Thanks to India, Turkey and Iran, Asia has now set a new record among continents for daily new cases. Yet in India, as a share of population, infections are so far only one ninth of the US experience.
Covid-2019
Covid-2019
Thursday, April 15, 2021
The US government erodes confidence yet again, dithering over which is the greater risk: the virus they've been telling us all year is so deadly, or the one-dose vaccine that protects you from it. Our "Meme of the day" says it all.
Covid-2019
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Covid-19 seems to be making its last stand in India, where cases are almost to 200,000 per day. Daily cases in the US were higher in December, in a population base a quarter of India's. The horrible irony is that India is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world.
Covid-2019
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
In "Recommended Reading." Oh! The irony! New case growth is the worst in Michigan, where governor Whitmer had imposed the nation's most draconian lockdowns last year. She's learned her lesson and is appealing to the CDC for more vaccines -- they won't provide them, and they're telling her to lock down. This is a plan?
Covid-2019
Monday, April 12, 2021
New confirmed cases and fatalities have taken their usual weekend dip (only 283 fatalities reported in the US yesterday). But no time off for India. New cases continue to make new highs, as mysteriously as they made new lows mere weeks ago.
Covid-2019
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Whoa! Almost a 5 million vaccination day in the US yesterday. If this can keep up, we'll have adult herd immunity in just 18 days. Meanwhile, Israel, the world's most aggressive vaxer, now has almost 57% of the total population double-dosed, yet the rate of new vaccinations has slowed to a crawl. Is there some social phenomenon in which people stop getting vaxed when there is already herd immunity?
Covid-2019
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Global new cases pulled back a little, avoiding making a new all-time high. Once again, the pattern seems not to just be "waves," but rather "completeness," in which countries that avoided the virus initially are getting hit -- India the outstanding case in point. We're not supposed to ask this, but when is it going to be China's turn?
Covid-2019
Friday, April 9, 2021
If you had any doubt that we have officially lost our minds, check out "Recommended Reading" today. A New York Times Covid story, classic in many dimensions, about learning losses from school shutdowns. Be afraid. Be very afraid. But not because there are learning losses. Instead, because "some experts warn" that we mustn't measure them.
Covid-2019
Thursday, April 8, 2021
The United Kingdom will achieve herd immunity next Monday -- the first major nation to do so. According to the epidemiological modelers (who have gotten everything else wrong so far) they will have done it with a one-shot-for-everyone strategy, distinct from the US's two-shots-for-the-vulnerable strategy. We now track both strategies across countries on our page 3 vax scoreboard.
Covid-2019
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
No mandates for weeks -- and yet Texas has about the best case and test trajectories in the world right now. Check out "Recommended Reading" to see how Fauci tries to stammer out an explanation. But then again, nobody has ever been able to explain Texas.