Gayle Robin raised eyebrows when her sister in California told her in early July that she had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’m like, ‘Really? It’s summer,” the marketing and communications professional said in an interview from St. Catharines, Ontario.
About a week later, while camping, Robin woke up with a sore throat and felt sore that same day. She thought it was “a summer cold. “
“It didn’t even occur to me that maybe it’s COVID,” he said.
When he returned home a few days later and still not feeling well, he took an immediate antigen test, which came back positive.
Since then, Robin’s wife and family, as well as some of his friends and colleagues in Canada and the United States, have had COVID.
“Almost every day I hear about someone who has it or who knows someone who has it,” he said.
In fact, “we’re in the middle of a summer COVID wave,” said Dr. Andrew Pinto, director of the Upstream Lab, a public fitness team at St. John’s. John’s Hospital. Michael’s in Toronto.
In addition to wastewater data suggesting an “upward trajectory” in COVID-19 activity, Pinto said he is seeing more patients with the virus at his family’s clinic.
“One of the unique things about COVID is that it surprises us with tactics that other respiratory pathogens haven’t done,” he said.
“It spreads even in the absence of very cold, dry air with many people indoors, which is what we see with respiratory pathogens such as influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). “
Dr. Fahad Razak, former clinical director of the Ontario Scientific Advisory Board on COVID-19, said coronaviruses have traditionally spread throughout the year and do not follow a seasonal pattern.
Because COVID-19 is still new, we haven’t developed population immunity like we have with the flu and RSV, which have been around for a long time,” said Razak, who is also an internal medicine specialist at St . John’s. Michael’s Hospital.
Although we tend to think that viruses spread when other people gather indoors during the fall and winter, the summer also presents opportunities for COVID-19 to spread, he said.
“People have a tendency to combine more socially as a family. There are more gatherings like concerts, for example,” Razak said.
Just as cold weather forces other people to stay indoors during the winter, the “extremely hot days” we experienced this summer also send other people indoors in air-conditioned spaces, which can also increase the spread of the virus, he said.
Pinto noted that the summer wave also comes at a time when individual immunity against COVID-19 infection, which wanes about six months after vaccination, is likely lower.
“What was noticed in Canada is that it’s probably been a while since other people were last infected, so immunity has waned and a lot of other people didn’t get their COVID vaccines last fall and winter,” he said.
Although Razak has noted that some patients have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in recent weeks, those severe cases are “much, much rarer now,” he said, thanks to severe disease coverage provided through vaccination and past infections.
Still, other vulnerable people — including the elderly and those who are immunocompromised — may be in very poor health because of COVID, doctors say.
That’s one reason it’s important to know that there’s a good chance that summer’s bleeding symptoms are similar to those of COVID-19, they say.
It’s a “good practice” not to divulge to other vulnerable people about a respiratory virus, Razak said, but it’s especially vital with COVID.
“If I had a new COVID infection, would I do it with my parents, who are the main threat and are in their 70s and 80s?No, I’ll be careful for a few days. I would make sure my symptoms go away, that I don’t have a fever, that I don’t have a cough before I go to see them,” she said.
If you are 60 or older, immunocompromised, or have underlying chronic conditions such as diabetes, central or lung disease, you deserve to take the antiviral drug Paxlovid to avoid serious illness from COVID-19, Razak said.
That means getting tested for COVID as soon as possible, because the medication will need to be taken within the first few days after infection, he said.
And regardless of your age or physical condition, confirming if you have COVID-19 is helpful in making vaccine plans and maximizing your coverage against the virus, Razak said, since vaccination is maximally effective at least 3 months after your last infection or vaccination. . .
COVID-19 vaccines (the recently circulating variants) are being prepared for the fall, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in an email to The Canadian Press.
Health Canada is currently reviewing mRNA vaccines that target the KP. 2 strain, as well as protein subunit vaccines, which involve harmless, purified fragments of the virus, that target the JN. 1 strain, the firm said.