COVID Update April 4th: Singapore: 556% Increase in Cases. India: 107% Increase in Deaths. XBB.1.16 Spreads to 20 States and 23 Countries
A study spanning 73 years finds that childhood infections can shorten our lives as adults.
From the Imperial College London and published in the Lancet, this study spans more than 73 years. It shows that adults are nearly two times more likely to die a premature death from a respiratory disease if they had a lower respiratory tract infection in early childhood. In other words, children that are exposed to viruses and bacteria that cause lower respiratory tract infections are nearly twice as likely to die younger than they otherwise would.
Based on the study above, we have a good idea of what will happen to babies born with smaller lungs. This study, "Effects of SARS-CoV-2 on prenatal lung growth assessed by fetal MRI," shows that without a fetal MRI, the babies do not have any noticeable symptoms of COVID impairing the growth of their lungs. In other words, it is possible that the parents won’t know they have smaller lungs and the children won’t find out that their lungs started out smaller until later in life. If they weren’t born with smaller lungs, then the multiple COVID infections and secondary infections after they are born could cause a similar fate.
It is possible that hundreds of thousands of children born over the past three years will live much shorter lives than previous generations. Pregnant women have children in daycare and elementary school. All of this is more evidence showing why providing “Clean Air for Kids” is so important. This must be our top priority, especially when knowing that COVID can persist in the lungs for months. This study found "viral presence in the lung up to 359 days after the acute phase of disease, including in patients with negative nasopharyngeal swab tests."
According to a report by Becker’s Hospital Review, the XBB.1.16 variant has spurred increased hospitalizations and deaths in some countries. Deaths have increased 107% over the past 14 days in India. In Gurgaon, India, Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Grover, head of critical care and pulmonology at CK Birla hospital said, “For lower respiratory tract symptoms, people may suffer from severe bronchitis and cough. This new variant is different from others in the sense that it spreads faster than other variants.” If we keep in mind what we learned from the studies above, we should be making every effort to protect children, the immunocompromised and older adults.
In Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, Dr. Rahul Sharma, Director, Pulmonology and Critical Care at Fortis Hospital Noida, says “The sudden surge of cases throughout India is being seen. The symptoms are mild but a lot of patients are coming up with superimposed pneumonia.” This is what we would expect from a variant evading antibodies and potentially, suppressing the T-cell response. Less symptoms or no symptoms, while the virus is able to weaken the immune system in order to persist for a longer duration in viral reservoirs' (hiding places) outside of the immune systems reach to clear it. These places include the brain, lungs, kidney, tonsils, adenoids, breasts, testicles, and many other places throughout the body.
“We describe how SARS-CoV-2 can silently infect palatine tonsils and adenoids from asymptomatic children.”
XBB.1.16 in the United States
U.S. Weekly Cases
In 2022, the U.S. had 194,000 weekly cases at the end of March. That turned into 590,000 by May 11th and 926,000 weekly cases by the end of July. How does the Whitehouse, the CDC, and others ignore this information when deciding it is time to end the public health emergency, especially when considering that they also must ignore everything occurring with XBB.1.16 in India and other countries?
We have to consider the possibility that the increase in cases, hospitalizations, deaths and new or worsening Long COVID cases will be at least as large and likely larger than last year due to the following factors. Vaccines provided more resistance to infection last year. This year, we have a new variant that is the most contagious yet and more equipped to suppress the immune response. All of the available monoclonal antibody treatments are not working. Paxlovid must be taken within the first 5 days of an infection, and most tests aren’t accurate until 4 or 5 days, if at all, so most people won’t take Paxlovid. Paxlovid can’t be taken by millions of people, so it isn’t an option even if they were able to confirm COVID. Add to this the fact that there is waning immunity from vaccines and prior infections and that we have taken away every layer of protection without improving filtration and ventilation in schools or workplaces. We can expect cases, hospitalizations, and deaths to increase more than last year.
Wastewater Prevalence
Prevalence is increasing in quite a few areas. Mitchell County, NC; Delaware County, PA; St. Joseph County, Indiana; and Honolulu, Hawaii, are just a few with a larger spike.
The CDC must ensure all the wastewater testing sites are reporting data. As shown below, the grey dots aren’t reporting. Only 769 out of 1492 testing sites are reporting. That is a failure that needs to be addressed asap.
India
India has registered the biggest spike in COVID cases this year. Over 32,000 new cases have been registered in the past 14 days. That is a 218% increase. Deaths have also increased by 107%. The growth has been consistent for several weeks and is emanating from areas where XBB.1.16 has been found. XBB.1.16 is now the dominant variant in India, making up over 60% of sequenced cases. XBB.1.16 and its subvariant, XBB.1.16.1, will likely displace the XBB.1.5 variants in the coming weeks all around the world.
SINGAPORE
XBB.1.16 has been spreading in Singapore for a couple weeks longer than in the U.S. but is still a couple weeks behind India. They are reporting 10,464 new cases in the past 14 days. That is a 556% increase over the prior 14 days. There is a very good chance that XBB.1.16 is behind this new surge in cases. They aren’t reporting any new deaths yet.
"Control orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were extended for a year for the final time on Monday (March 6), allowing the authorities to react quickly to new and dangerous variants if they emerge."
"Parliament passed amendments to the COVID-19 Act 2020 in order to extend the validity of Part 7 of the Act, which gives the government powers to make regulations in order to prevent, protect against, delay, or otherwise control the coronavirus."
Singapore and India are taking actions to protect all of their citizens, while the U.S. is ending the public health emergency and states are removing the mask mandates for hospitals. On Monday, April 3, 2023, workers, patients and visitors in health care settings in Oregon and Washington will no longer be required to wear a mask. This is a dereliction of duty. Negligence at its highest level when considering the totality of evidence.
On the other side of the world, wearing a face mask became mandatory in Tamil Nadu hospitals on April 1, 2023. Doctors, nurses, medical staff, patients and visitors have been asked to ensure 100% compliance at around 11,300 health facilities. In Haryana, the Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said Covid tests will be mandatory for patients arriving at hospitals with symptoms of cough and cold and that wearing masks will be made mandatory for all health workers, and in areas where a gathering is expected to be above 100 people. Testing, tracing, treatment, team work, and monitoring are being done in the state. Apart from this, instructions have also been issued to all civil surgeons of the state to double the testing, he said.”
“He instructed the officers that high risk people should be vaccinated. Apart from this, a control room should also be set up to help the patients of home isolation so that such patients can be contacted and helped.”
Can we imagine these common sense steps being implemented?
We should be especially concerned about the children who do not have adequate protection. Without adequate monitoring, this could wreak havoc on schools and homes long before we intervene. This is not an acceptable situation. We should have learned from our mistakes, applied what we knew, and become better prepared. Instead, there is less surveillance and almost no treatment for either the initial infection or Long COVID. The HVAC systems have not been upgraded. We do not have any new vaccines. We are not prepared. The public health crisis has not been resolved. We must ensure that our representatives and the President are aware of this.
If in the U.S., Call the White House Comment Line to protest the end of the Public Health Emergency, 202-456-1111 Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday 11 AM - 3 PM.
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