Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Vaccines and Boosters and Other Vaccines and Death Rates

Last night, my spouse and I walked to Publix, our local grocery store with a pharmacy where my spouse needed to pick up a prescription.  We'd been meaning to get the Shingles vaccine for months if not years now, and we decided to do it last night, if the lines weren't too long.

There were no lines at all, and the pharmacy did have the Shingles vaccine, so we got our first shots.  So far, I have a sore arm, but not many other symptoms.  Is my tiredness this morning a symptom?  If so, of the vaccine or of not getting enough sleep?

We asked about getting a second booster, and the pharmacist told us she'd been getting lots of inquiries, but they hadn't gotten official guidance yet.  Now there's guidance that says we can get one, so I'll try to get that in before too much longer.  I've got a lot of traveling, which means it's harder to schedule a shot.  But I'll be seeing more people than normal, which may mean I need a booster more now than I will in May.

Many people are acting as if the disease has been vanquished.  It has not.  I am expecting some surges between now and the end of the year.  

I found this Twitter thread to be illustrative.  I haven't verified the numbers, but they sound plausible.

From Dr. Dan Goyal's March 28, 2022 Twitter thread:

The daily number of Covid deaths reported to the WHO has fallen. From 50K deaths a few weeks ago to 32K this week. For context, this is more than die each day of breast, bowel and prostate cancer COMBINED; higher than any other...

...infectious disease on the planet, and keeps Covid as one of the world’s top five killers. Indeed, Globally, Covid is currently killing more than the combined total of TB, HIV, Malaria, Flu and all the diseases listed as High Consequence Infectious Diseases!

More on High Consequence Infectious Diseases here.

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