Bearing Witness to the Pandemic September 2022

Another month begins with nearly 100,000 officially recorded new cases per day and around 500 deaths, numbers that just show no sign of abating.

Many Americans it seems have become desensitized to the continuing spread of coronavirus, illness, and deaths.  Less than 30% of adults now consider COVID a great risk or wear masks when in public.

The FDA authorized an updated vaccine booster that is tuned to the newest Omicron subvariants which now dominate infections. Officials fear that too many adults, or those with compromised health conditions, have become indifferent to being continually boosted and may wave off getting another shot.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress Report says that the pandemic erased nearly 20 years of steadily improving progress in education. Student performance in reading and math have fallen across the board, but even more so for students of low-income or color.

The WHO, declaring the end is in sight, reported that the level of official deaths from Coronavirus is the lowest since the pandemic began in March 2020. During the first week of the month, just over 10,000 deaths were reported worldwide.

Yet, don’t try to convince China of this as parts of the country totaling over 50 million people are some stages of total or partial lockdown. President Xi of China appears unwavering in his policy of zero COVID which requires shutting down whole cities and regions. The social and economic costs have been staggering. In some locations, China rounds up those infected and buses them to quarantine sites away from others. Sadly, over two dozen died in a bus accident this month.

New research from Britain has confirmed what many women experienced, that COVID vaccinations can affect the timing of their menstrual cycles. The study found that overall vaccinated women experienced a one-day delay in getting their next period after a shot. There were no other affects reported to fertility rates or pregnancies.

Another research report estimates that 10-20% of people infected will experience long COVID. The study says that 16 million people in the US are suffering from the mysterious syndrome where the vast majority were relatively young and healthy. Researchers think that the cause is an immune system that goes haywire creating hormonal disruptions and inflammation.

More and more of America continues moving on from COVID and the pandemic, with business as usual, despite hundreds per day still dying. It is increasingly rare to see a mask worn in public. Even President Biden proclaimed that the pandemic was over in a TV news interview.

The above news items have been taken from a number of local, regional, national and international news media including print, broadcast, and digital sources, but no social media. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.

The featured image is from CDC Covid Tracker showing the history of confirmed deaths in the US since the pandemic began.