Nope. It never really left.
Moving about the country these days might lead you to believe that COVID is a thing of the past. No more masks, no social distancing, and big crowds everywhere you look. But, unfortunately, COVID remains with us, and continues to plague (sad pun intended) the elderly, organ transplant recipients and others who are significantly immune suppressed.
Here's the long and short of it, albeit in reverse order.
The Short of It:
According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), since the pandemic began in the late winter of 2020, there have been a total of 1.5 million deaths, and 6.4 million hospitalizations due to COVID in the US. And now, by all measures, it appears that COVID infections are on the increase.
Also, as reported by the EPA, hospitalization rates due to COVID hit their bottom in June, 2023 at six thousand/week. Since then, they have tripled, reaching an average of 19 thousand/week.
The highest rates of hospitalization were in the fall & winter of both 2020-21 and 2021- 22, when people spent more time indoors. Thus, it's reasonable to expect that we'll see even higher rates this fall and winter.
Meanwhile, the use of masks has seemingly disappeared, and the rate of vaccinations has dropped from a high of 3 million/day in March, 2021 to a low of 62 thousand/day in May, 2023. This despite the availability of new versions designed to thwart the latest mutations of COVID.
As of today, only 17% of us have received a new bi-valent vaccine. Although the figure is higher (43%) among those older than 65, this percentage may or may not be high enough to protect vulnerable populations against an outbreak this coming winter season.
The Long of It:
Many believe that once you've contracted COVID, you're home free—that is, you can't get it a second time, and your complete recovery is assured. Neither assumption is true, even for those who are up to date on their vaccinations.
According to a February 15, 2023 article in "Scientific American", a team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis concluded that reinfected people are twice as likely to die and three times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those infected only once, regardless of their vaccination status.
Their data, drawn from from half a million COVID patients treated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, showed that 10% had been infected with COVID between two and four times. And some patients continued to have symptoms during the six months of follow-up, what scientists have come to term, "Long COVID."
The most commonly reported symptoms of Long COVID include:
- Fatigue
- Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort
- Fever
- Respiratory symptoms, including difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and cough
The prevalence of Long COVID in my area (Western New York) has been such that the University of Buffalo's Internal Medicine Dept recently opened a special "Long COVID Treatment Center". Funded by a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, with support from UB, the center is accepting all patients, regardless of whether they have insurance.
So, What's To Be Done?
The appropriate responses to a heightened threat from COVID are simple things we all know: mask up, social distance where possible, and, with your physician's permission, get any dose of an updated COVID vaccine as soon as it become available.
COVID will continue to mutate, and it's up to us to protect ourselves and our loved ones by doing what we can to ward off these latest variants.