The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 117 (617)

Random question that occurred to me yesterday and to which there is probably no easy answer: What if hospitals refused to treat unvaccinated people (children under age 5 excepted) who contract Covid-19? Would that motivate people to get at least one dose of vaccine? Oops, that was a second question. 

Non-coronavirus related, but important to think about nonetheless. The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance has released its annual list of countries separated into 98 democracies, 20 hybrid, and 47 authoritarian nations. Yes, the US is one of the 98 democracies, but--and this is a huge but--for the first time the US is categorized as a "backsliding" democracy. A couple of relevant quotes from the organization's secretary general: "The visible deterioration of democracy in the United States, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest electoral results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarisation ... is one of the most concerning developments." AND "The violent contestation of the 2020 election without any evidence of fraud has been replicated, in different ways, in places as diverse as Myanmar, Peru, and Israel." Looking at the three types of government above, consider that 70 percent of the global population lives in authoritarian or hybrid countries or in backsliding democracies. Is this really a group we want to be a member of?

Back to coronavirus issues. Dr. Fauci is warning that time is running short to prevent a "dangerous" covid surge in the US. Cases are approaching 1,000 daily with the average up 29 percent in the last two weeks. The coming holidays and winter could only be fuel on the fire. Dr. Fauci says that the surge could possibly be avoided if the public acts now to get boosters and vaccinate children. Some 60 million eligible people have yet to be vaccinated. Dr. Fauci explains, "We have a lot of virus circulating about. You can't walk away from the data, and the data show that the cases are starting to go up, which is not unexpected when you get into a winter season. People start to go indoors more and we know that immunity does wane over time." Dr. Fauci hopes that boosters push immunity out far enough that annual boosters will not be required. 

This one deserves its own paragraph. According to the Wall Street Journal, the 2021 covid death toll just passed that of 2020.

In terms of vaccinations, there are several Asia Pacific nations with immunization rates better than those of the US and many European countries. Cambodia, for example, began vaccinating people on February 10, about two months after the US and UK. By early May, only 11 percent of the 16 million people were fully vaccinated, half the US rate and one-third of the UK rate in the same time period. Now, 78 percent of Cambodians are fully vaccinated compared with 58 percent of Americans. Around a dozen other Asia Pacific countries have fully vaccinated over 70 percent of their populations or are about to do so. Why are they doing so much better? First, all Asia Pacific countries have experience with infectious diseases such as SARS and strong vaccine procurement programs. Many countries knew to order from multiple manufacturers to spread the risk of not getting enough vaccine. 

Complacency can be dangerous and even deadly. European surges are happening even as the vaccines work and work well there. According to a German professor of epidemiology and public health surveillance at Hamburg University, "Vaccinations help. They're one stone in the process of stopping the virus. But it's not strong enough alone." A professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Valencia agrees, saying, "Vaccines alone cannot fully contain a virus."

And now for something completely different. I did not know that pillow fighting is now a contact sport. The Pillow Fight Championship will be available live on pay-per-view on January 29. Competitive pillow fighting has been described as "hardcore swinging with specialized pillows." I guess throwing the pillows at each other is not allowed. Bouts are three rounds, and I have no idea how they might be scored. Direct hits on specific areas of the body? I definitely did not see this one coming. Maybe I should have encouraged my kids to have more pillow fights in case their chosen careers (data science and software engineering) don't work out.