Covid-19 Diary : Thursday 15 July, 2021

This week saw what I believe may be an official first in people’s interactions with Covid.  One unfortunate sufferer was infected with two different Covid variants, simultaneously.  She died, although it is not known whether this was because of the double dose being more dangerous, or “just because”.

Dismayingly, it is also not known if this is a common or uncommon occurrence, because not many countries check the “sequence” of the virus in every infected person.  It is only as a result of the sequencing that it was discovered the lady had two different variants at the same time.

We’re starting to see some pushback against the campaign by “big pharma” to sell vaccine booster shots.  Big pharma is trying to conflate the scenario of annual ‘flu shots with an implied matching need for annual Covid shots, but that’s not a fair comparison.  We get annual ‘flu shots because each year’s ‘flu virus is different to the previous year’s ‘flu virus, and the previous year’s vaccine doesn’t protect against it.

So far, there’s no clear evidence of any of the significant Covid variants needing a new vaccine, and as far as I’m aware, the “booster” shots being promoted seem to be “more of the same” rather than a new formulation to protect against new variants.  Needless to say, a new vaccine formulation would hopefully be given a new evaluation, trial, testing, and review prior to being approved.

This seems to be nothing other than the drug companies trying to push more of their expensive products into the market, whether needed or not, riding on the coat-tails of the fear of the virus which is present in some parts of our communities.

This article quotes the Deputy Director of the CDC as being concerned that booster shots could risk more serious side effects.

Even Dr Fauci and WHO have jumped on this bandwagon, leaving big pharma unusually unsupported on this issue.

Meanwhile, of course, the most beneficial event for us all, vaccinated or not, is to grow the number of people being vaccinated.  Even if we are already vaccinated, we benefit from more people being vaccinated, because it helps slow the virus spread, cuts down on the number of variants, and remembering that we still have a residual chance of getting infected, even after being vaccinated, it reduces our risk profiles as well as those of the newly vaccinated.

So the White House is now trying a new approach to get more people vaccinated.  It has co-opted one of the bazillion attractive young women who are “social influencers” and persuaded the girl to stop touting handbags and other junk, and instead, advocate for getting vaccinated.  I guess it can’t hurt, and might help.

The Surgeon General has a less permissive approach in mind.  He is calling on social media platforms to be more aggressive at censoring Covid “misinformation”.

That request alarms me greatly.  The problem is both he and social media confuse what is misinformation with what is scholarly disagreement and general debate.  If he had his way, we’d still believe the virus came from a bat or pangolin, naturally, or perhaps not even from China at all.  If he had his way, no-one would know about ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, quercetin, or any of the many other effective, safe, and inexpensive treatments.  If he had his way, no-one would be able to share any information about or criticize any of the official disgraceful errors, or to pressure the public health authorities to review and revise their errors.

Covid is too important, and – with appropriate respect – our authorities way too amateurish and incompetent – to censor dissent, forbid criticism, and only allow official pronouncements.

But some things are clearly wrong, such as this homeopathic “doctor” who was arrested for selling fake homeopathic vaccines and matching fake vaccination certificates.

Current Numbers

Again, no change in the minor countries list, and just one change in the major country list (Portugal rising two places).  This is somewhat surprising with the increased case activity, but part of the reason might be the widely spaced out nature of the countries at present.  As you can see, the country at the top of each list has almost twice the level of activity as the country at the bottom of the top ten or twelve list.

Belgium dropped two places in the death list.

The always interesting look at case rates for the last week saw increases in numbers for most of the countries in the top twelve list.  The UK’s problems continue, and it has now moved up to fifth place, although up and coming Netherlands seems a sure bet to displace it by Sunday’s next report, and Spain will move closer as well.

The UK had a 33% increase in cases, week on week.  But, as terrible as that is, it is better than the European average – across the entirety of Europe, there was a 39% increase in cases.  The Netherlands saw a stunning 299% increase, Austria and Iceland both more than doubled, and only Poland, Sweden, Norway and Latvia saw modest drops in cases (among the western European nations).

The US had a massive 69% increase in cases for the week, and the world as a whole had a substantial 16% increase.

Top Case Rates Minor Countries (cases per million)

Top Case Rates Major Countries (cases per million)

Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)

Top Rates in New Cases Reported in the Last Week (new cases per million) for Countries over one million population

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Items below include a look at the “long haul” phenomenon that up to one in three people suffer, often indefinitely without end, two new positive analyses of ivermectin use, is mixing and matching vaccine shots sensible, a new traditional style vaccine nears the end of its testing with excellent results, another glitch with the J&J vaccine, cruise line suing FL to allow it to require pax be vaxed, a look at the massive and alarming growth in US case numbers, the Olympics are proceeding, dropping vaccination rates, and some counties in the US are bringing back mask mandates.

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Please stay happy and healthy; all going well, I’ll be back again on Sunday.

Please click here for a listing of all our Covid-19 articles.