Coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus variants, and vaccine updates for 10-13-2021

This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots for October 13th, 2021.   The British government didn’t get a very good report card from Parliament on how it handled COVID. A critical report said the country waited too long to impose a lockdown in the early days, and that missed a chance to contain the disease and led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. The delay attributed to a dangerous level of “groupthink” that caused dismissal of more aggressive strategies. The committees did praise the government’s early focus on vaccines and vaccine development.   A French study of 22.6 million people over 50 found vaccination reduces the risk of dying or being hospitalized by 90%. It also found vaccines appear to protect against the worst effects of Delta. The study’s authors said, “This means those vaccinated are nine times less at risk of being hospitalized or dying from Covid than those unvaccinated.”   Explosive accusations against Prevent Senior, which operates 10 hospitals in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Whistleblowing doctors testified the hospitals enlisted participants to test unproven drugs without proper consent and forced doctors to prescribe unproven drugs touted by Brazil’s President. Some senators say it also looks like the system falsified death certificates to omit COVID as cause of death.   The FDA declined to take a stand on whether it should back booster shots of Moderna’s vaccine, mostly because data shows two doses are still enough to protect against severe disease and death in the U.S. They also didn’t take a stand on Pfizer’s booster shots last month and rejected Pfizer’s original plan to distribute boosters to everyone 16 and older.   A national poll by NPR find the pandemic put Americans increasingly behind the economic 8-ball. More are experiencing serious financial problems, rent's overdue, evictions are looming, two-thirds of parents say their kids fell behind in school, and one in five households say someone in the home couldn’t get medical care for a serious condition. All this while billions of dollars in government relief money have gone out. 19% of U.S. households report losing all their savings during the pandemic and have no savings to fall back on. Add to that, half of households report at least one person in the home has had serious problems with depression, anxiety, stress or sleep in recent months.   In the United States cases were down 24%, deaths are down 10%, and hospitalizations are down 20% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since September 13.    There are 9,757,409 active cases in the United States.   With not all states reporting daily numbers, the five states with the greatest increase in hospitalizations per capita: Michigan 21%, Minnesota 17%. Pennsylvania 13%. North Dakota 12%. And Montana 9%.      The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Bethel Census Area, AK. Knox, IN. Lewis, KY. Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK. Stark, ND. McCreary, KY. Kodiak Island Borough, AK. Rio Grande, CO. Clay, TX. And Martin, MN.   There have been at least 715,413 deaths in the U.S. recorded as Covid-related.   The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s been fully vaccinated were all unchanged: Vermont at 70.2%, Connecticut at 69.4%, and Rhode Island at 69.3%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states, also unchanged, are West Virginia at 40.7%, and Wyoming and Idaho at 42.4%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is 56.4%.   The five countries with biggest 24-hour increases in the number of fully vaccinated people: Oceana up 3%. Cambodia, Australia, and Kosovo 2%. And Ukraine 1%.   Globally, cases were down 12% and deaths were down 14% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending down since August 26.   There are... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.