Cases are declining; millions are getting vaccinated. Can you think of something besides COVID yet?
New COVID-19 infections have fallen 45% in the U.S. and 30% globally in the past 3 weeks, according to the Daily Mail (see graphic). Hospitalizations have fallen 26% since they peaked on Jan 12.
This decline can’t be attributed to vaccines because only 8% of the population has received the first shot and fewer than 2% are considered fully immunized.
Possible reasons: We’re approaching the end of the annual “flu season,” and the holiday travel season is over. Also, officials suggest that far more people have been infected than we thought—perhaps 90 million—and have natural antibodies.
People are, however, still dying.
There’s a rush to vaccinate—some 1.3 million people are now getting injections every day. But research on cheap, readily available oral treatments is still being slow-walked or not done. Many, if not most physicians are apparently refusing to prescribe early out-patient treatment except possibly for infusions of the antibodies recently granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
Vaccines cannot be the sole hope for ending the pandemic. They have not been shown to stop transmission, but only to reduce symptoms. Also, vaccine hesitancy is likely to increase as reports of adverse effects become known.
More than 270 deaths and nearly 10,000 adverse reactions possibly linked to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Eight miscarriages or stillbirths have occurred soon after vaccination. While this is a small percentage of the 26 million people who have received the vaccine, it is far more than the 23 deaths reported after the far more widely distributed influenza vaccine.
It is too early to see whether the potentially deadly antibody-dependent enhancement that occurred in ferrets exposed to the SARS-Co-1 virus after being vaccinated might occur with SARS-CoV-2. Vaccinated persons should still protect themselves, and even double or triple masks might not work.
Some physicians advocate prophylaxis with ivermectin or the drug that cannot be named, but official discourage this. There are a number of over-the-counter measures, in addition to vitamin D3 and zinc, that are supported by a scientific rationale and preliminary evidence.
For further information, see:
New COVID-19 Infections in U.S. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9219379/Why-coronavirus-cases-falling-fast-New-infections-drop-44-three-weeks.html
