Still COVID-free, knock wood

reinfections

Several people I know IRL have gotten COVID in recent weeks. They are mostly the cautious, mask-wearing, vaccine-taking types. Also, Biden, Harris, and Fauci got it.

I’m still COVID-free, knock wood.

We have been going to the theater. All venues still require masks, and some, vax cards, and I am pleased. CDTA buses still require masks and have dispensers for those without, but about 30% of the riders are either maskless or wearing them on their chins. Frankly, I have run out of mojo to give them the evil eye.

A headline in the Los Angeles Times last week read: “‘I’m over it.’ Many in L.A. shrug off COVID-19 wave despite super-infectious subvariants.” I’m not sure I’d go anywhere in California. Look at the map from last week.

For instance, I’d be terrified to go to ComicCon in San Diego, even though participants are getting their vax status confirmed. Mark Evanier went to the first 50 of these notes and says he “can’t explain my assorted feelings about going this time. I know I’m happy that Comic-Con exists again as I’ve always had a good time at them. I’m just hoping everyone rises to the occasion and respects everyone else’s concerns about too much close contact. Comic-Con has never been the place you go to get away from crowds. Quite the opposite.”

Reversal

Something that fillyjonk said I totally understand. “One thing I think the pandemic has done to my mental health that’s a bad thing is, I’ve gotten in this mindset where ‘what is now, will be forever.’ So if things are bad, if I’m anxious, if I hurt – that’s forever now.  ‘This is where I live now, I guess.'” I guess I was hoping for “THAT’S IT; COVID is gone.”

An article in the Boston Globe was scary. ‘Oh my god, not again’: COVID variant making reinfections more common. “Officials reassured people that if they get a booster now, they will still be able to get the updated booster that’s expected to be available in the fall.” But I got my second booster in April, so now what?

The CDC says “potentially more infections to come before that fall booster is available, which is why we really want to make sure people have as much protection as they can right now.”

I AM comforted somewhat by the fact that most of upstate New York is green or yellow, even as NYC, the three counties to its north, and Long Island are red. This is a reversal from three months ago when upstate was redder, and downstate was greener.

Still, I’ll be happy when I get my BA.4/BA.5 specific shot.

NYS: end HIV/AIDS in the state by 2020

The Centers for Disease Control is planning a National HIV Prevention Conference in December 2015 in Atlanta to “continue refining, improving, and strengthening our nation’s response to HIV.”

AIDS.homepage-graphicIn the summer of 2015, I went to a dinner and discovered that there is a plan by the New York State Department of Health to end the epidemic in the state by 2020.

The three-point plan:
Identifies persons with HIV who remain undiagnosed and link them to health care.
Links and retains persons diagnosed with HIV in health care to maximize virus suppression so they remain healthy and prevent further transmission.
*Facilitates access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk persons to keep them HIV negative.
Implicit in the framework was making sure people were not being shamed into hiding their HIV status, which merely makes it harder to treat.

There was a headline from a couple of months ago that surprised me:

Everyone who has H.I.V. should immediately be put on antiretroviral triple therapy and everyone at risk of becoming infected should be offered protective doses of similar drugs, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday as it issued new H.I.V. treatment and prevention guidelines.

The guidelines increase by nine million the number of people who should get treatment and by untold millions the number who should get protective doses. Previous guidelines recommended them for gay men, prostitutes, people with infected partners and others; the new guidelines effectively bring in millions of women and girls in Africa.

How much that will cost and how it will be paid for are not yet determined.

Advocates around the world welcomed the new guidelines — usually without addressing the cost.

Dr. Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the two recommendations were “critically important to moving us toward fast-track treatment and prevention goals.”

This was exciting, though: Truvada Protected 100 Percent Of Study Participants From HIV.

The Centers for Disease Control is planning a National HIV Prevention Conference in December 2015 in Atlanta to “continue refining, improving, and strengthening our nation’s response to HIV.” Because it’s not over yet.

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