#Coronavirus control

[friendraichu]

Reducing Restrictions: The CDC Has Announced It’s Okay To Die Of The Coronavirus Now

If you’re one of the final holdouts who has remained strict about COVID precautions even as most of the country has done away with masks and social distancing, prepare to breathe a sigh of relief: After almost 3 years of COVID-19 upending our lives, the CDC has announced it is now okay to die of the coronavirus.

Finally, one less restriction to worry about!

CDC director Rochelle Walensky gave a press conference this morning to announce the major change in CDC recommendations, explaining, “Early on in the pandemic, every death from the coronavirus was a tragedy. Thankfully, due to remarkable advancements in being desensitized to widespread sickness and death over the past several years, we have reached the point where dying of the coronavirus has become fine. Similar to dying of the flu or in a car crash—other causes of mostly preventable deaths that we could do more to curb, but don’t because it’s sort of hard and boring—dying of COVID-19 is now completely okay we recommend that Americans begin incorporating passing away from this disease into their daily routines.”

According to CDC’s updated “How to Protect Yourself and Others” page, the CDC still recommends hand washing, getting vaccinated, and increasing ventilation as ways of mitigating COVID risk, but under the subheading “Dying of COVID-19” it now states “COVID-19 is a deadly disease, but dying from it is now fine. Currently, close to 500 people a day are still dying from it, but that’s OK, because it’s not quite as bad as 3,000+ a day, and as long as you don’t do the math of how many that adds up to in a week or a month it doesn’t seem terrible, really.”

This new guidance couldn’t have come at a better time for the thousands of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 who are hanging on for dear life, as now they now know that if they do end up succumbing to the disease, it’s perfectly okay. Additionally, the CDC has announced that anyone who has been taking life-altering precautions to avoid COVID-19, including the millions of Americans of an advanced age and those who have preexisting conditions that make them more vulnerable to the disease, now has the official go-ahead to not only contract COVID-19, but to succumb to it.

Yep, it was definitely time for the CDC to take this important step towards returning to normal! This announcement couldn’t have come soon enough!

Of course, some will say the CDC waited far too long to make dying of COVID okay, and others will argue they should have waited until daily deaths were down to like, 150 a day before giving the all-clear to dying of COVID, but after almost 3 years of trying not to die, this is going to be welcome news for the majority of Americans. While the CDC is unlikely to announce that it’s okay to die of monkeypox or polio anytime soon, hopefully we can eventually get there as a nation as well. If you’ve been avoiding dying of COVID, trust in the CDC’s updated guidance and give yourself a break from all that stress and anxiety, get out there, and die from it.

[gumjrop]

The Weather

Twenty-seven US states remain at High to Very High levels of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater since February 28, 2024, with five states not reporting.

Wastewater levels are decreasing throughout the country except in the Midwest. The South is still experiencing extremely high transmission. As a reminder, the last two weeks, shown in gray, are provisional data. These values may change as additional wastewater sites report data.

Despite these ongoing high levels of transmission in most of the country, and in defiance of pleas from civil society to protect the most vulnerable among us, the CDC has once again decided to walk back already insufficient protections – this time in the form of isolation guidance. It announced on Friday at 1 pm that it will repeal the 5-day isolation period for COVID-19 and instead treat COVID-19 like it does other respiratory viruses like flu and RSV, linking isolation length with symptomatology and fever. This policy, of course, is not based on the best evidence–just vibes and a lack of care for those of us still dying (1000s weekly) and still becoming disabled by Long COVID. 

Last week, the CDC recommended that people 65 years and older should receive an updated booster. It did not approve a booster for other people in high-risk categories because they didn’t bother studying the benefits and risks in these groups.

Wins

OK. So it’s been a rough week. But you know what? We are all fighting back. We see you all making calls, creating and signing petitions, joining and expanding Mask Blocs, creating and distributing zines, and making your own air-cleaning systems. We see so many more masked, tested, and ventilated events than we used to! We are mobilizing collective power to keep each other safe and to transform this state. 

Next week, March 11, will mark the 5th anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic. We’re not where we should be, but this pandemic has radicalized a lot of us. Keep connecting. Keep finding your people. Keep going. We will win. 

Oh! And check out these Free COVID-19 and flu test vending machines in King County, Washington!

Variants

JN.1 is still the most dominant variant circulating in the United States and is projected to account for 92.3% of all circulating variants by March 2nd, 2024. Two JN.1 descendants, JN.1.13 and JN.1.18, are now the second and third most common circulating variants, projected to be at 3.3% and 1.8%, respectively.

To check for circulating variants within your community, you can find your HHS Region through the CDC Variant Tracker dashboard.

Long Covid

In an article published in Science, Drs Ziyad Al-Aly and Eric Topol reviewed the perplexing case of Long COVID. They discuss the lack of consensus and systematization when it comes to the classification of the disease, partly due to its different mechanisms and manifestations. For example, younger adult and female Long COVID patients are more likely to be afflicted by fatigue, dysautonomia, brain fog, and post-exertional malaise, while older patients are more likely to deal with cardiovascular and metabolic complications. They also discuss the current potential treatments for Long COVID, but express that since nonpharmaceutical interventions have been neglected, vaccines are the only available therapy. However, vaccines are unable to prevent Long COVID. Ultimately, they state that the only way to prevent Long COVID is by ending COVID transmission, such as by administering pan-variant neutralizing intranasal vaccines.

On March 15, 2024, the Long COVID March will be taking place in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial. The march is intended to mobilize Long COVID patients and allies to demand acknowledgment and policy changes from the government. You can read the march’s mission statement, which includes a list of objectives. 

Take Action

Join us in demanding the CDC reinstate the 5-day COVID isolation policy. Despite the guidelines having already been dropped, we must still fight for adequate protections from COVID to safeguard our communities from harm. Make your voices known by sending a letter to the White House and your elected officials through our Action Network. The People’s CDC will also be implementing other action items in the coming weeks, so look out for those!

Today is COVID Memorial Day, in which we remember the 1.2 million lives lost to COVID in the United States, and show solidarity with the millions living with COVID grief and Long COVID. Check out Marked by COVID to learn more or to participate in today’s virtual vigil.

Again, we must continue to contact our elected officials to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, and we must continue to wear and require the wearing of high-quality respirators such as N95s and KN95s at protests and within organizing spaces. 

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) has signed a bill that bans state and local governments from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for workers after a similar ban expired last month.

The legislation signed Thursday is aimed at defending citizens’ “individual liberty,” Sanders said at a press conference prior to its signing.

The legislation also prohibits COVID-19 vaccinations from being required as a condition of education, or for obtaining a service or licensure, permit or certificate of some kind. Any potential risks and harms associated with the shots must also be recorded and published by the state.

The bill is different from the state’s prior ban on vaccine mandates, which first went into effect in 2021, in that it covers vaccines or immunizations for any subvariants of the coronavirus, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The latest COVID-19 vaccine, which was federally authorized for use this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, is specially designed to reduce major illness and illness from omicron virus variants that are currently circulating.

In total, Sanders signed 11 bills on Thursday.

A separate bill she signed restricts the public release of her travel and security records. That bill, which went into immediate effect, shields details about the security that the Governor and other constitutional officers receive.

These details include who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips. Sanders argued that it was needed for her and her family’s safety, though some critics said it eliminates government transparency.

State Sen. Bart Hester (R), who co-sponsored the bill, said at Thursday’s press conference that all of the state’s elected government leaders are still able to see the travel receipts through audit. The law also requires the state to file a quarterly report listing the monthly costs of protecting the Governor.

[compassionatereminders]

(Anon who mixed u n doktor up)

Ohhh gotcha. Idk if I've been online when you were around then. Nice to meet you (turned anon off bc it wouldnt rlly be meeting if i was on anon would it. 😅) Id be glad to learn more about ya if you wanna share! But also absolutely no pressure cause Internet sometimes sucks to talk abt personal shit.

Alright well I have my roots in a severe psychotic episode based in a delusion of control which Kat experienced back when she was 18/19, where I took the form of a demon who wanted to take over control of her body and kill her in order to use her body after her death. (Rude, I know!) Once that delusion got under control, I was basically gone for quite a while, but then during the corona lockdowns in 2020 I somehow reappeared, not as the outside force of death and cruelty I once was, but as a way for Kat to get a mental "break" from her emotions and anxiety. As someone who could "take over" sometimes, in a helpful and supportive manner. And since then I've grown into more of an actual person. Our theory is that I basically represents Kats subconscious desires. So when Kat basically just wanted to die, I wanted to kill her. And when Kat was in a better place and wanted to help herself, I was suddenly also a force of good. Now I'm also more than just that, but this is the gist of it. And additional questions are welcome!

- Erin

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Beth Mole, posted 29 Feb 2024:

In a lengthy background document, the agency laid out its rationale for consolidating COVID-19 guidance into general guidance for respiratory viruses—including influenza, RSV, adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, and others, though specifically not measles. The agency also noted the guidance does not apply to health care settings and outbreak scenarios. "COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV," the agency wrote. The most notable change in the new guidance is the previously reported decision to no longer recommend a minimum five-day isolation period for those infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Instead, the new isolation guidance is based on symptoms, which matches long-standing isolation guidance for other respiratory viruses, including influenza. "The updated Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends people with respiratory virus symptoms that are not better explained by another cause stay home and away from others until at least 24 hours after both resolution of fever AND overall symptom are getting better," the document states. "This recommendation addresses the period of greatest infectiousness and highest viral load for most people, which is typically in the first few days of illness and when symptoms, including fever, are worst." The CDC acknowledged that the eased isolation guidance will create "residual risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission," and that most people are no longer infectious only after 8 to 10 days. As such, the agency urged people to follow additional interventions—including masking, testing, distancing, hygiene, and improving air quality—for five additional days after their isolation period. "Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19," CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement. "However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses—this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick." Overall, the agency argued that a shorter isolation period would be inconsequential. Other countries and states that have similarly abandoned fixed isolation times did not see jumps in COVID-19 emergency department visits or hospitalizations, the CDC pointed out. And most people who have COVID-19 don't know they have it anyway, making COVID-19-specific guidance moot, the agency argued. In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would test for SARS-CoV-2 if they had a cough or cold symptoms, and less than 10 percent said they would go to a pharmacy or health care provider to get tested. Meanwhile, "The overall sensitivity of COVID-19 antigen tests is relatively low and even lower in individuals with only mild symptoms," the agency said. The CDC also raised practical concerns for isolation, including a lack of paid sick leave for many, social isolation, and "societal costs." The points are likely to land poorly with critics. “The CDC is again prioritizing short-term business interests over our health by caving to employer pressure on COVID guidelines. This is a pattern we’ve seen throughout the pandemic,” Lara Jirmanus, Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a press release last month after the news first broke of the CDC's planned isolation update. Jirmanus is a member of the People's CDC, a group that advocates for more aggressive COVID-19 policies, which put out the press release. Another member of the group, Sam Friedman, a professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, also blasted the CDC's stance last month. The guidance will "make workplaces and public spaces even more unsafe for everyone, particularly for people who are high-risk for COVID complications," he said.

But, the CDC argues that the threat of COVID-19 is fading. Hospitalizations, deaths, prevalence of long COVID, and COVID-19 complications in children (MIS-C) are all down. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe disease, death, and to some extent, long COVID—we just need more people to get them. Over 95% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the 2023–2024 respiratory season had no record of receiving the seasonal booster dose, the agency noted. Only 22% of adults got the latest shot, including only 42% of people ages 65 and older. In contrast, 48% of adults got the latest flu shot, including 73% of people ages 65 and older. But even with the crummy vaccination rates for COVID-19, a mix of past infection and shots have led to a substantial protection in the overall population. The CDC even went as far as arguing that COVID-19 deaths have fallen to a level that is similar to what's seen with flu. "Reported deaths involving COVID-19 are several-fold greater than those reported to involve influenza and RSV. However, influenza and likely RSV are often underreported as causes of death," the CDC said. In the 2022–2023 respiratory virus season, there were nearly 90,000 reported COVID-19 deaths. For flu, there were 9,559 reported deaths, but the CDC estimates the true number to be between 18,000 and 97,000. In the current season, there have been 32,949 reported COVID-19 deaths to date and 5,854 reported flu deaths, but the agency estimates the real flu deaths are between 17,000 and 50,000. "Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths," the agency concluded.

(say no to raw dough: CDC)

[patientmakt]

Are we witnessing a genocide? Covid bioweapon injections and Covid measures

[kirby-the-gorb]

today was the last day of my antivirals and I don't feel any covid symptoms at all. but I do feel very very very tired much like I did for months after my vaccine last november, so. that's just gonna be a thing again.

if you find yourself struggling to bounce back after the acute infection is over, look up the way cfs/me folks use pacing. in general, only aim to do half as much as you think you can to start with, and take breaks the second you notice something feels even a tiny bit not great. pushing yourself will make it worse and should be avoided as much as possible. absolutely use shortcuts, workarounds, assistive tools, and frequent breaks to make tasks more manageable and less demanding. and whether you bounce back after a week or a month or a year or never, the disabled community is here to help.

[wormeats]

I fell for propaganda and was turned against those I have always wanted to root for

I wanted to send this to the CDC somehow, but the email contact form on their website has a character limit and I'm incapable of being concise. I thought this might be helpful for some people to see because it took me a while to reflect on.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, living in Florida, being young and trans and traumatized by the current political climate and dangers posed by the pandemic, I was swayed by likely a mix of propaganda and a fear and anger response to the amount of stress that time came with. I found myself trusting in the CDC less because of several things that I never fully examined until now recently. It was all just a mix of fear and hopeless rage about public health and my fears about our political climate, and much of that was directed at the CDC. Upon examining this recently, I think this was because I assumed the CDC had more power than it may actually have in enforcing public health. I thought isolation periods could be more solidly mandated, that mask wearing could be solidly mandated, and so on. I assumed the CDC had more control over when schools reopened for children (I now realize a lot of this is controlled by states individually or even more locally), and in my fear of the pandemic and distrust in the CDC sowed by being worried about the country as a whole, I even failed to fully weigh the consideration that virtual learning has a significant impact on Anyone’s mental health and that for children especially, social and emotional development should be fostered and that is an issue that gravely concerns mental health extending to the rest of their lives. I thought the CDC could require employers to keep allowing employees to have sick days when testing positive, so they wouldn't have to make a choice between risking their job and livelihood versus strangers’ physical health and possibly risking permanent damage or death for some with no way to tell (I'm grateful that the risk has been reduced so much by vaccines/boosters and being cautious with masking and washing hands, but I feel it is so important to allow isolation away from work when it concerns transmission and health and recovery). I particularly was swayed more into distrust when I heard that Delta airlines wrote a letter asking the CDC to update isolation periods for vaccinated individuals who would still be required to mask, believing there was no new data to give confidence to such a change in recommendations (10 day isolation period to 5 day isolation and next 5 days with a mask), but found there explicitly was reasoning given on the CDC update from that time available to view on the website’s archives (these have been very helpful because the time of all of this was an emotional traumatizing blur, so specifics are hard to remember). Before I examined this all more after the fact, this led me to believe that the CDC was influenced by economic concerns and the workforce instead of public health and keeping those workers alive and healthy, and furthered my distrust.

I am glad that now I have further examined where this distrust has come from and found that it was irrational on my part, and I regret that I carried on with this tainted view of the CDC for so long. I have struggled with this because I did have a strong trust in the CDC and felt more unsure of where I should find reliable information, knowing the CDC certainly has more expertise than I and has likely devoted a lot of time and research to any particular consideration I might come up with. I hope if others were similarly swayed by political propaganda that sought to utilize fear and stress from the pandemic, that they too come to reexamine how they came to think that way and find trust in this institution of scientists who are clearly passionate about public health and finding ways to keep all of us safe with many unpredictable variables to consider. I feel very ashamed that I allowed my trust in the CDC to be shaken to this extent. I hope scientific research, public health concerns, environmental concerns, and any crisis that requires humanity to understand facts and cooperate is taken more seriously and listened to from experts in each respective field and not turned into political opinions one way or the other. I am so devastated by all the damage COVID has done that feels like it could've been so preventable if this didn't become a political issue and remained a public health crisis to work through cooperatively. I have now come to see that I think the CDC did as much as it could through all of this with all of the consideration at the time and with its limited influence amidst political stress.

Thank you everyone at the CDC, I am sorry that I fell for this propaganda, and I would like to talk to as many people in my life about addressing propaganda and fully considering that no one is fully safe from falling prey to propaganda and biases we don't realize are tainting our full view. Thank you again so much for everything incredible that you have done for humanity. Be kind to yourselves everyone, shit has been so hard honestly.

[autumngracy]

Are you fucking kidding me

[thehiddenworld]

Covid 19 wasn't enough

 Covid 19 wasn't enough so besides the train derailments contaminating water, factories burning down they now invented a fungal that is not curable by antibiotics or any kind of medication. 

The fungal is called Candida auris or C. Auris. They are saying it is a yeast type of fungus that is spreading through health care facilities.

 Apparently it was only in 3 states back in 2016 but has spread to 20-27 states in 2022 but now is in 30 states.

 Why are they just now sharing this? Why are they just now talking about it now that the Covid has died down and no longer causing a panic?

This is probably to lead to another panic and pandemic as if the train derailments, the factories burning down and everything else going on in the world is not enough.

[vbartilucci]

Exactly like a flu shot. Big Deal.

And if the mutations and variants keep getting less dangerous, we’ll be in good shape.

[meandmybigmouth]

PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE VACCINATED! . IF THOSE IGNORANT ENOUGH TO BE ANTIVAXX! LET THEM GO TO THOSE WHO ‘TURNED” THEM FOR TREATMENT!. NO HOSPITAL ENTRY WITHOUT COVID VACCINE HISTORY!

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

U.S. health agencies have sent a letter to Florida’s surgeon general, warning him that his claims about COVID-19 vaccine risks are harmful to the public.

The letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sent Friday to Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. It was a response to a letter Ladapo had written the agencies last month, expressing concerns about what he described as adverse effects from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

Ladapo was appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 and has attracted national scrutiny over his close alignment with the Governor in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other health policies embraced by the federal government.

Ladapo last year released guidance recommending against COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children, contradicting federal public health leaders whose advice says all kids should get the shots.

He also has recommended against men ages 18 to 39 getting the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, claiming that an analysis by the Florida Department of Health showed an 84% increase in cardiac-related deaths.

In their letter, the federal agencies debunked the analysis’ conclusion, saying that cardiovascular experts who studied the concern had concluded that the risk of strokes and heart attacks was lower in people who had been vaccinated, not higher.

More than 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given around the world with little evidence of adverse effects, the federal health agencies said.

“It is the job of public health officials around the country to protect the lives of the populations they serve, particularly the vulnerable. Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines this effort,” said the letter signed by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

The Florida Department of Health on Saturday didn’t respond to an email inquiry about the letter.

[petula-xx]

Covid Mask Marathon

I have been a voluntary face mask wearer since March 2020. I still mask up when I go out now despite most other people not bothering any more.

A big shout out and thumbs up to everyone else who is also still taking Covid seriously and continuing to protect themselves and others.

[hibi2]

The fact that the CDC is removing coronavirus safety measures from businesses, the same fucking week have my work got the damn thing in a mass breakout, makes me wanna punch a hole on the fucking moon.