Written a decade ago, the article was about how clinicians too often falsely reassured patients w/terminal #cancer that treatment was working just fine.
There are many parallels b/w cancer cancer, the pandemic, & climate change.
In the U.S., the "rosy picture" differs by political ideology.
Today in the NEJM: The conservative rosy picture is that COVID is like a cold or the flu. The liberal rosy picture is that leaders are doing just fine by pushing vax-and-relax.
1) Good luck getting any new federal research to support #LongCOVID until "covid" is dropped from the dirty words that get grant applications triaged to the trash bin.
You know which senator to call.
I just did, and got a staffer instead of voicemail.
2) I told the staffer that #LongCOVID is affecting millions and that no research will be funded to address this while "covid" remains on the banned word list.
3) I told them about my family member who was a strong Special Forces veteran, got covid once, & according to their neurologist, it triggered #LongCOVID in the form of Dementia w/Lewy Bodies.
DLB is one of the worst conditions imaginable. After a 2yr battle, they died in 2024.
Mortality displacement or "harvesting" is the idea that so many people died of COVID in the early pandemic that we should actually expect to see *fewer* deaths today if COVID were "over."
In fact, we see similar or slightly higher mortality relative to pre-pandemic levels. Despite the millions of people that have died, the mortality faucet keeps running strong. It should have slowed.
🌤️Only 1 in 5 days of the pandemic have seen transmission as low as today
🌤️1 in 196 actively infectious
⚡️BUT still 1.7 million weekly infections, resulting in >85,000 LC cases and up to 1,000 deaths
I'll walk you through it...
🧵2 of 8 | PMC Dashboard, April 21, 2025 (U.S.)
We're in the 6th year. See the small red line, bottom left. Notice how closely it tracks the median (gray), year 4 (yellow), & year 5 (orange).
Acknowledging caveats, those are plausible gist-level scenarios for months ahead.
🧵3 of 8 | PMC Dashboard, April 21, 2025 (U.S.)
Expect steady transmission bouncing up and down around the current national lull-level estimate the next several weeks. 200-350k daily infections nationally.
🔹2.2 million weekly infections
🔹1 in 149 actively infectious
🔹>100,000 LC cases resulting from the week's infections
🔹>800 deaths resulting from the week's infections
🔹"Lull" transmission steady/slightly declining
🧵2/5 | PMC Dashboard, Apr1il 14, 2025 (U.S.)
Year-over-year transmission (red line, lower left) is tracking the median (grey), year 4 (yellow), and year 5 (orange) closely.
If that trend continues, expect steady yet bumpy transmission the next couple months, until June/July.
🧵3/5 | PMC Dashboard, Apr1il 14, 2025 (U.S.)
The heat map shows only 4 states in the CDC 'high' level and none in the 'very' high level.
Check local data. Those timing activities to lulls may see a clear opportunity.
The NIH Clinical Center drops universal masking after 5 months of protecting patients, family, & staff.
Wastewater-derived estimates indicate 2.79 million Americans are getting Covid per week AND top actuaries suggest an American dies of Covid every 3 minutes.
🔹1 in 120 actively infectious
🔹1 in 3 chance of exposure in a room of 50
🔹2.8 million weekly infections
🔹>140,000 resulting LC cases from the week's infections
🔹>1,000 deaths resulting from the week's infections
2) Watch this video to understand how we use excess death data from one of the world's largest reinsurers to estimate how this week's infections will result in >1,000 deaths.