The presence and growing availability of vaccines, at least here in the US, have blinded a lot of people to how the virus remains a problem. Plenty of Americans are still getting infected, every day, and plenty of Americans are still dying, every day. Most alarming is that new case numbers are staying more or less steady or possibly even inching up slightly in the US, and in the rest of the world, they are growing much more steeply.
The seven day average count of new cases in the US dropped down to as low as 55,500 on 16 March, before rising again to 65,000, then continuing to inch up more slowly. It is currently at just over 68,000 new cases every day.
As you can see, the world count is rising much more quickly and it seems possible we meet reach and even exceed the previous maximum rate.
Part of the reason for this is the growing number of cases with the new virus variations – variations that are much more infectious and sometimes much more deadly, too.
There has been a lot of uncertainty about how effective the vaccines are against the new virus variants. Some variants are thought to be controlled, to a greater or lesser extent, by some of the vaccines. Pfizer had confidently told us that its studies showed that its vaccine was 100% effective against the South African variant, but now a new report from Israel, where almost the entire country has been vaccinated by the Pfizer vaccine, contradicts that claim.
Unfortunately the report doesn’t tell us if the vaccinated people who are still getting infected are getting merely a mild case, or if they are becoming seriously unwell, with of course the hope being the vaccine is at least “softening” the infection experience.
Call me a cynic, but I urge you to consider claims made by the pharmaceutical companies with caution rather than absolute trust. They do have a vested interest, and this is not the first time there has been a significant contradiction between what a vaccine maker claims and what the real world shows.
The point of all of this is that we still need to backstop our vaccination programs – and, in the case of you, yourself, your vaccination – you need to keep aware of your treatment options so that if you do still get a case of the virus, you’re able to ensure it is mild rather than major, and to keep away from the hospital, the dreaded ventilator, and most of all, the morgue.
Which brings me to my second headline point. US “standard of care” treatment options for infected people continue to be nothing more than “go home, keep away from other people, and hope it doesn’t get worse”. That is beyond pathetic, and utterly wrong.
A group of doctors in Texas “took the law into their own hands” – or, more simply, decided to be real doctors and dispense medicine rather than platitudes. Their treatment programs reduced hospitalizations by 87.6% and death by 74.9%.
Wouldn’t you like to know what they were recommending and prescribing, and to have some of that at the ready, too, just in case it is needed? More details here.
It is a national tragedy that such astonishingly positive results are being ignored (or even criticized!) rather than embraced.
Current Numbers
There were no changes in US rankings this week.
In the minor country list, St Barth debuted, not at 10th place, but immediately all the way up to 7th place. Heavily vaccinated Israel is dropping down, and will possibly have disappeared off the list within the next week.
In the major country list, Brazil – a nation much written about as having case rates worse than anywhere else in the world, is now experiencing case rates lower than France and Poland (and other countries too). The UK continues to drift down the list and is presently at 11th place.
Brazil’s death rate has however caused it to move up the death list – death rates always lag behind case rates. Depending on when its death rate starts to ease back, it could reach up and get above the US on the list by next Sunday. The UK continues to enjoy massively reduced death rates, and dropped to fourth place.
US Best and Worst States
| Rank | Cases/Million | Deaths/Million | ||
| A week ago | Now | A week ago | Now | |
| 1 Best | HI (21,284) | HI (21,736) | HI (330) | HI (333) |
| 2 | VT | VT | VT | VT |
| 3 | ME | ME | AK | AK |
| 4 | OR | OR | ME (554) | ME (558) |
| 5 | WA (48,682) | WA (49,683) | OR (567) | OR (579) |
| 47 | UT (120,819) | UT (121,681) | MS (2,371) | MS (2,384) |
| 48 | IA (121,028) | IA (122,265) | RI (2,483) | RI (2,490) |
| 49 | RI | RI | MA (2,507) | MA (2,523) |
| 50 | SD | SD | NY (2,617) | NY (2,642) |
| 51 Worst | ND (135,997) | ND (137,449) | NJ (2,774) | NJ (2,800) |
Top Case Rates Minor Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Andorra (158,107) | Andorra (162,162) |
| 2 | Montenegro (147,294) | Montenegro (150,079) |
| 3 | San Marino (140,503) | San Marino (145,820) |
| 4 | Gibraltar (126,919) | Gibraltar (126,978) |
| 5 | Slovenia | Slovenia |
| 6 | Luxembourg | Luxembourg |
| 7 | Israel | Aruba |
| 8 | Aruba | St Barth (91,616) |
| 9 | Bahrain | Israel |
| 10 | Estonia (82,428) | Bahrain (89,562) |
Top Case Rates Major Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Czech Republic (144,712) | Czech Republic (147,345) |
| 2 | USA (94,505) | USA (95,993) |
| 3 | Portugal (80,925) | Sweden (84,488) |
| 4 | Sweden | Portugal |
| 5 | Belgium | Belgium |
| 6 | Netherlands (75,867) | Netherlands |
| 7 | France (73,757) | France |
| 8 | Spain (70,581) | Spain |
| 9 | Poland (64,486) | Poland (68,086) |
| 10 | UK (63,962) | Jordan (64,749) |
| 11 | Jordan (61,568) | UK (64,108) |
| 12 | Brazil (60,761) | Brazil (63,081) |
Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Czech Republic (2,513) | Czech Republic (2,593) |
| 2 | Belgium (1,989) | Belgium (2,015) |
| 3 | UK (1,861) | Italy (1,892) |
| 4 | Italy (1,838) | UK (1,864) |
| 5 | USA (1,711) | USA (1,732) |
| 6 | Portugal (1,659) | Portugal (1,663) |
| 7 | Spain (1,619) | Brazil (1,653) |
| 8 | Peru (1,587) | Peru (1,647) |
| 9 | Mexico (1,571) | Spain (1,632) |
| 10 | Brazil (1,551) | Mexico (1,610) |
The rest of this newsletter is for the very kind Travel Insider Supporters – it is their support that makes all of this possible, and it seems fair they get additional material in return. If you’re not yet a Supporter, please consider becoming one, and get instant access to the rest of the Diary Entry, additional material on previous diary entries, and much extra content on other parts of the website too.
If you’re a contributor, you should make sure you’re logged in to the website, and when you are, you’ll see the purple text and balance of the newsletter below on the website. If you’re not logged in, or reading this via email, you need to log in on the website first.
Items below include two medicines that you might already have in your medicine cabinet (and if not, which you can buy from your local supermarket) that are showing positive effects countering the virus, more bad news about the AstraZeneca vaccine, China ‘fesses up that its vaccines aren’t really very good, the puzzling numbers in Canada, and an update on vaccination rates.
SUPPORTER ONLY CONTENT
……….
END OF SUPPORTER ONLY CONTENT
Please stay happy and healthy; all going well, I’ll be back again on Thursday.
Please click here for a listing of all our Covid-19 articles.
