Covid 4/2/21 | COVID 19 Information Page

Covid19mathblog.com

Vaccine news – well at least you know you don’t need another vaccine shot for 6 months for Pfizer – still daunting to think this could be an annual event – so much bigger than the flu now that pushing the passport and access to everyday life – note – https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pfizer-says-its-shot-remains-more-than-91-effective-after-6-months-2404452

“Pfizer Says Its Shot Remains More Than 91% Effective After 6 Months

Follow-up data from a final-stage trial of 46,307 people showed the vaccine was 91.3% effective in preventing symptomatic cases starting one week after the second dose through as long as six months. In the U.S. alone, the efficacy rate was 92.6%, according to a report Thursday by the two companies.”

Lets just look at the numbers and stop arguing over schools and open them up – we are doing way more harm to the social structure of the youth – they will not get the benefits given the risk of death is essentially 0 for that age group plus hospitalization is low. So many irresponsible reporting blaming school opening on transmission – https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6536/eabe8372

“Over time, the share of age groups among reported deaths has been markedly constant, and the data provide no evidence that transmission shifted to younger age groups before school reopening, and no evidence that young adults aged 20 to 34 were the primary source of resurgent epidemics since the summer of 2020. Our key conclusion is that in locations where novel, highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 lineages have not yet become established, additional interventions among adults aged 20 to 49, such as mass vaccination with transmission-blocking vaccines, could bring resurgent COVID-19 epidemics under control and avert deaths.”

“The majority of COVID-19 infections originate from age groups 20 to 49”

Let me interject my hypothesis given all this data – healthy individual as much as a vaccinated person not likely to get infected and therefore not likely to participate in transmission. The younger you are the less likely your bad habits have developed to make you obese etc….In fact a healthy person inside an environment with covid will actually reduce viral load as there immune system will eliminate the virus. We know spouses who have stayed/slept with their infected spouse have not gotten sick. There is a level of immunity from a healthy immune system.

Unintended consequences from our response to covid – they are not all bad – https://spectrum.ieee.org/news-from-around-ieee/the-institute/ieee-member-news/covid19s-effect-on-air-quality-can-be-seen-from-space

“Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists and civilians on the ground have observed a sharp improvement in air quality, especially over quarantined regions.”

““The study showed the positive impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on the air quality,” Loyola says. But he notes that the drop in air pollution will be temporary and that long-term emissions are still a health concern.”

New Wave discussion I think likely overblown given continued vaccination and already infected people. Maintaining confirmations is important to minimize variants. France, Brazil, and India who per capita confirmed and/or vaccinations per capita are very low and are areas we need to resolve. Yes people are getting re-infected by variants but the positive note is the illness is much less the second time around. In theory, the deaths should be much lower and the vaccinations SHOULD have been focused on the elderly in the beginning which have the MAJORITY of deaths. The results of any additional wave should be muted in terms of Death and Hospitalization or we have spent all this money on vaccines for nothing. In addition known treatment should be significantly improved. At some point this SHOULD be at a level similar to the flu – deaths will happen but it becomes at a “tolerable” range as it was with flu.

Brazil deaths continue to rise.