Globally, over 1.2 million new cases and over 7100 Covid deaths were reported in the last 28 days (22 May to 18 June 2023). And me.
I got a mild case of Covid early in the pandemic. It was before the vaccines were available.
As a retired teacher I am big on vaccines. When you are around 400 kids a week you are vulnerable to everything.
I never missed a flu shot.
I jumped at the opportunity to be vaccinated when they became available and have kept up to date ever since.
Then last week on a vacation to LA to see old high school friends and just to enjoy SoCal life I got Covid again.
Bad.
Who knows how?
For two days it was way worse than my first case.
Like many, I have watched the drop in domestic Covid numbers with a sense of relief while still following CDC recommendations on masking and other precautions.
Traveling and getting Covid was a whole new thing for me. I am fortunate to have good health insurance. I was in contact with doctors at home and a quick call to my insurance put me in touch with a doctor through telemedicine who quickly prescribed Paxlovid.
The CDC and my doctor told me to isolate for five days and then, masked, I could fly home.
Now that I am home the CDC says I am no longer contagious after ten days which will be next Tuesday. Until then I mask in public.
Covid is definitely not over, no matter what President Biden says.
He officially ended the Covid emergency in May.
Now, unfortunately, Covid tracking information is no longer available.
A few weeks ago, Congress agreed upon a new budget for the United States. Folded into negotiations was the budget for public health, specifically COVID-19 funding. It was all slashed.
This probably makes sense to the average person. We are, of course, in a different phase of the pandemic. One that seems more manageable. Why would COVID possibly need funding?
What the average person doesn’t see is the chaos rippling throughout public health under the surface this week. This chaos is due, in part, to canceling contracts and entire programs within days—but also to an incredibly defeatist reality: the clearest sign yet that the U.S. is resorting to its roots—cycles of panic and neglect.
When Biden ended the Covid emergency, free testing kits were no longer available.
We found some on Amazon for ten bucks a test.
The bottom line is that what Biden said in May was that when it comes to the worst pandemic in a hundred years, the government has washed its hands of it and we are on our own at our own expense.
With each day I’m feeling stronger, but the failures of the American healthcare system continues to demonstrate why it is the worst in the industrialized world.