I apologize for not posting a July blog, but our family finally became ill with Covid (BA5 variant). It’s such a blessing that this variant is passing over all of us. Whether you’re vaccinated or not…you’ll probably get this milder COVID too. However, it’s a tremendous gift from God that is finally ending this 100-year pandemic by leaving powerful natural immunity in its wake.
I was asked recently “Will this ever end? We’ll just keep seeing one variant come after another.” It helps to understand the trajectory of corona viruses to understand why I’m so thankful.
First, there are many different types of viruses as there are bacteria. The common cold is a corona virus. Experts disagree whether the corona virus that caused COVID was altered in a lab or came from the natural world.
Once here it began to mutate or change. So far there have been 4 major changes: Wuhan—then Alpha—then Delta—then Omicron with 5 alterations. The Omicron BA5 is the most recent. Each change became less virulent yet more infective.
The Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines were designed to slow down virus replication from the first strain. They are less effective with the Omicron strains which explains why so many people are getting it despite being vaccinated.
You can tell which type of strain you received by a lab test or the date when you were infected. Currently, the CDC reports that 84% of COVID in the US is from the Omicron BA5 variant.
We were sick for 2 weeks with an overall unpleasant symptomology. My brother and I had a lingering cough while my husband had GI upset symptoms. The whole thing was annoying but certainly not as bad as it would have been with those initial outbreaks.
So be hopeful… Jesus has His healing hand upon us. It looks to me like so many of us are now getting it that we’ve reached herd immunity and life is returning to normal.
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. Psalm 30:2
In the next blog I’ll tackle the Monkey Pox virus.
Source: –“Monitoring Variant Proportions,” CDC, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions.
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ã All rights reserved 2022, Jennie E. Johnson, RN-BC, PhD
Author of new book: Helping the Hurting: Nursing Ministry in the Body of Christ
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