The road goes ever on and on ... Day 28 (528)

I mentioned a few days ago being worried as the percentage of breakthrough infections seems to be increasing. A Los Angeles study of 43,127 covid infections found 25 percent of them to be breakthroughs. Delta is a wily opponent, finding the weak points in our defenses. Globally, covid cases seem to be leveling off, at least according to WHO. The last week saw over 45 million cases and 68,000 deaths. As bad as those numbers sound, they are only a slight increase on the previous week. The caveat is that there was a similar pattern in May right before Delta started to seize control. Some experts are getting more worried about flu season. The CDC usually advises getting a flu shot by the end of October, but not to get it too early since it's only good for about six months. Some experts are recommending getting one this year as early as possible. 

Non-covid related distraction: If you happen to be scuba diving in the south Pacific and are approached by a sea snake, let it lick you. It's likely to be a male licking to see if you are a female sea snake with whom it can mate. It might also be a female sea snake thinking you look like a good hiding place from the marauding males interested in mating. Lately, more divers have been approached by the snakes, and these are the probable reasons. And, yes, sea snakes are venomous.

The intelligence directors have delivered their report on the origins of the coronavirus to POTUS. The report is still classified, but word is that it offers no definitive conclusion. China is calling for its own investigation, claiming that the coronavirus leaked from the facility at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. The Chinese are taking the coronavirus very, very seriously. Authorities in 12 cities have warned that people who refuse to be vaccinated could be punished if they are found to be responsible for spreading an outbreak. The form of punishment was not detailed. 

Johnson & Johnson will submit data to the FDA that suggests a booster of its one-dose vaccine dramatically increases its efficacy. When volunteers in their trial got a booster six months after their initial injection, antibodies jumped nine times higher than they did after the first dose. An NIH study estimated that vaccinations of the three authorized or approved vaccines prevented almost 140,000 deaths in the US by May 2021. Unfortunately, vaccines became less effective as Delta gained strength. It's not clear, though, if Delta or time since vaccination was the cause.

New South Wales set another daily record Wednesday, with 919 new cases. Queensland has closed its borders with New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. New Zealand saw its highest daily toll of new cases in over a year; there were 210 found on Wednesday. It won't help that five people may have been injected with saline rather than vaccine at one vaccination site. Japan has 21 of 47 prefectures under emergency order. The number of new cases was up 65 percent over the past two weeks to average 23,003 cases daily. The states of emergency are expected to last at least until September 12. The international tidbits seem not to change that much from day to day, do they? I hope that it won't be too long before I'm reporting the outbreaks in Australia and New Zealand are under control, and Japan is emerging from its long summer of athletics with covid as a chaser.

The Vice President promised one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Vietnam; that would bring total US vaccine donations to Vietnam up to six million doses. In a interesting development, Vietnam is offering to pay patients who have recovered a monthly allowance if they agree to stay on at the hospital to help health workers. Beside lodging, there would be a stipend of about $350 a month, an amount that goes a lot further there than it does here.

Right now, Remdesivir is the only antiviral approved for use against covid. An oral antiviral called MK-4482 inhibits covid replication in hamsters. As of April, it was being tested on humans. Science moving forward.