The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 80 (580)

Australia is on a roll with vaccinations. A few months ago, it had the lowest fully vaccinated population in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. By the end of last week, it had risen eight places. Canberra, Australia's capital, is on the way to being the most vaccinated city in the world. Ninety-eight percent of people over the age of 12 have gotten at least one dose of vaccine; 75.9 percent are fully vaccinated. Nationally, 83.2 percent of Australians over the age of 16 have gotten at least one dose of vaccine while 64.4 percent are fully vaccinated. While some states are beginning to reopen, Western Australia and Queensland remain essentially closed. For comparison, the percents of the population fully vaccinated for the top 10 countries in the OECD are

86.38 -- Portugal (as of Oct. 11)  

80.92 -- Iceland (as of Oct 14)

79.21 -- Spain (as of Oct 14)

75.59 -- Denmark (as of Oct 14)

74.66 -- Chile (as of Oct 14)

74.66 -- Ireland (as of Oct 13)

72.98 -- Belgium (as of Oct 14)

72.63 -- Canada (as of Oct 15)

69.79 -- Italy (as of Oct 15)

67.79 -- Norway (as of Oct 14)

The next three weeks here in the US will see discussion of vaccinating children ages five to 11, and how those vaccination programs should be set up. It is likely that special doses will be prepared and packaged and will be the only ones used for this age group. Pfizer has proposed a two-dose series of vaccine that is one-third the strength of that given to children ages 12 and up. One-third of parents of children ages five to 11 say that they would get their children vaccinated "right away."

November 8 is the magic date for travelers who want to enter the US. This will include Canadians who received doses of different vaccines. Mixing types of vaccines is still under study in the US.

Finally, might we be nearing the end of the pandemic? Experts say that there could be a small increase in cases later in the fall or winter. People will spend more time indoors and will be traveling for holidays. It is unlikely that the coronavirus will be eradicated in the next several years and perhaps not in the next several decades. While coronaviruses do not change as much from year to year as influenzq does, mutations or variants are the big unknown.