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Reassuringly, older, non-expired assessments do nonetheless appear to be selecting up new variants of the virus (though it’s value taking into consideration that we don’t know the way future variants would possibly evolve). But they’ve by no means been 100% correct, they usually nonetheless aren’t. (Antonio reviewed a couple of of the assessments again in 2021 and had blended outcomes.)
A examine revealed a few days in the past discovered that symptomatic individuals ought to actually take two assessments, 48 hours aside. And individuals who suppose they may have been contaminated however don’t have signs ought to take a look at 3 times.
A few months in the past, the WHO declared that covid was now not a public well being emergency of worldwide concern. Which sounds nice, till you understand it’s as a result of it’s now “an established and ongoing health issue.” Oh, and it’s nonetheless a pandemic.
There can nonetheless be enormous spikes in case numbers, like final winter, when the WHO recorded over 44 million circumstances on December 19. And whereas deaths have fortunately declined, they do nonetheless occur. The most up-to-date information we have now means that 497 individuals died of covid within the week ending July 3. Deaths have been a lot increased in January of this yr, with 20,000 to 40,000 each week. Again, these are simply the recorded covid deaths. The actual numbers are more likely to be increased.
Personally, I’m not as anxious about covid-19 as I used to be through the early days of the pandemic. That’s partly as a result of I’m absolutely vaccinated and have already had covid at the least twice. I’m additionally lucky sufficient to not have a situation that makes me weak to extreme illness.
But the elephant within the room is lengthy covid—one other hotly contested subject. (There has been a very intense debate surrounding lengthy covid in youngsters, as I coated right here.) The situation continues to trigger lasting ache and struggling to an unknown however important variety of individuals. Scientists imagine it’s attainable to develop the situation after any an infection with the coronavirus.
So I’m maintaining my unexpired assessments for now, simply in case.
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mRNA vaccines helped us by means of the pandemic. But they may additionally assist defend in opposition to many different infectious illnesses, provide common safety in opposition to flu, and even deal with most cancers, as I coated in a chunk exploring what’s subsequent for this expertise.