Spring and early summer seemed like a time of such optimism. I was fully vaccinated, I resumed my usual schedule of traveling, and once again I had a social life. Here in Ohio the number of new COVID cases were down to a level that we had not seen since the beginning of the pandemic. And then the Delta variant raised its ugly head. In the last week, the number of new cases of COVID in the U.S. has increased by 55% and the number of deaths by 8%.
(The graphs which I show below are from the website World-o-Meter. They are photographs which I took from my computer screen.)
When you look at the cases here in Ohio, the situation appears to be stable, even though our vaccination rate is a little below the national average. The number of daily new cases is still tiny compared to the height of the pandemic last winter. However we are starting to see an increase which may not bode well. Yesterday the number of new cases was 344 compared to 236 the day before. Over the last four days the seven day average for new cases has increased from 236 to 249 to 284 to 307.
In some states where the Delta variant has really taken off you can see a dramatic spike on the graph. Missouri is the best example.
Mexico has also seen a big increase in cases and deaths. This graph does not include yesterday's figure of 11,000 new cases, the highest number that they have recorded since February.
So, we are not yet out of the woods. COVID is still with us. Even when things seemed optimistic, I continued wearing a mask in the supermarket and other stores. There are perhaps only a handful of customers and employees who are still wearing masks, but I don't care if I look like an oddball. I have ordered more N95 masks to wear in Mexico and to give to Alejandro and his family.
Here in the United States we have an abundance of vaccine available while people in the Third World go without. It is very sad that an astonishing 30% of adults in this country refuse to take the vaccine. I realize that there is a small number of people that simply cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. But it is simply mind-boggling that we have so many ignorant fools in this country who would rather listen to nutty conspiracy theorists instead of the medical and scientific community. If we had this sort of mentality in earlier years, we would still be worrying about polio and smallpox.
I am going to repeat something that a fellow blogger wrote that is quite cruel, but also very true. The people who refuse vaccination and die from COVID should have the cause of death on their death certificate listed as "natural selection".
Mexico’s figures have always been huge undercounts, both infections and deaths. The actual death tally, going by excess deaths, is closer to double the reported figure of 230 odd thousand. Anyone using their infection figures, which are even les accurate, as a guide to anything is an absolute idiot. But there are idiots out there.
ReplyDeleteThe Delta variant is clearly both more infectious than the vanilla brand. Probably more severe to. Mexico probably hasn’t vaccinated enough to blunt it and almost certainly has a tough few months ahead of it.
No offense taken. I have written here that the official figures for Mexico are way too low. Back when the Secretary of Health was giving nightly televised new conferences, my friend in Mexico City would call them "conferencias de mentiras". Still, if the "official figures" are showing an uptick of cases and deaths, you KNOW that the situation is not good at all.
DeleteI am returning to CDMX in August and plan to wear the N95 masks whenever I am out and about.
Oh, by the way…your postcard arrived yesterday! This was the original point of my comment today!
ReplyDeletehttps://garydenness.co.uk/post/656706004983201792/seventy-six
Glad you finally received it!
DeleteBe glad you don't live in Tennessee, one of the states with the lowest vaccination rates...and not a mask to be found outside of a doctor's office.
ReplyDeleteHate to turn this political, but if Trump had simply championed masks and vaccines as being effective, we would have 30% more people vaccinated, and he would likely have gotten a second term.
The number of people wearing masks has dwindled here too. When I returned from Mexico in May, perhaps half of the people were still wearing masks in the supermarket. When I went shopping this week, I was the ONLY one with a mask. And here in Ohio the number of new cases is increasing each day... not a dramatic spike, but increasing just the same.
DeleteI don't know which is worse... our low vaccination rate or the thought of having "Herr Pendejo" in the White House for another four years.