COVID’s ready for another round — are we?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/08/2023 (841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a brave new wave, and this one’s named Eris. Subvariant EG.5, if you want the formal name. Omicron’s grandchild, if you really want to know its genealogy.

The newest COVID variant, Eris, has added new symptoms to its arsenal: thrown into the mix now — on top of the standard symptoms of fatigue, fever and difficulty breathing, to name a few — are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Tremendous. Just tremendous.

The other difference is that Eris seems to have developed an ability to bypass both immunity from earlier COVID infections, and from COVID vaccinations. The good news? It doesn’t appear to be more deadly or more virulent than its predecessors like Omicron — though, truth be told, Omicron spread very effectively and killed thousands of people. The Eris version of COVID is still a significant illness, still with the ability to kill (especially among the elderly and immunocompromised), and still likely to continue to affect up to 10 per cent of those infected with “long COVID” symptoms that last for months after the main symptoms are gone.

All of it means, if nothing else, an interesting, if not challenging, autumn ahead.

Because, as much as we would like to pretend that it has, COVID has not disappeared and is continuing to adapt and change.

As always, there’s an impressive amount of information, misinformation and conjecture to be had online. Social media reports out of Alberta last week talked about vehicles stopped on the side of highways as drivers and passengers vomited on the shoulder of the road — with comments questioning whether COVID was to blame. As well, there’s been a recent wave of anecdotal information to be had online: people have started posting pictures of their positive COVID tests online again. Many workplaces have staff missing work after positive tests, and, if COVID is not the only sort of water-cooler talk (there’s always the wasps and the weather), it’s part of the discussion again.

Where aren’t we hearing much about a potential new wave of COVID infections and a new mutation of the virus? From the provincial government.

It’s been pretty close to crickets, while, on the horizon, our American neighbours have been watching a 25 per cent increase in infection rates (though many cases are mild).

COVID rates in Manitoba are low so far, but rising.

But there’s virtually no data or messaging for people to use to gauge what sort of risk they might be facing, nor what type of precautions they could be taking.

We’re squandering the opportunity to prepare: we’re not hearing about potential autumn vaccination plans, nor about data which can indicate the presence and extent of new variants in the province. There’s little information about where cases are popping up and whether there might be outbreaks taking place.

Part of it may be the result of the looming provincial election: with a dismal record in health care already an election problem for the governing Tories, perhaps talking about health issues is not something they want to just jump into.

But with kids back in the petri dishes you may know as schools, everything that can possibly spread between children will spread.

Mask use on transit has virtually disappeared, beyond fading signage and the flat recording that intones “mask use recommended” every time the front doors on the bus open and close. Aircraft are also close to being mask-free.

People have found their way back to the close-contact, pre-COVID world of crowds and events — and the simple fact is that if we let it, COVID has the tools and abilities to take advantage.

Once bitten, twice shy? Guess so. And not only in Manitoba. Canadian governments currently seem too shy to even broach the topic.