After a carefully managed barrage of positive press over the last couple of weeks, Merck has now requested FDA authorization for their Covid-19 mutagenic drug, molnupiravir. Noting that the US has already placed a $1.7 billion dollar order for the controversial drug, its approval seems to be almost assured.
Here’s a great article about this new drug which gives some very unsettling background. I do hope the FDA read it before deciding on their response.
A report by MPs in Britain described their country’s early response to Covid as “the worst public health failure ever“. The amazing thing about this finding is that the MPs are criticizing their own government.
While there’s plenty of debate as to how many additional lives were unnecessarily lost (and that’s before even starting to think of issues such as ivermectin) it seems generally accepted that, for the UK, the number is in the tens of thousands. But, whatever the number may be, there are two other numbers that are more certain.
The first – 138,000. This is the total number of deaths suffered in Britain, so far. The second – 0. That’s the count of people who will lose their jobs as a result of leading the “worst public health failure ever”. Some of us would suggest these two numbers would be better if transposed.
Talking about loss of life unnecessarily, and political dysfunction, the Chinese have pressured Pfizer into not supplying their vaccine to Taiwan. So first China releases the virus on the world, then second, it prevents Taiwan from responding to it.
It is extremely regrettable that China’s economic blackmail succeeds in areas where diplomacy, fairness and kindness have been abject failures. Details here.
Current Numbers
Some shuffling of positions in the minor country list, with Georgia leaping up two places.
No change of places in the major country list.
The US moved up to sixth place on the death list.
Numbers were generally up in the new cases for last week, so much so that even after a 14% increase in its case count, the UK ended up slipping a place in the table.
In Europe, the Netherlands has reversed itself and reported a 56% increase in cases. Ireland was up 50%, and both Poland and Latvia had 42% increases. At the other end, Sweden and Albania both had 18% drops, Switzerland and North Macedonia had 13% drops, and Italy had a 12% drop. Germany was down 9% and France up 4%. Europe as a whole had a strong 12% rise in cases.
Mexico had a 12% drop in cases, we in the US had a 13% drop, and Canada enjoyed a 21% drop. The world as a whole had a 4% drop.
Top Case Rates Minor Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Seychelles (217,299) | Seychelles (218,281) |
| 2 | Montenegro (213,655) | Montenegro (217,587) |
| 3 | Andorra | Andorra |
| 4 | Gibraltar (166,459) | Gibraltar (170,052) |
| 5 | San Marino | Georgia |
| 6 | St Barth | San Marino |
| 7 | Georgia | St Barth |
| 8 | Bahrain | Maldives |
| 9 | Maldives | Bahrain |
| 10 | Aruba (145,211) | Slovenia (146,666) |
Top Case Rates Major Countries (cases per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Czech Republic (158,100) | Czech Republic (158,781) |
| 2 | USA (135,006) | USA (136,850) |
| 3 | UK (117,745) | UK (121,700) |
| 4 | Netherlands (117,336) | Netherlands (118,522) |
| 5 | Argentina | Argentina |
| 6 | Sweden (113,674) | Sweden (114,072) |
| 7 | Belgium | Belgium |
| 8 | France | France |
| 9 | Spain | Spain |
| 10 | Portugal | Portugal |
| 11 | Brazil | Brazil |
| 12 | Colombia (96,328) | Colombia (96,494) |
Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)
| Rank | One Week Ago | Today |
| 1 | Peru (5,948) | Peru (5,952) |
| 2 | Czech Rep (2,841) | Czech Rep (2,844) |
| 3 | Brazil (2,797) | Brazil (2,807) |
| 4 | Argentina | Argentina |
| 5 | Colombia | Colombia |
| 6 | Belgium (2,201) | USA (2,225) |
| 7 | USA (2,190) | Belgium (2,208) |
| 8 | Italy (2,174) | Italy |
| 9 | Mexico (2,148) | Mexico |
| 10 | Tunisia (2,087) | Romania (2,137) |
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 | Serbia 5,328 | Latvia 6,317 |
| 2 | Lithuania 5,002 | Georgia 5,868 |
| 3 | Mongolia | Lithuania |
| 4 | Latvia | Estonia |
| 5 | Romania | Romania |
| 6 | Estonia | Serbia |
| 7 | UK 3,530 | Mongolia |
| 8 | Singapore | UK 4,000 |
| 9 | Georgia | Singapore |
| 10 | Slovenia | Slovenia |
| 11 | Cuba | Armenia |
| 12 | Turkey 2,378 | Bulgaria 2,587 |
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Items below include contradictory studies on aspirin, inconsistent attitudes to quickly approving new drugs, is it wise to do more research to find more dangerous viruses, are cheese balls healthy, more on lockdowns, why are the authorities ignoring immunity gained by previous Covid infection, will the FDA listen to its own staff this time, what’s happened to progress on other vaccines, why are our immunization numbers growing three times more slowly than the official numbers would suggest, is this our last Covid surge, and more unexpected shortages.
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