Covid summer, dog emotions and ‘Teflon flu’: The week in Well+Being

On Jul 19, 2024

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Happy summer. This week we’re writing about the covid summer, dog emotions and essential oils. And we’ve got our weekly “joy” snack. But before that …

This week’s must-reads:

What is ‘Teflon flu’? It’s linked to a coating on some nonstick pans.
For healthy aging, light exercise or sleep beats being sedentary
Why we love something that’s ‘so bad it’s good’
What to know about cheaper, imitation weight-loss drugs
How to (gently) talk to aging parents about downsizing and decluttering

It’s a covid summer

For the past few weeks, I’ve been coping with covid for the first time. I managed to dodge it for four years, but the FLiRT variants got me. I had my first symptoms on July 4 and tested positive on a home test kit the same day. I started the antiviral drug Paxlovid the next day. The drug dramatically lowers the risk of serious illness or needing to be hospitalized with covid. I’m glad I could take it. But Paxlovid is also associated with “rebound” and a longer stretch of illness. That has been the case with me — I’m on Day 15 of testing positive. (Here’s our guide to Paxlovid.)

I picked up the coronavirus while traveling from Europe. I had been very careful, masked up and avoided crowds, on all legs of the trip. But my system broke down on the way home, particularly in a crowded passport area when I couldn’t find my mask. My advice to all of you planning to travel this summer: Bring a mask for the planes, airport security and passport lines. I think in general the air ventilation on airplanes is pretty good, but if someone near you has covid and is unmasked, the risk of getting sick is certainly increased.

Reporters Fenit Nirappil and Lizette Ortega from our health desk have more news to share about this covid summer. A summer coronavirus wave has washed over most of the United States, bringing yet another round of gatherings turned into superspreaders, vacations foiled by illness and reminders that pandemic life has not been fully erased, they report. Not even President Biden was spared.

Coronavirus activity in wastewater reached levels considered “high” or “very high” in 26 states, according to the most recent data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other metrics also suggest the virus is rising, including the prevalence of covid-19 diagnoses in emergency rooms and the rate of coronavirus tests processed at labs coming back positive, but not to the degree of the winter surge.

Covid has spiked every summer since the pandemic started, which experts attribute to increased travel; large gatherings such as weddings and conferences; the rise of new variants; and even the heat driving people inside, where the virus spreads more easily.

“When we’re outdoors, it’s difficult for covid to transmit, but it’s been so oppressively hot, particularly in the southwest United States, and people are just spending a lot more time indoors,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who specializes in respiratory…