Good News in the Fight Against Covid-19

I guess it depends a lot on where you live, CC! Our good news - here on this tiny Caribbean island - is that since our government closed the borders back almost a year ago, we have been walking around as free as birds - no social distancing, no masks, and plenty of hugs and hand-shaking! We do have to wear masks inside hospitals, and in some dentists' and doctors' offices, but nowhere else. The downside of all this is that we have almost no tourists, and returning residents have to quarantine in their own homes for 14 days. Newcomers with jobs have to quarantine in hotels at their own (or their employers') expense. I need hardly say that we have no cruise ships coming anywhere near us, and probably won't have for the next year at least.

Fortunately for those of us not in the tourism industry, our offshore-finance sector is going great guns, and almost making up for the loss of government revenue.

Six weeks after the new Administration took office, a Gallup poll showed that 60 percent of USA Americans perceived that the covid-19 situation was getting better.  Only 14 percent said it was getting worse.  It was the first poll showing that a majority of USA persons considered the covid situation to be improving.

This week the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines on covid.  The widely-reported guidelines say that fully-vaccinated individuals may go maskless indoors and outdoors, with some exceptions such as while riding pubic transportation.

Individual state governors and private businesses have the right to require masks under circumstances they consider a health risk, including large gatherings.

The USA has the most deaths attributed to covid of any country, over 585-thousand.  Brazil and India are second and third in covid deaths.

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Major League Baseball played all its 2020 games without fans in the stands, due to the pandemic.

This year, most teams have been allowing between 19 and 50 percent capacity at home games.

The Atlanta Braves have announced they will now sell for 100 percent capacity at Truist Field, which holds 41,000 people.

The Cincinnati Reds are following suit, effective June 2, at Great American Ball Park.

The Minnesota Twins will allow greater capacity in steps at Target Field, culminating with full capacity in July.

Several teams allowed full capacity on Opening Day last month, while putting strict limits on attendance since then.

Source... SportsTravel magazine

"The pandemic is in retreat," states New York Times columnist David Leonhardt in the Times' Morning Letter.

In the U.S., 60 percent of the population has received at least one vaccination shot.

"The virus is running out of places to be communicable," said Andy Slavitt, a top U.S. presidential adviser on covid.

There is concern about transmission of covid in the southeastern U.S. where fewer people have been stepping up to get the vaccine.

Caseloads have been falling rapidly in India in recent weeks following a disturbing surge in cases.

The U.K. is one of the few countries that have vaccinated more people than in the U.S.  U.K. deaths have fallen 99 percent from their peak.

Source... New York Times Morning Letter;  the cited column has been reprinted on the welcome page of www.cuencahighlife.com under the title The Covid-19 Pandemic is finally in retreat.

In an article e-published today, June 5, by The Washington Post .. people compare this month's reopenings to the end of Prohibition or the end of a grounded teenager's penalty weeks.

Due to an abundance of vaccines, the United States has been able to restore many bars, restaurants and businesses in many states to pre-covid operating levels.  The Memorial Day weekend was closer to pre-pandemic normality than any previous holiday weekend in over a year.

The Post article is accompanied by photos of couples dancing, patrons entering and exiting a Chipotle's restaurant in Colombus, Ohio, sans masques .. and indoor mask-free diners at Tosca restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The article is titled:
Americans re-emerge after pandemic isolation: "Like the end of Prohibition."

www.washingtonpost.com

https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/07/0 … -outbreak/
This is bad news for the other Caribbean islands and territories. Certainly it will make our (Cayman Islands) politicians even more reluctant to open our borders. There had been talk of opening in September.

https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/07/1 … or-travel/
Update from Cayman, above.
I know CC's title of this thread begins with the words "Good News", but in my eyes there really isn't much good news. Far too many lies are being told about these experimental vaccines that still haven't received the FDA's formal approval. Doctors and virologists seem to be sharply divided about the safety of one or more of the vaccines, and the statistics seem to be hugely unreliable. Also, I don't trust Dr Fauci as far as I could throw him.

I'm 82 next month, and I'm holding off from subjecting myself to any of the vaccines for another six months or so. After that six months I might take the risk of being snuffed out like a light, but not quite yet...

The renowned wildlife area the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean has the distinction of having all 25,000 of its residents age 16 and older now vaccinated against covid-19.

The islands' governing council found little resistance to its vaccination program as the island residents recognize the importance of bringing back tourism, which is still off by two-thirds from the days before The Situation.

June of this year showed an increase of 17 percent in the number of tourists visiting the Galapagos compared to the previous month.

The biologically diverse archipelago is a part of Ecuador although the islands are more than 560 miles west of the Ecuadorian mainland.  The health minister of Ecuador, Ximena Garzón, says the islands' vaccination campaign has been a fabulous success.

Source... www.cuencahighlife.com

Although covid cases have been increasing, fewer than one percent of covid deaths in many jurisdictions were vaccinated persons.

In California, where mask mandates and mask recommendations now cover half the population .. the governor attributes covid-case increases to three groups of unvaccinated persons --
the homeless, residents of rural areas and those who have been deceived by misinformation about vaxxing.

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Individuals and agencies are taking steps locally to fight covid and persuade holdouts to get vaccinated.

In the U.S., some local cities and schools are defying red-state governors' efforts to block mask and vaccine mandates.

In Mobile, Alabama, family doctor Jason Valentine will no longer see patients at his clinic if they are not vaccinated.  There are great vaccines to prevent covid, says Dr. Valentine, and there's no valid theory to stop anyone from getting a vaccine.

In New York City, the police department has announced it will penalize any officers who refuse vaccination and don't wear a mask.  The nature of such punishment has not been immediately made known.

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FDA approval of vaccine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has upgraded its endorsement of the Pfizer vaccine from emergency-use to full final approval.

Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist often featured on MSNBC, does not think this approval will produce a wave of vaccine-hesitant citizens getting covid-19 shots right away.

However, Dr. Gounder predicts that this approval has triggered the start of a wave of corporations moving to compel their employees to get vaccinated.

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Next up for FDA final approval is the Moderna vaccine.

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Florida doctors stage protest to support covid vaccinations.

PALM BEACH COUNTY (NBC News) -- 75 hospital doctors staged a pre-dawn protest today in support of covid vaccinations.

They said they are sick and tired of being sick and tired .. and of seeing non-vaccinated Floridians stream into their hospital -- Palm Beach Internal Medicine in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

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From WFTV Orlando tonight:  Florida today reported a record one-day number of covid deaths in the state, with 95 percent of the deaths being unvaccinated persons.  WFTV's website reports that the number of hospitalized covid patients in Florida has ballooned from 2,000 on July 4 (2021) to 17,000 now.

Well, like everything else in life it is all in the eye of the beholder. Much to many lies have been circulating since the onset of this virus and it is only to understandable that people have become wary of what the politicians and main stream media have been bombarding them with. There seem to be an underlying trend to enhance the casualties from Covid 19 and to minimize those that might have been caused by the vaccination. The opinion of people who are highly qualified, but didn't toe the official Covid narrative  line like those by Mike Yeadon and Robert Malone where suppressed and ridiculised which didn't help the overall credibility and trust.

Uh-oh. My most recent post has disappeared! Dear oh dear. What is Expat.com up to?

Shortly after the FDA announced its approval of the Pfizer vaccine, the U.S. Military Command and a number of companies and universities announced new vaccine mandates for their institutions.

A virologist and consultant to the FDA, Hal Bergen, is predicting that the agency will fully approve the other vaccines that are now in emergency use in the U.S.A. -- Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.  Those approvals will follow "in a matter of weeks," he foresees.

Bergen says the FDA approval is "the gold standard" .. and he expects decision-makers will take the Pfizer approval as a cue to institute new vaccine mandates around the world.

  -- Reported at www.cuencahighlife.com

Delta Airlines is incentivizing its employees to get vaccinated if they aren't already.

Delta is requiring non-vaccinated staff to pay $200 a month toward their health insurance coverage if they choose not to get vaccine shots.

Source... MSNBC

The Biden Administration is planning to recommend that covid booster shots be given with all USA-approved vaccines starting within a month, in late September.

The Administration will recommend the additional shots be administered starting six months after full vaccination of an individual was achieved, instead of the eight months previously envisioned.

Source... The Wall Street Journal

cccmedia wrote:

The Biden Administration is planning to recommend that covid booster shots be given with all USA-approved vaccines starting within a month, in late September.

The Administration will recommend the additional shots be administered starting six months after full vaccination of an individual was achieved, instead of the eight months previously envisioned.

Source... The Wall Street Journal

Either WSJ is slow or the medical providers are ahead of the game because all of my siblings (everyone is above and way above 65) in California have received Pfizer and Moderna booster shots beginning two weeks ago, 6 months from the day of their second shots.

No covid deaths in Iceland.

Iceland has had no covid deaths since May.  90 percent of Icelanders have been vaccinated.

Wyoming USA, which has about 50 percent more in population than Iceland, has lately been reporting four covid deaths a day.

Sweden allowed covid to spread by deciding to trend toward herd immunity;  however, so many were dying that Sweden dropped the laissez faire attitude and imposed covid protocols.

Source... An analysis of successful-versus-covid and unsuccessful places,
                  by the TYT network.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Uh-oh. My most recent post has disappeared! Dear oh dear. What is Expat.com up to?

My mistake, apparently. This thread is for good news only; I had hoped for an open discussion. Oh well, never mind; there are other forums on the Web. Thanks to those who contacted me privately!

A judge ruled on Friday that high state officials may not block mask mandates in Florida schools.

Judge John C. Cooper ruled in favor of the parents in various school districts who sought to protect their children by validating mandates.

The winning-side parents had argued that Florida's constitution requires protecting children .. and requiring mask-wearing during the present pandemic would do this.

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Next month in Lower Austria they are giving the Booster Jab.

Vaccine hesitancy levels on the move.

The latest polling shows that vaccine hesitancy has dropped in the U.S., meaning more people are willing to get covid-vaccinated since the FDA's recent endorsement of the Pfizer vaccine.

Only 20 percent of unvaccinated respondents are now unwilling to get the jab, down three percent from two weeks ago, before the FDA's full Pfizer approval.

Back in March, 34 percent were unwilling to be vaccinated.

Source.. Axios/Ipsos polling

The other factors.

Vaccine willingness can be attributed to factors beyond the Pfizer approval, as well.

For example, many people are seeking protection from the delta variant, which now accounts for most of the new covid cases in the U.S.

Another reason for vaccine willingness is that since the Pfizer news, many schools, universities, local governments and privates companies have been requiring that employees get vaccinated.

Source.. Axios/Ipsos latest polling

The clamor.

Public health officials have been clamoring in recent weeks for unvaccinated persons to get the vaccine.

Bolstering their case -- and probably persuasive to many hesitators -- are the many statistics showing that almost all cases and deaths lately .. have been among the unvaccinated.

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Seeking a haven for the vaccinated?

Looking for somewhere north of the Equator in the Western Hemisphere to vacation .. where a high percentage of the populace is already vaccinated?

How about Ecuador (which means Equator)?

The president of Ecuador has just announced that his administration has reached its top goal -- vaccinate 9-million people, 75 percent of adults -- by Day 100 of the administration.

Presidente Lasso's newly-announced goal includes vaccinating a total of 95 percent of adults by the end of December.

Metro Quito, the capital of this country, is right at the Equator.

cccmedia in Quito, Ecuador

Ecuador is leading the way in South America in the fight against covid-19.

Health minister Ximena Garzón says that with the country having vaccinated 90 percent of the most vulnerable citizens .. and a great drop in covid cases .. she believes Ecuador will return to relative normalcy by January 2022.

Garzón believes covid will be around for many years .. and must be managed, not eliminated, in the foreseeable future.  She wants the Ecuadorian people to continue mask-wearing and other covid protocols in the upcoming months.

Her remarks appear at www.cuencahighlife.com ...

  -- cccmedia in Quito, Ecuador

California rejects 'Elder abuse'.

The anti-mask, anti-covid-mandates candidate who was leading the field of challengers -- Larry Elder -- has lost his bid to become governor of California, as the state's voters tonight rejected the potential recall of the incumbent governor.

Elder is a long-time radio and TV talk-show host.  He wanted to repeal mask rules in  the USA's most populous state.  Major TV and cable networks called the election as a defeat of the recall effort before 9 p.m. California time, less than one hour after the polls closed.

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An Italian city held a plague at bay centuries ago.

In the 17th century, a city health board called the Sanita enabled Florence to avoid the fate of other Italian cities that lost close to half their populations to plague.  The mortality rate was 61 percent in Verona.

The health board closed Florence to outside commerce, imposed quarantines and lockdowns .. and ordered social distancing.  12 percent of the residents died, a much lower percentage than elsewhere.

Learning of the Florence experience, Ross Douthat, an opinion columnist at The New York Times, writes that he has changed his attitude that had favored few restrictions to limit covid-19:

"In a crisis the government needs to act to save lives even if ordinary liberties have to be suspended.  Yes, there will be unevenly distributed injustices... But if the Sanita's temporary authoritarianism saved thousands of lives, then it deserved the gratitude of Florentines, despite the costs."

[Post deleted]

No, you can't -- that's just like your opinion, man.

Posting against "well poisoners," etc. is off-topic to this thread, anyway.

Come back if you have good news relevant to the topic.

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World news notes in the fight against covid-19.

Portugal, population 10 million, has just about run out of adults to vaccinate against covid.  Overall, 85 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, lately mostly teenagers.  That's the highest percentage of any country worldwide, except for tiny Gibraltar (pop. 34,000). 
Source... The Washington Post.

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Colombia's daily count of new cases has dropped by 95 percent in the past three months.  The seven-day averages show that the new-case count went from about 30,000 per day on July 1 to 1,500 per day on September 30.
Source... John Hopkins University covid-tracker charts

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A leader of the private hospitals and clinics in Ecuador says the pandemic is almost over in that country.  Private and public hospitals have been closing their covid wards due to lack of patients and the complexity of covid protocols.
Source... cuencahighlife.com

in Canada, 80%+. vaccinated …. But still more and more Government restrictions ..
Something is Not Right in this world.

In USA, number of covid cases has plunged.

Heading into last month, the U.S. hit a peak in new covid cases of 166,000 in a day.

Since then, the number of daily cases has plunged by 40 percent.

The number of hospitalizations is down 30 percent.

Since September 20, USA deaths attributed to covid are down 13 percent.

It's unclear what's behind these improved numbers, especially since many schools opened for the year in late August and September .. and cooler weather was expected to drive more folks indoors.

Consensus among experts is to continue to wear masks in crowded places .. and vaccinate those who are not yet fully vaccinated.

Source... The New York Times Morning Letter

Life-affirming news from Peru.

Over a period of months, Peru made headlines in the world press for having one of the highest death rates by percentage of population.

Since July, statistics show, that has been changing.

On July 17, Peru had a seven-day average of 260 deaths per day attributed to covid.

The latest such average (October 22-28, 2021) is down to 33 covid deaths per day.  That's an 87 percent reduction in covid fatalities.

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The source of this post is Johns Hopkins University's covid resource center.

Dramatic drop in USA cases.

The seven-day average of new covid cases in the U.S. has taken a dramatic drop in recent weeks.

Between September 15 and October 31, this average of new cases dropped from 152,000 per day to 73,000, a decrease of more than 50 percent in under seven weeks!

Source.. New York Times USA covid map

Cases rounded to the nearest thousand by poster.

South American countries with close to 80% vaxxed.

Today we look at vax-rates in the countries in the southern half of the South American continent.

Chile leads the way in this sub-region with 80 percent of its population fully vaccinated against covid.

Uruguay has fully vaccinated 76 percent of its people.

Geographically in the middle of those two countries, Argentina lags in percent of population fully vaxxed versus covid .. with 58 percent.

Source... Johns Hopkins U. Covid Resource Center

It will never be good news until COVID has gone completely. Numbers are still rising in a lot of countries.