USA over 1000
The daily Covid death rate had fallen to 250 per day, but the deadly combination of the delta variant, and the way that the governors of Texas and some other states have allied themselves with the virus by banning mask mandates, has led to a resurgence of the disease.
The latest daily death number is 1015, and the new cases number is 150,958 (up from a low of 13000 in June).
This is, of course, driven by the two accellerants of low vaccination numbers, and zero state government action (apart from actions that help the virus).
Fortunately, this is an epidemic that's only hitting those who have chosen to be vulnerable. Anyone over 16 in the USA can get vaccinated, and 90% of the people entering hospital, are the unvaccinated - those who have chosen to play Covid roulette.
Why? I don't know. It's like choosing to cross a busy road with a blindfold. Sure, you're free to do it, but who in their right mind would take such a stupid chance?
The science actually says that masks are of no use where the virus is concerned. UK government science advisor has likened it to putting up a builder's scaffold to stop a barrage of flying marbles. the gaps in the mask fabric being 500,000 times the size of the virus particles. The Swedish government does not even advise the public to use them, as their scientists say it leads to false sense of confidence without any benefit.
ReplyDeleteThat would be true if virus particles were the issue.
DeleteGoing back to the rain analogy. A coat doesn't keep you completely ry, but it wards off most of the rain, even though water molecules are *MUCH* smaller than even a virus, and will go right through fabric.
The issue isn't virus particles. The issue is droplets of water containing virus particles, and by stopping those, the mask reduces the virus load substantially.
I reported on a scientific experiment about a year ago in this blog.
https://blog.drsolly.com/2020/05/day-69-of-self-isolation-masked-hamsters.html