We’re Tired, but COVID Isn’t; Flooding All Over California–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Jan. 9, 2023

Indy Digest: Jan. 9, 2023

I can feel some readers’ eyes rolling, and I am bracing for snarky letters to arrive in my inbox … because we’re going to be talking about COVID-19 today.

Welcome, by the way, to Year 4 of this pandemic, which is very much still a problem.

The great Dan Rather wrote yesterday:

The sad reality is that COVID is still with us. It’s still evolving. And it almost assuredly has more surprises in store. Public health officials are once again raising alarm around a potent new variant that is spreading quickly through the Northeast. Hospitalization rates are rising. We’ve seen this before. Where will it end up? All we can do—and by we, we also mean public health professionals—is make guesses, educated or otherwise. …

COVID doesn’t care about us. It’s on its own evolutionary trajectory. The only question is whether we help it thrive or find ways to diminish its impact. 

Rather links to an article in The Washington Post, also published yesterday, by molecular medicine professor Eric Topol, headlined “The coronavirus is speaking. It’s saying it’s not done with us.” He writes about XBB.1.5, the aforementioned variant tearing through the Northeast, saying:

The implications of XBB.1.5 are also much bigger than just this formidable variant. The virus is talking to us, and it is telling us it has many more ways to evolve. It is revealing that it not only can fake out or elude our immune response, but can also get better at penetrating our cells. What will happen next? Will we see a whole new family of variants arise that are distinct from the omicron family? It is entirely possible.

And we’re not ready for it. Genomic surveillance around the world has dropped 90 percent since early 2022, as reflected by sequenced samples deposited at the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. That’s unacceptable. China is in the midst of a COVID crisis with unmitigated spread, and it could become a breeding ground for functionally important variants in the months ahead.

Fortunately, COVID-19 levels locally don’t seem to be rising like they are in other parts of the country. As of the last results made publicly available, local wastewater testing shows the amount of the virus is holding steady, and maybe even decreasing a bit. That said, as of Friday, the three valley hospitals reported taking care of 69 patients with COVID-19, with 10 of them in the intensive care unit.

If I’d have told you on Jan. 9 three years ago that a new pathogen had come along and sent 69 of your neighbors to the hospital, with 10 of those neighbors sick enough to be in the ICU, you’d likely have been shocked and alarmed. If I’d have told you that same pathogen was killing 500 people a day in the country, you’d likely be freaked the heck out.

Today, in 2023, most people shrug at this news.

While people shrug, however, more and more concerning science comes in about long COVID, such as this, written by two researchers for The Conversation:

Even mild COVID-19 cases can have major and long-lasting effects on people’s health. That is one of the key findings from our recent multicountry study on long COVID-19 – or long COVID – recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Long COVID is defined as the continuation or development of symptoms three months after the initial infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These symptoms last for at least two months after onset with no other explanation.

We found that a staggering 90% of people living with long COVID initially experienced only mild illness with COVID-19. After developing long COVID, however, the typical person experienced symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive problems such as brain fog—or a combination of these—that affected daily functioning. These symptoms had an impact on health as severe as the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury. Our study also found that women have twice the risk of men and four times the risk of children for developing long COVID.

Of course, we all have lives to live. We shouldn’t be staying home all the time. We shouldn’t be afraid.

But we shouldn’t be shrugging, either. As of today, according to the CDC, just 17.7 percent of Americans have gotten the updated booster COVID-19 booster shot. Only 38.1 of Americans age 65 and older have gotten it.

As Eric Topol wrote in the aforementioned piece for The Washington Post: “We’ve moved from complacency to frank capitulation at just the wrong time. If XBB.1.5 is telling us one thing, it’s that we can’t be oblivious. We’re all tired, but we’re up against a force that isn’t.”

—Jimmy Boegle

Scheduling Note

This week’s second Indy Digest, which would normally be sent on Thursday, will instead be sent on Friday. I have personal business to tend to on Thursday—hence the delay. Thanks for adjusting your news-consuming schedule accordingly!

More News

• Wet winter storms continue to wreak havoc across California. The Los Angeles Times reports: “All of Montecito was ordered to evacuate Monday afternoon as a powerful winter storm brought heavy rains, damaging winds and threats of flooding to the already soaked region. Parts of the nearby communities of Carpinteria and Summerland as well as the city of Santa Barbara were also ordered to evacuate ‘due to threats to life safety caused by the ongoing storm,’ according to the Montecito Fire Protection District. The order comes five years to the day after a storm unleashed mudslides that ravaged Montecito, killing 23 people, destroying 130 homes and causing hundreds of millions in damage.”

• SFGate is publishing a rolling list of storm updates here. The latest: “The Ventura County Fire Department said on Twitter at 2:24 p.m. that firefighters are rescuing up to a half dozen people who are stranded on an island in the Ventura River at Main Street and Peking. The Ventura River, that’s located in Ventura County to the north of Los Angeles, swelled above flood stage Monday afternoon and is expected to continue to rise into the evening, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center.”

• The Federal Trade Commission may ban noncompete clauses. In a piece for The New York Times, FTC Chair Lina Khan writes: “When you’re subject to a noncompete clause, you lose your right to go work for a competing company or start your own, typically within a certain geographic area and for a certain period of time. Unless you’re willing to move hundreds of miles away or take a huge pay cut to restart your career from scratch, a noncompete can effectively lock you into a job. That’s a clear restriction of individual liberty. But the aggregate impacts of noncompetes go even further. A body of empirical research shows that they also inflict major harm across the economy. … Noncompetes were long assumed to apply mainly to high-level executives with access to sensitive corporate information. But their use has exploded in the past few decades, extending far beyond the boardroom. Today, experts estimate that one out of every five American workers, or about 30 million people, is bound by a noncompete.”

• I went to Aldi over the weekend. I remember buying eggs there in the before-COVID times for 89 cents a dozen—maybe even less a time or two. The price on Saturday: $5.86 per dozen. At least I was able to find eggs … and it looks like I got a good deal. The Los Angeles Times says: “The average retail price for a dozen large eggs jumped to $7.37 in California this week, up from $4.83 at the beginning of December and just $2.35 at this time last year, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show. The cause is an unprecedented outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza—commonly known as bird flu—that has killed tens of millions of egg-layers nationwide. Among these are millions of cage-free hens California relies on to comply with Proposition 12, the 2018 animal welfare initiative that took effect last year. The resulting shortages and price increases have hit the poorest Californians hard, eating up inventory at food banks and pinching families who rely on federal programs with strict buying guidelines.”

• If you play the lottery, you’ve likely noticed that there have been a lot of billion-dollar-plus jackpots lately. CBS News reports that this is no coincidence: “One lucky person could win a fortune on Tuesday in the Mega Millions lottery, which has ballooned to $1.1 billion. … The current drawing is one of a growing number of massive lottery jackpots in recent years. A Powerball player in California won a $2 billion jackpot in November, while two anonymous Mega Millions players in suburban Chicago won a $1.3 billion prize last fall. Including Tuesday’s upcoming drawing, there have been about six jackpots that have exceeded $1 billion during the past five years, College of the Holy Cross economics professor Victor Matheson told CBS News. … In the past decade, (the Multi-State Lottery Association) transformed Mega Millions into a national game, made it more difficult to win the jackpot and increased the price of each ticket from $1 to $2. As the Washington Post reported in 2018, the new rules gave Mega Millions participants more numbers to choose from, making it less likely they would guess the combination required to win the jackpot. Mega Millions is played in 45 states along with Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Higher ticket prices and lower odds of winning make the jackpot grow faster from week to week, Matheson said.”

• And finally … one of the western valley’s most beloved burger places is getting a new permanent home, after a successful stint at the Hilton. The Palm Springs Post reports: “Brad and Crystal Reihl got the keys to their new business last week and immediately began remodeling and revamping the space at 1550 N. Palm Canyon Drive. Gone will be the unassuming and authentic JJ’s Mexican Restaurant. In its place will be The Heyday, known for smash burgers served in a hip and vibrant style. JJ is off to a well-deserved retirement but remains as the building’s landlord.”

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