The January spike was moderate. The vaccines and the self-infected have developed sufficient immunity to reduce hospital admissions. It seems we have turned the corner. According to Kaiser Health, young people still benefit from receiving boosters, but they also report mixed benefits. Even so, vaccine-associated myocarditis in young men is usually milder than the viral type and most people with the condition make a full recovery, said Dr. Nicola Klein, a vaccine expert at Kaiser Permanente.
I'm feeling hopeful that we can return to a relatively normal life this year.
To updated numbers on variants, the CDC has been tracking weekly. COVID ain't over and the more people infected, the more people are likely to die. (The variant is not more deadly... but as you see much more virulent and exponentially so) At its height, COVID was killing 3k people a day in the USA. Even so, 500 a week is still too high.
CDC Covid weekly tracker: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
Charts here: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions USA XXB 1.5 Kraken Positive cases dominate.
ODAY in the USA: XBB.1.5 Omicron sub variant now dominant in all US regions
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu › covid-19 › xbb15-omicr ... estimated 80.2% of samples, up steadily from 74.7% the previous week. In the Northeastern, XBB.1.5 makes up nearly all of the samples.
Except my neighbor just caught it by going to a brewpub for about an hour. Had to get Paxlovid and sick as a dog.
And except for China. China's celebrity deaths show what's been going on there.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/china-covid-wave-of-celebrity-deaths-sparks-concern-over-actual-death-toll