Our COVID perspective. Hope for the best, but stay prepared.
Omicron. Less pathogenic. Much more transmissible. Outcompeting the previous, more dangerous Delta strain (and all the others that came before).
And even though there have been a number of Omicron variants and subvariants, our overall, global luck seems to be holding — while cases are up, hospitalizations and deaths are down as a percentage of infections.
Some even say this version of SARS-CoV-2 will cause the pandemic to become endemic, allowing us all to get back to our pre-COVID lives.
Welcome news to a world that’s been united in its fear and uncertainty over the past two years. But, as this article from STATnews.com points out, we just really, really don’t know.
We at Simple HealthKit witnessed the hardships and challenges that our families, our communities, and health systems were facing and had to step up and get on the front lines to build!
This was a need we could do something, so we put our technological and scientific backgrounds to work. We built our own CLIA/CAP-certified lab and developed a highly sensitive and specific COVID-19 RT-PCR test. In addition, we offered end-to-end services to various institutions across the nation.
We did all of this to control the speed and costs of getting tested, so no one would be left out.
Given our company is comprised of 70% women and 90% racial minorities, it’s been easy for us to find our passion and our mission — we exist to prove, that everyone deserves better health; it’s that simple.
And we’ve used that mission to drive our own innovation; and create diagnostics for beyond-COVID needs, such as testing for STDs/STIs and soon, women’s and general health.
We’re applying exactly the same principles we’ve put to use during the pandemic: Fast, accurate, affordable, with a connection to treatment and medication, for all.
Everyone’s heard about the impact of COVID-19 on underserved populations. According to the non-profit, Compassion and Choices (compassionandchoices.com), an organization dedicated to improving care, expanding options, and empowering everyone to chart their end-of-life journey:
“Early data suggest COVID-19 disproportionately affects certain communities — African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders. While healthcare disparities are not new, the pandemic is shining a bright light on persistent, systemic inequities in healthcare in this country. Unequal access to economic opportunities and healthcare facilities, structural inequality, bias, and discrimination are just some of the systemic hurdles many communities face.”
What’s all this mean? We’re sensitive to what’s happening. We’re eager to see life return to pre-pandemic status. We want to offer the most hopeful news we can. We definitely do not want to do anything simply for business reasons.
Yet, we wouldn't be upholding our responsibility to better health for everyone if we don’t advise some level of vigilance. Again, we just don’t know. Back to that STAT article:
“While the virus will almost certainly evolve to get better at spreading in a given setting, experts can’t predict whether it will get more or less dangerous on an individual level. ‘One of the most persistent myths surrounding pathogen evolution’ is that viruses change over time to be less virulent, three experts wrote in a commentary last month. Omicron happened to be less virulent than Delta, but viruses can pick up random mutations that instead make them nastier. The possibility of a variant emerging, the experts warned, that features ‘the potentially disastrous combination of the ability to reinfect’ along with ‘high virulence is unfortunately very real.’
Fact or fear? In this case, we’ll err on the side of science and agree with the experts. What’s that mean to you and the population for which you’re responsible?
Be ready with a testing and treatment plan should the need arise
Continue to offer to test to those in your community who find peace of mind through that process
Since natural immunity is known to be a beneficial by-product of having COVID, promote this as a reason to get tested. It’s the one instance in which a positive result could be good news, assuming a mild case — since, instead of wondering, people can rest a bit easier knowing their immune systems will learn the virus and offer protection.
So, the old adage, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” seems appropriate. And at Simple HealthKit, that’s our approach. We’re busy developing new diagnostics to help an ever-growing population of people get a handle on their health (the first step to improving it), we’re actively looking for partners to help stem the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (by the way, it surprised us to learn the incidence of STDs actually went up during the pandemic — but more about that next time).
And we’re still working with partners (existing and new) to provide our COVID-19 diagnostics to organizations that share our hope-and-prepare philosophy.
If you think we might be kindred spirits, let's connect.
It’s that Simple.