before, my oldest nephew caught it from his tween/teen daughters, and there are other cases. I have one grandnephew, about 6, in Ohio, and a 1-year-old grandnephew I just met on my recent visit to Texas, both with COVID. The Ohio one is fully vaxxed, catching it at school. The latter's maternal grandmother is a school teacher who also got it from work and likely infected the cute little dude. My niece-in-law is ill, hasn't heard back yet on her PCR results. My other sister-in-law's two nieces via a brother also have COVID, most likely from school. And I may have mentioned I wasn't able to socialize with a niece and a different sister, who both had to take PCR tests because of diagnosed co-workers (in 2 cases for the niece who works for USPS).
Now recently in the headlines, the Biden Administration is reportedly giving each to requesting households up to 4 "free" COVID tests and is going to distribute a large number of complimentary N95 masks (which I have now worn for several months on my own dime at about $3/each).
I urge all readers to get vaxxed and/or boosted if they haven't already.
