It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Another Covid-19 Surgemass. Go Vegan Already. Eat Ultra Healthy. Feed Your Immune System FFS. Get Vaccinated+Boostered.

Everything I read, everybody I hear, everywhere I look, people are still testing positive for covid-19. People are buying up rapid tests everywhere. Another wave seems to be on the horizon in the United States. In the past two weeks, reported cases have increased by 53%, and hospitalizations have risen by 31%. Virus levels in wastewater, which provide an advance warning of spread, are following a similar trajectory. After the past two years, a winter surge is happening. Respiratory illnesses thrive in colder weather, when people tend to spend more time indoors. Holiday season gatherings contribute as well. Winter has ushered in some of the pandemic's worst moments. Last year, Omicron's unwanted arrival led to a level of mass infection across the country that we had not previously seen. The good news this year is that the current rise will almost certainly not be as bad as last year's. But beyond that, the only certain thing is that cases and hospitalizations are rising, and that’s not good. The pandemic numbers are ticking upward across the country, but so far the recent increases seem especially sharp in the South and West. The daily average of reported cases in Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and Alabama has doubled in the past two weeks. Hospitalizations have been slower to rise, but over the same time frame, daily hospitalizations in California have jumped 57 percent and are now higher than anywhere else in the United States. Other areas of the country, such as New York City, have also seen troubling increases. The lack of data on people's immune status makes it especially difficult for epidemiologists to predict the outcome of the current rise. Widespread vaccination and infection mean we have a stronger wall of immunity now compared with the previous two winters, but that protection inevitably fades with time. The problem is, people fall sick asynchronously and get boosted on their own schedules, so the timing varies for everyone. A confluence of factors has created the ideal conditions for a sustained surgemass with serious consequences for those who get sick. Fading immunity, frustratingly low booster uptake, and the near-total abandonment of Covid-19 precautions create ideal conditions for the virus to spread. Meanwhile, treatments for those who do get very sick are dwindling. None of the FDA-approved monoclonal antibodies, which are especially useful for the immunocompromised, works against BQ.1 and BQ.1.1., which make up about 68 percent of cases nationwide. Paxlovid is still effective, but it’s underprescribed by providers and, by one medical director’s estimate, refused by 20 to 30 percent of patients. The upside is that few people who get Covid-19 now will become very sick—fewer than in previous winters. Even if cases continue to surge, most infections will not lead to severe illness because the bulk of the population has some level of immunity from vaccination, previous infection, or both. Any sort of wave would in all likelihood lead to an uptick in deaths, too. So far, the death rate has remained stable, but 90 percent of people dying now are 65 and older, and only a third of them have the latest booster. Even if the winter covid-19 surge is not ultimately a big one, it will likely be bad news for hospitals, which are already filling up with adults with flu and children with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Many health-care facilities are swamped; the situation will only worsen if there is a big wave. If you need help for severe covid-19, or any kind of medical issue, more than likely, you're not going to get the same level of care that you would have without these surges. Changing how you eat and getting vaccinated and boostered and wearing a mask from now to spring is the best way to protect yourself.