What I’m most afraid of is long Covid

 

I’m still wearing my mask most of the time when I’m indoors with other people and I’m still reluctant to do much traveling - although I make an exception for visiting my grandkids! But I’m not doing this because I’m afraid of catching Covid and dying in a hospital. Rather, it’s that I’ll catch Covid (and I never have so far), “recover” from it after a bad week or two, but then have lingering effects that never go away.

My reason for this attitude is entirely due to my work. Almost everything I do for work involves writing in some way (including writing a book on cybersecurity, which I hope to finish in the near future), and the rest requires paying close attention during online meetings. I’ve heard from people who have had (or are having) Covid that the worst part for them was the “Covid fog” (as one person put it), that doesn’t allow them to concentrate or think straight. Frankly, that frightens me more than anything else, since, being independently employed, I will have no income if I can’t concentrate.

So I’m going to play it very conservatively. I used to say I hope to get through the pandemic without getting Covid, but I think we all realize by now that the words “get through the pandemic” don’t have any meaning. We’ll never be “through” the pandemic (despite what Biden said). I might have to be on guard like this for the rest of my life.

The numbers

These numbers were updated based on those reported on the Worldometers.info site for Sunday, September 25.

Month	Deaths reported during month/year	Avg. deaths per day during month/year	Deaths as percentage of previous month/year
Month of March 2020	4,058	131
Month of April 2020	59,812	1,994	1,474%
Month of May 2020	42,327	1,365	71%
Month of June 2020	23,925	798	57%
Month of July 2020	26,649	860	111%
Month of August 2020	30,970	999	116%
Month of Sept. 2020	22,809	760	75%
Month of Oct. 2020	24,332	785	107%
Month of Nov. 2020	38,293	1,276	157%
Month of Dec. 2020	79,850	2,576	209%
Total 2020	354,215	1,154
Month of Jan. 2021	98,604	3,181	119%
Month of Feb. 2021	68,918	2,461	70%
Month of March 2021	37,945	1,224	55%
Month of April 2021	24,323	811	64%
Month of May 2021	19,843	661	82%
Month of June 2021	10,544	351	53%
Month of July 2021	8,833	287	84%
Month of August 2021	31,160	1,005	351%
Month of Sept. 2021	56,687	1,890	182%
Month of Oct. 2021	49,992	1,613	88%
Month of Nov. 2021	38,364	1,279	77%
Month of Dec. 2021	41,452	1,337	108%
Total 2021	492,756	1,350	158%
Month of Jan. 2022	65,855	2,124	159%
Month of Feb. 2022	63,451	2,266	96%
Month of March 2022	31,427	1,014	50%
Month of April 2022	13,297	443	42%
Month of May 2022	11,474	370	86%
Month of June 2022	11,109	370	97%
Month of July 2022	11,903	384	107%
Month of August 2022	16,199	540	136%
Total Pandemic so far	1,081,715	1,153

 

I. Total deaths (as of Sunday)

Total US reported Covid deaths as of Sunday:          1,081,715

Average daily deaths last seven days: 436

Average daily deaths previous seven days: 387

Percent increase in total deaths in the last seven days: 0.3%

II. Total reported cases (as of Sunday)

Total US reported cases as of Sunday: 97,905,915             

Increase in reported cases last 7 days: 396,479 (56,640)

Increase in reported cases previous 7 days: 370,140 (52,877/day)

Percent increase in reported cases in the last seven days: 0.4% (0.4% last week)

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.