You know how when a headline is a question, the answer is always ‘no’?
Not always:
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Could still be no, like “no, don’t go on a plane during holiday season”
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Reminds me - on the work trip I took last week, over half of the passengers wore masks on both the outbound and return flight. It’s worth pointing out it was a small plane and the average age was a couple decades older than my usual flight. I don’t think the high masking rate was a coincidence.
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I have a long flight coming up & I think I finally found something to help with ear discomfort.
Light headbands that have buttons seen on for the straps. I gave them a try & they seemed great. But the real world test will tell.
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I’ve been using a lanyard style like these for years, but buttons sound better. Sometimes, the clips get tangled in my hair. 
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ABAMERICA Headbands with Button for Mask, Wide Nurses Headbands Non Slip Elastic Ear Protection for Women Men Doctors Sweatband Headband Amazon.com
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I used something like that before N95s became generally available. The surgical masks made my ears miserable.
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The two buttons seem to work better for me. I’ve tried several items.
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The headband does look more comfortable if it isn’t too warm.
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Very light.
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[Vaccine effectiveness] against hospitalization was 70.7% (95% CI: 66.6; 74.3), [Vaccine effectiveness] against ICU admission was 73.3% (95% CI: 42.2; 87.6).
Just got that one this week, seventh shot. Felt draggy for a day or two but otherwise 
Based on today’s wastewater signals, COVID is ripping around Ontario 
a higher rate than any time in the past year, including now in the Toronto area. 
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I was walking into Home Depot at 6am this morning, some guy got out of his pick up truck and was entering behind me.
The guy hacked up something, you know the sound as someone is getting ready to spit.
He spits right on the sidewalk near the entrance.
I swear one day I’m going to lose it and tell one of these people off.
But I keep hearing my dearly departed dad…
“You’re better than that.”
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“Back during the pandemic” “when covid was still a thing”
Covid is killing over 1000 Americans each week. Covid is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US. Covid is still spreading and mutating. Only 16% of Americans have gotten their boosters in a “vaccine only” strategy to fight the disease (that doesn’t work because vaccinated people can and do catch and spread covid). Covid is still a very real threat to you and those you love. Stop talking about it in the past tense. Stop living a lie. It’s not 2019. You’ll never live in a “post covid” world. Our wishes for “normal” have destroyed any chance of a true end to the pandemic unless we act. Mask up and stop the spread if you really want to past-tense covid.
I got COVID early in October and had to close down my life and recover. Yesterday afternoon i walked to my local drugstore and got this year’s vaccine (I’d already had a flu vaccine late in October).
I’ll be on a big stage in front of 1500 people on Monday and Tuesday, being Charles Dickens, and won’t be able to wear a mask. I hope enough of the audience each night masks up to help stop the events becoming spreaders.
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If under-reporting in the 
is anything like then you can double or triple that. 
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Seeing more masks in the office as well as out and about, but nowhere near a majority. We have been so scarred by the fascist backlash to the previous efforts that any attempt to control this beast is doomed from the get go.
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I think it’s somewhere around 1% here, being generous. Might see maybe one or two while we’re out and about. It seems to be a pretty even mix between surgical and N95, but at these low numbers it’s hard to be sure.
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Via Eric Topol, in a longer COVID update article.
NATURE PODCAST, 14 December 2023
Inhaled vaccine prevents COVID in monkeys
New study suggests boosters delivered to the lungs could stop infection.
By Nick Petrić Howe
That bodes well for us monkeys. 
The vaccine is described as a “dry powder”. That’s got to be pleasant…
Also, at the University Clinic in Erlangen, trials have begun with new batches of BC-007. This is the drug which cured every Long COVID patient who took it, although those patients were selected because of bio-markers which indicated the drug might be effective. They were expecting to treat 30 more patients this autumn, but results don’t appear to be available yet.
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My wife and daughter met up yesterday for some Christmas shopping.
They wore masks and said they saw more masks than they had been seeing but they also said stores were pretty empty.
Maybe people want to stay healthy for the holiday.
Our daughter is coming over late in the week for cookie decorating. I agreed if she agreed to wear a mask.
She said of course she would. Good kid.
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Via tagesschau.de’s instagram account:
Noch nie wurden so viele Coronaviren im Abwasser gemessen wie jetzt. Seit Juni 2022 wertet das Robert Koch-Institut aus, was wir im Klo runterspülen – und misst die Menge der Virusrückstände.
Inzwischen fließen Daten aus 129 deutschen Kläranlagen in die wöchentlichen Analysen ein. Für die vergangene Kalenderwoche 49 liegen bereits Daten aus 88 Standorten vor, weitere Standorte liefern ihre Zahlen noch nach. Aber was sagt dieser Höchststand an Corona-Viruslast im Abwasser aus?
Zunächst einmal zeigt er: Das Virus breitet sich unter dem Radar aus, längst testen wir uns nicht mehr ständig und viele positive Fälle werden auch nicht mehr gemeldet – kurzum: Die einst so wichtige Sieben-Tage-Inzidenz hat inzwischen kaum noch Aussagekraft. Dass derzeit im Schnitt mehr als eine Millionen Genkopien von Sars-CoV-2 in jedem Liter Abwasser schwimmen, deutet darauf hin, dass enorm viele Menschen derzeit damit infiziert sind, viel mehr als noch vor einigen Wochen.
Ob der Rekord im Abwasser aber bedeutet, dass es zurzeit mehr Corona-Infizierte als je zuvor sind, lässt sich nicht sicher sagen: Die Menge der ausgeschiedenen Virenreste unterscheidet sich zum Beispiel je nach Variante oder Zeit, die seit einer Infektion vergangen ist. Die Abwasserzahlen geben einen Hinweis auf das Infektionsgeschehen.
Auch weil wir an unterschiedlichen Tagen zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten und unterschiedlich Uhrzeiten auf Toilette gehen, werden die Abwasserproben literweise gemischt. Die in ihnen gemessenen Werte werden durch das RKI je nach Standort, Messtag und Menge an Haushalten, die an eine Kläranlage angeschlossen sind, mathematisch gewichtet und ein Mittelwert gebildet.
Translation:
Never before have so many coronaviruses been measured in wastewater as now. Since June 2022, the Robert Koch Institute has been analyzing what we flush down the toilet - and measuring the amount of virus residues.
Data from 129 German wastewater treatment plants is now included in the weekly analyses. Data from 88 sites is already available for the past calendar week 49, with further sites still to provide their figures. But what does this record level of coronavirus load in wastewater tell us?
First of all, it shows that the virus is spreading under the radar, we have long since stopped testing ourselves constantly and many positive cases are no longer being reported - in short, the once so important seven-day incidence is now hardly meaningful. The fact that an average of more than one million gene copies of SARS-COV-2 are currently floating in every liter of wastewater indicates that an enormous number of people are currently infected with the virus, far more than just a few weeks ago.
However, it is not possible to say for sure whether the record in wastewater means that there are currently more people infected with coronavirus than ever before: the amount of virus residue excreted differs, for example, depending on the variant or the time that has passed since an infection. The wastewater figures give an indication of the infection rate.
Also because we go to the toilet at different times on different days and at different times, the wastewater samples are mixed by the liter. The values measured in them are mathematically weighted by the RKI depending on the location, day of measurement and number of households connected to a sewage treatment plant, and an average value is calculated.
And that is the kind of journalism I am happy to pay my 20€ a month for.
Hey, y’all, want do do me a favour? Spread the important points here:
- 7-day incidence is now hardly meaningful
- Wastewater signal does not map 1:1 to anything
- Wastewater signal needs to be weighed and adjusted (statistically), and then (and only then) can give us an indication about infection rates
- Repetition, but to hammer the point home: a high wastewater signal does not automatically mean there are more people infected, since many people are giving a different shit. Literally. In time, space, and amount.
- And another repetition: an increase in adjusted and interpreted wastewater COVID load gives us an indication that infections increased.
Got that? Well, I think I try another one, just in case:
More COVID shit hits the fan, as one can tell from the shit we all give.
Saying more is difficult, but this should be enough. Shouldn’t it?
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