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.
I think a lot of it depends on your personal situation. For some immunocompromised people, the risk may be legitimately higher. And so in terms of it being “just like the flu”, I think it’s maybe more of a realization for people in those groups that it probably would have been a good idea to wear a mask in crowded public places before covid too, to protect against things like the flu. Masking has long been common in East Asia.
Not just personal, but work/community. We had a year at my work with just a handful of staff cases, then got smacked last April with about 25% of our staff all testing positive over a week or two, plus a few not-COVID sick calls. After about 5 cases in 2 days most people masked up again until the sick calls stopped.
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I think a lot of it depends on your personal situation. For some immunocompromised people, the risk may be legitimately higher. And so in terms of it being “just like the flu”, I think it’s maybe more of a realization for people in those groups that it probably would have been a good idea to wear a mask in crowded public places before covid too, to protect against things like the flu. Masking has long been common in East Asia.
Not just personal, but work/community. We had a year at my work with just a handful of staff cases, then got smacked last April with about 25% of our staff all testing positive over a week or two, plus a few not-COVID sick calls. After about 5 cases in 2 days most people masked up again until the sick calls stopped.