Other periodic reminder that the idea that COVID is "only" killing 500 people a day— like a 9/11 every [six days] is "acceptable" somehow— is generally agreed to be a gross undercount: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/covid-19-deaths-in-the-us-continue-to-be-undercounted-research-shows-despite-claims-of-overcounts/

Did you know people are still misidentifying or even intentionally mislabeling cause of death wgen COVID is concerned? And that the lack of widespread free testing in official centers where results get recorded and tallied only makes that worse? And that doing things like ending the access to free AT-HOME kits will make that EVEN WORSE?

Because that should like… obvious, no?

Putting on heavy rubber gloves and boots and telling everyone the electric fence is perfectly safe; putting on suglasses at high noon and saying it's dark outside.

*Deep breath interlude*

Stuff's not over. And pretending it is and intentionally making it harder to know for sure for the sake of political expedience will only ensure we're stuck in it LONGER.

@Wolven Is this a low vaccination US thing?

I mean, I'm still masking in public indoors places because I have immunocompromised people at home, but over here in the land of high 90s full courses of vaccination it's... fine? More flu than Covid cases going around, although Covid still gets more people in hospital. Some deaths, but not that many and largely on the sixty-and-up segment. Excess mortality is back to normal. Long covid is a worry, but it's not stopping the return to normal so far.

@Wolven Government called my elderly parents to discuss an additional booster this week on the phone, they exchanged notes with the nice government lady. I forgot to ask if I can just get a booster myself as a walk-in, but I hear through the grapevine that you can either book an appointment in one public hospital or walk in on certain dates on another. The government is about to dismiss the last few mandates to mask up.

I don't know how different this is in the US.