Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. So, it was my birthday this weekend. And as you will, I was just out living life until I found out that someone that I was with now has COVID. And if it seems like everyone is getting COVID again, you’re not imagining it.
Listener Call-In: I was exposed Friday at a music venue in Marin County. Three days later, started to feel symptoms. We are vaccinated. We are boosted. I think two times we’ve recently gotten over COVID infection.
Listener Call-In: My husband and I and my three children, five and under recently got COVID for the first time at the end of June and early July. And now that the kids are back at school and unmasked because that is the way of the world, it seems now.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: We’re in the middle of another increase in COVID cases here in the Bay Area at a time when restrictions and mandates are long gone. But this virus is still very much part of our lives today. KQED health correspondent Lesley McClurg breaks down this moment in our ever changing relationship with COVID.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Lesley, I feel like we seem to be in this moment again where everyone around us seems to be getting COVID again. Are we in a summer surge summer? What is this? What is happening right now?
Lesley McClurg: Yeah, exactly. It’s a good question. I would say experts are saying uptick. Swell. Serge tends to kind of make us nervous. And fortunately, we’re not seeing some sort of spike. That’s really quite worrisome. I would say a lot more people are getting COVID right now. I think that’s the fair way to say what’s happening.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And how do we know that this is happening? What data are we using at this point?
Lesley McClurg: Basically, all indicators are showing upwards, hospitalizations are going up, wastewater data is going up, as well as test positivity rate is going up. So the number of tests that are showing up positive at hospitals are going up. Those are basically the three ways that you check to see, you know, is is COVID rising? And COVID is definitely rising, I think is also indicative. I heard several experts say, you know, are a lot more people around you getting it? That means it’s in your community. So I think it’s fair to say if if you have friends that are that are testing positive, that that it’s fair to say that you know, it’s around you.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, I do know that we don’t have the data that we used to have when it comes to tracking how bad COVID is around us. Right.
Lesley McClurg: We have in some ways better indicators than we did at the beginning in that we’re using wastewater data a lot more right now. And wastewater data is, you know, they really track all the dead skin cells and the pee and everything that it’s coming off of us, and they track to see if the virus is in there. So you can get a pretty accurate understanding of how much virus is spreading in a community from the wastewater data. What we don’t have anymore is really accurate testing data. Back in the day, everybody who thought they had COVID went to the hospital because that was the only place to get a test. And those are PCR tests. And so we had really accurate numbers on PCR tests, which is what is federally reported to public health agencies. We don’t have that anymore because people are testing at home more, more people are probably testing now than they were back, you know, in 2020 and 2021 when we didn’t have the accessibility to antigen tests or home tests that we do now. And those tests are not captured in that tally, basically. But we also have hospitalization numbers. So I think we do have a pretty aggregate number of indicators to give us a sense of what’s happening.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I feel like I’m I’m losing track of just like which variant we’re on now. So what’s the like, main variant taking hold in this sort of summer swell?
Lesley McClurg: Right now the most prevalent is Eris or XB, but basically these are variations on the same theme of Akron. And what it’s doing to us hasn’t changed that much since basically last winter, except that it’s just becoming a little sneakier in the sense that more contagious, it’s kind of getting past our immunity, but it’s not necessarily making us any sicker. There is another variant that is starting to show up in some parts of the U.S. It’s not in California yet. That’s BA.2.86 or some folks are calling it “Pirola”. And that variant was quite worrisome initially because it demonstrated that it might be more infectious, but we are now seeing that that’s maybe not the case and that it is acting very similar to Eris and maybe again, kind of slipping past our our initial defenses, but still responding to vaccines.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So is the take away maybe there when it comes to variants is that none of these are as bad as Delta and Omicron, which were like very scary when they they sort of came out.
Lesley McClurg: I think it’s fair to say that we have better strategies to defend against the virus that is circulating right now. Most people have some sort of built up immunity. 97% of adults have either gotten a vaccine or been exposed to the virus at this point. So we’ve got a defense layer that we didn’t have, you know, back in 2020 or early 2021. And so that’s, you know, keeping us from getting really sick. And the virus is not quite as dangerous. So it’s a combination of those forces.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: If you get COVID now, what is the, I guess, official guidance at this point?
Lesley McClurg: Official guidance is if you have symptoms, test immediately. Find out if you have it and then to isolate for five days. If you start getting really scary symptoms of any kind, then you can go to a hospital. So if you if you have trouble breathing, if your fever spikes, if you’re, you know, really nauseous, then it’s a good idea to seek help from the medical field, you know, maybe go going to the hospital or at least reaching out to your primary physician and seeing if you should get Paxlovid, which is probably the most accessible treatment and showing the most success against the current variant.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I think a lot of people and at least me as well, like personally, are still afraid of potentially getting long COVID. What do we know about treatments for long COVID at this point? Have there been any updates on that end?
Lesley McClurg: Unfortunately, we’re not seeing a lot of success there. We’ve spent about $1,000,000,000 on project recover trying to find treatments that will help folks who are suffering from long COVID, which is such a myriad of symptoms. And because it’s such kind of a it’s playing out so differently in different people and it’s kind of a very individual disease, it’s very difficult to have treatments that can really work. So the best advice at this point is to go to specialty clinics and have individual, you know, tailored treatment to your particular symptoms. The best thing to do, you know, to prevent getting long COVID right now is to stay up to date on your COVID booster. It does show that those folks who do get vaccinated do have lower rates of long COVID.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And speaking of a new booster, we’re actually like a few days away from an updated one, right?
Lesley McClurg: That is true. So they’re saying kind of mid-September is when it will likely be available. And really those who are at highest risk should get it first. You know, seniors, the folks who are immunocompromised. But the CDC said last week that the booster will be available for everyone. And most folks, you know, all of us have who did get a shot last fall, you know, are up for another one in the sense that your immunity does wane over time. So if you want to prep your system, you know, for this swell and just cold and cold and flu season in general, it’s a good idea to get that booster and you can get in. It is recommended to get that booster with your flu shot.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Will this booster protect against the current variants that are in the air right now?
Lesley McClurg: It is designed to defend against the most the variants that are circulating most prevalently right now and in recent months. And it does show likely that it will work against the B.A. .2.86 or the Pirola that is just starting to circulate. There is data suggesting that it will work quite well against that one as well.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And what if you just recently got COVID, Lesley? Like, should you also get this new booster?
Lesley McClurg: Yeah, the latest advice is basically you should definitely wait until you don’t have any more symptoms. Generally, about ten days after you stop having symptoms and then you can get the booster or you can wait to delay about three months. So you should get it sometime this fall. It’s not something you need to run out and get right away.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, I want to ask you about masking, Lesley, because actually there’s a local shop in my community that does require you or is starting to require patrons to wear masks when they come inside. It’s like this really small like store. So, I mean, have any places reinstated mask mandates here in the Bay Area?
Lesley McClurg: There are a few health care facilities in Northern California. Kaiser Santa Rosa does have a mask requirement. Some Sutter facilities are requiring their health care workers to wear masks later on this fall. Santa Clara County is going to require health care workers to wear masks, so it’s starting to come forward. But outside of health care facilities, it’s generally just recommended and there is no indication that requirements are likely to come back from public health officials.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How would you characterize like where we’re at now? Like, is this still a pandemic? Are we now sort of in this moment where this is just going to be a seasonal illness like everyone’s sort of been saying it would? It would eventually become just like the flu? Like, where are we at now?
Lesley McClurg: It’s endemic. It’s going to be around. I think we passed that threshold a while ago, but all of us feel a little almost like, I don’t know, I feel internally like my gears are not quite clicking in yet in terms of how to assess the risk of COVID. This is the same bug that killed more than a million people in the U.S. and now it it’s not nearly as scary. We can test for it. We do have treatments. We do have vaccines. So we’re in a very different moment. But kind of similarly to how people probably felt after the Spanish flu. There was a fear of this thing for quite some time afterwards. It’s not how we associate and relate to the flu today. Right. And I think we’re in that moment of COVID as well. We’re still kind of figuring out how dangerous this thing is. And it’s very individual in terms of how to assess your risk.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Lesley, thank you so much for breaking this down for us. I really appreciate it.
Lesley McClurg: Thank you.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That was Lesley McClurg, a health correspondent for KQED. The people you heard from at the top of this show were from a recent episode of KQED’s Forum, which you can catch every weekday from 9 to 11 a.m. on 88.5 FM or wherever you listen to podcasts. This 25-minute conversation with Lesley was cut down and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. Senior editor Alan Montecillo scored it and produced it. Shout out as well to the rest of the podcast squad here at KQED. That’s Jen Chien, our director of podcasts. Katie Sprenger, our podcast operations manager. César Saldaña is our engagement producer, and Holly Kernan is our chief content officer. The Bay is a production of member-supported KQED. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks for listening. Peace.
