Covid-19 Diary : Thursday 2 September, 2021

I’ll be discussing more about the EU’s Monday decision about US travel in the Friday morning roundup.  For now I’ll  to observe that while the EU largely continues to allow us to visit them, the US refuses to allow Europeans, even vaccinated ones who also take Covid tests before and after traveling to confirm their Covid-free status, to come here.  Making this refusal all the more ridiculous (if that is actually possible), the US continues to welcome unvaccinated people from many other countries, such as Russia, Indonesia and Peru, and including countries with much higher virus activity rates, into the country.

There’s more.  The even crazier thing about this (if that is also actually possible).  Biden accused Trump of all the usual things when Trump instituted this policy, and all the usual suspects eagerly joined in the chorus.  But then Trump ended the policy.  Guess what Biden did upon gaining office?  Restarted the policy that he slanged off about so much, earlier.  All the usual suspects lapsed into silence.

But, dear Europeans, please don’t think we hate you more than we hate most of the rest of the world.  Although we allow unvaccinated Mexicans into our country, we refuse to allow Canadians in, vaccinated or not, even though Mexico’s rate of current virus infections is almost 40% higher than Canada’s (and both are five or more times lower than the US rate), and even though Canada allows us to go visit them.

Now you try telling me the same lunatics who have created these policies and refuse to review/revise/remove them can be trusted to set any other type of public health policy at all, whether it be about vaccinating or masking or social distancing or anything else.  The people who proudly pretend to be “following the science” clearly lack the comprehension to understand what science is.

One last point about this offensively illogical policy.  Why are we being pressured to be vaccinated if the US deems the risk of allowing people to visit us, even if they have been both been vaccinated and tested negative, to be unacceptably high?  Surely a large part of the purpose of being vaccinated is to allow people to then travel?

Where is the beloved (especially by himself) Dr Fauci on this?  While he is great at uttering platitudes on non-contentious matters, what is his opinion on allowing Canadians and Europeans to visit?  Why is he silent on this?

As for the FDA, it shows its contempt for us, the people it is supposed to be protecting, by comparing ivermectin patients with horses and cows.  Fortunately, we still have judges who bravely wade into what should be a simple scientific medical matter and overrule hospitals (again this week) that refuse to allow their critically ill Covid patients access to this life-saving medicine.

As for the CDC, it is still struggling with very basic statistical analysis – rather alarming when you consider the pivotal role that statistics has in understanding diseases and their spread.  Here’s a fascinating and generally convincing analysis that throws shade on CDC official commentaries, while using the same source data.

As I’ve asked before, what does it mean to “follow the science” when the supposedly leading scientists follow it in opposite directions (the CDC) or simply ignore it entirely (the FDA)?

Which brings me to the other thing I’ve said before, underscored by the almost 1,500 people dying each day in the US and the over 40 million people who have been officially infected by the virus here.  Our problem is not the virus, at all.

If we’d been as competent as Iran, or Cuba, or Belarus, we’d have similarly had half as many cases (and presumably deaths).  If we’d been as competent as Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, or Mexico, we too would have had four or five times fewer cases and deaths.  If we’d been as competent as Timor-Leste, Venezuela, or Japan, we’d have ten times fewer cases/deaths.  And so on.  Afghanistan has 30 times fewer cases, Australia has sixty times fewer cases, New Zealand and Taiwan 150 times fewer cases.

Our problem is not the virus.  It is the people who are in charge of managing how we respond to it.

Current Numbers

There were no changes of ranking in the minor country table this week, although the Seychelles saw its case counter flip over to now register 20% of its people have officially been infected by the virus.

There were also no changes in the major country table, nor were there any changes in the death list.

There were (of course) changes in the most active countries in the last week.  The US moved up two places, and Britain dropped one.  Israel – proclaimed as the “vaccine success story” is now suffering the highest rate of new cases of any country in the world, apart from the tiny French territory of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

In Europe, Norway had a 52% rise in cases, while Germany is now down to a more modest 18% rise, and Austria at 14%.  Spain continues to drop, another 24% in the last week, while Ireland dropped 23% and France 22%.  Europe as a whole reported a 3% drop.

Mexico enjoyed a 17% drop, while Canada’s mysterious growth continued, up another 23%.  The world as a whole enjoyed a 3% drop.

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 some positive results in a trial testing the use of over-the-counter (non-prescription) drugs to treat Covid, a very different type of promising drug, hopefully not available over the counter, “mild” cases that are anything but mild, more harm the virus causes to other parts of the body, the FDA is losing (or doesn’t have) needed senior executives, another new virus variant, pharmacies that will supply ivermectin, with or without prescriptions, Pfizer develops an anti-Covid drug that works very much the same as ivermectin, the vaccine is becoming less effective (according to some articles) but is exceeding expectations (according to other articles), US cases have almost stopped growing, but are running at 3.8 times last year’s numbers, FL tries to obfuscate the truth of its Covid stats, the CDC recommended something that probably no-one will pay any attention to, and more shortages of everything, everywhere.

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

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