What better way to take a break from the end of the world and the 4 horsemen — right wing politics, climate change, artificial intelligence, and war — than to dive into the latest Covid updates from June. I’m as furious as I imagine you are. But like you, I still have a job to do. I work in primary care, and my small part in this whole shit show is still trying to prevent and treat disease.
So welcome back to some monthly highlights from a place I call Covidlandia, a forgotten land between black and white, carefree and cautious, pandemic beginning and end. I present recent news, scientific discoveries, and medical knowledge that caught my attention and that is of interest to primary care. I curate and comment, and realize that one human being cannot possibly keep up with everything. But I try to highlight useful, actionable stuff. January, February, March, April, May, and now June.
This month’s edition is entirely too long to cut and paste here at Daily Kos. There are multiple graphs and a little video, so you’ll have to head over to the original post to catch it all. But as requested, here is the conclusion paragraph:
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Covid rates are going up in the U.S., and have been high in other parts of the world for a while now. Rates are especially high in the West and South, and rising in 44/50 states. Rates are 2x higher than they were this time last year, and 5x higher than this time 3 years ago.
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Early antivirals reduce the risk of long Covid. We are still seeing evidence of this.
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Starting a statin medication in hospitalized patients with Covid might help a little, but the evidence is not compelling. More intuitively, staying on a statin with immunomodulatory effects while sick with Covid, and a virus proven to infect the vascular endothelium and indeed atherosclerotic plaque itself, makes sense. Talk to your doctor about specifics.
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N95s work.
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Airplanes are speeding rockets full of coughing people, and N95s work. Being sick with anything on vacation sucks.
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Long Covid is formally recognized as having 200+ possible symptoms, but with core ones like post-exertional malaise, brain fog, and autonomic dysfunction leading the way. Don’t let the counter-narratives fool you.
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Paxlovid is still an effective tool, especially in outpatient primary care, unless better studies prove otherwise and cancel the quality evidence the Infectious Disease Society of America and the National Institutes of Health have based their treatment guidelines upon. If you’re going to come at the kings, you best be ready.
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Granted, 15 days of Paxlovid disappoints in a small study of 155 people with long Covid for an average of 17.5 months’ duration.
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I’m staying up to date with Covid vaccines, and will happily roll up my sleeve in the fall for one.
Full post here. Head over. I’ll see you there in the comments if you want to join the party, too!
Happy 4th of July.
They keep landing low blow after low blow.
Try to feel despair only in as much as it motivates you to keep getting back up.
Though we might be going out... we ain’t going out like that.