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Greetings!
We move the closing to the lead: From Toronto and Culver City we wish you a most happy and healthy Holiday Season. Safe travels be it up the block or across the continent; this is a Special “Don’t panic about Omicron. But don’t be Indifferent, either” edition of Revitalize. Therefore, we are back for a special posting that will offer you an update on Omicron and its impact on your Holiday.
On Saturday, Rebecca and family flew to Toronto, cleared their entrance requirements and made it to grandparents, family and friends for the first time in two years. Quebec just closed bars and gyms, but Ontario is still urging caution and smaller indoor gatherings.
Sunday afternoon brought calls from Jerry’s sons as to his trip East and pushed him into a deep dive into whether to cancel the Monday redeye that would bring two days of face to face meetings and a hotel stay. This Should-I-Stay-or-Should I Go (with the Clash playing in the background) led to a deep plunge into Omicron’s impact on travel and society in general. The product of our research and 24 hours of friends and family discussions pushed us to give you an update on the science and medicine that can help you with your travel and gathering choices. Here is what you need to know to know about traveling and celebrating safe and sane:
President Biden leads with his speech on Omicron and his administration's plan to increase at home testing. Dr. Fauci next, we link to his Sunday Meet the Press appearance, both video and transcript.
Another of The Atlantic’s best of the best writers Dr. Ashish Ja’s offer us both a title and great advice in: "Don’t panic about Omicron. but don’t be indifferent, either – The next wave of the pandemic requires charting a middle course between dismay and dismissal."
Many of the experts we have linked are found in Bloomberg’s great summary, "Weighing the risks of holiday travel during Omicron: What the experts say."
Back to The Atlantic and their great science writer Katherine Wu who asks and answers: "How long does Omicron take to make you sick? The new variant seems to be our quickest one yet. That makes it harder to catch with the tests we have."
Just posted and we link is reporting by one of the trio of New Yorker physician writers Dhruv Khullar: "How to think about the risks of Omicron—The new variant changes the calculus in ways that can seem bewildering—but we have the tools to think it through."
We turn to The New York Times to close with the great news that: "Moderna says its booster significantly raises the level of antibodies to thwart Omicron."
We now move the lead to the close and offer the comparatively long and for the most part not good news The New York Times Summary for Dec, 20, 2021:
- Continued struggles with the Delta variant and the emergence of the highly infectious Omicron variant have pushed the country’s daily case totals to their highest levels since late summer.
- Many health departments will not report data for several days around Christmas and New Year’s. Case and death data will be skewed by those reporting anomalies from Dec. 24 until early January and should be used with caution.
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Caseloads are growing rapidly in the Northeast, where Omicron already has a foothold. Reports of new cases in New York shot up more than 80 percent over two weeks. In Washington, D.C., more than three times as many infections are being identified each day now than at the start of December.
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Vaccinated people without booster shots are believed to be vulnerable to infection by Omicron. Though there have been some hopeful reports from South Africa, the severity of disease caused by the new variant remains unclear.
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Hospitalization rates remain very high in much of the Midwest and New England. A doctor in Michigan, a state with one of the highest hospitalization rates, described “living in a constant crisis.”
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In Florida, new case reports remain well below peak levels but are rising sharply. The state is averaging about 5,000 cases a day, up from around 1,300 at the start of the month.
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Puerto Rico and Hawaii, which had held infection rates down in recent months, are also reporting explosive case growth.
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Reports of new cases have fallen in some Midwestern and Western states, including Minnesota and New Mexico, that were hit hard this fall by the Delta variant. Those regions may remain vulnerable to a surge in Omicron cases.
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The United States recently surpassed 800,000 coronavirus deaths, the most of any country. The nation continues to report about 1,300 deaths a day.
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One more time:
We wish you a joyous, safe, and healthy holiday.
Best Wishes for 2022.
–the Revitalize crew and our partner firms
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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In an interview with Meet the Press, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks about the importance of a coronavirus booster shot in response to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Don’t panic about Omicron. but don’t be indifferent, either – The next wave of the pandemic requires charting a middle course between dismay and dismissal.
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Weighing the risks of holiday travel during Omicron: What the experts say.
How long does Omicron take to make you sick? The new variant seems to be our quickest one yet. That makes it harder to catch with the tests we have.
How to think about the risks of Omicron—The new variant changes the calculus in ways that can seem bewildering—but we have the tools to think it through.
Moderna says its booster significantly raises the level of antibodies to thwart Omicron.
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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