Are Hospitalization Rates The Pandemic Metric To Trust Right Now?

Maybe.

Everything still sounding bad but non-catastrophic. Unless you're in Southern California...

   My concern-level about the batflu has actually edged up a bit, in part in response to new information from the world, in part in response to having developed what might constitute a comorbidity. But my degree of concern isn't high enough to keep me away from the gym, so... 

   A different concern is that I'm now vastly out of shape. Trail running, ordinarily my main form of exercise, has been complicated all year by factors irrelevant to the pandemic--e.g. that the place I ordinarily run has been closed for two months for hunting season. The university gym is unusable on account of hysterical, intrusive batflu measures. It remained closed long past the point at which it should have opened...and now that it's opened, it's useless to anyone who doesn't have a fairly high tolerance for stupidity and micromanagement. I wish I did...I'd certainly be in less-bad shape right now if so. But, anyway: gotta new gym that's far more reasonable--and less densely-occupied. And I currently pay more attention to human density than to mask-wearing etc. I do have some concerns about gyms being exactly the kind of place that might make transmission likely, what with everyone huffing and puffing. But waddayagonna do? Still probably less dangerous than trail-running in cold rain...

   I'm also focusing on other possible comorbidities. E.g., for just about the first time in my life, I find that I could...stand to lose a bit of weight. WTH, man?! Sucks to get old... But losing weight has lots of benefits--and you certainly don't want that sort of thing cranking up your odds of succumbing to the plague. Also re: out-of-shapeness generally....I'd hate to get any possibly serious illness in my current condition, actually. I'll bet almost everyone's a lot less active than they were a year ago--wonder what the consequences are for COVID severity rates? I'd be very surprised if, even controlling for COVID, we weren't just a much less-healthy population than we were a year ago.

   Anyway, I still think that old and unhealthy folks should take significant measures and that young and healthy folks should mostly carry on as usual--but I'm starting to think/realize that I'm closer to the former group than the latter...