Global infections could be plateauing well above previous lows, suggesting a winter surge may be around the corner.
(Originally published Oct. 15 in “What in the World“) Alas, the decline in global infections by the Delta variant seems to be slowing well before reaching the lows achieved in February and June.
Not nearly there yet…
The world seems determined to pretend the pandemic is over. It isn’t. In the Caribbean and the Balkans, it is raging. Yet the United States did the virus a solid this week by opening its borders to neighbors from the less-infected north and south. Now visitors from Canada and Mexico can take home a gift that will surely keep on giving.
Come on In, the Covid’s Fine!
Covid was the number-two killer of Americans in September, after heart disease, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Vaccines, the researchers estimated, would have saved 90,000 lives in June-September.
Yet the pace of new vaccinations in the U.S. is falling, and has already been surpassed by the number of vaccinated people getting booster shots.
As a result, 44% of Americans remain unvaccinated against Covid-19. The rate of Americans dying from Covid, while declining, remains almost six times where it was in early July when U.S. President Joe Biden declared victory over the virus. It’s thus difficult to share his optimism this week, when he said vaccinations efforts were “working.”
The U.S. isn’t the only country with a sizeable population of idiots who refuse to get vaccinated. In Russia, where 70% of the population remains unvaccinated, the pandemic is worse than ever:
Which makes it so frustrating to people in countries that can’t get enough vaccines at all. Despite criticism that it has been sluggish to do so, the U.S. has donated many doses to foreign countries. As part of Washington’s efforts to offset China’s influence in Southeast Asia, the U.S. has donated enough shots to Vietnam to vaccinate 5% of that country’s population.
Infections in Africa, which meanwhile has been crying out for more vaccines from rich countries, may be much worse than official statistics suggest, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO estimates that no more than 2% of people in more than half of the African countries that have managed to obtain vaccines have been vaccinated yet.