Long Covid is widespread.
At least in the U.K. — plus: a rant about vaccine passports, an event on child development, and another visual gem from Spain.
Personal interlude: we got our first shots! Leftover Moderna doses at our local urgent care place. Here’s wishing that you all get it soon if you haven’t yet.
🇬🇧 U.K.: more than 1 million people with long Covid
Yesterday the U.K. Office of National Statistics (ONS) published a report that showed the number of infected patients with symptoms that lasted more than five weeks reached 1.1 million. Whilst women and people aged 35-49 years old are the most affected (about a quarter of them), percentages amongst other demographics, including children, hovered around 10 per cent. Here’s the BBC on this:
About one in five people have symptoms of long Covid five weeks after an initial infection and one in seven after 12 weeks, an Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey suggests.
It estimates that 1.1 million people were affected in the UK in the four weeks from 6 February.
About 20% of people said ongoing symptoms limited their day-to-day activities a lot.
How to use this: the concern is that long Covid is a long-term public health crisis in the making. We don’t fully understand it yet, but what’s certain is that it affects younger people than those who typically die. Stay safe, get your jab as soon as it’s offered.
😡 Rant
Vaccine passports are a solid idea to get us into the next phase for reopening. Whilst they may raise some ethical questions, they are helping people resume life with others, indoors. They’re hardly new. They already exists for certain parts of the world, where you can get in without yellow fever vaccination.
Israel didn’t hesitate. They’ve created the Green Passports. Businesses and other places of gathering registered in the programme were allowed to open, and only individuals who are vaccinated or who’ve recovered from Covid-10 are allowed to have one. How is it going? Judge for yourself:
But for this to work, the vaccine passports must be VACCINE passports. Not vaccine-and-negative-test passports.
Looking at you, Andrew Cuomo, with your effort to promote the NY Excelsior Pass, touted as the “U.S.’ first vaccine passport,” to help businesses do business again. When you click through, here’s what you find:
You may retrieve a Pass if you have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days and,
You have been fully vaccinated in the State of New York and it has been 14 days or longer since your final shot, OR
You had a PCR test administered in the State of New York in the last 3 days and the result was negative, OR
You had an antigen test administered in the State of New York in the last 6 hours and the result was negative.
HAVE WE LEARNT NOTHING?
I’mma say it again: a negative test is not a free pass. They’re only a way to identify (and isolate) infected people. You could be negative yesterday and positive today, hell, you could be negative this morning and positive tonight. How many times must we say this?
Also, how are you going to motivate anyone to get the jab if they can get away with a measly test?
How to use this: let’s not fuck around. Just because you’ve tested negative a little bit ago does not mean you’re negative now.
👶 What about the kids?
What a year this has been for the children… Zoom school, cabin fever, boredom, anxiety, depression, even hunger, deepening poverty, physical and emotional abuse… There isn’t something they haven’t endured. Will there be long-term effects?
This is the next event I’m producing. Cynthia García Coll, of Brown University and University of Puerto Rico, and Ann Masten, of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, are two experts in child development. They’ll be talking about the research on what happens to kids after a disaster like this one.
How to use this: register, it’s happening on Monday, 19 of April.
🤩 El País has struck again
Another great visualisation to show what “airborne” means, and how come outdoors is so very safe. Here’s the whole story, but here’s a quick preview:
How to use this: outdoors is so safe. SO SAFE. This is why every gathering should take place outside for the time being. Share this far and wide.