The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 25 (525)

The Central Park concert intended to celebrate New York City's recovery from the pandemic was cancelled midway through due to lightning. Only vaccinated people could attend,which for most things in New York includes people who have received just a single shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The photos I saw of the crowds showed no masks whatsoever and shoulder-to-shoulder people as far as the photo showed. Superspreader? I hope not, but Delta does have a bit of attraction to the partially vaccinated. 

Remember bleach as a covid preventative? The new one is ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug commonly used for livestock. Some people are taking it to prevent covid, something Fox News has promoted. NIH says that the studies being cited in terms of ivermectin's preventing covid had "serious methodological limitations" including small sample sizes and unclear outcome measures. In Mississippi, over two-thirds of recent calls to the state's poison control center were related to ingestion of ivermectin.

Sri Lanka has begun a 10-day lockdown after recording over 3,600 new cases daily since Tuesday. Vietnam recorded 10,654 cases on Friday, one of the highest daily tolls ever. Residents of Ho Chi Minh City have been ordered to stay at home. Over half the country's cases and 80 percent of the deaths have occurred in Ho Chi Minh City. Only 1.6 percent of the country's population is fully vaccinated. Over 4,000 people protested the latest lockdown in Melbourne. Most were not wearing masks. 

The Paralympics are starting in Tokyo, where the pandemic has worsened dramatically since the Olympics were held. Some public health experts argue that holding the Olympics in the midst of the surge in cases sent the wrong message, encouraging people to let up on mitigation measures. Nationwide, over 80 percent of critical care beds are occupied. New cases averaged 20,307 per day this week up from 14,729 last week.

Here at home, pediatric hospitalizations are at their highest point since the pandemic began. Those under 12 are unvaccinated, not by choice, making the elevated numbers not quite a huge surprise. Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine showed that critically ill covid patients were less likely to die or require ventilation if they lay on their stomachs while receiving oxygen. I don't know enough anatomy to be able to guess why that might be the case. Maybe lying on one's stomach puts less pressure on the lungs than does lying on one's back.

XPot held a rally in Alabama and informed the crowd that he had been vaccinated against covid and they should be vaccinated as well. The response? Boos and jeers. I have to give XPot credit for pushing the idea of vaccinations. He did something I would agree with for once.