Covid Update, 5/26/204 (Memorial Day)

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 Not much going on on the Covid Front.  Over the past winter, there was some murmur of concern over the dreaded "triple-demic" which would be RSV, the Flu and Covid.  But with cold weather in the rear-view mirror, that was clearly a bust.  Here are the current graphs for ER visits for those three, from the CDC's website.


The CDC doesn't track Flu incidence by month and year like they do with Covid, but they do have a yearly comparison of hospitalizations, comparing this year's estimate to previous years (as the dots on the y axis.  The spread is pretty crazy, going all the way up over 600K, but I highlighted where their actual estimate for 2023/2024 is showing that it was probably not that significant of a season.



In a previous post, I speculated that RSV was some new thing that no one really understood.  The name "RSV" kind of looks like Respiratory ... Virus and so I think it's just the flu but apparently it's something else altogether.  But it seems made-up to me.  Something the CDC put together just because they were bored one day.  And the statistics seem to bear that out. Their own surveillance data only goes back to 2018/2019 so it's hard to say whether the recent spike is real or if it was previously miscategorized as the flu.  In any case, there was no issue. People didn't stay home more than normal, people weren't absent from work more than normal, people weren't afraid more than normal.



Note the three different charts. It'd be nice if the CDC could decide on a common reporting method, but what do I know?

In any case, the Triple-Demic was a bust, but some smart bulbs now are worried about the so-called FLiRT variant of Covid.  But not the CDC.  Their front page is dedicated to the latest outbreak of the Bird Flu, which is driving up the price of poultry and meat in the grocery stores due to all the animals that have been destroyed over the past year.  So far only 3 people have gotten the Bird Flu from infected animals, so the CDC helpfully notes the risk to the population is "low" -- after dedicating their entire front page to it.  But there is nothing about Covid, even in the "Featured Topics" section, FLiRT or otherwise (where do they come up with these names)?


Our idiot press hasn't latched on to Covid as a ratings-grabber either.  Their new bete noir is the same as the old bete noir: Donald Trump, who is going through several court cases now while also campaigning.  Every court development and utterance on the campaign trail is the lead story every night.  He gets way more press than the Joe Biden who is, you know, the current president.  Also people are mad at Israel because they are putting down Hamas in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel last October so there are plenty of riot for the press to foment, sorry, I mean "report on".

Many people think the FLiRT variant, and the "HuSSY" and "SKAnK hO" variants that will surely follow, are ploys to promote more mail-in ballots to affect the 2024 election, but I doubt it. That ship has sailed. Red states aren't going to fall for it again and Blue states already have universal mail-in ballots.

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