Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Sunday, March 28th, 2021
Mixed Weather
Today was a rather mixed day weatherwise.
I woke up to heavy rain, which admittedly I rather enjoyed as it provided the perfect excuse to stay in bed until almost noon, when the rain stopped, and read. I brought out all the Easter decorations and set up them in the dining room. The plastic eggs went into the tree on the front lawn and are a cheerful sight to passer-bys.
I braved the wet bushes and shrubs and made my way to the farthest corner of my garden to cut some Forsythias and budding branches of bushes unknown to me to make an Easter bouquet adorned with little wooden eggs and rabbits. The house feels like spring and the sun is out now.
We also found a supply of egg colors some of which EM delivered to our German-Turkish friends. They have a nine-year-old who will hopefully have a lot of fun with the colors. Meanwhile I caught up with one of my South African friends in Germany. On her way back EM bought lawn seeds which we generously sprinkled onto our front and back lawn to combat the weeds and the moss that seems to have taken over, before I made my way to the pool and EM headed for a hike with the BF.
This is our second pandemic Easter and hopefully the last! For that to happen the world will need to sit tight for a little while longer as illustrated by lessons from the UK, which has taken the view of vaccinating as many people as possible with a first shot at the expense of significantly delaying the second dose. 43% of the British population have received at least one shot. The government of the UK is now concerned with variants coming into the country, spreading among those partially inoculated and giving rise to new, potentially vaccine resistant mutants. As a result, it is continuing its lock down policy and restricting travel, probably also throughout the summer in an effort to curb new variants coming to the island. Curbing travel is what has been behind the success in Australia and New Zealand, where people lead a normal life within the perimeters of the nation. However, these concerns also illustrate how important it is for the world population to be vaccinated.
A new vaccine diplomacy is emerging, with authoritarian nations, like China and Russia, taking the lead to expand their influence. While they donate actual doses, the USA has mainly pledged money and is hanging onto its stockpile sufficient to vaccinate its entire population five times over. Also, it is not allowing the export of any vaccines or parts required to make vaccines, significantly contributing to the global shortages.
For example, the JNJ vaccine is predominantly manufacturing in the EU, but bottled in the US from where it cannot return to the EU. Maybe the EU should mandate JNJ to bottle on the continent. In the spirit of pandemic control this really needs to change, and doses need to get into arms in Brazil, where the virus is rampant, and South Africa where potentially new variants are emerging which can have an increased resistance to vaccinations. Especially for South Africa the JNJ shot could be critical. They will only need 40 million doses.
Doctors in South Africa have been using Ivermectin to treat Corona infections. This is licensed to treat animals against parasitic worms, but not licensed for use in humans. While it might be effective, there is no clear evidence as no clinical trials on repurposing the drug have been conducted. Strangely though I have heard something similar out of Bangladesh, where people keep deworming medication at home and take it at the first onset of COVID syndromes or when receiving a positive test.
During this mornings’ extensive news forage I came across a feature on home offices around the world. It is interesting to see how people from all walks of life in countries like Iran, Mexico, Kyrgyz and South Africa are working from home. My favorite is the Thai chef.
The USA has reached a total of 30.95 million reported cases. At the current daily in crease rate of 63K it will reach 31 million reported infections in total.
