THIS is a warning not only for Californians but for residents of other states where COVID-19 is still significant. The national 7-day daily average of cases, as of December 6, 2022, are still more than 53,000 a day and greater than 260 deaths per day on average. Many of these are unvaccinated and, sadly, many vaccine naysayers have died. Vaccination must be updated with booster #3, the bivalent vaccines, because newer strains are mutating and evolving.
The surge of COVID-19 infections in California and the great burden it imposes on the state’s healthcare system could be alleviated, according to experts, by bringing back masking and distancing, especially among children in school. And the waves of flu and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) only complicate the picture of this tripledemic. RSV is especially dangerous for infants and super-seniors.
Contrary to fake news, vaccines, masks, and distancing effectively mitigate transmission, infection, hospitalization, and deaths. Those exposed to infected persons, or who are infected, should isolate themselves for 5 days, and use a mask for 5 days thereafter.
‘The way our people behave, and the way the viruses behave, the COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay, as an endemic, like the flu. This is our own doing, and we have to simply accept this and live with it.’
COVID 19 is more contagious than the flu or RSV. Those with infants/young children at home should be extra careful and use masks in public. Infants and young children, and seniors, have died from RSV and the flu, besides COVID-19.
Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, the anti-vaccines and anti-masks, who are unprotected, are one of the major reasons for the unending waves of COVID-19 not only in the United States but elsewhere around the world.
There is no shame in wearing a mask; it shows wisdom and compassion for others around you. You are also protecting them, besides yourself.
Clinical studies have found that in cities and towns where the rate of vaccination, masking, and distancing are lowest, the infection rate, hospitalization, and deaths are highest. It does need an Einstein to figure this out.
The way our people behave, and the way the viruses behave, the COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay, as an endemic, like the flu. This is our own doing, and we have to simply accept this and live with it.
Let’s follow science in protecting our health and life, and those of our loved ones. Vaccines, hygiene, masks, and distancing all work effectively when it comes to mitigating a contagious disease, albeit not 100 percent. But so are bullet-proof vests, which have nonetheless saved countless lives the past century and eight, like masks since the 1920s.
Worse than fentanyl
Fentanyl has been in the news of late. It is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, including 92,000 in 2020 alone. Many forms are available, some are multicolored like candies. It is responsible for countless fatal and non-fatal overdose in the USA. Many victims are children who accidentally eat them. The open Southern border facilitate the entry of the cartel and these killer drugs, not to mention the criminal elements and COVID-infected people. About 3 million people in the USA are recovering from opioid addiction.
But there is now a newer and more vicious killer replacing fentanyl. It is called protonitazene, supposed to be even 3 times stronger than fentanyl. This new drug has been found in Canada and the USA, where 3 deaths have been reported in South Carolina. It may even be resistant to antidote Narcan.
Public education, especially children’s education, starting even in pre-school, is vital in preventing accidental deaths from these killer drugs.
***
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, a Health Advocate, Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He is a recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1996, whose other awardees include: President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Astronaut Gus Grissom, Mohammad Ali, David Letterman. Websites: FUN88com and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
