In a recent interview with Dr. Bob Wachter on the UCSF program Medical Grand Rounds, Dr. Eric Topol discusses Omicron, treatments, and vaccines, policy, the CDC, Long Covid, etc. This is an extensive and clearly detailed conversation with a world-renowned expert. Dr. Topol provides a healthy dose of realism about what may lie ahead and addresses how the pandemic is driving change and innovation in the practice of medicine.
Dr. Topol is a cardiologist and geneticist, the editor-in-chief of Medscape, and the author of three books on the future of medicine. I am one of his 600,000 followers on Twitter, where he has been a vital source for sound information throughout the pandemic. Readers can find him on Twitter @EricTopol.
We recommend this YouTube, posted January 13, 2022 for everyone; it is not a highly technical discussion but one that general listeners will appreciate and readily follow.
“The Omicron Whirlwind: A Conversation with Eric Topol – The Current and Future State of the Pandemic,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCAvFHd3B38
So let’s see how the United States is doing, comparatively speaking, during the “Omicron Whirlwind”? Here’s a summary tweeted in two charts by Philip Schellekens (@fibke), a senior advisor at the World Bank Group. The first chart depicts Covid confirmed mortality per capita in the G7 countries:
(Source & Larger Image: https://twitter.com/fibke/status/1483036758493347841?s=20)
The second chart depicts EXCESS mortality per capita:
(Source & Larger Image: https://twitter.com/fibke/status/1483036758493347841?s=20)
Here are two additional updates regarding the Covid picture in the US as Omicron sweeps through nursing homes and hospitals.
We do not have an updated status on Florida’s nursing homes, but here’s a national summary from the Associated Press:
“COVID deaths and cases are rising again at US nursing homes,”
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-pandemics-nursing-homes-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-31685a926b0ee4e97e1b314a52b1f41c
Across the nation, the risk of catching Covid in a hospital is also rising. See “More patients are getting COVID-19 during hospital stays. Experts worry it's because infected healthcare workers are sick on the job,”
https://www.businessinsider.com/hospitalized-people-getting-covid-from-infected-doctors-nurses-2022-1.
We do have Florida-specific information for this metric. Eric Fiegl-Ding tweeted, “In-Hospital transmission of #COVID is really, really unfortunate (and risky)—yet it’s happening a lot more than before. This is due to overcrowded hospitals, poor mask wearing, inferior mask wearing, and inadequate ventilation/air disinfection.” (https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1482915052667686914?s=20)
He included this chart from data scientist Dr. William Ku, who writes, “More patients in FL hospitals are getting #COVID-19 this time around partly due to laxer CDC rules on returning health workers to the job. The hospital/community transmission ratio has increased significantly since summer.” (See https://twitter.com/DrWilliamKu/status/1482784236281241608?s=20.)
There is much to mull about how things are going in the US, and why. Be safe and careful.
David R. Kotok
Chairman & Chief Investment Officer
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