The View from the Hermitage, Day 435

A US intelligence report says that several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019 and were hospitalized. The lab director calls the report "a complete lie." Needless to say, this is only adding to the confusion over the source of the novel coronavirus. When asked if he was confident covid developed naturally Dr. Fauci said, "No, I am not convinced about that ... I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China..." It's not clear we will ever know with certainty where the virus originated.

At least 25 states plus the District of Columbia have now fully vaccinated half of their adult residents. Almost half the US population has gotten at least one dose. As a result, the US is recording some of the lowest covid data points in about a year. States have been offering incentives such as lotteries or free tuition for those getting vaccinated. Businesses have also started offering vaccination incentives to employees. Those offering monetary incentives may run into trouble, though, even though the amount offered is generally lower than $500. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says there is no clear standard for how large a reward can be without violating federal diversity, anti-discrimination, and privacy laws. 

Asia continues to fight coronavirus surges. Vietnam and Singapore were praised for containing the virus a year ago but are now racing to contain clusters and start lockdown measures. Singapore's surge comes despite 25 percent of the population's being fully vaccinated. Health officials blame the Indian variant for the surge. They say that the speed of the spread is frightening; one report mentioned seeing four generations of spread within a period of 10 days. Vietnam has seen over 2,000 new cases since late April, or almost 40 percent of the 5,119 cumulative infections. 

The Tokyo Olympics saga continues. An official of the IOC insists that "sacrifices" must be made to ensure the Games happen. Who should make those sacrifices and in what form were not specified, but the Japanese media expect that it will be the Japanese people. That the IOC has booked blocks of rooms in four of the more expensive hotels in Tokyo has not gone unnoticed. Unless the IOC backs down or Japan steps up, seven or eight weeks from now will find 80,000 to 100,000 people from 200 countries arriving during what might still be a state of emergency. The US State Department today issued a Stage 4 advisory, saying that Americans should not go to Japan. I wonder what the US Olympic people think about that.

Robert Reich, Democratic activist and former US Secretary of Labor, wrote a column on eight lessons to be learned from the pandemic. Here, without some of the details, they are. (1) Workers are always essential; they deserve far better than they've been getting. (2) Health care is a basic right, and everyone should be insured. (3) Conspiracy theories can be deadly. (4) The stock market is not the economy; stock prices rising does not automatically mean the economy is improving. (5) Wages are too low to get by on; a higher minimum wage is needed. (6) Remote work is now baked into the economy. (7) Billionaires aren't the answer; taxes must be raised on the top. (8) Government can be the solution, and may need to be again.

A not-yet-peer-reviewed article reports that dogs can detect covid in under a second with 94.3 percent sensitivity. The study used clothing from infected people and included both asymptomatic people and people with low viral loads. Dogs already are used to detect cancers and monitor blood sugar. It takes about eight weeks to train a dog to a specific odor. They really are our best friends, not that I ever had any doubt about that.