Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.
This week has been full, full, full of important news. Definitely, more than three things that I’m paying attention to (details below the line), but here are the three things you need to know in order to stay healthy and create healthy communities while diseases are spreading left and right around the globe…
Make peace with the reality that there are a lot of diseases out there. And you and your loved ones will likely get sick during the next 6-9 months.
Balance is necessary. Hiding from the world in order to avoid COVID, flu, RSV, or other illnesses is just as unhealthy as being reckless and taking unnecessary risks that might lead to illness. Balance is needed. We need to recognize that being healthy is a balancing act; it is not all or nothing. We must weigh the risks and benefits. For me it is helpful to remember that —
“Health is a balance; not a destination.”
Do NOT panic or live in fear. The news might be riddled with talk of new diseases and outbreaks, but at this point in time it is just news. It is not an alert. No one should be pressing the panic button. We know a lot. Diseases are monitored and reported. And while we know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is in our communities. It is not time to panic. Remember — it is about balance.
Details about the news this week and more specifics about these three things that we all need to know and embrace are below…
This week has been full, full, full of important news. Here is a snapshot of all the things I have been paying attention to…
RSV is on the rise in Florida and Georgia (this is an early start to the season)
A case of locally-acquired malaria was diagnosed in Maryland
ProMed (the early warning system for disease outbreaks) is reporting cases (from around the world) of polio, diphtheria, measles, cholera, and Ebola, among others
CDC is warning physicians to be on the lookout for flesh-eating bacteria that is in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast
Cancer incidence (the number of new cases) among young adults (under 50 years) has increased by 79%
And then there is COVID —
Dr. Biden was diagnosed this week. COVID hospitalizations, especially among those over 65, are increasing, and there is more virus in the wastewater this week compared to last week.
And we are still waiting for word from the CDC regarding who will be able to get a COVID booster this fall and when (the ACIP meets Tuesday at 10 am ET).
In a bit of good news, Moderna reported yesterday that they have found (through a clinical trial) that its new booster vaccine generates an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies in humans against the new BA.2.86 (Pirola) variant.
That was a lot. Time to pause.
In the face of all this news, we need to —
Make peace with the reality that there are a lot of diseases out there.
Expect COVID-19, flu, RSV, and other diseases to spread in your schools, communities, and (maybe) homes. Disease spread and illness is a reality — make peace with it.
Balance is a necessity.
Despite the (seemingly) endless news about disease spread, it is actually unhealthy to sit alone at home, avoid contact with others, and shield yourself entirely from disease. Loneliness itself is a disease; it is also an epidemic. Similarly, worrying, stressing, and fearing COVID in 2023 as if it were April 2020 is unhealthy. And unwarranted. We have effective vaccines, over-the-counter tests, and treatments. Pretty much everyone on the planet has some form of immunity and the virus appears to be becoming less virulent (less harmful).
We need to be with others. We need our kids at school. We need to go to work. We need to go shopping, travel, eat at restaurants, and go to our favorite places.
We should be weighing the risks and benefits of each situation. For example, right now there are a dozen or so cases of COVID on my campus. I teach in well-ventilated classrooms with high ceilings. I am vaccinated. And I’ve had COVID. I have plenty of immunity. When word came out that COVID was spreading on campus, I did not rush to grab my mask; the thought of canceling class or moving to an online environment NEVER entered my mind. I decided to risk being exposed (low risk) in order to teach without a mask (because my students can hear me better and my glasses don’t fog up).
However, in a month, my husband is running a marathon. He’s been training for months. As we get closer to the marathon weekend, I am going to be thinking about our COVID risk very differently. The risk situation is going to change — I am going to want to do everything possible to protect my husband from missing the marathon because of illness. So that week, I might mask up at school. In order to prevent the disease from coming home with me. The same will be true the week of The Nutcracker.1 I do not want my daughter to miss a performance because of illness. We will take different precautions that week because the risk of being sick and having to isolate would be VERY costly.
It is all about balance.
We all need to focus on our own values.2
Based on those values, we need to weigh our own risks with the benefits.
And finally (can this be thing #3!?!?) — Do NOT panic or live in fear.
When you see the news headlines about outbreaks or significant increases in disease, do NOT immediately assume this translates into another shutdown. Or a huge increase in your individual risk of illness. Do not jump to hibernation mode. No not translate an increase in hospitalizations to we all must mask from now on until next summer. That type of panic and fear is NOT healthy.
Being healthy (as individuals and as communities) is about balance.
Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Questions? Need help thinking through your own risks vs. benefits?
And be sure to share this with your friends & family so we can work together to create healthy communities.
Meadville folks — The Nutcracker will be at The Academy the weekend after Thanksgiving. Mark your calendars.
My values. Since I value being healthy, I go to yoga (pretty much) every day. I don’t wear a mask or go in fear. I go to strengthen my mind and body. The benefit of yoga FAR OUTWEIGHS the risk of contracting COVID, flu, or RSV in the studio. No doubt.
How am I, a 69 year old, living in fear? It seems like your post is aimed solely at the young and healthy, for whom Covid does not likely mean any dire short term consequences, vs. those of us who are immune compromised or of advanced age. Nearly all deaths and serious short term consequences are in these groups, even when vaccinated. It seems quite irresponsible to suggest that we "balance" when we are the ones at high risk. I do not live in fear, just as when I cross a street I look both ways or I wear a seatbelt. Is that living in fear? Since there is no more universal masking, even in heathcare settings where sick people go to get care (and thus airborne Covid is likely), I have to protect myself. I am on my own to do that. Do I want to wear an N95 every time I go in public? No, but I am a scientist and I respect science and I am of advanced age. I take offense at the inference that I am "living in fear"! (This is all not to mention the Long Covid roulette with each infection that those of any age group and health status face but that's a different topic.) Had your essay acknowledged that I too and those like me (in high risk categories) might also be reading it and might need a different approach, I would not be offended. But it did not. So, your essay helped to cement the idea in the young and healthy that the rest of us are "living in fear".
Further, I doubt that the vast majority of unmasked people (almost our entire population including the young and healthy I mentioned earlier) need to be told to be more balanced by relaxing precautions. They have already tipped to one side and that's not the side that this essay targets. Only the most vulnerable are still concerned; telling them to consider forgoing precautions seems to cross the line ethically. So, it's not clear who the essay is written for. Right now, we are on one side or the other and the side that is way more dominant is the unmasked, devil-may-care majority.
I love reading your 3 things. Very helpful.