Health Begets Health

A week after the WHO declared monkeypox a word health emergency (as they did with COVID) governments around the world are following suit, including the United States.

Temporary Recommendations issued by the WHO Director-General in relation to the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox
https://www.who.int/news/item/23-07-2022-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-(ihr)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-multi-country-outbreak-of-monkeypox

Cases in the US are approaching 10000 as vaccine acquisition ramps up.

Continue reading “Monkeypox Declared World Health Emergency”

NBC news is among the first major news outlets to release and confirm the dubious distinction that America has hit 1 million COVID-19 related deaths. That doesn’t not include the related deaths because of the lack of healthcare resources, and permanent disabilities incurred because of the virus. In just over two years the death toll has risen exponentially, attributed both to the unwillingness of many American from getting the free vaccine, and curtailing public health measures.

For more:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covids-toll-us-reaches-1-million-deaths-unfathomable-number-rcna22105

By the middle of February, most modelling predicts that at least 50% of Americans will have been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

This prediction is based on infection rate, whereas many states are showing possibilities of peak infection. That only means, however, that we’re at the mid-way point of this particular infectious wave.

Case counts for the US appear to have peaked at a 7-day average of 806k on Jan 14. Omicron grew from approximately 35k daily cases on Dec 14 to ~800k daily cases in ~4 weeks. 1/9 pic.twitter.com/D1Y6R58SjN

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) January 20, 2022

Continue reading “50% of All Americans Will Be Infected with Omicron”

Vaccine access will be a discussion topics for months and even years to come. “Rich” countries, beginning with the United States, have ensured their population has first access to the vaccines, namely Pfizer and Moderna. Other countries follow suit, and although there’s been gaps of months for these countries, supply is now picking up steam and more and more people are getting jabs in arms. Canada is now the leading country in terms of percentage of population with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Now it’s a matter of distribution and increasing access for the entire world, not just those who can hoard vaccine volume/shots.

There were initial reports of the AstraZeneca vaccine with a slightly lower effective rate compared to the primary North American vaccines made by Moderna and Phizer. Couple that with recent dubious concerns that the AZ vaccine was causing health problems (blood clots), and many governments paused distribution. That also meant general populations refused to take it, thereby stigmatizing the vaccine in a time when ANY vaccine is the right one. These are valid concerns by the public, but with additional information becoming available, those concerns must be put to rest. It also behooves governments that have approved the vaccine (or will), to do a better job with public health communication to dispel any rumours AstraZeneca isn’t a “good” vaccine. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In the study of 30,000 people, the vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 — including in older adults. There were no severe illnesses or hospitalizations among vaccinated volunteers, compared with five such cases in participants who received dummy shots — a small number, but consistent with findings from Britain and other countries that the vaccine protects against the worst of the disease.

https://apnews.com/article/us-data-shows-astrazeneca-vaccine-safe-all-ages-a73e711c7309be4444c65d5f9ae90c43

The Conservative government from over 30 years ago, in the typical conservative fashion of dismantling public sectors, mothballed Canada’s capacity to produce and research vaccines domestically. The effects are in full view as the country struggles to ascertain supply of the COVID vaccine from any number of manufacturers. Countries where those vaccines are being produced are preventing supply from leaving their countries until their populations are fully vaccinated. Regardless of agreements in place, there’s little the Canadian government can do to scramble and get more supply for their slow vaccine rollout.

This is of course part of the ‘first world problem’. Those that can produce will be vaccinated first, and those without, will wait until the end of the year for their share.

For once, it pays to have an ‘advanced’ healthcare system like the US, albeit not single payer. Which means, although America may have the worse access to healthcare for those who can’t afford it (a majority of the population), access to the COVID vaccine is readily available.

THe ineptitude in America surrounding anti-masks protesting and individualism (culturally important to Americans), the proliferation of COVID is the result. The largest tally of deaths to COVID-19 is America. The largest impact for the after affects, it will be America. The population, particularly if you’re poor, is monumental.

But, America also has among the fastest rollouts of vaccination. At this point it’s our only hope to combat the ineptitude of federal and certain state level governments who have refused to treat the pandemic seriously.

As for now, the vaccine may prove to be the needed saving grace. Assuming enough people have access and can get it (or will get it). Time will tell. Here is a chart about current country vaccination rates:
Continue reading “Will Vaccination Cover America’s Ineptitude?”