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Don’t let your guard down against COVID

COVID-19 vaccines and newly developed treatment options have made significant inroads into defeating this health enemy.

When that victory might happen is unclear, but hope is now discernible amid what was overwhelming despair, particularly during the spring and summer of 2020.

But there is new word that we’re not out of the proverbial woods yet, due to variants emanating from the COVID virus’ original version, and people here and beyond need to avoid relaxing their pandemic-related guard.

In fact, some people seem more disgusted seeing dogs riding in grocery shopping carts — carts that exist to transport food — as well as children whose shoes have been who-knows-where, also being allowed to stand in such carts without regard to others’ food in the hours ahead — than with the prospect of contracting a malady that has been a “ticket” to death for so many people.

While the concern in grocery aisles is justifiable — that excludes service dogs that walk alongside shoppers who need their presence — developments on the COVID front merit much more than the seemingly cursory concern some people, by their actions, are demonstrating in many public settings.

People who no longer have pandemic-related concerns need to reflect on what Marc Johnson, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, told the Wall Street Journal.

“There’s just a swarm of them (variants),” Johnson said. “They all want to be the next big thing.”

Anyone concerned about what might have infected their grocery shopping cart before they arrived at the store ought to be concerned as well about a virus that could sicken them for days or longer — or, if they are in frail health, and even if they are not, lead to their demise.

The Journal began its report on new omicron subvariants gaining ground with the statement that “new offshoots of the omicron COVID-19 variant that virus experts say appear to spread easily are on the rise in the United States … underscoring how the virus is mutating and presenting new risks as it proliferates.”

The article reported the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimate that two of the omicron subvariants that drove the most recent U.S. surge are believed to represent a combined 11.4% of U.S. COVID-19 cases.

“BA.5 remains the dominant version of the virus circulating in the U.S. at about 68% of recent cases, according to CDC estimates,” the Journal article says. “But the subvariant landscape has become busier as the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to mutate.”

Still, the pandemic’s downward trajectory in the U.S. has not been altered significantly, according to the Journal, although the report admitted it can take time before a subvariant is prominent enough to have such an impact.

Like the obvious importance of common-sense cleanliness regarding “vehicles” that help shoppers transport food, the obvious message emanating from the subvariants’ threat is that updated COVID-19 vaccines should be regarded as an important ally in the fight against COVID.

Neither the U.S. nor the world in general should be saddled with a major COVID setback that the progress to date aims to prevent.

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