Excellent Blogs
Below are links to two excellent blogs and brief summaries of recent posts:
Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-next-phase-of-ground-truths?utm_source=substack
The March 7th edition has a discussion about the COVID outbreak moving from pandemic to endemic status, the high baseline of daily COVID hospitalizations and deaths, the probability of seeing a new variant other than Omicron emerge, and the results of a clinical trial of metformin in the prevention of long COVID.
Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) by Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and biostatistician who works for a nonpartisan health policy think tank: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/archive
The most recent post reviews studies on the risk of long COVID following reinfection and the use of metformin to prevent long COVID (note: it must be taken within four days of infection so important to see a healthcare provider as soon as possible after symptoms or a positive test). Another recent post of YLE (March 8) has a great discussion on the issues and problems with the Great Barrington Debate, which was an approach proposed in 2020 to isolate vulnerable populations while allowing infections to spread among lower-risk members. This is discussed in the broader context of the need to learn from the COVID pandemic to better prepare for future pandemics.
Updates
Just a reminder of the differences between community levels and transmission levels:
| Community Levels | Community Transmission Levels |
| Used to determine the impact of COVID on communities to determine which preventive actions to take. | Describes the amount of COVID spread. Healthcare facilities use to determine infection control interventions. |
| Based on: New cases/100,000 in last 7 daysCOVID hospital admission/100,000 in last 7 daysPercentage of inpatient beds occupied by COVID patients | Based on: New cases/100,000 in last 7 daysPercent test positivity during the last 7 days |
Brookings County (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 21% vs. 34% last week])
- Only 18% of people 18 years of age and older in Brookings County have received the updated bivalent booster (link to data here).
- 9,525 total cases: 8 new cases this week vs. 22 in the previous week. Of the new cases this past week:
- 25% were under 20 years of age (vs. 9% in previous week)
- 50% were 20-39 years (vs. 23% in previous week)
- 25% were 40-59 years (vs. 23% in previous week)
- 0% were 60 years or older (vs. 45% in previous week)
- 256 Brookings County residents have been hospitalized with COVID: 1 hospitalization posted this past week compared to 0 in the previous week.
- Currently, the percentage of staffed beds that are COVID-occupied in the Sioux Empire region is 2.7% (compared to 3.7% last week), and 25.5% of the total hospital beds are available (compared to 23.6% last week).
- 67 Brookings County residents have died of COVID: 0 new deaths were reported this past week compared to 2 deaths in the previous week.
South Dakota (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 25%+ vs. 25%+ last week])
- Only 21% of people 18 years of age and older in South Dakota have received the updated bivalent booster (link to data here).
- 279,882 cases: 752 new cases this week vs. 641 in the previous week. Of the new cases this past week:
- 14% were under 20 years of age (vs. 12% in previous week)
- 25% were 20-39 years (vs. 25% in previous week)
- 24% were 40-59 years (vs. 21% in previous week)
- 37% were 60 years or older (vs. 42% in previous week)
- 12,619 South Dakota residents have been admitted to in-state hospitals with COVID: 37 were admitted this week vs. 43 last week. Of the new hospital admissions this past week:
- 5% were under 20 years of age (vs. 2% in previous week)
- 14% were 20-39 years (vs. 10% in previous week)
- 16% were 40-59 years (vs. 23% in previous week)
- 65% were 60 years or older (vs. 65% in previous week)
- 44 people are currently hospitalized vs. 68 last Wednesday (3 currently in the ICU vs. 4 last week).
- Currently, the percentage of staffed beds statewide that are COVID-occupied is 2.1% (compared to 3.2% last week), and 36.2% of the total hospital beds are available (compared to 36.0% last week).
- 3,200 South Dakotans have died from COVID: 10 new deaths reported this week vs. 9 in the previous week. Of the deaths reported this past week, all were aged 60 years or older.
USA
- 105.6 million cases: 224,032 new cases this week vs. 156,602 in the previous week
- 1.14 million total deaths: 2,036 deaths this week vs. 1,556 in the previous week
Worldwide
- 681.7 million cases: 889,1445 cases this week vs. 896,685 million in the previous week
- 6.81 million deaths: 6,602 deaths this week vs. 6,530 in the previous week
Take care of yourself and each other.
Bonny's Blog 