Making a mark in the hiking community of the area – The U.K. moving towards the endemic stage – Endemic is not synonymous with mild – Evening statistics
Today I received the new edition of “Hikes in Western Maryland,” for which I myself did some exploration upon the Savage River Trail the previous July. It contained an insert of a pleasant note of acknowledgement for my efforts from the PATC Publications Committee head. I am also listed in the Introduction as one of the numerous volunteer hikers who verified and updated the trail descriptions in this edition. Thus in my own small way I have made a contribution to the hiking community at large in the area, first by participating in the efforts to produce this edition and also by my working with the Potomac Heritage Trail Association, particularly in aiding RS to carve out new trails in order to fill in the gaps currently existing in the PHT. All of which has given me a new appreciation of the effort involved in plotting trails over huge distances and then producing guidebooks and maps to navigate them, trails and guides which in earlier days I took more or less for granted.
The U.K. appears to be on the verge of declaring COVID to be in the endemic stage, at any rate as far as within its own borders is concerned. Free COVID testing will no longer be available after the 31st, except for certain groups who are considered vulnerable, and the government has cut funding to several COVID surveillance programs. But even if COVID becomes genuinely endemic, i.e., with case numbers constant across the population without any rapid surges or falls, “endemic” does not necessarily imply low severity. “You get the impression that people are using endemic now to mean that it is a mild infection,” said Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia. “That is not implied in the term endemicity. Malaria is an endemic disease and that kills hundreds of thousands of children each year. Nobody would say it is mild.”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 482,800,117; # of deaths worldwide: 6,150,938; # of cases U.S.: 81,644,016; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,003,950.