On my Facebook memories from 2023, the Dispatches from the Evening Shift post was a Monday musing from 1/30/23 was 1095 days of covid. I thought, well, it’s been a minute since I wrote about covid.
Let me take the local temperature of covid.
Yes, there was a winter surge. As predicted. The hospitals were full; the hospital I work at seems to be always full. There was flu, and RSV, and covid. Just like last year.
According to the CDC Covid Data Tracker, there have been 26,607 hospitalizations for covid in the US in the week of January 20, 2024. This is down from 28,323 hospitalizations for covid in the US in the week of January 22, 2023. The weekly death rate has been averaging 1800 American dead each week. That is still a substantial number, for all that the public is bored hearing about covid. The most current number of dead, as reported, which is suspect because of the patchwork reporting done by some states, is one million, one hundred seventy-two thousand, two hundred two.
The CDC Codiv Data Tracker has improved its reporting and ease of information finding. This was always my second choice for covid data. RIP Johns Hopkins Covid Dashboard.
Covid is still here. People are still dying.
The best way to protect yourself and your family members is to make sure you’ve had the most current booster. Get tested if you are sick. Stay home if you are sick. If you feel the need to go to the hospital because of difficulty breathing, or low oxygen saturation, go to the hospital. According to my county’s tracker, 12.8% of those who presented to the hospital were admitted.
Not very exciting, I know. But important to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
No, I can’t believe I am still writing about this shit nearly 4 years after the first recognition that this might be bad. It’s not as bad as it was, but it is still not good.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 