COVID-19 Update: Friday, April 16th

Numbers, Boosters, Resurging-fake news, and a reminder

1. There is a lot of hype around numbers right now so I thought it would be wise to take an honest look at where things are. I am pleased to report that Worldometer has added a "Weekly Trends" tab to their site which is very helpful. You can check it out here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#weekly_table The US number of cases has indeed increased over the week (an 8% increase) but deaths are down (7% decrease). So that is good news. While some states are certainly seeing bigger surges, the increase in cases is not yet beyond what I would expect to see given the changes in policy, reopening of places, spring break etc.

2. Numbers in some other countries are telling a different story, India had a bad day yesterday in regards to new cases and they have seen a 63% increase in cases with a 56% increase in deaths and Brazil is still getting hit very hard in regards to deaths.

3. Pfizer has said they should have their boosters ready soon - although "soon" is a fairly relative term. The boosters are designed to work against variants and there is some speculation regarding if people will need boosters annually (remember we still don't know how long the vaccines last) to combat emerging variants and/or because they may only last a year. There aren't a lot of details regarding this just yet - like, will people have the same side effects after the boosters or was that just for the first round? Can you mix brands, so if you got Moderna the first time can you get Pfizer for the booster? We don't know those answers yet. But I anticipate if we are going to need annual boosters we are going to see low compliance with that and therefore will need to focus heavily on effective treatment.

4. Lots of conspiracies are re-emerging as a result of the J&J "pause." Please be mindful most of these videos are things that have been debunked many times. The honesty of this situation is that none of us knows what is going to happen. Consider all the theories at the beginning, and throughout, that have proven incorrect. For example, the Mathematician out of Israel who said there was no need to do anything because the virus would fizzle out after 14 days and he had the stats to prove it. We are over a year in and it hasn't fizzled. What about the former Pfizer VP who last winter said it was over in the UK so they didn't need vaccines. While numbers there are improving (6 months later) it isn't over. Remember all the people who said it would die out in the winter? And of course, those who said it would die out in summer? But it hasn't. I could go on - but I won't. I will say this - our goal with the lockdowns etc. was to give our system time to find treatments, cures, and preventions. We have done that.

5. I just want to remind you of our prior discussions that this disease will not likely ever go away. COVID will just become another disease/virus. But eventually, it won't be what it is now because we will have even more effective treatments and we will have some level of immunity which will help reduce the severity of the disease.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This has been a long and tumultuous week. A week full of emotions and unknowns and in some cases, disappointments. For 81,111 families around the world, their lives changed forever this week when their loved one died from COVID. People are tired, weary, angry, scared, and just plain over it. We don't make the best decisions under those circumstances. So let's dig deep and remember to show grace, patience, and kindness to a hurting world. And when we can't, we can remain silent. Take time for yourself this weekend. Time to renew, and refresh, and fill your proverbial bucket. Step away from all the bad news and do something fun. Give yourself permission to have a wonderful, fun-filled, and low-stress weekend, whatever that means for you.