Was the rapid test read outside of the window?
Iâm wondering about that. I was not there. No one had a fever. Only toddler had symptoms. Looks like that may be a possibility.
In the antigenic drift chart, what are the X and Y axes, and what are the little squares for the vaccines (purple = Moderna, green = Pfizer, pink = AstraZeneca) for?
Yes, I donât remember what paper I pulled that from - it was over a month ago when omicron came out and we were seeing how effective the vaccines might be. The colors are the vaccines. One of the axes, probably X (guessing) would be the number of mutations.
Second booster doesnât appear to be effective against Omicron infection, according to a preliminary study in Israel:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-study-shows-4th-shot-covid-19-vaccine-not-able-block-omicron-2022-01-17/
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Guess most people will eventually become infected unless they roll out an omicron specific vaccine.
ok. Well, thatâs scary for all of us sending our college kids back who had Covid over break. How is encephalitis treated? Is it always severe and requires hospitalization? What first symptoms should these kids look out for?
The incidence appears to be pretty low.
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The symptoms I mentioned above.
But I can tell you something my parent taught me and I instilled in my kids before they went off to college. My parent was Infectious Disease, a year behind Fauci in training. My parent saw such awful things that they actually washed off their fingerprints because they washed their hands so much. Whenever my kids get sick, I always tell them to bend their neck. If they canât bend their neck and touch their chin to their chest (or almost make it), get to the ER as quickly as possible. Inflammation in the brain can go bad quickly. My parent had a patient whose daughter was sick - the mom left her on the couch in front of the TV and went to work. When she came home after work, the daughter was dead on the couch. Meningitis (inflammation of the tissue lining the brain). Canât bend your neck. Fever. Other than that - look for increased signs of intracranial pressure - headache, confusion, weakness, lethargy, seizures, vomiting, double vision.
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There appears to be an increase in encephalitis in school-age children after omicron specifically, with a spike higher than that with other variants, so much so that the adult and pediatric infectious disease societies have asked members to be on the lookout and report to the CDC. Still small, but higher than with other variants. With omicron numbers falling, hopefully this will dissipate quickly and not be an issue.
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AMEN!!! 
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Father, grandmother and grandfather all negative results today of PCR tested on day 5 (reported on day 9).
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Edited table in pose 4878
Thank you. Iâm not sure what to make of all this, but I did learn a lot from everyoneâs help.
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Itâs not the life or death genetic answer, but perhaps theyâre finding one genetic difference for loss of taste/smell. With self-reporting, etc, there are limits, but it could be a start:
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A call for learning to live with the ânew normalâ:
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What an excellent article. So, we need to find humility, an understanding that the science is developing and not settled and a centralized data collection mechanism to help make sense of what we are seeing and learning.
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I think the authorsââsuggestions to have development of robust, centralized data collection on respiratory illnesses, investment in public health employees and school nurses to give vaccines, expansion of telehealth across statelines, etc., are reflective of support for large government and will be politically controversial.
I would think many health professions should be wary of institutionalized telehealth across statelines. Itâs a slippery slope to offshoring telehealth and losing good jobs.