The headlines today read: “U.S. Nears 600,000 Virus Deaths Despite Progress From Vaccines.” As several states, including California and New York state, are in the process of reopening, experts are warning the Americans still have a ways to go to get COVID-19 fully under control. Data shows that about 362 people across the U.S. are still dying from the coronavirus each day. What’s worrisome is that about half of coronavirus deaths at the end of May were made up of people ages 50 to 74, compared with a third of the total deaths in December. Many of those hospitalized are younger than in the past, some of whom had not been vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy is still a lingering problem. Nevertheless, about 44 percent of the U.S. population — about 145 million people — is fully vaccinated. Fortunately, widely available vaccines have played the central role in slowing the death rate. However, vaccines without continuing precautions such as masking and physical distancing may not be sufficient enough to finally control coronavirus outbreaks. Only time will tell. I’m not hopeful.
As of June 15, 2021, the U.S. had had a total of over 33 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, a relatively high number when compared to global numbers. As of June 16, 2021, there have been 176,156,662 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world, including 3,815,486 deaths, reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). On June 15th, there were about 11,180 confirmed daily cases in U.S. Compare that to 7,600 cases in U.K., 1390 in Italy, 407 in France, 650 in Germany, 1175 in Mexico and 806 cases in Canada.
Everyone recognizes that so-called COVID fatigue is a real thing and that certain sectors of the economy have suffered more during the pandemic, especially in light of necessary lockdown measures. One can feel the tension in the air and people’s desire to return to some form of normalcy. Yet new more deadly variants continue to emerge, including the so-called Delta variant which is now being transmitted in North America. One has to remember that the sole objective of a virus is to replicate. The more unvaccinated and vulnerable persons available to infect, the virus will continue to mutate. Most experts believe the sooner that we get more people, including children, fully vaccinated, the better are our chances to limit the further spread of variants. This is a simple scientific fact that people have to come to recognize. Forget nonsensical conspiracy theories and abundant misinformation about being vaccinated.
The fact of the matter is that there is now little chance that Americans and Canadians will ever achieve so-called “herd immunity”. Simply put, any herd-immunity threshold is looking unlikely because of factors such as vaccine hesitancy, the challenge of the unevenness of vaccine roll-outs, the emergence of new variants and the delayed arrival of vaccinations for children. COVID will be with us in one form or another for some time, just like seasonal flue strains. It may very well be that in order to have immunity, many of us, especially the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, will have no choice but to have COVID-type vaccines in the future. Remember that we are fortunately living in North America with all our health care and pharmaceutical capabilities, unlike what one finds in Third World countries. Failing to deal quickly with this health issue in the global context will have grave consequences for all of us. After all, no one wants to be just another statistic!
FROLITICKS 
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