Vaxxed and unvaxxed have the same guidance now. Certainly a long way from their mantra just 1 year ago that it was a "pandemic of the unvaxxed" and "rare" breakthrough infections. If we have learned nothing else during this pandemic it is that the CDC has consistently been wrong and flip flopped on virtually everything related to covid.

The same type of changes are being seen here. They seem to be being introduced by stealth, without any sort of public announcement. One of my children has just come back from the North Island and said that the organization that he is volunteering for has quietly changed their Covid policy from screening everyone and responding hysterically to Covid 4 months ago, to all of a sudden going out of their way NOT to spot Covid. They are all encouraged not to use the covid word. No tests, no vaccine requirements, just assume any coughing etc is a cold. A complete 180 degree turnaround. 

But Covid is absolutely everywhere here. So many services / shops / businesses / plane schedules are being affected by huge numbers of people calling in sick. To add to the mayhem, there's also a really nasty flu going around and a couple of vicious colds in circulation too, and of course it's winter here so it's really cold. Bring on summer!

https://twitter.com/_mbdr_" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: inherit; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0; width: 52px; height: 52px; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, box-shadow; outline-style: none;">

https://twitter.com/_mbdr_" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: inherit; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0; max-width: 100%; outline-style: none; -

- Megan Ben Dor Ruthven

https://twitter.com/_mbdr_" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: inherit; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0; max-width: 100%; outline-style: none;" tabindex="-1 -

·

11h

The CDC estimates 8% of US adults are experiencing long COVID as of early July. Here's the estimate of % of adults with long COVID by state. https://cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/long-covid.htm

and;

and;

DJ, Ignoring diseases only will result in exponential growth of diseases...

I am NOT an expert, hope I am very wrong....

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_monkeypox_outbreak#Cases_per_country_and_territory[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_monkeypox_outbreak#Cases_per_country_and_territory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_monkeypox_outbreak#Cases_per_country_and_territory also going up...fitting in the pattern of ignoring diseases brings in more diseases...Polio is spreading in New York, London etc. will show up...Health-crisis unseen in human history...

The long covid stats are awful. Poor people. It's bad enough being ill while the illness is working through you, but even worse if it never goes away!

I know that the Northern Hemisphere looks to the Southern Hemisphere for flu, to see what they can expect in the following winter. Our flu shots are always the first to be adjusted and then the Northern hemisphere follows suite. So I have to warn you about the flu that's going round here and the really nasty common cold. I sat next to a lady this week at an event who was telling me that despite having the flu shot, she's just had the most awful flu and that so have most of her friends, the shot made no difference. 

And the cold that's doing the rounds is lasting 2 weeks. One of my sons came home with it from his travels last week and he's as healthy as an ox and yet it's only on day 10 that's it's starting to wane and I still think it'll be another 3 or 4 days before he's well enough to go back to work. They are saying it's because we were all isolating for the last 2 years and weren't exposed to colds and flus in the normal way, so that's why it's so bad this year.

Kiwi Mum, I remember a "strong cold" going around in autumn 2019...also long lasting, unusual...Made people wonder if it was a "pre-CoViD-virus"...looking back. 

We did have a very limited flu-season this winter. Maybe the Non Pharma Interventions/lockdowns may have limited the spread of the flu in 2020, it did not do so that much in 2021...

Closing restaurants and cinema's will not stop the spread of flu...But good info/warning on the Southern Flu...(did see Australia also had that flu...).