A new COVID-19 variant has emerged, serving as a reminder that the coronavirus continues to mutate and spread around the world, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.

The variant is called EG.5 and is a descendant of Omicron.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.

  • Chronic_AllTheThings
    7·
    1 year ago

    There are so many vectors for infection that it is kinda silly to try.

    This statement, in and of itself, is silly. That’s like giving up on washing your hands and sterilizing equipment because it’s just too much effort.

    Unless you’re frequently digging for gold with unwashed hands, SARS-COV-2 transmission enormously favours the airborne vector.

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      Yes, and everyone around you all the time is going unmasked and raw dogging the world. Including members of your family. So you either have to give up all social contact, since even if you are good about masking your friends will want to go out and eat and drink in public. So you skip that or take an exposure. Even stuff like wearing s mask to the grocery store which, would be a good precaution, has a nonzero chance of leading to some altercation. It really is wild how hostile society is to what would be simple precautions. Ahh, I got caught by federation. I didn’t realize this was a Canada thread. Maybe you have it easier up there. Down here in America things are… stressful

      • Chronic_AllTheThings
        3·
        1 year ago

        I’m aware of the limitations I’m subjecting myself to, but I’d far rather live with them than live without smell, taste, clear lungs, or clear cognition.

        In Canada, mask behaviours depend on the area. I think the larger cities are generally better in terms of people wearing masks and people leaving you alone for it.

        I haven’t gotten any comments my small prairie town, but it’s an everyone-knows-someone-who-knows-you type of place. I think I’ve seen one other person wearing a mask in the past several months, but people generally know who I am, that I’m immunocompromised, and nobody says anything to me about it. That being said, I don’t really go out much and literally never go anywhere indoors without a fit tested N95 or better (with the one exception of my dentist, who still has a number of precautions in place).

        But there’s a small city a half hour away where I’d legitimately fear being physically assaulted just for wearing a mask and minding my own business. It’s basically a 10 square mile slice of 'murica, rednecks and trumpsters included.