Reassuringly, older, non-expired assessments do nonetheless appear to be selecting up new variants of the virus (though it’s price making an allowance for that we don’t know the way future variants would possibly evolve). However they’ve by no means been 100% correct, they usually nonetheless aren’t. (Antonio reviewed just a few of the assessments again in 2021 and had blended outcomes.)

A examine revealed a few days in the past discovered that symptomatic individuals ought to actually take two assessments, 48 hours aside. And individuals who assume they could have been contaminated however don’t have signs ought to take a look at thrice.

A few months in the past, the WHO declared that covid was now not a public well being emergency of worldwide concern. Which sounds nice, till you understand it’s as a result of it’s now “a longtime and ongoing well being challenge.” Oh, and it’s nonetheless a pandemic.

There can nonetheless be big spikes in case numbers, like final winter, when the WHO recorded over 44 million circumstances on December 19. And whereas deaths have fortunately declined, they do nonetheless occur. The newest information we’ve means that 497 individuals died of covid within the week ending July 3. Deaths had been a lot increased in January of this 12 months, with 20,000 to 40,000 each week. Once more, these are simply the recorded covid deaths. The true numbers are more likely to be increased.

Personally, I’m not as fearful about covid-19 as I used to be throughout the early days of the pandemic. That’s partly as a result of I’m absolutely vaccinated and have already had covid at the very least twice. I’m additionally lucky sufficient to not have a situation that makes me susceptible to extreme illness.

However the elephant within the room is lengthy covid—one other hotly contested matter. (There was a very intense debate surrounding lengthy covid in kids, as I lined right here.) The situation continues to trigger lasting ache and struggling to an unknown however vital variety of individuals. Scientists imagine it’s doable to develop the situation after any an infection with the coronavirus.

So I’m retaining my unexpired assessments for now, simply in case.

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mRNA vaccines helped us by way of the pandemic. However they may additionally assist defend towards many different infectious ailments, provide common safety towards flu, and even deal with most cancers, as I lined in a chunk exploring what’s subsequent for this expertise.