Saturday, November 29th, 2020
Admittedly I very much enjoyed the four-day weekend we just had. Apart from great food and good company it proved to be far more relaxing than I had anticipated. Tomorrow it is of course back to work, with roughly 1.000 slides awaiting to be reviewed over the next two or three days. For tonight I shall not think about any of this, rather I will enjoy another quiet evening.
With four days at my hands many little things around the house got done without causing anyone any stress and I still found time to swim, mind the garden, make the final batch of Christmas cookies, do the laundry, fix a picture frame and so on. Nothing exciting really other than enjoying our lovely home.
Beyond that I am anxiously monitoring the weather forecast; feverently hoping it will not be pouring with rain over the weekend. I am trying to find someone in the neighborhood I might be able to borrow a canopy from, just in case. Also, on Sunday the neighborhood organizes its luminaria walk. Over 200 houses will put candles in paper bags outside to light up the street as of dusk. It makes for a beautiful walk around the neighborhood. Keeping my fingers crossed that the rain announced for the weekend will be a couple of days late.
The US has reported one million new infections every week over the past four weeks bringing the US total to 13.7 million with over 272k death.
My prediction as of mid-December that number will increase to two million every week with hospitalizations doubling from 91k currently to around 180k by Christmas. What a way to be spenidng Christmas!
Scientists have managed to explain the mysterious of reinfections versus building long term immunity. A study conducted over an eight months period finds that while antibodies decrease both T and B cells increase. These cells are responsible for developing the antibody response and mounting the bodies defense against the virus. They basically “remember” the infection and create antibodies when the body comes into contact with the virus again. People prone to reinfection seem to have a weak immune memory. All in all, this is good news for the effectiveness of a potential vaccine. And there is news on the vaccine front, especially encouraging with regard to the AstraZenca/Oxford vaccine.
My prediction: AstraZenca/Oxford’s shot will become the default for many countries across the globe. Moderna and BioNTech/ Pfizer are simply too complicated to deploy and like me I suspect many people will be weary of the untested technology. And with the US administration touting these two vaccines are safe, I am even more skeptical as to their safety.
As far as immunization is concerned it may be worthwhile to watch China. Three out of five vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been used to vaccinate over one million Chinese to date even though phase 3 trial results are not yet available.
My prediction: The entire Chinese population will have been vaccinated by mid next year and China will make its vaccine available to all those countries it is investing in, which would be most of the African continent, further expanding its dominance and creating dependencies.