COVID-19 is back

The long-forgotten virus apparently is in overdrive again. We cannot tell how rampant it is, since the public testing system in Poland is currently virtually non-existent and might only hint at possibly even up to 100,000 new (but usually not first) infections daily. The public reporting covers approximately 2,500 tests carried out daily, which, with positivity rate above 40%, have translated into 7-day moving average of new cases exceeding 1,000 on 17 November 2023. The hospitalisation statistics are not published, but the health service does not report a bigger strain than during a typical flu season. Weekly stats of all deaths also do not indicate increased mortality nation-wide.

As I am writing this I am far from concern or panicking. The last restrictions (face covering obligation in health centres, hospitals and pharmacies) were lifted in Poland in July 2023. The virus will stay with us forever, is generally milder and our immune systems have got accustomed to it, hence we are in the phase of learning to live with it and we are nearly getting it right.

Although the disease usually gives symptoms similar to a common cold, being infected by COVID-19 still remains a risk to whose vulnerable - elderly and with underlying health problems. Such examples are my parents who tested positive this week, but undergoing the illness relatively mildly (given their age and health issues). The outgoing Polish government has yet disregarded the issue and has not secured deliveries of Paxlovid and delayed by 2 months distrubution of new vaccines (still no idea how many will arrive), thus putting healths and lives of several million people, including my mother and father, at risk. Despite this I suppose less than 10% of the population will take the next dose, especially once many got through COVID-19 mildly and being vaccinated since months has not given any benefits.

Looking back at the pandemic, I surmise the next one will be perfectly shrugged off. If during the last one, when mortality was up by 100% vs. "normal" times, the extra efforts were not taken to save lives, then once a more severe virus attacks, the price to pay will be high. Interestingly, I see no traces of trauma of isolation and two hundred thousand excess deaths - the pandemic deprived Poland prematurely of nealy 0.5% of its population, being the biggest disaster (in terms of number of fatalities) after World War Two and... nearly everybody gets on with this.

Looking forward, take care of yourselves!