This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for November 1st, 2021.

If you think it’s important, for science and public health and safety reasons, to actually know how this COVID-19 pandemic started, you may as well forget it. U.S. intelligence officials said they can’t conclude the origin. They don’t know if it was from an animal, they don’t know if it was from a lab leak, they don’t know if the virus was genetically engineered…nothing. And that’s where they’ll leave it.   

The Mayor there says about 91% of New York City’s municipal workers are vaccinated as today’s mandatory deadline hits, a leap up from 83% Friday. The 9% who haven’t will go on unpaid leave starting today, which will create a corresponding shortage of police, fire, and EMS workers.

Dramatic reunions at Sydney airport as fully vaccinated Australians were allowed to fly home and stay home for the first time in 583 days. There was a lot to catch up on as countless weddings, funerals, and births had been missed. Wider lockdown restrictions are expected to be lifted for all residents December 1.

A health official there says China’s latest COVID-19 outbreak is developing rapidly. Authorities are being extra vigilant at ports of entry as infections boom in a northeastern border city. That was caused by the virus arriving from abroad. While the rest of the world figures out how to co-exist with COVID, China is maintaining its zero tolerance policy toward it.

Congratulations to the word “Vax,” the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year. Last year, the company said it was impossible to sum up 2020 in one word. But this year, they say the shorthand for vaccine “injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language. It’s clear the language of vaccines is changing how we talk – and think – about public health, community and ourselves.”

In the United States cases were down 13%, deaths are down 12%, and hospitalizations are down 17% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending flat since October 25. 

There are 9,342,326 active cases in the United States.

With not all states reporting daily numbers, the five states with the greatest increase in hospitalizations per capita: New Hampshire 34%, Vermont 26%, New Mexico and Maine 20%, and Colorado 17%.

The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Nome Census Area, AK. Grant, NM. Carbon, UT. Stark, ND. Goshen, WY. Bethel Census Area, AK. Emery, UT. Wabasha, MN. Montezuma, CO. And Inyo, CA.

There have been at least 745,805 deaths in the U.S. recorded as Covid-related.

The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s been fully vaccinated: Vermont at 71.2%, Rhode Island at 70.9%, and Connecticut at 70.7%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are West Virginia unchanged at 41%, Wyoming at 43.9%, and Alabama at 44.7%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is 58%.

There were only four countries with a 24-hour increase in the number of fully vaccinated people; Ethiopia up 3%, Indonesia 2%, and India and Oceana 1%.

Globally, cases were up 8% and deaths were up 8% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since October 15.

There are 18,320,240 active cases around the world.

The five countries with the most new cases: Russia 40,993. The U.K. 38,009. Turkey 23,948. The United States 19,975. And Ukraine 17,430.

There have been at least 4,999,456 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.

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