Dreaming of a Covid-free Christmas? How to stay safe over UK’s festive season | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Do I really have to worry about Covid again this Christmas?

Within reason, yes, says Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP, senior medical education fellow at Oxford University and member of the Independent Sage advisory group. “Some people still get very ill, especially the clinically vulnerable who have not responded to vaccines, and even if that’s not you, you might make someone else ill if you catch Covid and pass it on.”

But isn’t it just like a cold these days?

Mercifully, for many healthy people it is. But “even in this post-vaccination period and with so-called mild Omicron subvariants, an additional 750,000 have succumbed to long Covid and its associated disabilities during 2022”, says Salisbury, “and this is often in people who were fine after previous infections.”

OK then – what should I do?

The most important thing is to get up to date with your vaccines, according to Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at Edinburgh University and the chief social policy adviser to the Scottish government.

Being fully vaccinated won’t fully protect you from infection, but it significantly lowers the risk of illness, she says, adding that this applies equally for the flu jab.

 

Source: Dreaming of a Covid-free Christmas? How to stay safe over UK’s festive season | Coronavirus | The Guardian

$11 for a head of California lettuce? Here’s what’s behind the shortage causing ‘outrageous’ prices – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The reason for the spike? It’s not just inflation and supply-chain problems.

Crop disease is ravaging lettuce fields in Salinas Valley — the “Salad Bowl of the World” — causing a shortage across the country. And as farmers and researchers desperately search for a remedy for the insect-spread virus, shoppers, grocers and restaurant owners are left to face the sticker shock.

“Seven dollars for a head of lettuce — iceberg lettuce, not the fancy stuff?” said Candice Schwab in disbelief as she pushed her shopping cart down the produce aisle at the high-end Draeger’s. “It’s outrageous.”

Source: $11 for a head of California lettuce? Here’s what’s behind the shortage causing ‘outrageous’ prices – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

More Than 4 in 10 Republicans and a Third of Parents Now Oppose Schools Requiring Children to Get Vaccinated for Measles and Other Illness, Up Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Began | KFF (Me: Mindless GOP threat to public health!!!)

Source: More Than 4 in 10 Republicans and a Third of Parents Now Oppose Schools Requiring Children to Get Vaccinated for Measles and Other Illness, Up Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Began | KFF