Saturday and I watched the ABC program Planet America which covered that vaccination numbers were going down in America where the most vaccines were available and a country that still had the highest recorded death toll from COVID.
The United States now set a target to have 70 per cent of the population aged 16 and over vaccinated by July 4th Independence Day. Currently about 56 per cent are at least partially vaccinated.
The state with the most fully vaccinated population was Maine with 41.5 per cent.
Texas was at 28 per cent and the state with the least was Alabama with 24.1 per cent.
The Food and Drugs Administration was looking to approve vaccinations for Americans 12 to 15 year olds starting next week.
The Brazil variant had now become the second most prevalent strain in the U.S.
America was also supporting the waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID vaccines.
May 09
In the United Kingdom I got a bit excited that over 40s in the UK were now getting the jab.
I hoped that meant it wouldn’t be much longer for my younger sister and her husband to get the vaccine.
On the 9th of May of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 157,375,575 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 814,195.
There had been 3,278,607 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 13,408.
The WHO reported as of the 20th of May, 1,448,242,899 vaccine doses had been administered worldwide. The population of the world was at least 7.674 billion people.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 12,226 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 140. Two days later there would be 504 new daily cases.
There had been 121 deaths. The next day there would be nine deaths reported. The outbreak continued in PNG.
The WHO reported as of 13th of May there had been 11,537 vaccine doses adminstered in the country. The population of Papua New Guinea was 8.776 million people.
In Australia there had been 29,906 confirmed cases with a daily increase of nine. There had been 910 deaths.
The WHO reported as of the 27th of April 3,089,183 vaccine doses had been administered in the country. The population of Australia 25.36 million people.
In Canada there had been 1,273,169 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,849. There had been 24,529 deaths with a daily increase of 40.
The WHO reported as of the 13th of May there 17,563,063 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of Canada 37.59 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,433,094 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,047. There had been 127,603 deaths with a daily increase of five.
The WHO reported as of the 18th of May there had been 56,992,075 vaccine doses adminitered in the country. The population of Great Britain was 66.65 million people.
In Brazil there had been 15,082,449 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 78,886. There had been 419,144 deaths with a daily increase of 2,165.
The WHO reported as of the 13th of May there had been 50,011,889 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of Brazil was 211 million people.
Turn away if you do not want to be displayed by the plight of the Indian people and what they have endured.
Below is a photo of the bodies in the Ganges River.‘
In India there had been 22,296,414 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 403,738. There had been 242,362 deaths with a daily increase of 4,092.
The day before had been the highest daily death count at 4,187.
The country would reach more than quarter of a million dead on the 12th of May with 254,197 deaths.
Only America and India had reached that milestone and the number of cases and deaths was believed to be much higher.
The WHO reported as of the 17th of May there had been 185,766,518 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of India was 1.366 billion people.
In United States of America there had been 32,338,866 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45,192. There had been 575,521 deaths with a daily increase of 790.
The WHO reported as of 13th of May there had been 264,357,485 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of the U.S. was 328.2 million people.
Dr Anthony Fauci was quoted saying in the lead up to Christmas, “For the first time in more than 30 years, I’m not spending the Christmas holidays with my daughters.”
The 79 year-old Director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would most likely talk to them via Zoom along with his wife of 35 years.
The advice he had for his fellow Americans was to do the same.
Ten people inside during the holidays he felt was likely too many and a surge in numbers from Thanksgiving gatherings would only start to reach their heights as we entered the longer holiday period of Christmas and New Years.
Hospital admissions had soared over 70 per cent in the previous two weeks with ICU availability at less than ten per cent in the state. In Southern California it was 4.2%.
In areas where ICU wards were at less than 15% California Governor Gavin Newsom had issued stay at home orders.
America had set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalisations in December with more than 109,000 patients with 21,200 of them in Intensive Care.
The New York Times calculated that hospitals that serve more than 100 million Americans were at 15 per cent ICU capacity – no more.
On the 10th of December, the World Health Organisation reported in the United States of American there had been 14,972,356 with a daily increase of 216,360. There had been 283,994 deaths with a daily increase of 2,552.
December 11
Close to three million kits of the Pfizer vaccine were getting ready to roll out of the Pfizer vaccine.
The CDC Director Robert Redfield advised on the same day that daily deaths in America in the coming weeks were set to exceed total fatalities from the attack on Pearl Harbour or September 11, 2001.
December 12
The American Food and Drug Administration gave approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be used in the United States late Friday there.
California Governor Gavin Newsom advised more than 300,000 doses were coming to his state.
Experts warned the vaccine would not affect the rising American death toll from COVID-19 for the next couple of months at least.
December 13
Sunday.
More than 184,000 vials left a Pfizer manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan on trucks bound for air freight across the country. United Parcel Service and FedEx planes would take off from Lansing and Grand Rapids to hubs in Louisville and Memphis from where the vaccines were loaded onto planes and trucks to go to the first 145 of 636 vaccine staging areas across America.
It was hoped 2.9 million doses would be given by the end of the year with health care workers and the elderley the first in line to receive a jab.
Stephen Hahn, the Commissioner of the F.D.A. said it was possible 20 million Americans could receive both jabs by the end of the month.
Slaoui advised that the U.S. needed to acquire herd immunity from the virus to halt transmission and that would mean 75-80% of the population had to be immunised. Some polling showed only half of Americans were keen to get the vaccine, others put the number at a quarter. Let’s hope the latter were more accurate.
It was hoped three quarters of the country would have been vaccinated by the May or June.
Even as relief was in sight, the reality of the situation was still pronounced as numbers skyrockteted.
Shipments were being dispersed to 145 distribution sites on Monday, 425 on Tuesday and the remaining 66 on Wednesday. Each state is receiving an amount of doses based on their adult population.
The vaccine is transported using containers with dry ice and GPS sensors to ensure shipment stays 94 degrees below zero.
December 15
Twenty seven year old Intensive Care nurse Sarah Lindsay became the first American to receive a COVID-19 Pfizer BioNTech jab.
She received it at the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in Queens, New York City.
Part of the Northwell Health System which has treated 100,000 COVID patients since the pandemic began.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo watched via live stream and told the veteran nurse after, “Sandra, you didn’t even flinch.”
Lindsay is a nurse. An intensive care nurse. She’s a New York ICU nurse.
She has been a hero for a long time.
Now she’s a symbol.
A symbol of hope, a symbol of the nurses who have borne the brunt of this terrible disease and risked everything, not just their lives but the lives of their loved ones who battling this disease.
They’ve seen death on a scale most war veterans have not.
They’ve gotten sick.
Some have died.
Some are fighting right now to be paid out after their health has deteriorated and they can no longer work.
Minorities per capita have gotten the brunt of this disease and it is minorities who per capita not without reason are wary of government administered vaccines.
President Walter M. Kimbrough of Dillard University and President C. Reynold Verret of Xavier University, both historically black colleges of the state, both said publically they were happy to get vaccinated.
Anesthesiologist Raymond Pla was the only black staff member of the George Washington University Hospital to be vaccinated Monday.
UPS driver Byron Bishop pulled his truck up to the University of Louisville Hospital greeted by applause and an elbow bump from the Governor of the state Andy Beshear.
Referring back to the date that Kentucky recorded their first COVID-19 cases, the Governor told this was the best, “The best I’ve felt since March 6. Today is the day we start winning the war against covid.”
He told a story about a close friend who had lost his mother to the virus and had to quarantine for two weeks unable to grieve with the rest of his family. Just one more devastating story from the pandemic.
It took four months for America to reach 100,000 dead and it was now believed a further 100,000 could die in the following six weeks.
Leon Kelly, the coroner of El Paso County in Colorado and the Deputy Medical Director of its health department had seen a lot of death in the past few months.
Jennifer Nuzzo was not wrong, none of this was good enough or justified. President Trump has blood on his hands and always will. That in my opinion is and always will remain his biggest crime. That and any of his allies, enablers and supporters.
On the 15th of December the World Health Organisation reported there had been 72,467,704 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 507,504.
There had been 1,620,942 deaths globally with a daily increase of 8,797.
In Australia there had been 28,039 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eight. There had been 908 deaths.
In Canada there had been 460,743 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,891. There had been 13,431 deaths with a daily increase of 81.
In the United Kingdom there had been 1,869,670 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 20,263. There had been 64,402 deaths with a daily increase of 232.
In India there had been 9,906,165 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 22,065. There had been 143,709 deaths with a daily increase of 354.
In the United States of America there had been 16,041,095 with a daily increase of 180,420. There had been 296,840 deaths with a daily increase of 1,434.
But this was not just a day of doom and gloom. All the days of December showed death. Showed heartbreaking loss.
December 15 was a day of hope too. A vaccine being distributed against in just nine short months after COVID-19 rapidly spread across the world and changed our lives forever.
A miracle performed by scientists.
Delivered to our greatest heroes and our most vulnerable.
Back in Queens at the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, the second person to receive a shot was Yves Duroseau, the emergency medicine chair at Manhattan’s Lennox Hill Hospital.
Like nurse Lindsay before him, he got the needle from Michelle Chester, the Director of Employee Health Services for Northwell Health.
“Ready?” Chester asked him.
“Please,” he replied.
“Let’s do this.” she said.
Duroseau had lost an uncle to COVID and had another family member in hospital fighting the disease.
