Just in time for the holidays, coronavirus cases – and hospitalizations – are on the rise. To blame are the BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and, to a lesser extent for now, XBB variants. All are descendants of the original BA.1 omicron variant that caused a massive spike in cases starting about a year ago.
With geopolitical unrest, economic uncertainty, and the midterm elections dominating the headlines, it takes some scrolling to get to the latest on the coronavirus. Just because it’s out of sight doesn’t mean it should be out of mind – especially when it comes to getting the latest booster shot.
Dengue may not be a top-of-mind malady for those in Colorado, but it infects about 400 million people worldwide each year – roughly four times the official cumulative U.S. coronavirus case count. West Nile virus put several people in UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital at the Anschutz Medical Campus (UCH) this summer. Zika remains a threat in the Americas and beyond.
If you’re confused about coronavirus vaccination, you’re not alone. Blame the confusion on the coronavirus itself.
The omicron surge has peaked and appears to be on a double-black-diamond downslope. Three major metro Denver counties dropped mask mandates in early February. Statewide hospitalizations from this omicron-driven coronavirus wave peaked at 1,676 in mid-January and stood at 1,012 as of Feb. 8, a number the Colorado COVID-19 Modeling Group expects to fall to below 500 by the end of February.
Omicron cases in Colorado are surging with staggering infection rates and eye-popping positivity results — well over 25% for those seeking COVID-19 tests.
Two years may feel like an eternity to a world-weary of the coronavirus pandemic. In terms of scientific development, it’s been the blink of an eye, and we’ve learned a lot during that blink.
While vaccination provides excellent protection from COVID-19, if you end up with the coronavirus, monoclonal antibodies can shorten the duration of the disease while cutting the chance of ending up in the hospital by a solid 70%.
Colorado has the fifth-highest 7-day, per-capita coronavirus case count in the United States, and state forecasters say it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Yet the state’s vaccination rate ranks among the top one-third in the country, with about 72% of the state’s eligible population now fully vaccinated.
Perhaps you’ve had COVID-19 already. Perhaps you’ve had one of the two vaccine doses but heard that you may feel under the weather the day after that second shot and are putting it off. Perhaps you figure you’re young and healthy and aren’t going to get all that sick even if you do catch the coronavirus. Or perhaps something else is keeping you from being vaccinated.
