Another Round of "We're Better" Headlines Only Portend a Return of Spread

You may be seeing headlines about how COVID-19 spread in MA is down and the impact is less severe... 

I would point out that we still have over twice the spread of our lowest point in 2022 (which was in early March, not the summer) and that lowest point was itself 10 times the lowest point in 2021.  

I would also point out that until the last couple weeks, we were seeing double-digit deaths per day where we had actually seen a week in 2021 where we only had 1-2 deaths per day and even saw a day with 0 deaths.

I would also point out that ICU bed usage in Boston, though not above their threshold for concern, are still above their target since June 2022, COVID-19 ED visits are higher than they were this time last year and approximately where they were last summer, and while the count of adults hospitalized due to COVID-19 has been falling steadily this year and is now lower than it has been since last May, it is also still higher than it was in April last year (aka, same time last year.

I would also point out that hospitalizations and deaths do not show us the impact of less obvious/less reported harm COVID-19 causes in the form of organ damage, immune system harm, brain fog, diabetes, severe fatigue, and more...

Don't assume that good-news stories point to an end of this pandemic. In the past 3 years, they have always portended the (sometimes slow) climb of spread and community harm posed by this disease. The past has shown that we know how to prevent the spread, we just choose not to.