It was completely political from the beginning. As usual the government lied to the people about almost everything related to COVID and it was clearly not as dangerous to most people absent old age and poor health. It was simply a means to redistribute wealth and condition Americans to stricter bureaucratic rule. Now we know that if the CDC tells us it’s dark outside we should open the curtains and look outside before we believe them. COVID killed science.
3 replies
Dutch researchers show that one in 12 people who get Covid are still showing symptoms or do not think they are fully cured, six months after diagnosis. Loss of smell, taste, shortness of breath, coughing, runny nose and just feeling washed out are what they complain about.
So when you bet on a horse, how often do you win at 12 to one?
Around where I live, a whole lot of 20 and 30 year olds, the group who were the most impatient with the rules and restrictions, caught it between February and April.
Most were in bed for at least three days, off work for 10 (with loss of bonuses) and rather chastened by the experience.
They are now the group calling loudest for the fourth dose of vaccine to be available for all, not just the over 60s.
Like you say, it is here to stay, constantly evolving (with South Africa now the main brewing pot) and, I might add, not something to treat lightly.
Believe it. I know too many folks personally who either took it too lightly or simply were unlucky and caught it despite all the precautions. Some rebounded, some died. The others have serious side effects that wont go away. To say it’s “just like the flu” is stupid. When the flu goes away, it’s gone, Covid not so much for too many people. Caution is advised until we get a better handle on it for sure, but at least with the vaccines we have now we can at least survive it, and for some that’s enough. Just don’t take it so lightly that you think that you’ll never be one of the folks that never has it go away, or worse, spreads it to others out of ignorance.
3 replies
Skied when covid-19 hit its height in winter of 2020; mask police were scolding those standing on liftlines to pull up masks especially those smirking with it below their noses. Social distancing was spacing wearing skis on liftlines. Lodge was all but closed except to patrons dining; website implored everyone to dress up ready for the outdoors and eat in their vehicles. Portajohns were lined up in the parking lot but I used the indoor facilities. A super spreader event standing on lifelines. Didn’t catch covid-19. Winter of 2021; no mask police, lodge opened, no restrictions, hardly anyone wearing masks as business returned, lifelines packed. Visited my ski area eighteen times, didn’t catch covid-19. Fully vaccinated and boosted. Brother in law caught covid-19 at work and spread it to his wife and adult son; both were vaccinated and likened it to a cold. Son wasn’t vaccinated and recovered.
2 replies
I came down with COVID at the show although I suspect that I either brought it from Maryland or picked it up at one of many fuel stops along the way to the show. I honestly wasn’t surprised but I was very disappointed that the EAA did not have any rapid tests available at the first-aid stations or anywhere else on the field. As you said, this is now endemic and we need to live with it so the first-aid stations should be prepared. Instead they handed me a sheet of places that sold test kits in town which would have been fine if I had a car, which I did not. I guess they expected me to Uber to a drug store but they didn’t even offer me a mask to protect the Uber driver. To make matters worse, they main reason I was trying to get tested is that I was supposed to be volunteering on Friday for the EAA at the Learn to Fly building so I was trying to protect their guests and other volunteers from what I suspected was a budding case of COVID. So yes, we need to learn to live with this, no we shouldn’t stay away from OSH, but yes, EAA should be better prepared to help guests who come down with COVID at the show.
3 replies
I find Covid provides great examples of “Survivorship Bias”. For many of those who got it and lived, it confirms their belief that it’s no big deal. But for those who didn’t survive, well, they’re not around to tell us what they think. It’s easy to believe in the positive when the dissenting opinions are dead.
Though judging by the posts on sorryantivaxxer.com, I suspect many of those who died believing it was no big deal took that opinion to the grave.
Paul: You essentially it the nail on the head as a non-physician observer of all of this. I am a lung doctor who has dealt with respiratory viruses my entire life. We have learned many things about them over the last 100 years. But we subsequently violated many of the practices and principles we learned about them dujring the last 2.5 years. “shelter in place” and lockdowns do not work and never have in the past. The WHO (World Health Organization) said the same over 15 years ago.
The only way to stop a respiratory virus from spreading is to have everyone stop breathing. That is not possible nor necessary as the “sky is not falling” with this infection and people need to learn it never was.
So to blame AirVenture or any other outdoor activity as a"spreader" of any infection is improper. Individuals should make the choice on what they think their personal risk tolerance allows them to do. Massive “one size fits all” rules will not get you there!
Technically, covid is not yet truly endemic, though most people are behaving as through it is. At least we do seem to be past the worst of it, according to hospitalization rates. But since at-home test results are rarely collected, the infection rate data is incomplete at best and should be considered unreliable data.
But would I go to OSH next year? Yes, I hope to. This year and last year simply didn’t work out for reasons completely unrelated to covid. But I’ve never been a part of the “I go every year, full stop” crowd, so missing a few events isn’t a big deal to me.
The freak show is alive and well. Exhibit one.
I disagree, science has been killed by politicians. Really started with the so called global warming whose name has been changed to climate change. The purpose behind that and covid is to institute global policies controlling people. The end result sadly will be the dystopian world Orwell portrayed in 1984 which sadly turns out to not be a work of fiction but a warning which we failed to heed.
2 replies
Pilots, who over long periods of time, climb thousands of feet above terra firma in mechanical devices subject to periodic failure, with exposure to the vicissitudes of weather and their own human fallibility worrying about what has become the equivalent of a heavy cold, strikes me as laughable.
1 reply
We were careful for the most part. We didn’t get any sickness for over two years. We did live our lives, saw friends, I flew every week, mainly to West Virginia where it was still open, went to the grocery store and so on. Unfortunately a few weeks ago I felt like crap and tested positive the next morning. I had the runny nose from hell, a cough and that was about it. Took about 2 weeks for the runny nose to stop. My wife sadly got it also a couple of days later. Headache and fatigue. She slept for the most part for three days. As the author says eventually everyone will get it. We are vaccinated and received one booster. My wife due to health issues had her antibodies tested. More then adequate. Her physician is recommending against additional boosters. At this point I have to wonder who is benefitting from this massive transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to moderna, Pfizer and others.
1 reply
Except in a few places they were not. My neighbor is an administrator for a major hospital system in the Washington DC area. They were getting ready to lay off their employees, the hospital was for the most part empty. The so called “elective” procedures were stopped which cut off the revenue to the hospital, emptied many beds and left staff with nothing to do. Those doctors and nurses who everyone praised were about to lose their jobs. Totally mishandled the whole thing.
4 replies
“fart in a whirlwind”….best description of COVID yet.
How many million people have died from this scourge? And how many more were sickened, some for many months due to “long covid”. Paul, your column is based on your opinion, rather than epidemiological facts. I suggest taking a look at Katelyn Jettelina (an epidemiologist) for a statistical evaluation of the situation, and the real risks this virus presents to different age groups.
Personally, my sentiments about living a full life are right with you. On the other hand, just because a guy I meet who happens to have an aircraft I’d love to fly in, asks me to go up with him, I first consider the mechanical condition of the aircraft, and second, his competency.
Going to AirVenture or anywhere else and ignoring the actual risks and living as if it’s pre 2019, is well, ignoring significant aspects of reality.
With half a million people from (literally) everywhere and numbers on the rise it was certain there were thousands, if not tens of thousands of people with active COVID cases. That’s what drove my decision to mask up (with an actual KN95) when inside; despite the looks like I was a three headed mongoose. I got to ask my annoying questions of vendors in enclosed spaces and no COVID thus far.
It’s a bit like aviation and the Swiss cheese theory: sometimes the holes just line up for bad luck. The more you reduce the holes, the less likely they are to line up, but they still can. So were you lucky or good- I don’t know- there doesn’t have to be a whirlwind for me to fart.
2 replies
Two weekends before I went to Oshkosh, I and my companion picked up covid at a church potluck. We were prepared and knew what to do. Fevers, congestion, all the rest for 48 hours, and then gradual diminishing of symptoms over the next 3 days. No vax, no Pzifermectinlovid “rebound”, just large doses of supplements well-known to be mitigants of viral load and a generic therapeutic pharmaceutical that has been ridiculed by the cultists. Contrary to the shrieking of the deniers, our process worked for us, just as it worked for many, many of our friends, most of whom are, like us, in the “at-risk” demographic. We were symptom-free well before OSH. Who knows - Maybe we’ll get some of the blame by cultists for the “superspread” at OSH for our noncompliance with The Science™, carrying The Bug while not being appropriately fearful. Because blaming seems to be a big part of compliance with “authority”.
1 reply
Japanese have been wearing masks for ~70 years. Their flu incidence was consistently higher than the U.S. until they started an aggressive vaccine campaign ~15 years ago. Masks don’t work and never have. As for medical facilities, the anti-science behavior of the medical establishment has been one of the greatest eye-openers of this eye-opening pandemic.
Aviation safety is driven by objective data, not “expert” opinion. As just one illustrative example, we adopted checklists in the early 1940’s because we learned that even the best trained pilots can, and do, err when faced with complex tasks, especially in a high stress environment or when complacent. Most docs still don’t use them. Beech Bonanzas we’re often known as Doctor killers not because the planes were dangerous but because their pilots had egos and wallets bigger than their skills warranted. It’s as good a metaphor as any for the reasons to question the opinions of the medical profession.
2 replies
So true.
Hi Paul, thank you so much for the article. If I were in your editorial shoes, I would probably take the same stance of advocating for the public-health stability of Oshkosh, the greatest aviation event in the world, and poo-pooing COVID risks and citing COVID stats of a minuscule part of the total Oshkosh attendance (650,000). There were most likely attendees, like me, who were in fine form at OSH and went nowhere near the Winnebago County Health Department, then traveled home and became sick. I got COVID after attending, and am feeling much better after a round of Paxlovid. But you speak the truth when you state it is my go/no go decision whether to attend or not, and next year, I will make that decision along with everyone else, based on all available information related to the event, with heavy emphasis on non-attendance.
Actually, “global warming” was a media-created name. Climatologists have always referred to it as “climate change”, which is an accurate name for the phenomenon. But most people don’t read or listen past the headlines, so the true facts get twisted and lead to a misunderstanding and loss of trust in the real science buried in the details.
I both agree and disagree with Paul. All large events are super spreader events that we are going to have to learn to live with by mitigation. But Covid is a far more serious disease than the Flu. More than a Million have died from Covid and it is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the US, lagging only behind heart disease and cancer. 2.4% of our work force is now out on Long Term Disability due to Long Covid.
Masking more effectively prevents transmission than protection against infection; it is a courtesy to others to mask up when attending any event with strangers. One should take a home Coved test (still provided for free by the government) before attending any event and stay home till testing negative, but at least mask up.
Vaccination absolutely lessens the burden of Covid on both the individual and society. So it is a courtesy to all, to stay up to date on vaccination and boosters. Vaccination is far safer than is catching Covid.
Yes there is survivor bias in those pooh poohing all the Covid precautions: the dead tell no tales and natural selection has killed many of the vulnerable.
Exercising one’s right to reject masking and vaccination, does not give you the authority to jeopardize others, but the responsibility to protect other from the consequence of your decisions.
3 replies
The data on masks refute your statement that they “don’t work and never have”. Depending on the type used, they may have a near-zero effect (single-layer cloth masks and neck gaiters) to a significant effect (properly-fitted N95+). It’s just that it’s impractical to walk around everywhere with a properly-fitted N95 or better masks, so most people (who wear masks) are using the less-effective but more practical ones.
I think in most places they were not overwhelmed, but I was specifically asking about the areas that were.
With all the talk of science gone sour, I’m going to have to point out that your comparison of flu rates seems suspicious.
The Japanese are a genetically homogeneous society that live like sardines compared to us. Those and other variables could seemingly skew the results.
I’m no scientist, but I’ve had no end of frustration with arguments on both sides of the mask effectiveness issue. The biggest problem is language. We really have to be careful what we are talking about. Are we talking about mask policy effectiveness or the effectiveness of the physical mask? Does physical effectiveness get measured based on the material or the design itself. Do we allow for the factors of ease of use, comfort, cost, durability, etc.?
All I know at this point is I’ve not seen anything convincing from either side.
1 reply
Not vaxed, had covid, and wont inject experimental political projects into my body just to make someone else feel safe. Ill stick with natural immunity. Has served me well.
1 reply
Oh, and how does a vaccine that even you acknowledge lessens severity of COVID but in no way prevents the spread protect others?
1 reply
Because when vaccinated, your vaccine burden is lower and less likely to mutate; thus lessening the rate of transmission. This is a Corona Covid-19 virus science fact.
The common cold is a corona virus that mutates so rapidly, that we’ve never been able to create a vaccine against it.
1 reply
“Has served me well.”
But has it served your fellow Americans? The Vaccinated have broader spectrum immunity that those with “natural immunity” gained by surviving Covid infection.
Test yourself for Covid-19 and wear a mask if positive.
Still likely, just less likely…No vaccine yet developed beats natural immunity.
2 replies
COVID wasn’t a fart in a whirlwind. When millions died mostly because the same people refused to wear masks and refused to get vaccinated citing personal freedom. A pandemic is not about personal freedom without impacting others. Unless you become a hermit.
COVID may be a nuisance now that many are boosted but it wasn’t the case two years ago.
1 reply
Indeed, Michael L… I’m really amazed how a lot of people that aren’t physicians or MDs dare to talk in such a superfluous way about that virus and resultant consequences.
We have no idea how many people died as a DIRECT result of COVID. The CDC and almost all state health departments classified any death as a COVID death if the person had tested positive for COVID no matter what the individuals acute medical issue was. People killed by trauma that had blood drawn who died within minutes of hospital arrival were counted as COVID deaths. Hospital ICD-9 codes were monetized and created a COVID death certificate factory.
3 replies
Who is benefitting?
Ignore my previous reply - bad copy-paste.
Vaccines boost natural immunity. Yes, you can roll the dice and take your chances with your own immunity, or you can “cheat” and increase the effectiveness of your own immunity.
Put another way, if there was something easy and cheap I could do that statistically decreased the chance of my engine failing, why would I not do that, even if the chances of it failing are pretty low to begin with? It seems like a no brainer to me.
If you don’t catch COVID at OSH, you might catch a cold, food poisoning, the flu, any of a number of exotic ailments brought in by pilots from all over the world. We can always stay home. But OSH is the premier event in the aviation world, it’s worth a sniffle to attend.
The only thing I ever came down with at OSH was blisters on my feet.
1 reply
Quite right, Rich K… Although some of the words of someone that only identified himself with a single dot (.), contain, in my perspective (as an MD as I’m) a certain part of true, the Covid illness isn’t, for while, a simple endemic one and a lot of care must be taken for as members of a community. And, between those cares, the only one isn’t wearing face masks, even if we’re talkink on N95+.
You need to get better informed instead of just looking at political rants.
If you actually inform yourself, you will see that, for the most part, we were given the best knowledge available at the time. Our knowledge of the disease changed as we learned more and the recommendations changed.
Of course it wasn’t a dangerous disease. It was just a coincidence that hospitals were beyond capacity, and they had to obtain refrigerator trucks to act as morgues. The morgues were filled with people of all ages. That could happen any time. Covid just happened to come at the same time.
Yes, the disease is less serious now, but people are still going to the hospital. If YOU want to expose yourself and not take reasonable precautions, that is your choice. YOU can risk having symptoms for the rest of your life. Maybe a lockdown is not necessary now, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t take reasonable precautions. So, I would not eat indoors in a crowded restaurant, but one with just a few people is OK for me. The more people, the better chance of one of them carrying the virus. Also, the more people, the less distance between them.
The virus itself is rarely the actual cause of death. It’s usually the symptoms that kill people, often pneumonia or other respiratory illness (hence the “SARS” part of SARS-CoV-2: Severe Accute Respiratory Syndrom). But how do you determine with 100% certainty that the pneumonia was directly caused by COVID or something else? The simple answer is that you can’t, so you record it as “caused by covid” if they test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, or “caused by not-covid” if they test negative.
1 reply
+1
How dare you not live in fear and bow in obedience to our overlords!!!
I was getting ready to fly one day and saw another pilot around his plane, by himself, wearing a mask. The dividing line definitely is not between pilots and non-pilots. I would say that it’s a different psychological aspect, the same one which tends to group people into two main political bents.
1 reply
“We have no idea how many people died as a DIRECT result of COVID.”
Actually, we have a pretty good idea. The “Excess Death” rate is the number of people who actually died beyond what was expected.
Every year a certain number of people will die - old age, cancer, heart disease, accidents, viruses, and so on. It’s a fairly steady, predictable number. There are occasional blips due to natural disasters (hurricanes, heat waves, floods). Or a particularly big jump in 2018 due to a nasty strain of flu.
But these past two years have seen huge increase in excess deaths due to Covid-19. If all Covid-19 deaths were subtracted, then the Excess Death rate would closely match the expected death rate.
PS - I mention Jan 2018 flu season because some FaceBook posts seek to minimize “Excess Deaths” by cherry-picking the data, comparing Jan '18 to Jan '21 and claiming the two match. But if you look at a chart of Excess Deaths over several years, the truth comes out.
1 reply
The Climate ALWAYS CHANGES, it’s not a static phenomena. The reasons for the climatological changes is not (despite what you hear) scientifically determined.
If you really want to know what the public/government debate on Climate change is about, ask them what they’d do with all the money that would be collected through a carbon tax? The answer is at the IPCC at the UN.
“At this point I have to wonder who is benefitting from this massive transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to moderna, Pfizer and others.”
Let me answer your question: moderna, Pfizer, the politicians to whom they donate, and bureaucrats like Fauci.
Where did Paul say “ignore risks”? Conservatives like Paul and me (and others) wouldn’t tell anyone to ignore risks. We would tell people to make their own decisions. You know, like people in a free country ought to do.
And just to cover the reply I’m likely to get from some, I suspect most of us would also encourage people to be respectful of others—i.e., if you know you’re sick, stay home or take precautions not to expose others.
+1
Take precautions!!! Bring good shoes!!!
Outside is most likely very safe. Inside I wore a mask; thus also very safe. No problem. My guess is that those who actually caught Covid at AirVenture were inside a lot and not wearing a mask.
1 reply
So THAT’s where I got it … I spent a lot of time talking to the So Africans who flew the three Sling HW airplanes in Linda was slobbering on everything any time she talked about her airplane, too. Maybe I got too close to her? 
Do you have an example of that, or is it something you made up?
Here’s the funny thing about motorcycle accidents. You’ll never see a cause of death listed as “motorcycle accident”. The cause of death form usually lists multiple entries. So with your theoretical motorcycle accident the cause of death would show:
1: Massive Internal Bleeding
…due to…
2: Massive blunt force trauma
…due to…
3: injuries sustained from motorcycle accident.
Now, if that person had Covid-19 it might be noted on their death certificate as well, just like any other conditions such as obesity, or high-blood-pressure, or cancer.
Now, the person wouldn’t have died of Covid (or obesity, or cancer). UNLESS Covid (or obesity, or cancer) made them unable to recover from their motorcycle injuries. Then it might be listed as an additional cause of death.
Apparently all medical facilities continue to require masks for both patients and staff, regardless of the fact that the flimsy paper masks are not N95 nor properly fitting. Therefore the whole patient care medical establishment is perpetuating phony, virtue signaling that is medically worthless as has been proven by numerous studies. Properly fitted N95 or similar surgical masts - yes. Everything else is worthless virtue signaling nonsense.
The outside risk of catching covid (or any other airborne virus, for that matter) is significantly lower than the indoor risk, but it’s still non-zero, particularly in crowded areas. And depending on what type of masks people were wearing, they would have varying degrees of protection indoors.
So I don’t think it’s accurate to assume that the only ones who caught covid at OSH were indoors and unmasked. But I do assume a degree of complacency was a common factor in all of them, since complacency affects everyone.
“It was completely political from the beginning” and THAT proves denialism does not work. The virus doesn’t care about your politics or your beliefs. The virus is real. It threatens, hurts, disables, and kills people in the population and statistical research shows vaccines help avoid hospitalizations and death. Just because the currently-spreading variant is less-deadly does not mean the COVID pandemic is gone. Americans seem to agree somewhat on acceptable risk, like AirVenture and the upcoming Annual Sturgis Spreader Event. But I agree we should leave politics out of it.
Talk to the doctors and nurses at the hospitals that were overwhelmed. They are true heroes. Sad that so many have quit from burnout or PTSD.
Bleach?
Paul, I enjoy AVweb but… You may be knowledgeable about most things aviation but I don’t think you have the chops to pontificate about Covid-19. It’s been described as a novel virus from the beginning so almost by definition we’re learning as we go along. I mean the experts are learning. If the populace can’t accept that and can’t handle a change of expert opinion based on the data, shame on them. Your mention of weak mitigation such as masks (good quality) reminds me of what they were saying about masks during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Wearing a good quality mask indoors isn’t so much about protecting yourself but about transmitting the virus to others. So those who “imported” the virus to AirVenture and were among the 99% (by my estimation) who were maskless, Bingo! You mention vaccines and boosters. I’ll bet a significant percentage of attendees had neither. Those represent the great majority of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. And long Covid is real. See John P’s comment. Finally, your photo shows you wearing a helmet. Since you’ve been citing statistics on Covid, I wonder what your thoughts are, other than “Freedom”, about the hospitalization and death rate among the helmetless Harley riders in Wisconsin.
1 reply
I absolutely have the chops to write about the perceived personal risk COVID represents based on the available data. I don’t have to be an epidemiologist to make that determination for myself, as apparently 650,000 others who did go to AirVenture made for themselves.
We are at the point in the evolution of this disease that people are not being significantly cowed by scare headlines, of which there are actually very few now anyway. They have the available information to make this decision and not you or anyone else can make it for them, regardless of expertise. Earlier in the pandemic, the risk was much higher because prevalence was much higher, hence we all had a responsibility to share in what mitigations were available. We did this to protect ourselves and to ease the strain on the medical community. We were right to do it.
As I said above, I always believed masking was a weak mitigation but a mitigation nonetheless and was thus worth doing. I’m not doing it now and wouldn’t have at AirVenture because I believe it’s effective only if everyone masks and very few did. Anyone who thinks they are owed masking by others shouldn’t attend those events. I felt differently in the fall of 2020.
I follow two epidemiologists, Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford. They are absolute polar opposites. Osterholm is a traditionalist, Bhattacharya a libertarian who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration. I am perfectly capable of listening to both, looking at the data and deciding the proper course of action based on my own risk framework.
I suspect you are, too.
3 replies
Agreed.
Common sense is in short supply right along with baby formula. We live amongst many who need a “government expert” to tell them what to do.
From Bertorelli: “My view was always that mitigations such as masks and distancing were weak at best, but just worth doing.” Worth doing? Yes! “Weak at best”? Totally not true. As we all know, the devil is in the details. Wearing a properly fitted N-95 mask is incredibly effective. That is why doctors and nurses wear them when caring for active tuberculosis patient. The problem comes with the square (usually blue) surgical masks whose inhalation filtration is negligible, and they don’t fit closely enough (especially around the nose) to be protective. They were designed to keep moisture ladened exhaled bacteria from infecting the surgical site. And we also know that distance works. The more space between you and an infected individual, combined with masking, is very effectiver
1 reply
Appreciate the reply. I too follow Dr. Osterholm, and just read the Declaration and some comments by Dr. Bhattacharya. Indeed, polar opposites. And yes I believe in having an open mind and listening to both sides, and personal choice. Yet I can almost hear Dr. Osterholm weep when he talks about the front-line workers, the deaths that could have been prevented, the possible mitigation measures that are ignored, the reliance on herd immunity, etc. And he readily admits to being labeled as Dr. Doom, such as when he says we may not be so lucky if a variant presents that is both highly transmissible and more lethal. Sorry, I just think we’ve become too complacent.
1 reply
I was referring to the aggregate, not in the clinical environment where medical N95s are used and people are trained to wear and handle them correctly. In the wider world, people wear all kinds of masks, including N95. The best designed study, to my layman’s eye, was the 2021 research done in Bangladesh. It estimated an 11 percent reduction in infection. Good, but not great. From the study:
“A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the intervention increased mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.”
And helmetless riders are…idiots. Sorry, that’s a thing with me.
How did your trailer fare in the Saturday night storm? Did you tie it down before the storm came through? Sorry you caught Covid, my wife and I had it in March 2020 just as things were shutting down. I got over it in 10 days and she 2 weeks, but had some long Covid issues with breathing. Took awhile to solve that. I made it up Friday with a pilot bud, actually flew the Fisk arrival, so got to see it from the pilot’s end.
1 reply
I sited it the previous Thursday – just jacked it up onto jack stands – and left until Sunday evening. When I got there, it was fine. LAST year during the Wednesday storm, it was also fine AND a great dry enjoyment while people tenting were having a bad time.
I once saw a woman walking her dog in the middle of nowhere wearing a mask. THAT was bad enough but … her DOG had a mask on, too. Geesh!
Paul … I wandered the grounds all seven days. I don’t think I’d need all my fingers and toes to count the number of masked people I saw.
Interesting times. I have N95s now but did not at the outset of the COVID pandemic. I used whatever was available then. I continue to wear a mask when in crowded environments even after having been vaccinated 4X. Somehow, masks relax me. Additionally, I keep recommended distances as best as I can and have stayed healthy and free from COVID. So far, at least twelve in my family have caught the virus. Four of the unbelieving and antivaxxer “Team Red” crowd have experienced the worst symptoms. Some caught the bug more than once, all recovered. They are now believers. I think. Others, of the liberal crowd, even after being fully vaccinated got infected enduring the disease under more benign conditions. Go Blue! Sadly, seven of my friends have died of COVID. One in his 50s, two in their 60s, the others were in their 80s. Unpredictably, under COVID, life changed for all, life ended for some.
2 replies
Consider yourself lucky or blest. In many cases, severity is a roll of the dice. A well know airport owner in NJ, who was energetic, robust, happy, Harley owner, Twin Commander owner flew a friend to Florida. That friend had been in the early stages of infection. The airport owner came down with COVID in Florida, had to be hospitalized, wound up on a feeding tube, and intubated. He never left. He died there, in his 50’s. We were all shocked. One of many stories up here in the NY metro area. Even if the odds were 1 in 500, if you wind up being 1, nothing else matters.
Jay W., you are a walking encyclopedia of conspiracy theories. I know, I know … just because it’s a conspiracy doesn’t mean it’s a theory.
jeeze … just waiting for you to play the “sheeple” card.
I’d agree. I was ‘away’ at Airventure all week and returned home on Sunday. Monday, I had bad symptoms for a day. Tuesday, my wife had bad symptoms for a day. Whatever it was, it happened FAST. A day in, we were both feeling lousy but then ‘up’ and doing things vs. horizontal one day later. I’d say that being worn down due to all the activity and walking didn’t help.
Thanks +1
Not true. Many older sick folks who are vaccinated are still dying. Nothing makes COVID “totally preventable”. It’s always been older individuals and folks with significant underlying health issues.
Sorry for the loss of your friends.
I have observed similar events with COVID. A 32 year old mom who caught COVID and died after her toddler son in daycare brought the virus home. Relatives who got very ill and had symptoms for months. Friends and relatives who had employees, relatives, long term friends perish. No, COVID wasn’t the Black Death or smallpox. However, it was and is conseqential. It’s interesting how many people remain anti-vax even after surviving a long and draining bout of COVID. Go figure…
I got infected most likely at AirVenture 2022 with COVID. I flew in commercially and I wore a KN95 mask when I arrived at the departure airport and wore it all the time until I landed at the arrival airport. And repeated that when I flew back home. A journey each way of about 8 hours due to connections.
Most likely I got infected on Monday June 25 at the Garmin tent since I was there for a long period of time and it was packed with people; however, I’m not blaming Garmin. I could have been infected at other venues. I did not wear a mask.
What Mr. Bertorelli completely missed in his write up is that in that last 3-6 months, we now have a treatment (that does not involve drinking bleach!). At least in Florida, where he also resides, it is called “Test & Treat”. I scheduled a visit at a pharmacy which also has an independent “heath clinic”. They test you, and if positive, you get an Rx. I tested positive, got an Rx for Paxlovid which consists of two antivirals. It is a five-day treatment course with twice a day dosing. I was feeling better after the second dose. However, for effectivity, the treatment needs to be started within five days.
I do believe that “Test & Treat” is available nationwide. Without Paxlovid, I wonder what the outcome of my infection would have been. I had received two COVID vaccines plus two boosters.
So, I agree with Mr. Bertorelli, COVID is here to stay for the long run (as will AirVenture) but with treatment and prevention it is less life threatening compared to 2020.
This should be the subject of one of the patented AvWeb polls: “Would you attend Airventure again–under the same conditions?”
“Yes–absolutely!”
“Yes–barring any widespread outbreaks or mutations.”
“Yes–but I’ll be more careful with indoor visits and food locations.”
"Yes–but I’ll choose to camp, so I can control where I eat, sleep, and who I choose to associate with.
“Maybe–depends on the rate of infection when I make my decision.”
“Maybe–but I’ll not attend indoor events unless masks are required.”
“No–not next year–maybe in a couple of years.”
“No–I didn’t see much of a breakthrough in offerings–it’s not worth the risk.”
“No–but I’ll consider attending smaller events.”
“No–I’ve decided to become a hermit, and avoid ALL crowds!”
For the record, I’ll choose option 2, above–even after 27 trips to Oshkosh.
If you go to an event or on a cruise where people paid good money months in advance, you can expect them to be there, symptoms or not.
I’ll choose option 5 depending on Omicron booster shot availability: “Maybe–depends on the rate of infection when I make my decision.”
Just in: Covid cases surging. Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 on the roll, new booster shots expected to come this fall.
I missed no such thing. What you missed was this part of the blog. “We have vaccines and boosters, widespread home and clinical testing and much more refined therapies.”
That includes test and treat.
1 reply
I stand with what I said. You did not mention specifically Test & Treat - just the vague “more refined therapies”. Because Test & Treat is relatively new, (3-6 months?) not many people know about Fortunately, I happen to know about it by accident.
Without Test & Treat I don’t know what my prognosis could have been.
1 reply
Were the cases surging throughout the population, or in Oshkosh attendees? AvWeb–please update us as you come across Oshkosh-specific numbers.
1 reply
One more clarifying comment. I realize that your (Paul’s) blog’s objective was not to go into any level of detail on treatments, that is why I wrote details about Test & Treat in the hope that fellow readers would be informed about it. Because as I said, I found out about T&T by accident.
It’s likely that some of OshKosh’s 67,000 residents may have been exposed or infected to a larger extent than before the event, as some of the 650,000 visiting men and women could have unknowingly carried COVID virus, in turn, causing a COVID case spike in the area. Timely Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services data would probably help answer the Superspreader question.
I have a neighbor who is a nurse that said the same thing, her facility was never overwhelmed. The US Navy actually had a hospital ship stationed in Los Angeles and New York City. Neither one was used. The mayor of New York refused offers of help by several religious organizations. The governor of New York refused help from Remington who had an empty plant ,offering to use that plant to produce more ventilators during a shortage of that equipment. Not downplaying those who died with Covid, but there where many reports of certain coroner’s offices blaming covid for for deaths even though those patients had other deadly ailments. Government has completely botched the response to Covid in 2020.
Somewhat of a related tangent, but what’s the definition of “attendance” at AirVenture?
With a number of 650,000, does that mean…
…650,000 individual people showed up at some point during the show?
…or the same 100,000 people showed up six+ days in a row (or some combination thereof)?
I suspect it’s very much the latter, and that the actual number of individuals who showed up was half or less of 650,000.
What prompted the thought is when Paul B. applied his 100/100,000 (0.1%) case risk yielding a theoretical 650 cases. But if we’re using the wrong population size (attendance vs individuals), then any rate of estimated (or actual) cases would be artificially low.
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know how many people got sick while attending AirVenture. And, as James D. pointed out earlier, “If you go to an event or on a cruise where people paid good money months in advance, you can expect them to be there, symptoms or not.” Just like harried parents with a sick schoolchild, take ibuprofen to hide the fever and a decongestant to mask the sniffles, then enjoy yourself, personal responsibility be damned.
1 reply
I am now a member of the club too. Went through many sequential stages (Sore Throat, Stuffy Nose, Fever and Body Aches, Congested Lungs, and then finally Total Loss of Smell). That last item is the only one that freaked me out a bit. Somewhat in regard to how much of a loss it would be if permanent, but more in regard to the virus is just too dang close to the parts of the brain required for mental acuity when that sets in!
Fortunately the complete loss of smell only lasted a day, followed by a day of ‘why does everything seem to smell like hot dogs?’; and then the very next stage was Recovery.
Now promising myself I will make it to the next Airventure no matter what comes!
1 reply
Ah! #100. Then there are the asymptomatic COVID carriers where “according to simulations of the virus spread published in the journal Science, almost 9 OUT OF 10 INFECTIONS were caused by asymptomatic carriers.”