I have criticized much of the recent trend by the mainstream media to try and find things to continue worrying about with the pandemic, even as each day sees steadily decreasing numbers of new cases, both in the US and worldwide.
But, that’s not to say there might not be valid items of concern, and similarly, just because we’ve had 1 1/2 months of dropping-every-day new cases in the US is not to say there mightn’t be a reversal at any time and a return to increasing cases again. Britain had seen wonderfully dropping new cases, and then, due apparently/primarily to rising number of cases with the Indian (or as it is now phrased in the latest “new speak” politically correct manner, the Delta) variant.
The same could certainly happen here, too. Which is all the more reason to press on with vaccination as quickly and completely as possible. As you’ll see below, the US vaccination rate is currently trending in absolutely the wrong direction.
Here is an example of a concern that may be valid – people who have extended cases of Covid give the virus more time to mutate within their body. The article lectures us that this is a reason to help vaccinate everyone, everywhere. That’s an understandable conclusion. But there’s another conclusion as well. Giving everyone with an infection a dose of ivermectin to limit the infection and speed up its elimination is at least as essential. The article is silent on that point.
Talking about being silent on the topic of ivermectin, there was one astonishing case of a gratuitous mention of ivermectin on Saturday, all the more surprising because it was in the form of an advertisement paid for by GAVI, the global vaccine alliance group lobbying for wealthy nations to give vaccines to poorer nations.
But, and you knew there’d be a but, didn’t you.
As you can see from this screen clip, if you search for “ivermectin covid studies” on Google, the GAVI ad appears. But you don’t even need to click the link to see that the article is a negative one, rather than a positive one. Wouldn’t you think that a group ostensibly wanting to help poor people survive Covid would be keen to advocate IVM because it is wonderfully low cost and effective? Perhaps this group is more keen to help big pharma make more billions of dollars profile from selling vaccines?
There is no obvious reason why a group ostensibly advocating for global vaccination would spend money on advertising a negative article about ivermectin. How does this advance GAVI’s cause at all? As we regularly find ourselves obliged to conclude, the resistance to ivermectin is primarily based on monetary issues, not medical ones.
Current Numbers
There continue to be no shifts of rankings in the US states, and with the numbers dropping each week, the gaps between the states are harder and harder to bridge, so we expect few changes in the foreseeable future.
In the minor country list, Slovenia dropped two places. The top half of the major country list remained unchanged, with small changes in the other half, and no new entrants.
In the death list, Peru’s recount of its casualties now sees it with nearly twice the number in the Czech Republic, now definitely dropped to second place.
The volatile list of last week’s countries with the most active current case rates had the top five countries keep their rankings, although their case rates were generally lower. India’s cases dropped another 33%, the US had a 36% drop, and the world as a whole enjoyed a 16% drop.
US Best and Worst States
| Rank | Cases/Million | Deaths/Million | ||
| A week ago | Now | A week ago | Now | |
| 1 Best | HI (25,600) | HI (25,861) | HI (353) | HI (357) |
| 2 | VT | VT | VT | VT |
| 3 | OR | OR | AK | AK |
| 4 | ME | ME | ME | ME |
| 5 | WA (57,521) | WA (58,082) | OR (633) | OR (639) |
| 47 | UT (126,648) | UT (127,151) | MS (2,456) | MS (2,461) |
| 48 | IA | IA | RI | RI |
| 49 | SD | SD | MA | MA |
| 50 | RI | RI | NY | NY |
| 51 Worst | ND (144,260) | ND (144,606) | NJ (2,951) | NJ (2,959) |
Top Case Rates Minor (population under 10 million) Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Andorra (176,962) | Andorra (177,798) |
| 2 | Montenegro | Montenegro |
| 3 | San Marino | San Marino |
| 4 | Bahrain (135,706) | Bahrain (142,977) |
| 5 | Gibraltar (127,457) | Gibraltar (127,665) |
| 6 | Slovenia | Maldives (123,688) |
| 7 | Maldives (115,965) | Seychelles |
| 8 | Seychelles | Slovenia |
| 9 | Luxembourg | Luxembourg |
| 10 | Aruba (102,427) | Aruba (103,155) |
Top Case Rates Major (population over 10 million) Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Czech Republic (154,856) | Czech Republic (155,071) |
| 2 | Sweden (105,200) | Sweden (106,131) |
| 3 | USA (102,302) | USA (102,795) |
| 4 | Netherlands | Netherlands |
| 5 | Belgium | Belgium |
| 6 | France | France |
| 7 | Portugal | Argentina |
| 8 | Argentina | Portugal |
| 9 | Spain | Brazil |
| 10 | Brazil | Spain |
| 11 | Poland | Poland |
| 12 | Chile (71,501) | Chile (74,108) |
Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Czech Republic (2,806) | Peru (5,585) |
| 2 | Brazil (2,160) | Czech Republic (2,811) |
| 3 | Belgium (2,142) | Brazil (2,213) |
| 4 | Italy | Belgium (2,150) |
| 5 | Peru | Italy |
| 6 | Poland | Poland |
| 7 | UK (1,873) | UK (1,874) |
| 8 | USA (1,832) | USA (1,840) |
| 9 | Colombia (1,718) | Colombia (1,790) |
| 10 | Mexico (1,717) | Argentina (1,782) |
Top Rates in New Cases Reported in the Last Week (new cases per million) for Countries over one million population
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Bahrain 11,459 | Bahrain 7,358 |
| 2 | Uruguay 7,573 | Uruguay 7,187 |
| 3 | Argentina | Argentina |
| 4 | Colombia | Colombia |
| 5 | Paraguay | Paraguay |
| 6 | Trinidad & Tobago | Chile |
| 7 | Chile | Mongolia |
| 8 | Costa Rica | Kuwait |
| 9 | Brazil 2,017 | Brazil |
| 10 | Kuwait | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 11 | Malaysia 1,632 | Costa Rica 1,973 |
| 12 | Bolivia 1,568 | Bolivia 1,609 |
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Items below include a strange story about developments in China, a look at winners and losers in the vaccine race, and a prediction about when NZ and Australia might re-open based on their vaccinating rates, the Phantom is back in London, and the promise of vaccine passports to allow us to travel to Europe remains present but unexplained.
SUPPORTER ONLY CONTENT
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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.
