South Asia remains in major Delta danger. Indonesia has converted its entire oxygen production to medical use. Hospitals in Malaysia are treating patients lying on floors or stretchers because all beds are full. Workers in Myanmar can't keep up with cremations and burials. In the last two weeks, these three nations have now all surpassed India's peak per capita death rate. India's seven-day rolling average of deaths per million people peaked at 3.04 in May. Indonesia's rate is currently 4.37, with Myanmar at 4.29 and Malaysia at 4.14. Elsewhere in the region, Cambodia's rate is 1.55, with Thailand at 1.38. Contributing factors include that people are getting tired of precautions and have stopped following them, vaccination rates remain low, and the dominant strain is the Delta variant.
A bit further south, in Australia, the prime minister on Wednesday refused to apologize for the slow vaccine rollout. A day later, he said, "I'm certainly sorry we haven't been able to achieve the marks we had hoped for at the beginning of the year. Of course I am." The premier of New South Wales has said that the majority of cases around Sydney have been "derived from critical activity--either essential workers or people doing essential things such as getting groceries--and it will be hard to bring that number down.
Scientists in the UK are backing proposals for covid boosters in the fall. They cite studies showing that the antibodies generated by two doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines start to wane as early as six weeks after the second shot. In some cases, the antibody count fell over 50 percent after 10 weeks. England is dealing with something we also face here in the US--young people not wanting to get vaccinated or thinking they don't have to.
Things could change here in the US as the result of two meetings held today. One was to discuss mask requirements and whether they should be changed in terms of vaccinated people wearing masks. The other was to review whether certain groups of people might benefit from a booster shot of vaccine. POTUS is optimistic that the FDA will give full approval to vaccine(s) by fall and hopes that children under 12 will be able to get vaccinated soon even if on an emergency authorization basis.
In a recent telephone poll, 76 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very confident in trusting the worthiness of covid information from the CDC; 77 percent were somewhat or very confident in trusting covid information from the FDA. Even higher, 83 percent were somewhat or very confident in trusting information from their primary health care provider. Respondents who reported relying on conservative media had low confidence in Dr. Fauci; only 38 percent expressed confidence in his covid information. On the flip side, 84 percent of consumers of "broadcast-mainstream" media expressed confidence in Dr. Fauci. Over all respondents, 68 percent reported having confidence in the good doctor.
Some Republican leaders have been urging people to get vaccinated. At the same time, half of all the Republicans in the House of Representatives won't say if they've been vaccinated or not. Perhaps the party leadership should try to get more of them to release that information. Citizens John and Mary Doe might trust their local representative more than one of the leaders with whom they have no connection.
On the sports side, the Olympics are still on, and the Opening ceremony is around 12 hours away. How many records will be broken in the track and field events? I ask because the anti-doping program over the 16 months prior to the 2021 Games basically fell apart. Almost all drug-testing was put on hold three months early in the pandemic. Globally, there was a 45 percent reduction in testing in 2020 compared to 2019. As the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency puts it, "Unless you're a fool, you'd have to be concerned." Over the course of the pandemic, there have been numerous personal bests as well as NCAA, national, and even world records broken. Aided by performance-enhancing substances or just more time to practice? Are you a fool?
Finally, fall National Football League games postponed due to covid will count as forfeits for the team responsible for the covid delay. That's an interesting way to encourage players and staff to get vaccinated, and it might actually work.
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