It is finally getting cooler here at night. We could go without air conditioning while sleeping. After having worked hard at garden/farm in the daytime, I could sleep so well that I recalled the feeling of "awakening daybreak", a phrase in the Old Testament, when waking up the day after. I always woke up that way when I was younger.
There are new findings on COVID 19 published lately. They invariably conclude COVID 19 is not past yet but still in ourbreak at certain interval. There could be a serious issue of long COVID in as many as 20% of all cases including mild or even asymptomatic cases, in which 20% of them are unable to work or study for a long time after being acutely morbid.
In the US, they won't examine suspected cases with PCR and it seems as if the out break has already gone away. Actually, it is still surging like with the ancestral, alpha, delta strain. The waste water studies show it.
In our country, only sentinel surveillance is done at limited number of facilities and it shows we are in the 9th outbreak wave right now. The xbb strain seems to be the main at present. But recently, a new strain B.2.26 has been reported by various laboratories around the world at the same time. It is derived from an Omicron strain B2 but has a lot of mutations from it. Being not so toxic nor invasice, it is still more transmissible with higher real reproductive number than previous strains.
It is noteworthy that this new strain has been found at various places at the same time. Any strain of the virus would infect those with immunodeficient individuals and may undergo massive proliferation in them which could bring a lot of chances of mutation to such as B.2.26. Who knows there could be a more toxic as well as transmissible strain appearing through this mechanism in the future.
There is a report that tells among patients, not diagnosed as COVID 19, still with postviral syndrome symptoms, 41% have been infected with COVID 19. This may imply there are much more infected cases than correctly diagnosed who eventually develop complications later.
This postviral syndrome or long COVID cases could be a burden not only to themselves but also to the social security in the future or it is already present in the society. In addition, there have been reports telling autoimmune diseases or neurodegenrative diseases like Alzheimer's disease could be increased by the hazard ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 after infection to COVID 19.
At least, we could say the pandemic of COVID 19 has not been finished at all and could leave us serious problems in the future once infected. Let's take personal protection like wearing mask etc when going into crowd of people. The vaccines and early treatment with antiviral medicines could ameriolate the sequellae. The governments won't protect us but they are concerned only at running the economy in the society.
Going back to the garden, I would carry on pulling the weeds before they shed seeds on the ground.
You are correct in everything you say about Covid, and most people around me are weary of precautions. Some are getting the new vaccines but they have only barely become available.
ReplyDeleteMy focus in the garden has been pulling up the weeds before they drop seeds! We have an interesting plant that I believe you also have in Japan. It is called poke weed or poke salad. It makes beautiful purple berries on a bush that is two meters tall. My mockingbirds have stripped the bushes clean because the berries are so tasty.
Susan in Alabama (Dave N4DAG’s daughter) KD4VXO
It is also a problem that some people are tired of COVID precautions. With less toxicity of Omicron, they are becoming less careful for the precautions. I am afraid there is a surge going on. And they say a new strain named B.2.86 has been reported from different labs all over the world at the same time. It is more prevalent even than Omicron. I am concerned about long COVID which certain number of patients could develop.
DeleteAre you eating the fruits of poke weed? So far as I know, it is poisonous. I don't know if you are talking about the same plant. If it bears berries of a few mm in size with purple pigment not easily washable, it is the same as ours!
I have just cutting the weeds with a brush cutter for the land about 200 sq meters or so. Deadly tired! Having a glass of milk, i have enjoyed reading your comments! Yes, we should pull the weeds before they have seeds dropped. Do you make compost from the pulled weeds? It is another object for me to cut them at present.
Shin