Quarterly Newsletter from my Concierge Doc...
COVID 19 Pandemic & Vaccine Updates
Covid
As many of you are likely reading and hearing in the news, the number of Covid cases is on the rise. The virus is rapidly changing, and new variants are constantly introduced into our environment. In fact, at the time of this article, there are seven variants circulating through the United States. Fortunately, none of the variants, since the Delta sequence, has proven to cause severe disease, hospitalizations, or deaths at anywhere near what we observed in 2020 and 2021. Regarding Covid vaccines, the current bivalent vaccines are designed to provide protection against the original strain andomicron variants, neither of which are circulating at this time. The updated vaccine, which may come out in the coming month, will add the XBB.1.5 strain which dominated the scene between January and June of this year but is rapidly declining in favor of newer variants and accounts for less than ten percent of current cases. The newest, and most likely predominant strain, over the next few months will likely be the EG.5 or Eris strain. It has so far been found to be as contagious as prior strains but is also producing generally mild upper respiratory infections without progression to severe lower respiratory infection. As we learned during the Omicron surge and henceforth, vaccines that are not specific for current variants are generally ineffective. Furthermore,after nearly three years of experience, the safety of recurrent injections has been far from guaranteed.
After assessing our current situation and having treated over 1000 Covid infections in the past three years, it remains my strong recommendation to defer further vaccination with currently available formulations. Instead, I recommend early testing, which is proving to maintain sensitivity, and treatment relying on tested and proven therapeutics with repurposed medications and vitamin formulations. We continue to use protocols that remain highly effective at treating these infections. Like any viral infection, one has a small chance of becoming severely ill, but this is simply not a concern for Covid currently, and vaccines do not safely decrease the risk of severe illness. Finally, while the news and government outlets are expressing concern that there are rising numbers, the actual number of cases and hospitalizations remains incredibly low and significantly lower than what we have seen the last two summers.
There has been talk about reintroducing masking and other interventions to slow the spread of Covid. We will continue to manage high risk scenarios as we have over the past two years, asking patients with suspected infections to wear masks in the office and we will do the same. We will not institute mandatory masking requirements for either our patients or staff.
