So far, the COVID waves are not spiking as high as they did back in January of 2022, but the lows keep getting higher. There is no relief, hospitalization remain at a high plateau and are climbing. More people died in 2022 than in the previous years of the pandemic. With the wide variety of new COVID variants the amount of COVID flooding the country keeps getting higher. The death rate is higher than the birth rate.
Politicians and the media have been selling the idea of herd immunity. The general premise is that everyone should become infected, starting with the children and then the pandemic will be over. Vaccines as well were sold as the solution to the pandemic. The trouble is that neither offers lasting immunity. The other problem is that repeated infections cause increasing risk of complications and death.
What we are left with is a population who thinks the pandemic is over despite that fact that it will drag on endlessly until people take meaningful steps to stop the spread of the virus. The steps are simple, but if you even mention a mask people fearfully start shouting out about their personal freedom to spread the virus.
Despite the flood of virus, most people no longer wear masks or social distance. Kraken has changed the game being the most contagious variant of COVID so far. You should note that tools that were being used to combat past variants no longer work against the Kraken. At home tests are even less effective at being able to test for the variant. One at home test, DxTerity, was pulled from the market for being useless.
While everyone else is living their pre-pandemic lives, I have decided to upgrade my mask by getting N-95s. I used to use a KN-95 held in place with a cloth mask but this new variant is so contagious I feel the need to upgrade. Even if you wear a well fitted N-95 mask you shouldn’t be around unmasked people, indoors or outdoors. If you are the lone N-95 mask wearer you might become infected within an hour if others are unmasked.
Kraken has proven itself more effective at binding to cells which means fewer viral particles can cause an infection. The original strain of COVID might infect two other people and it spread around the world quickly. With the original Omicrom variant, an infected person could infect maybe 5 other people, but with Kraken an infected individual could infect up to 18 other people. That would make this one of the most infectious viruses ever known.
The next month is going to be a wild ride, since no one sees what is coming. They have been told the pandemic is over, since capitalism is more important than human life. Brace yourself and take every precaution you can. Regardless several thousand people continue to die from COVID every week, that being the new norm of “living with the virus”, but things are about to get a whole lot worse.