Just released, as if we didn’t know: (doctors stated hundreds of thousands of lives were lost unnecessarily due to Trump’s White House)
127,771,302 total cases
2,796,139 dead
102,964,582 recovered
In the US:
30,962,803 total cases
562,526 dead
23,410,884 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
IMHO Dr. Deborah’s hands aren’t exactly clean! 
Nobody got to declare victory over the Spanish flu either but it’s still long gone.
Not glamourous, but good news about Pfizer and Moderna. Just what I wanted to hear about variants and a symptomatic transmission.
My understanding is that the Spanish Flu is still with us. It just evolved to become less deadly, or we evolved to become more resistant.
It was seasonal with three bad cycles. I don’t think there was ever an explanation as to why there wasn’t a fourth or subsequent. We still know little about viruses.
A good reason to not be very confident with statements like “casualties will never be zero”.
Are we getting ready to see an uptick in cases like they are in Europe?
At least 487 new coronavirus deaths and 45,552 new cases were reported in the United States on March 28. Over the past week, there has been an average of 63,199 cases per day, an increase of 15 percent from the average two weeks earlier.
I’m hopeful that our higher vaccination rate will blunt the surge.
I’m thinking at the moment vaccinations will currently blunt deaths, not cases. Lot’s of unvaccinated but not-that-at-risk folk out there in the US.
Yeah, the situation here (in New York City) isn’t great.
Just wandering around parts of the city (safely, by bicycle) this is what I’ve observed –
In the “hipster” neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan, masking is, well, considered optional. This isn’t data, this is just me eyeballing the streets, but mask wearing seems to be around 60%. Social distancing is non-existent. There are state and city regulations governing restaurants, and these are widely ignored in Brooklyn. Less so in Manhattan, probably because enforcement is stricter. The inspectors/sheriffs/whoever probably aren’t going to make the trip all the way out to Red Hook, and the restaurant and bar owners know this, and their places are packed, indoors, with unmasked people.
In the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn, masking, and social distancing, are non-existent. The people just aren’t doing it. At all.
In the old blue-collar neighborhoods of Brooklyn, I’d say mask wearing is around the same as in hipster 'hoods. Most people wear them. A lot don’t. There’s no social disapproval of those who don’t. People who meet on the street and want to chat pull down their masks.
In the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, infection and hospitalization rates are going through the roof. But mask compliance isn’t great. I informally observe it to be, again, better than half, most people, but no more than 75%
Even in my not-so-hip, affluent neighborhood with high rates and levels of education, masking seems to have slipped to around 75%. A bit more so indoors, like at the supermarket, but outdoors, it’s around 75%. And even indoors (again, like at the supermarket), a fair number of people have to be “reminded” to put on a mask (at least if they get close to me – I’ve gotten very intolerant of people who won’t wear a mask lately).
It’s not good…
https://www.axios.com/cdc-fourth-wave-db0a4d6e-3942-4719-9743-62912e5557e0.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky went off script at a briefing Monday and made an emotional plea to Americans not to let up on public health measures amid fears of a fourth wave.
What they’re saying: “I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom," Walensky said, appearing to hold back tears. “We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge.”
…
The big picture: Coronavirus cases are rapidly rising in places including Michigan, New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states, partially a result of variants of the virus becoming more widespread, experts say. An uptick in travel and states loosening restrictions are also factors.
- The 7-day daily average of new cases increased 10.6% from the previous week to 59,773, while the 7-day daily average of deaths increased 2.6% to 968.
…
Now is not the time to slack off on precautions.
I can’t find the graphs for this so maybe I remember it wrong:
The American over-70 death rate collapsed in the middle of last year. Old people haven’t been more likely to get COVID and die since then. So vaccinating at-risk people won’t have any more effect on the total death numbers than vaccinating any other group would have.
If you look at the Rachel Maddow clip that I shared yesterday, we’ve had two spikes in death rate among 65+ in the U.S.:
- The first spike was in the spring of last year, and then fell off in the summer
- The second spike was in late 2020, and peaked at a level that was almost as high as it had been during the first wave, before dramatically falling off starting in late January
The relevant info is at around 29 minutes in the clip.
128,254,705 total cases
2,804,706 dead
103,466,706 recovered
In the US:
31,033,801 total cases
563,206 dead
23,509,220 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
vaccination rates for the u.s. are ticking up. we are at 1% of the population per day. the percent of doses used has slipped a bit from last week.
percent fully vaccinated 15.0
percent with one dose 28.2
doses administered 143,462,691
doses distributed 180,646,465
percent of doses used 79
Turkey:
Spring has spring, and it’s going to be hard to convince people to show restraint.
I resemble that!
Having gotten my 2nd shot yesterday, I’m waiting for another two weeks and them I’m going hog-wild!
Okay, well, not entirely, but somewhat. I’m going to lower my guard a little bit (go out more, enjoy the spring weather!) but I’ll still keep my distance and my mask when there are people around.
But mostly, I’ll simply worry about it a lot less.
I’m going to get my shaggy locks shorn for the first time in a year.