The Silent Surge
We are now in the middle of this year’s covid-19 winter surge, and it is turning out to have the highest virus levels of the last two years (since the huge Omicron peak of January 2022). This conclusion comes from the testing of wastewater, which continues to be active and accurate nationwide. The Northeast has the highest virus levels (yellow in the graph below), and the highest percentage of the latest variant, JN.1. The Midwest (purple) is second. [ https://biobot.io/data/covid-19 ]
Individual states and localities are already higher than last year (as we showed in the Dec. 15, 2023 blog post for Keene, NH). Another example is Des Moines/Polk County, Iowa (which is currently beset by numerous presidential candidates and their superspreading gatherings)!
Nationally, the peak is expected mid to late this month. "According to the model of Dr. Mike Hoerger of Tulane University, … by January 10, there will be roughly 2 million daily new cases in the US, with nearly 14 million infectious people.” This means more than one out of every 30 Americans will be infected (and half to three-quarters not aware of it!) [ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/29/pers-d29.html ]
So What?
Readers of this blog know all the effective measures you can take if you would like to reduce your risk. See past blog issues, especially Dec. 1, 2023 Blog Post.
At whatever risk level you are comfortable with, now would be a good time to up your game a notch.
And note that this latest variant may affect your gut: "Cases of diarrhea, which may or may not be related, are reportedly on the rise. This comes as speculation swirls that the virus might be taking up residence in the gut — versus the upper respiratory tract, where Omicron tends to hang out, or the lower respiratory tract, where initial strains of COVID wreaked havoc. Keep an eye out for Gastro-Intestinal symptoms and realize they could be signs of COVID, not just the stomach flu, experts advise.” [ https://fortune.com/well/article/covid19-variant-jn1-symptoms-pirola-omicron/ ]
To Protect Others
The bottom line for protecting others is that you can usually avoid passing it on to your family and others close to you if you take immediate action to find out if your illness is indeed covid-19. Fortunately, this is easy to do. Anyone with a GI or flu-like illness should get tested for covid-19: either go to a clinic for a PCR test, or wait three days after symptoms began, and do a home antigen test — one test on day 3 and again on day 4.
Good news is that if you test positive, it’s not too late to start isolating from everyone else in the household — exposure is cumulative and the immune system can in many cases fight it off if exposure is mild in intensity and/or duration. Complete directions for isolation can be found in our Feb. 9, 2022 blog post — and we have good feedback from one reader who followed this procedure with no spread of the disease!
[ https://www.kohlerandlewis.com/covid-19blog/2022/2/9-you-can-isolate-and-not-spread-covid-19-geanc ]
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