Locally, my mom's assisted living facility won't allow outside visitors for the next two weeks. Things can be dropped off at the front desk and someone will deliver them, but the front desk is as far as you can go. They may at some point allow visiting outside or through a plexiglass shield, but neither Mom nor I are big on that. We'll survive.
Kids now account for 26.8 percent of weekly covid cases. Getting kids back to in-person school probably contributes a lot to that. As for schools, 13 employees of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools have now died from covid: four teachers, one security monitor, one cafeteria worker, and seven bus drivers. Bus drivers have it hard--stuck in a small and potentially open-windowless tube with a bunch of kids.
There is great variability in the vaccination rates of the 27 nations in the European Community. Bulgaria is the least vaccinated with only 20 percent of adults fully vaccinated. Interestingly, they have only the third highest covid death rate. As described by a public health law specialist, "In Bulgaria, we don't have good health literacy. Many people choose to believe conspiracy theories and fake news." It does not help that the government has put out very little if any information about the vaccines. The government should note that there are vaccine-hesitant people who say that they would get vaccinated if it were required to do something they like doing.
Vaccine inequity continues. From WHO: "Less than two percent of adults are fully vaccinated in most low-income countries compared to almost 50 percent in high-income countries. These countries, the majority of which are in Africa, simply cannot access sufficient vaccine to meet even the global goals of 10 percent coverage in all countries by September." Given that we are now in September the likelihood is even smaller.
The EU's removal of the US from its safe list means that entrance requirements for people from the US can be very different for different countries. The website of a country's US embassy is said to be one of the best places to check on requirements. Most countries, including France, Spain, and Germany have fewer restrictions than one might expect.
The coronavirus pandemic has greatly hurt the fights against HIV, TB, and malaria. Before the pandemic, deaths from those three causes had dropped by about half since 2004. Because of supply chain disruptions, limited public health systems, or fear of catching covid by visiting a clinic have all slowed treatment of diseases other than covid. TB had been the biggest infectious-disease killer, taking over one million lives a year. Those were the good old days, I guess.
The pandemic has been responsible for the creation of various new jobs. EY, a large consulting firm, created the position of chief public health officer. That person and team will advise clients on getting ready for the next pandemic. Wells Fargo has added a chief medical officer to its leadership positions. These positions will help companies be proactive rather than reactive as they have had to be this time around.
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