Even among the masked ones, i wonder?
(Iâd click through, but Iâve no interest in giving a page view to Forbes.)
For comparisonâŚ
About 25 million people are estimated to have died in Europe from the plague between 1347 and 1351.
It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the worldâs population became infected with influenza in 1918. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.
Yeah. Me too.
I donât know, either.
Weâre just human, after all.
Doing my tiny part today: booster nr. 1 for Kiddo and booster nr. 2 for me.
This isnât the first Iâve heard of this, but the evidence continues to grow.
Iâd laugh but I fear the impotent MAGA rage.
The Japanese government is now in the advanced stages of preparing to loosen restrictions on entry as soon as early next month. It has not yet been reported what this will entail, but Prime Minister Kishida has said that Japan will move to make entry âas smooth as other G7 countries.â The government is signaling that foreigners will be allowed to enter for tourism purposes, though the press is reporting that this will apply only to organized tour groups initially. I am seeing speculation that testing requirements will also be loosened.
When I reentered Japan last Friday, I not only had to show a negative PCR test from the last 72 hours, but also had to take a saliva antigen test before proceeding to passport control, which added an extra hour to the entry process (at least my bags were waiting for me).
I am seeing a lot of articles expressing concern over whether foreigners will wear masks, as Japan really does not have laws in place to mandate masks (I was quite shocked to see so many people in America who were not wearing masks in public during my visit; I almost never see anyone not wearing a mask in Japan).
Nevertheless, I am optimistic that people who are fully vaccinated (boosted?) will be able to visit Japan freely by fall.
In my opinion, only very cautious optimism is warranted. The fact that China is struggling so hard to walk the line between not using the âwesternâ vaccines and keeping SARS-CoV-2 at bay and a much to large part of the worldâs population is unvaccinated makes me think that we are in for nasty surprises.
OK, this 
report is mostly non-negative newsâŚ
The odds of reporting long COVID symptoms four to eight weeks after a first coronavirus (COVID-19) infection were 49.7% lower in infections compatible with the Omicron BA.1 variant than those compatible with the Delta variant among adults who were double-vaccinated when infected; this was after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics.
⌠however âŚ
The odds of reporting long COVID symptoms four to eight weeks after a first COVID-19 infection were 21.8% higher after an infection compatible with Omicron BA.2 than Omicron BA.1 among adults who were triple-vaccinated
The syndrome is getting some attention at 
's national level.
Thereâs definitely a possibility that âover-trainingâ oneâs immune system on an older ancestral strain of the virus could eventually lead to the phenomenon known as âoriginal antigenic sin,â which, admittedly, sounds like a religious or made-up term. But vaccination advocates like Dr. Paul Offit has been writing about that, and the need for better studies regarding boosters so that we can better quantify who gets the best benefit from them. Most of the available data, especially for the 2nd booster shot, is only from limited observational studies rather than clinical trials.
A well-connected South Carolina teen who received a jaw-droppingly lenient sentence of probation after pleading guilty to rape has been arrested again, reportedly telling a deputy while being booked that he would âbite [his] fucking finger offâ if he forced him to wear a mask in compliance with COVID protocols.
Bowen Turner, 19, was taken into custody Sunday by the Orangeburg County Sheriffâs Office, according to court records. He was charged with one count of public disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
Well, he sounds nice. 
Great, my county has gone from 3% positivity to 24%. What happened in the past 6 weeks? Everyone decided the pandemic was over. Idiots.
Several weeks ago I asked someone I know how it was going, they said a few people in the office had the flu. Are you sure it was the flu, did everyone get tested? Only one person got tested, they had covid. I canât imagine how covid, or the the flu for that matter, spread so easily.
Again? And Jon Batiste was out last week with Covid, tooâŚ
Yeah, just watched a news piece on Toronto pride month starting. Lots of references to the âprevious 2 years, during the pandemicâ and use of the past tense. We could be in for a rough July and AugustâŚ
I really like Colbert, but this whole situation gives me flashbacks:
It was disappointing to hear, that they were tired of working from home (something that many never had the opportunity to do at all). Both seemed to be so eager to âget back to normal,â spending time with family, friends, and colleagues. 
Yet this was the reaction to a false positive test about a month later:
