Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 1, 2024 21:33:46 GMT
Long COVID is hitting Kentucky hard. Vaccinations and proper ventilation are important. - Published Aug 1, 2024
We have a significant problem with the health of our nation.
Kentucky is barreling towards an unprecedented day of reckoning as it faces a tsunami of chronic diseases caused by sequalae from COVID-19. Currently, 7% of all Kentuckians report having symptoms of Long COVID, eighth highest in the United States. Mounting research is finding that delayed deaths and disability from damage to a multitude of different organs is greater than that from the acute infection. Kentucky is confronting this challenge by not improving indoor ventilation, not masking in high-risk settings and not keeping up-to-date on vaccinations. All of this in the face of raising rates of infections in Kentucky driven by new variants (KP.3).
In the spring of this year, vaccinations appeared to have reached a plateau (or maybe I should state a low flood plain) and the CDC stopped posting vaccination data on May 11, 2024. At that time the national average for receiving the updated booster was 22.5%. Kentucky was well below this at 18.5%.
Messaging from our leaders is important. The “blue” Western States and Northeastern States have almost twice the rate of up-to-date vaccinations (31.3%) as the “red” Southern States (16.1%), a trend which mirrors the perceived advice on the importance of vaccinations from their leaders.
One of our Northern Kentucky Representatives, Thomas Massie, last year introduced a U.S. Congressional Bill prohibiting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international visitors, and most recently for those seeking U.S. Citizenship. These political efforts are perplexing in the face of right-wing concerns of “undocumented migrants” bringing disease into our country.
Nationally, there is a growing recognition that we have a significant problem with the health of our nation. However, there is not agreement regarding its cause.
Project 2025 only cares about white populations
The national conservative initiative “2025, Mandate for Leadership” from the Heritage Foundation, recognizes a precipitous drop in life expectancy “…with white populations alone losing 7% of their expected life span in just one year.” However, the preceding paragraph appeared to blame this drop on “ ‘promoting equity in everything we do’ for the sake of ‘populations sharing a particular characteristic’ including race, sexuality, gender identification, ethnicity, and a host of other categories.” Of interest the only statistic given was for “white populations.”
After all, if the right wing thinks this virus could potentially be used as a “bio weapon” and it is still rapidly spreading in our society, maybe we should focus more on COVID-19 with its potential to cause long COVID and delayed deaths, rather than blaming programs designed to protect our high-risk frontline workers, many of which are economically disadvantaged and minorities.
The importance in vaccinations cannot be overstated. They are one of our best tools to prevent long COVID with efficacy rates of approximately 70%. But with reinfections, even this is not enough. As exemplified by statements by Whoopi Goldberg during her return to the View after a COVID-19 reinfection. "I'm just getting over COVID – again – and I can barely remember anybody’s name," "I don’t know who they are ... There are times when I go for a word and it’s not there, …."
And vaccinations, even mandates, are not anti-patriotic. In 1775, George Washington mandated that his troops receive smallpox vaccinations. He knew that with a 30% fatality rate smallpox was a grave threat to his army and could prevent a victory against the British Army. The process of vaccination was called “variolation” where pus was taken from a smallpox patient and inserted into a wound on the individual to be inoculated. This vaccine was not without complications, it had a fatality rate of 5 to 10%, but was safer than getting the disease.
What are we to do? Obviously, if one cannot totally prevent COVID infections our goal should be to become infected the least number of times possible; lowering our risks of deaths, hospitalizations and long COVID. A new generation of vaccines are needed and hopefully once available, they will be more effective in decreasing spread and preventing infections.
Kentuckians need to increase their efforts, both for our health and that of our society as a whole. Currently, I carry a CO2 monitor to measure ventilation and judge the risks of indoor settings. And we all should start using N95 masks in high-risk indoor settings, become boosted with the latest version of the vaccine and businesses need to greatly improve indoor ventilation.
We have a significant problem with the health of our nation.
Kentucky is barreling towards an unprecedented day of reckoning as it faces a tsunami of chronic diseases caused by sequalae from COVID-19. Currently, 7% of all Kentuckians report having symptoms of Long COVID, eighth highest in the United States. Mounting research is finding that delayed deaths and disability from damage to a multitude of different organs is greater than that from the acute infection. Kentucky is confronting this challenge by not improving indoor ventilation, not masking in high-risk settings and not keeping up-to-date on vaccinations. All of this in the face of raising rates of infections in Kentucky driven by new variants (KP.3).
In the spring of this year, vaccinations appeared to have reached a plateau (or maybe I should state a low flood plain) and the CDC stopped posting vaccination data on May 11, 2024. At that time the national average for receiving the updated booster was 22.5%. Kentucky was well below this at 18.5%.
Messaging from our leaders is important. The “blue” Western States and Northeastern States have almost twice the rate of up-to-date vaccinations (31.3%) as the “red” Southern States (16.1%), a trend which mirrors the perceived advice on the importance of vaccinations from their leaders.
One of our Northern Kentucky Representatives, Thomas Massie, last year introduced a U.S. Congressional Bill prohibiting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international visitors, and most recently for those seeking U.S. Citizenship. These political efforts are perplexing in the face of right-wing concerns of “undocumented migrants” bringing disease into our country.
Nationally, there is a growing recognition that we have a significant problem with the health of our nation. However, there is not agreement regarding its cause.
Project 2025 only cares about white populations
The national conservative initiative “2025, Mandate for Leadership” from the Heritage Foundation, recognizes a precipitous drop in life expectancy “…with white populations alone losing 7% of their expected life span in just one year.” However, the preceding paragraph appeared to blame this drop on “ ‘promoting equity in everything we do’ for the sake of ‘populations sharing a particular characteristic’ including race, sexuality, gender identification, ethnicity, and a host of other categories.” Of interest the only statistic given was for “white populations.”
After all, if the right wing thinks this virus could potentially be used as a “bio weapon” and it is still rapidly spreading in our society, maybe we should focus more on COVID-19 with its potential to cause long COVID and delayed deaths, rather than blaming programs designed to protect our high-risk frontline workers, many of which are economically disadvantaged and minorities.
The importance in vaccinations cannot be overstated. They are one of our best tools to prevent long COVID with efficacy rates of approximately 70%. But with reinfections, even this is not enough. As exemplified by statements by Whoopi Goldberg during her return to the View after a COVID-19 reinfection. "I'm just getting over COVID – again – and I can barely remember anybody’s name," "I don’t know who they are ... There are times when I go for a word and it’s not there, …."
And vaccinations, even mandates, are not anti-patriotic. In 1775, George Washington mandated that his troops receive smallpox vaccinations. He knew that with a 30% fatality rate smallpox was a grave threat to his army and could prevent a victory against the British Army. The process of vaccination was called “variolation” where pus was taken from a smallpox patient and inserted into a wound on the individual to be inoculated. This vaccine was not without complications, it had a fatality rate of 5 to 10%, but was safer than getting the disease.
What are we to do? Obviously, if one cannot totally prevent COVID infections our goal should be to become infected the least number of times possible; lowering our risks of deaths, hospitalizations and long COVID. A new generation of vaccines are needed and hopefully once available, they will be more effective in decreasing spread and preventing infections.
Kentuckians need to increase their efforts, both for our health and that of our society as a whole. Currently, I carry a CO2 monitor to measure ventilation and judge the risks of indoor settings. And we all should start using N95 masks in high-risk indoor settings, become boosted with the latest version of the vaccine and businesses need to greatly improve indoor ventilation.