WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden likely contracted a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly through the United States, and now has body aches and a sore throat since his positive test, according to an update from his doctor on Saturday.
The variant, known as BA.5, is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year, and its believed to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country.
WATCH:White House COVID coordinator faces questions after Biden tests positive
Dr. Kevin OConnor, the presidents physician, wrote in his latest update on Bidens condition that Bidens earlier symptoms, including a runny nose and a cough, have become less troublesome. OConnors earlier notes did not mention the sore throat or body aches.
Bidens vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiratory rate, remain entirely normal, and his oxygen saturation levels are excellent with no shortness of breath at all, the doctor wrote.
OConnor said the results of the preliminary sequencing that indicated the BA.5 variant do not affect Bidens treatment plan in any way.
Biden tested positive for the virus on Thursday morning. He has been isolating in the White House residence since then. Administration officials have emphasized that his symptoms are mild because he has received four vaccine doses, and he started taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid after becoming infected.
During a virtual meeting with economic advisers on Friday, Biden was hoarse but insisted, I feel much better than I sound.
In his previous update on Bidens health, OConnor said the president had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday evening, but it returned to normal after taking Tylenol.
Continued here:
Biden likely infected by BA.5 coronavirus variant, doctor says - PBS NewsHour
A majority of people in the U.S have had Covid-19 at least once likely more than 70% of the country, White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said on Thursday, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many have been infected multiple times. In a preprint study looking at 257,000 U.S. veterans who'd contracted Covid at least once, 12% had a reinfection by April and about 1% had been infected three times or more.
This raises an obvious question: What is keeping that shrinking minority of people from getting sick?
Disease experts are homing in on a few predictive factors beyond individual behavior, including genetics, T cell immunity and the effects of inflammatory conditions like allergies and asthma.
But even as experts learn more about the reasons people may be better equipped to avoid Covid, they caution that some of these defenses may not hold up against the latest version of omicron, BA.5, which is remarkably good at spreading and evading vaccine protection.
"It really takes two to tango," said Neville Sanjana, a bioengineer at the New York Genome Center. "If you think about having an infection and any of the bad stuff that happens after that, it really is a product of two different organisms: the virus and the human."
In 2020, New York University researchers identified a multitude of genes that could affect a person's susceptibility to the coronavirus. In particular, they found that inhibiting certain genes that code for a receptor known as ACE2, which allows the virus to enter cells, could reduce a person's likelihood of infection.
Sanjana, who conducted that research, estimated that about 100 to 500 genes could influence Covid-19 susceptibility in sites like the lungs or nasal cavity.
Genetics is "likely to be a large contributor" to protection from Covid-19, he said. "I would never say its the only contributor."
In July, researchers identified a common genetic factor that could influence the severity of a coronavirus infection. In a study of more than 3,000 people, two genetic variations decreased the expression of a gene called OAS1, which is part of the innate immune response to viral infections. That was associated with an increased risk of Covid-19 hospitalization.
Increasing the gene's expression, then, should have the opposite effect reducing the risk of severe disease though it wouldn't necessarily prevent infection altogether.
"Its very natural to get infected once you are exposed. Theres no magic bullet for that. But after you get infected, how youre going to respond to this infection, thats what is going to be affected by your genetic variants," said Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson, the study's lead researcher and chief of the Laboratory of Translational Genomics at the National Cancer Institute.
Still, Benjamin tenOever, a microbiology professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine who helped conduct the 2020 research, said it would be difficult for scientists to pinpoint a particular gene responsible for preventing a Covid infection.
"While there might still be certainly some genetics out there that do render people completely resistant, theyre going to be incredibly hard to find," tenOever said. "People have already been looking intensely for two years with no actual results."
Aside from this new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, four other coronaviruses commonly infect people, typically causing mild to moderate upper respiratory illnesses like the common cold.
A recent study suggested that repeated exposure to or occasional infections from these common cold coronaviruses may confer some protection from SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers found that T cells, a type of white blood cell that recognizes and fights invaders, seem to recognize SARS-CoV-2 based on past exposure to other coronaviruses. So when a person who has been infected with a common cold coronavirus is later exposed to SARS-CoV-2, they might not get as sick.
But that T cell memory probably can't prevent Covid entirely.
"While neutralizing antibodies are key to prevent an infection, T cells are key to terminate an infection and to modulate the severity of infection," said Alessandro Sette, the studys author and a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
Sette said it's possible that some people's T cells clear the virus so quickly that the person never tests positive for Covid. But researchers aren't yet sure if that's what's happening.
"Its possible that, despite being negative on the test, it was a very abortive, transient infection that was not detected," Sette said.
At the very least, he said, T cells from past Covid infections or vaccines should continue to offer some protection against coronavirus variants, including BA.5.
Although asthma was considered a potential risk factor for severe Covid earlier in the pandemic, more recent research suggests that low-grade inflammation from conditions like allergies or asthma may have a protective benefit.
"Youll hear these stories about some individuals getting sick and having full-blown symptoms of Covid, and having slept beside their partner for an entire week during that period without having given it to them. People think that they must have some genetic resistance to it, [but] a big part of that could be if the partner beside them in any way has a higher than normal inflammatory response going on in their lungs," tenOever said.
A May study found that having a food allergy halved the risk of a coronavirus infection among nearly 1,400 U.S. households. Asthma didn't lower people's risk of infection in the study, but it didn't raise it, either.
One theory, according to the researchers, is that people with food allergies express fewer ACE2 receptors on the surface of their airway cells, making it harder for the virus to enter.
"Because there are fewer receptors, you will have either a much lower grade infection or just be less likely to even become infected," said Tina Hartert, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who co-led that research.
The study took place from May 2020 to February 2021, before the omicron variant emerged. But Hartert said BA.5 likely wouldn't eliminate cross-protection from allergies.
"If something like allergic inflammation is protective, I think it would be true for all variants," Hartert said. "The degree to which it could be protective could certainly differ."
For many, the first explanation that springs to mind when thinking about Covid avoidance is one's personal level of caution. NYU's TenOever believes that individual behavior, more than genetics or T cells, is the key factor. He and his family in New York City are among those who've never had Covid, which he attributes to precautions like staying home and wearing masks.
"I dont think for a second that we have anything special in our genetics that makes us resistant," he said.
It's now common knowledge that Covid was easier to avoid before omicron, back when a small percentage of infected people were responsible for the majority of the virus's spread. A 2020 study, for example, found that 10% to 20% of infected people accounted for 80% of transmissions.
But omicron and its subvariants have made any social interaction riskier for everyone involved.
"It's probably far more of an equal playing field with the omicron variants than it ever was for the earlier variants," tenOever said.
BA.5, in particular, has increased the odds that people who've avoided Covid thus far will get sick. President Joe Biden is a prime example: He tested positive for the first time this week.
But even so, Jha said on Thursday in a news briefing, "I dont believe that every American will be infected."
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When Lyndall Heather caught COVID-19 for a third time this year, she initially didn't believe she had it.
Just six weeks onfrom her second COVID infection, the Darwin nursewas well within the immune period that precluded her from testing.
"I just thought it's pretty unlikely, it's probably just the cold," she said.
But after becoming seriously unwell, she went for a PCR test and found out she had contracted a separate COVID-19 infection.
"Even my manager found it confusing. I guess things are constantly changing," Ms Heather said.
Hampered by long COVID symptoms like fatigue and brain fog, Ms Heather said her latest reinfection has left her anxious for the future.
"I feel like I can't possibly get it a fourth time but unfortunately now that I've had it a third time, it's a very real chance that I could get it again," she said.
Ms Heather is one of thousands of Australians who have now battledCOVID-19 multiple times, butreliable figuresonreinfections arehard to find.
Counting the reinfections relies heavily on self-reported data submitted to health departments in each state when someone tests positive on a RAT, figures which have been historically under-reported.
Ms Heather's second COVID-19 infection was asymptomatic and was only picked up by routine workplace testing.
Health authorities believe thetrue number of Australians who have been infected is much higher than official tallies.
States hardest hit by COVID-19 such as New South Wales and Victoria have rough figures detailing reinfections in the tens of thousands.
Other states, such as Tasmania, have only recently begun tracking reinfectionor, in the case of Queensland, are not tracking it at all.
Despite a lack of quantitative data, audience submissions to the ABC show a large swathe of Australians are battling their second and even third COVID infections.
Looking internationally may provide insight into how reinfections have surgedin 2022.
A two-year studyin the Serbian province of Vojvodina found a sharp increase in COVID-19 reinfections following the rise of the Omicron variant at the start of 2022.
Stanford University epidemiologist John Ioannidis co-authored the study, published inThe Lancet Regional Health - Europe,and said the research was an effort to combat the lack of documentation aboutreinfection.
"It's clear that the number of reinfections, much like the number of infections, is underestimated," Professor Ioannidis said.
"A lot of 'new' infections are probably reinfections of people who have been infected previously and this has not been documented."
The results from the study were staggering.
Of the13,792 COVID reinfections recorded in the province between March 2020 and January 2022, almost 87 per cent occurred in January 2022 alone.
Almost all third infections recorded in the study also occurred after October 2021, during the period of Omicron circulation.
It's illuminatingdata that pointstowards the explosive transmissibility of Omicron when it enters a community.
Data suggests the initial BA.1 Omicron strain is three times more transmissible than the original Wuhan strain of COVID.
Professor Ioannidis said that while increased cases could be an artefactof increased testing, the impact of the Omicron strain was evident.
"Its real, with Omicron we have far more infections,"he said.
"I think this probably continues downstream with the BA.4 and BA.5 strains that are now dominant in many countries including Australia."
Early data from South Africa suggests the BA.4 and BA.5 strains could be almost six times as transmissible as the Wuhan strain.
Chief medical officer of thegovernment-funded healthdirect serviceNirvana Luckraj said COVID infections could now occur more rapidly in succession than before.
"The COVID sub-variantsare more likely to evade the immunity gained from previous infection, and reinfection is possible just weeks following a past infection," Dr Luckraj said.
As a result, Australia has now dramatically shortened its reinfection period for testing from 12 to four weeks.
The Serbian study found reinfected patients were significantly younger, more commonly female and more frequently employed as healthcare workers.
Australia's health workforce is predominantly female andthe average worker is aged between 20 and 34.
It means people like28-year-old nurse Ms Heatherare some of the most likely to bereinfected.
Professor Ioannidis said more regular testing schedules for working young adults and higher interactions with others was reflected in the numbers.
"I think it's probably a reflection of the fact that younger people, particularly younger adults, had much higher levels of exposure," Professor Ioannidis said.
"The good news is that for that population, the risk of serious disease is very low."
There is conflicting data on just how much more dangerous second and third COVID infections are.
A United States study of almost 39,000 reinfections from the Department of Veteran Affairs found "reinfection adds risk of all-cause mortality and adverse health outcomes".
"Studies are showing that reinfection has higher health risks, particularly for those with underlying health conditions, and is linked with a higher risk of long COVID," Dr Luckraj said.
"You may catch a new variant which could result in quite a different experience and your recovery could be harder or longer."
However, Professor Ioannidis said data from the Serbian study appearedto showa less severe health impact from reinfections.
"What we have seen, at least in our analysis, is that with reinfection the risk of hospitalisation is four times lower compared to the original infection and the risk of death is 10times lower," he said.
"So far it seems like [reinfection] is very frequent, but it's not severe."
Given the spike in Omicron reinfections almost two years after the pandemic, concerns have shifted to COVID's next evolution.
Dr Luckraj said the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants would likely not mark the end of the virus.
"The natural history of the virus is that it constantly evolves to survive, so I think we can expect to see more sub-variants emerging," Dr Luckraj said.
Professor Ioannidis saidwhile the virus was here to stay, Australians should notpanic.
"There's no guarantee of what the next variant will look like but what we have seen so far is commensurate with an evolution to an endemic phase," he said.
"We can live with that. It would be wonderful if we could get rid of this coronavirus completely, but its very unlikely."
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COVID reinfections appear to be surging in the latest Omicron wave. Here's what we know - ABC News
The federal government is expanding Defence force support for Australia's coronavirus-stricken aged care sector.
More than 200 extra military medical personnel will be deployed to aged care homes in coming weeks, Defence Minister Richard Marles has announced.
The move came after aged care providers and trade unions requested Defence force support for the sector be extended beyond the August 12 end date.
Currently there are 24 ADF personnel providing supporting staff in Australian aged care homes but in the coming weeks that number will be extended to 220.
The sector is currently experiencing COVID-19 infection rates similar to the February peak.
In the nation's aged care homes there are 6000 residents and close to 3500 staff who have contracted the virus.
The ADF medics will be deployed to late September, after a meeting between federal health and defence officials overnight.
The coronavirus crisis in the sector is so bad that Federal Aged Care Minister Annika Wells, who is also the sports minister, has decided she cannot attend the Commonwealth Games in England.
"It's a decision I haven't taken couldn't leave the country with lightly," she told 9News
"In all conscience I couldn't leave the country with aged-care facing the current winter wave."
It means no federal minister will be representing Australia at the Games which start on Thursday in Birmingham.
But the chair of the Australia Sports Commission, Kieran Perkins, will be there.
The announcement of further ADF support comes as a coronial inquest into the Newmarch House aged care COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney where 19 people died begins today.
Meanwhile, Nine newspapers are reporting some intensive care unit (ICU) patients in Victoria are being sent home instead of being kept in general wards because of the strain on the state's health system.
While highly unusual, this has occurred in recent weeks at the the Footscray and Sunshine hospitals, health authorities said.
The subvariants and mutations of COVID-19
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Defence force to expand aged care support as COVID-19 wave hits sector - 9News
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Nearly 6% of kids reported long-COVID symptoms 90 days after infection - The Jerusalem Post
WASHINGTON One after another, President Biden hugged and kissed them.
At a packed ceremony in the East Room of the White House on July 7, Mr. Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, on 16 Americans, some in their 80s or 90s. After reaching around to hang the medal on their necks, the president embraced most of them, shook hands with a few and gave three a smooch on the cheek.
It is highly unlikely that Mr. Biden who tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday became infected with the coronavirus during that event. But the fact that the celebration happened at all underscores how much the White House has dropped most of the extraordinary measures it once employed to protect the commander in chief from a disease that has killed more than one million Americans.
In the early days, Mr. Biden was a president in a bubble, governing the country mostly by Zoom inside the Oval Office. He rarely traveled. He held few in-person meetings. And most of the ceremonial trappings of the office like the medal ceremony were canceled or postponed, victims of the lockdowns that were deemed necessary to stop the spread.
But like many other Americans, Mr. Biden has loosened up in recent months. Protected by multiple doses of the vaccine, the president and his aides have changed their risk assessments and have begun to live with the coronavirus.
Whatever your thing is whether its being the president of the United States, going to school, going to work, doing the things you enjoy, being with who we love it cant be put off forever, said Andy Slavitt, who advised the White House on its Covid-19 response early in the Biden administration.
Mr. Slavitt said Covid-19 has become a disease that comes around as frequently as a common cold but with much more severe consequences. Its a much more uncomfortable middle state for people to adjust to.
Inside the West Wing, there was never much doubt that Mr. Biden would eventually contract the disease. By this week, many of the people around him already had: Vice President Kamala Harris; Jen OMalley Dillon, his deputy chief of staff; Karine Jean-Pierre, his press secretary; several cabinet members, including the attorney general; Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman; and Jen Psaki, his former press secretary twice.
On Friday, Mr. Bidens physician said his symptoms had improved. The president had a temperature of 99.4 degrees late Thursday evening, according to Dr. Kevin OConnor, in a letter released on Friday. He wrote that Mr. Biden was still experiencing a runny nose and fatigue, and that he had an occasional nonproductive, now loose cough.
His voice is deeper this morning, Dr. OConnor wrote. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation remain entirely normal, on room air.
The deeper tone in Mr. Bidens voice was noticeable on Friday, when he participated by video in a briefing on declining gas prices. Mr. Biden cleared his throat multiple times during his remarks and could be heard coughing.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the coordinator for the administrations Covid-19 response, said that Mr. Bidens temperature of 99.4 on Thursday was not considered a low-grade fever by the White House and that it fell within the normal range. He added, however, that he was unaware of Mr. Bidens temperature recorded Friday morning. The White House referred to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that states a person is considered to have a fever when he or she has a measured temperature of 100.4 degrees or feels warm to touch.
But in his letter, Dr. OConnor indicated that he did not feel that the presidents temperature of 99.4 was normal until after it responded to Mr. Biden taking Tylenol. Dr. Jha said later on Friday that it was routine for doctors to report the highest temperature of their patients, even if it was not a fever.
He did mount a temperature yesterday evening to 99.4F, which responded favorably to acetaminophen (Tylenol), Dr. OConnor wrote. His temperature has remained normal since then.
Dr. Jha said Dr. OConnor did not prescribe the Tylenol for the temperature, but rather for Mr. Bidens discomfort. Dr. Jha declined to say what discomfort the president was experiencing. Officials have said he does not have a sore throat or a headache, and have not indicated he has other aches and pains.
The White House went to great lengths this week to show that Mr. Bidens work life had not been dramatically affected by his diagnosis.
The White House Twitter account posted three photos of the president working at a desk in the White House residence. In one, he can be seen talking on the phone. In another, he is signing a law designed to give people more access to baby formula.
Mr. Biden was elected in no small measure because he persuaded voters to trust that he could bring the pandemic under control and reopen the country.
In the last 18 months, Mr. Biden has achieved much of that goal. Because of the widespread availability of vaccines and treatments, most communities have reopened stores, bars, sporting venues and schools. There are few mask mandates still in place.
Mr. Biden now travels abroad (he shook hands with numerous world leaders during a trip last week to Israel and Saudi Arabia). He holds political events around the country, flying on Air Force One and riding in the motorcade. And in-person events at the White House are a weekly occurrence again.
But the pandemic is not over.
According to the C.D.C., most of the country is now classified as areas with high community transmission. The latest Omicron subvariant to become dominant, BA.5, is vastly more contagious than the original coronavirus, though doctors say the vaccines remain effective at preventing hospitalization and death.
So Mr. Biden has to walk a careful line, demonstrating that he is just like every other American eager to be done with Covid-19, even as he keeps his eye on the possibility that the pandemic could come roaring back.
The White House tried to do that on Friday by using the presidents diagnosis as a case study for why Americans should get vaccinated and boosted.
Were in a much, much better place than where we were 18 months ago, when the president took office, Dr. Jha said, adding that the current level of about 400 Covid-19 deaths per day was unacceptable. He also added a grim warning.
This virus, he said, is going to be with us forever.
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Biden Learns to Live With the Risks of the Coronavirus - The New York Times
I am on a mission to preserve the most valuable item in my home: my fianc, who has never had COVID. Through sheer luck and a healthy dose of terror, he made it through the first pandemic year without getting sick. Shielded by the J&J vaccine and a Moderna booster, he dodged infection when I fell ill last November and coughed up the coronavirus all over our cramped New York City apartment. Somehow, he ducked the Omicron wave over the winter, when it seemed as though everyone was getting sick. And in the past few months, he has emerged unscathed from crowded weddings, indoor dinners, and flights across the country.
At this point, I worry about how much longer its going to last. People like himI think of them as COVID virginsare becoming a rare breed. Just yesterday, President Joe Biden thinned their ranks by one more person. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests that as of earlier this month, 82 percent of Americans have been infected with the coronavirus at least once. Some of those people might still think theyre never had the virus: Asymptomatic infections happen, and mild symptoms are sometimes brushed off as allergies or a cold. Now that were battling BA.5, the most contagious and vaccine-dodging Omicron offshoot yet, many people are facing their second, third, or even fourth infections. That reality can make it feel like the stragglers who have evaded infection for two and a half years are destined to fall sick sooner rather than later. At this point, are COVID virgins nothing more than sitting ducks?
Read: Of course Biden has COVID
The basic math admittedly doesnt look promising. Most of the people getting infected right now seem to be coming down with the illness for the first time, even though they are a distinct minority. Nationally, we dont have good data on who is getting COVID, though in New York, first infections seem to be happening at five times the rate of reinfections. Part of why those who havent gotten COVID seem to be at a higher risk of infection is that taking into account all other factorsvaccination, age, behaviorsthey lack the immunity bump conferred by a bout with the virus, no matter how fleeting that bump may be. On its own, this would suggest that these people are in fact sitting ducks who cant avoid infection short of hunkering down in total isolation.
The experts I talked with agreed that the risk of infection is currently high. We are finding now that with the more transmissible variants, its becoming more and more difficult to avoid infections, Robert Kim-Farley, an epidemiologist at UCLA, told me. However, its not inevitable. Rick Bright, the CEO of the Rockefeller Foundations Pandemic Prevention Institute, was less certain. Honestly, it might be inevitable, the way the virus has continued to change, he said.
Still, they reiterated that we still dont quite know just how at risk those who havent had COVID areespecially when BA.5 seems to be reinfecting so many people. I dont know if I would call them sitting ducks, necessarily, Bright said, but I would say every one of us is more vulnerable. The unvaccinated are still the most vulnerable by far, especially to more severe outcomes. But even this far into the pandemic, its hard to know exactly why some vaccinated and boosted people have gotten sick while others haventgood pandemic behaviors might come into play, along with luck. Scientists are still investigating the role of other factors, including whether genetics might be protecting the immune systems of people who havent gotten COVID.
Read: Is BA.5 the reinfection wave?
Nevertheless, all of the experts argued that COVID virgins should still try to avoid infection. Above all, they should get up-to-date on vaccination and boosters. Once those layers of protection are in place, they should continue to be prudentespecially in crowded, indoor settingsbut unless they are medically vulnerable, they dont have to take more precautions than anyone else, Kim-Farley said.
The guidance for this group is the same as it is for everybody else largely because immunity by infection is protective, but only to an extent. BA.5, for one, seems to be able to reinfect people who were previously sick, sometimes even those who just a few months ago had an earlier version of Omicron. At this point, an infection from a year ago, let alone two, might not mean much immunologically. People shouldnt rely on prior infection, because it just is not as effective as prior vaccination, Kim-Farley said. And though hybrid immunitywhich results when a person gets sick and is then vaccinated, or vice versais thought to confer a good amount of protection, that kind of assertion may be challenged now that so many reinfections are occurring, the Yale epidemiologist Albert Ko told me.
The ultimate problem with people viewing themselves as sitting ducks is that this is the exact attitude epidemiologists do not want us to have. It can foster a why bother? demeanor, negating all public-health efforts to stop transmission and discouraging personal efforts to protect oneself. In other words, it promotes COVID fatalism, which is appealing because it offers relief from the daily anxiety and behavioral compromises of pandemic life by assuming that an infection is a question of when, not if. This notion can be liberating for those who have never gotten infectedand presumably it is part of the reason so few are left: Many people have already adopted a meh attitude toward COVID, not letting the fear of an infection get in the way of living their lives.
Even this late in the game, you should really try to avoid getting COVID if you can. Having to take precautions can be frustrating after so many months of pandemic life, but getting sick can be extremely unpleasant, even if you are vaccinated and boosted. Theres the risk of long COVID, yes, but those who escape it can still feel terrible for several days, if not weeks, Bright said. These infections dont usually lead to hospitalization or death, but theyre no walk in the park either, especially for the elderly and the immunocompromised. And as COVID continues to mutate, you definitely want to forestall a second infection, or a third down the line. The consequences of repeated infections and their potential to cause long COVID or other health issues are not yet known. And, of course, the tenets of COVID 101 are still true: Even if your infection is mild, you can still spread it to someone who could have it much worse.
The grim reality is that as long as the virus shows no signs of abating, the number of COVID virgins will continue to shrink. Grappling with this reality will be a lot less stressful if we reframe the way we talk about getting COVID. Instead of fretting about the virus as something that could come for you, focus on what to do when it does. Those who are vaccinated and boosted may still be ducks sitting in the crosshairs of infection, but in all likelihood they wont die or get severely ill, especially if they are young and healthy. Thats what we care most about, Ko said. The people who havent gotten sick should remember that they have already wonvaccines, in tandem with the treatments that are now available, mean that its far better to get sick now than it was a year or two ago.
When I told my fianc that he would probably get COVID but should definitely still try not to get COVID, he described the situation as Kafkaesque. Indeed, these are absurd and illogical times. But at the very least, focusing on what is within our control can help us regain a modicum of sense. Short of total isolation, people may not be able to do much to avoid the coronavirus forever, but theres still plenty they can do to escape the worst when it does come for them.
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If Youve Never Had COVID, Are You a Sitting Duck? - The Atlantic
We regularly answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.
I'm on a family vacation and I'm the only one who tested positive for COVID. How do I protect everyone else?
Yeah, it's exactly what you don't want to have happen. You're on a family vacation, maybe your first in a couple of years because of the pandemic. It could be just immediate family or maybe grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and others have come along.
Then a couple days in, you get that scratchy throat feeling. Your COVID self-test delivers the bad news. Yup, you've got it. It happened to a colleague who was away with their partner and young kids. She felt like crying and then wondered: Are my tears going to spread my COVID?
We talked to experts for advice on how to prepare ahead of time for a possible COVID infection while on vacation and what to do if it does strike.
The big question of course: Will everyone get it?
"Part of me thinks: we're doomed!" says Linsey Marr, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. "But the other part of me knows there are many things we can do to reduce the risk and many, many cases where one person gets it [in a household] and not everyone else does. So it's not inevitable." Including her own family her son had COVID and no one else got it.
Various studies estimate what's known as the "secondary attack rate in households" other household members who catch COVID from an infected individual. "It does look like the secondary attack rate is over 50%," says Marr. "It is quite high but it is not 100%." Studies of earlier variants suggest that vaccination is a good way to keep down the infection rate in a household and that if lots of people are packed into tight quarters, rates of infection are, as you'd expect, higher.
Tip 1: Preplan
Just like you pack suntan lotion and bug spray, you need to take a good supply of good quality masks (N95 or KN95), self-tests and maybe a few helpful medical tools, like a thermometer and pulse oximeter ... just in case. Also ask if folks in your vacation group are all vaccinated and boosted (if eligible for boosters). The shot might not keep you from becoming infected with the highly infectious and currently dominant omicron BA.5 variant, but it could lessen the severity of disease or shorten the span of your contagiousness.
Tip 2: Figure out the best way to isolate the person with the virus
"You need to remove them from the mix," says Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious diseases physician and a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. That's the ideal. But it may not be possible depending on your budget and your lodging options.
If you can book a separate hotel room or put the COVID vacationer in their own room in a rental property, that's ideal. If you're renting a house or staying with family or friends, see if you can assign the COVID case to their own room.
Tip 3: Mask up!
They've been politicized, people are tired of them, they're not exactly fun to wear in a heat wave. But masks are still the front line of protection. The patient should wear a mask when anyone is in proximity and so should the rest of the vacation party if they're in the same space as the patient. I know we just said this a few paragraphs above, but our experts stress that you want N95s or KN95s for maximum protection and a mask that fits well. So it shouldn't slide down off your nose and should also be comfortable. Some N95s have over-the-head straps that won't pinch the ears, notes Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University.
Tip 4: Open windows
The overall goal is "harm reduction," says Malani. And opening windows is a helpful step for any space where the infected person might hang out or pass through. The airflow can help disperse pathogens exhaled by a sick person.
Hotel room windows cannot always be opened, so if your only option is to stay in the same room as the infected person, you might look for an alternative hotel with openable windows or balconies.
Tip 5: Fans are your friend
If the person with COVID will be sharing common space with others, fans are another harm reduction measure. See if you can get a box fan hotels may have them or you may be able to buy one. Put the fan in the window, pointing outward to suck air (which could contain pathogens exhaled by the patient) out of the room. This is especially helpful if you can't find a separate bedroom for the contagious vacationer. See if you can push their bed near the window with the fan.
Tip 6: Distance makes the pathogen less risky
It's been drummed into the public mind that 6 feet of distance from a sick person is a way to reduce the risk of infection. That's true, but it's not an ironclad guarantee. Pathogen-packed aerosols exhaled by the sick person can travel beyond 6 feet but "there's far less risk if the sick person is 6 feet away from others," says Karan, who adds, "the more feet the better."
Tip 7: Be bathroom-conscious.
Let's say the sick person is isolated in their own room but the vacationers are sharing a bathroom. If the patient takes off their mask for various bathroom activities, like showering or oral hygiene, they can exhale aerosols (containing viral pathogens), which will linger in the air. So someone who walks in immediately after the sick person is done is going to "walk into a big cloud" of SARS-CoV-2 pathogens, says Karan.
"Stay out of the bathroom for half an hour to an hour," suggests Marr.
Tip 7: Stay outdoors whenever possible
Outdoor airflow doesn't mean no chance of infection, but it does help disperse pathogens. So if you want to have a meal and include the patient dine al fresco and keep some distance. If the patient is feeling well enough to take a walk and others want to go along, "the safest thing is to wear a mask," says Malani. And make sure that the other walkers are not downwind from the patient, especially if it's a breezy day. If the patient takes a solo walk and no one else is around, "you don't need to have a mask," says Malani. "It's cumbersome to wear a mask all the time."
Tip 8: Be honest with little kids
Our colleague with COVID said her greatest frustration was not being able to hug or share ice cream with her kids, ages 4 and 7.
So how do you explain it all to a kid?
"Young children are very smart, very conscious of wanting to make sure people stay healthy," says Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. "Be honest: Explain you don't want others getting sick and [the person with COVID needs to] stay separate for a few days to make sure nobody else gets sick."
Or you might ask them questions instead of telling them what's up, suggests Junlei Li, the co-chair of the human development and education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. That way, you won't just be lecturing, you'll be discovering how much they do (and don't) know and what their concerns are. Li says you might say:
Whatever you tell your children, says Li, the main message you want to convey is: "I want to keep you (and other people) safe too. You know a lot about what to do and what not to do. And we can still be together. We just need to find new ways."
Tip 9: Self-tests can only tell you so much
The great hope, of course, is that the person with COVID will get to a negative test fairly soon and be able to socialize without putting others at risk of infection. Many people ask if a faint "positive" line on a COVID test after a few days means there's a lower load of virus and less chance of transmitting it. In theory it might, our experts say, but it's not a sure thing. "There's no data to suggest that," says Weatherhead. A self-test "is not a quantitative test, it's qualitative. If there's a line, even if it's faint, it's positive."
Tip 10: Don't feel guilty
"Guilt is not helpful," says Malani. "Understand that you're doing your best and this wasn't your fault. This happens."
Tip 11: Don't fret about tears and COVID transmission.
"You don't need to worry about tears" being a major risk for spreading SARS-CoV-2, says Marr. Malani agrees: "There may be some virus in tears, but that's not really how this is spread. It's spread through respiration."
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Patient deaths: 1,021,306
Total vaccine doses distributed: 784,110,065
Patients whove received the first dose: 261,204,035
Patients whove received the second dose: 222,950,194
% of population fully vaccinated (both doses, not including boosters): 67.2%
% tied to Omicron variant: 100%
% tied to Other: 0%
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