International COVID-19 Megathread

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/JakeCordell/status/1431331582070120449

[Red Velvet]

While some places are talking about a 3rd dose booster shot, some places don’t even have 20% of their population with a 1st dose. HOW is this going to be controlled on a global level, stopping variants to emerge, with this level of greediness and stupidity?

The countries that can afford tons of vaccines may think they’re assuring their protection by giving their population 3, 4 or even 5 vaccines, but this is an international issue. More resistant variants will emerge if they keep refusing to help low-income countries to get vaccinated and it will come back to bite them in their ass. This inequality is not just damaging for some, but to everyone. More vaccines AND health infrastructure for their application needs to be sent abroad instead of redundant domestic vaccinations. Soon these people will start taking about 4th doses…

% of population with at least 1 dose of the vaccine (Our World in Data):

UAE 84,93%
Portugal 83,16%
-
Spain 77,52%
Denmark 75,56%
China ~75% (my estimate based on the reported 2 billion doses number)
Chile 74,83%
Ireland 73,23%
Canada 73,03%
Belgium 72,12%
France 71,03%
UK 70,25%
-
Italy 69,83%
Netherlands 69,68%
Israel 67,66%
Sweden 67,45%
Germany 64,32%
Brazil 62,10%
Saudi Arabia 61,80%
Austria 60,63%
USA 60,50%
Argentina 60,49%
-
Hungary 59,43%
Malaysia 58,25%
Greece 57,77%
Switzerland 56,41%
Turkey 55,89%
South Korea 55,25%
Japan 54,95%
Poland 50,78%
-
Morocco 48,63%
Cuba 46,73%
Australia 45,10%
Colombia 43,95%
Mexico 43,88%
Taiwan 41,54%
-
New Zealand 38,72%
India 34,17%
Jordan 33,25%
Bolivia 31,85%
Thailand 30,98%
Tunisia 30,89%
-
Peru 29,95%
Russia 29,65%
Romania 27,30%
Uzbekistan 25,25%
Indonesia 21,87%
Venezuela 20,92%
-
Iran 19,98%
Philippines 19,24%
Vietnam 16,92%
Pakistan 17,74%
South Africa 15,03%
Ukraine 12,11%
Bangladesh 10,61%
-
Egypt 4,90%
Ethiopia 2,03%
Kenya 3,44%
Afghanistan 1,93%
Nigeria 1,21%
Tanzania 0,36%

[Meclazine for Israel]

Sri Lankans experiencing the Delta variant innovating in a very macabre way.

Cardboard Coffins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knbfjjl_s8w

More environmentally friendly, but cannot take people above 100kg.

[WMS]

A grim point to consider: there is very likely huge underreporting of COVID worldwide, especially in the more repressive regimes.

Start here.

I believe the Economist estimates are that between 7 and 13 million have actually died from COVID.

[President Johnson]

Germany crossed four million cases lately, and the vaccination campaign is losing steam due to a lack of will among a certain segment of society.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1434473586178285569

[Red Velvet]

Top 3 antivaxx countries are Russia, USA and Germany. These are the main countries where you can see the vaccination speed has been compromised because of stronger internal campaign against vaccination, as you would expect them to be performing better in comparison to what similar countries are doing (Germany with Western Europe, USA with Canada or UK, Russia with Eastern Europe).

Look at how Germany is so behind in comparison to other Western European countries in people who had at least one dose applied (numbers by Reuters):

UAE 89,5%
Portugal 85,1%
Qatar 82,8%
Singapore 81,0%
-
Spain 78,0%
Uruguay 77,3%
Chile 76,2%
Denmark 75,9%
Ireland 75,0%
Canada 74,8%
China 74,3% (Our World in Data numbers)
Belgium 73,5%
Finland 73,4%
Norway 72,9%
France 72,7%
UK 72,2%
Italy 71,6%
Bahrain 70,1%
-
Mongolia 69,5%
Netherlands 69,2%
Cambodia 68,2%
Sweden 67,4%
Israel 66,4%
Brazil 65,7%
Germany 65,6%
Saudi Arabia 65,5%
Malaysia 64,3%
USA 63,0%
Argentina 63,0%
Austria 62,4%
Costa Rica 60,6%
-
Hungary 59,5%
Turkey 59,4%
Switzerland 58,5%
Sri Lanka 58,3%
Japan 58,2%
South Korea 58,0%
Greece 57,3%
El Salvador 56,6%
Hong Kong 56,5%
Czechia 56,0%
Dominican Republic 54,5%
Morocco 52,5%
New Zealand 52,2%
Australia 51,4%
Cuba 51,2%
Poland 51,0%
-
Cyprus 48,3%
Colombia 47,7%
Mexico 46,1%
Latvia 45,5%
Croatia 42,8%
Serbia 42,3%
-
India 38,4%
Tunisia 37,3%
Kazakhstan 36,8%
Bolivia 35,4%
Jordan 34,8%
Thailand 33,6%
Peru 33,4%
Paraguay 32,5%
Russia 30,8%
-
Honduras 28,4%
Romania 27,2%
Indonesia 24,7%
Georgia 22,7%
Iran 22,4%
Pakistan 21,7%
Venezuela 21,1%
Guatemala 20,9%
Lebanon 20,3%
Palestine 20,0%
-
Nepal 19,3%
Zimbabwe 18,5%
Vietnam 18,1%
Belarus 17,2%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 17,2%
South Africa 17,0%
Jamaica 14,3%
Botswana 13,9%
Ukraine 12,6%
Bangladesh 11,7%
Algeria 11,6%
-
Namibia 8,6%
Myanmar 8,2%
Gambia 8,2%
Senegal 7,2%
Nicaragua 7,1%
Egypt 6,2%
Mozambique 5,4%
Mauritania 5,4%
Ivory Coast 5,3%
-
Togo 4,4%
Kenya 3,9%
Malawi 3,7%
Gabon 3,6%
Ghana 2,8%
Ethiopia 2,2%
Liberia 2,1%
Sierra Leone 2,0%
Afghanistan 2,0%
Sudan 1,5%
Nigeria 1,5%
Syria 1,4%
Cameroon 1,4%
Somalia 1,3%
Mali 1,2%
Yemen 1,0%
Benin 1,0%
Burkina Faso 0,5%
Haiti 0,3%
DR of Congo <0,1%

Antivaxxers per country (Morning Consult poll):

[Biden his time]

-SNIP-

What politicization does to a country!

Very disappointing how America's anti-vaccination movement has grown to be larger than those of Europe (previously the largest) over the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Pericles]

I still don't understand how America's vaccination hesitancy is large enough to overwhelm healthcare systems-deaths should be much lower since most vulnerable people are protected (even more than the average vaccination rate). The wave is clustered disproportionately in the South, but even then, 76% of over 65s in Mississippi are fully vaccinated.

[SnowLabrador]

I still don't understand how America's vaccination hesitancy is large enough to overwhelm healthcare systems-deaths should be much lower since most vulnerable people are protected (even more than the average vaccination rate). The wave is clustered disproportionately in the South, but even then, 76% of over 65s in Mississippi are fully vaccinated.

The Delta variant.

[Former President tack50]

I still don't understand how America's vaccination hesitancy is large enough to overwhelm healthcare systems-deaths should be much lower since most vulnerable people are protected (even more than the average vaccination rate). The wave is clustered disproportionately in the South, but even then, 76% of over 65s in Mississippi are fully vaccinated.

The Delta variant.

My understanding is Delta is more contagious but not necessarily more lethal?

[Pericles]

I still don't understand how America's vaccination hesitancy is large enough to overwhelm healthcare systems-deaths should be much lower since most vulnerable people are protected (even more than the average vaccination rate). The wave is clustered disproportionately in the South, but even then, 76% of over 65s in Mississippi are fully vaccinated.

The Delta variant.

My understanding is Delta is more contagious but not necessarily more lethal?

But Mississppi infections are not hugely up on last year, they're up a bit and testing is about the same so you'd expect deaths to be way lower than last year with the wonderful vaccines.

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

Outside masks will no longer be mandatory after 12 September. The two main parties, PS and PSD, have announced that they will not propose an extension of the outside mask mandate and outside masks will no longer be mandatory. However, some Health specialists are saying the decision maybe too early and the Health Authorities (DGS) suggest that people should still wear a mask outside if they meet in gatherings.

[Silent Hunter]

I live in Britain. 4 hours plus in our emergency rooms is common for stuff that doesn't need ICU. Take a good audiobook.

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

Outside masks will no longer be mandatory after 12 September. The two main parties, PS and PSD, have announced that they will not propose an extension of the outside mask mandate and outside masks will no longer be mandatory. However, some Health specialists are saying the decision maybe too early and the Health Authorities (DGS) suggest that people should still wear a mask outside if they meet in gatherings.

The Health authorities have published their guidelines for outdoor masks. Masks should be used in exterior events with gatherings, normal exterior gatherings and in school playgrounds.

Azores also announced that they will follow the decision to drop mandatory outdoor masks after next Sunday, 12 September. Madeira, on the other hand, seems that it will maintain the mandatory outdoor mask mandate, but it's not official yet.

[Red Velvet]

Congratulations for Portugal for the highly efficient vaccination! With more than 85% of the population partially vaccinated, it’s only the 2nd country in the world to surpass that landmark, behind only UAE which is already at more than 91%.

85% is considered by many the target to reach in order to control the pandemic. Good to see countries reaching that number. The world has lots of catching up to do.

Shoutout to South Korea and Japan as well. They started way behind western countries, despite being high income ones but now they’re growing up fast on the charts, with South Korea reaching 64% and Japan 62%.

Just to remind, on Monday the numbers I posted indicated 58% for both of these countries. So the fact that they’re growing with a such fast pace indicates that the delay was probably in regards to obtaining the vaccines, which were initially way too concentrated to be distributed in US and then Europe.

Not coincidentally, you also see now fast growth from the high income Oceania countries, Australia and New Zealand. Which, like Japan and South Korea, took a looooong time before taking off but now are doing just that. New Zealand is 56% today and Australia 54%. Last Monday the numbers I posted were respectively 52% and 51%. We’re basically seeing the high income countries outside from US-Europe axis quickly grow up now.

Reuters

[Mike88]

Congratulations for Portugal for the highly efficient vaccination! With more than 85% of the population partially vaccinated, it’s only the 2nd country in the world to surpass that landmark, behind only UAE which is already at more than 91%.

85% is considered by many the target to reach in order to control the pandemic. Good to see countries reaching that number. The world has lots of catching up to do.
Reuters

Our vaccination program was a huge, huge success. It started out badly in January, but since a navy admiral called Gouveia e Melo was nominated to lead the vaccination task force, the vaccination plan really took off with very good organization and massive turnout. Also, today was the last day of mandatory outside masks but Health officials are telling people to be carefull and use a mask when there's a lot of people congregated and so on.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Top 3 antivaxx countries are Russia, USA and Germany. These are the main countries where you can see the vaccination speed has been compromised because of stronger internal campaign against vaccination, as you would expect them to be performing better in comparison to what similar countries are doing (Germany with Western Europe, USA with Canada or UK, Russia with Eastern Europe).

Look at how Germany is so behind in comparison to other Western European countries in people who had at least one dose applied (numbers by Reuters):

UAE 89,5%
Portugal 85,1%
Qatar 82,8%
Singapore 81,0%
-
Spain 78,0%
Uruguay 77,3%
Chile 76,2%
Denmark 75,9%
Ireland 75,0%
Canada 74,8%
China 74,3% (Our World in Data numbers)
Belgium 73,5%
Finland 73,4%
Norway 72,9%
France 72,7%
UK 72,2%
Italy 71,6%
Bahrain 70,1%
-
Mongolia 69,5%
Netherlands 69,2%
Cambodia 68,2%
Sweden 67,4%
Israel 66,4%
Brazil 65,7%
Germany 65,6%
Saudi Arabia 65,5%
Malaysia 64,3%
USA 63,0%
Argentina 63,0%
Austria 62,4%
Costa Rica 60,6%
-
Hungary 59,5%
Turkey 59,4%
Switzerland 58,5%
Sri Lanka 58,3%
Japan 58,2%
South Korea 58,0%
Greece 57,3%
El Salvador 56,6%
Hong Kong 56,5%
Czechia 56,0%
Dominican Republic 54,5%
Morocco 52,5%
New Zealand 52,2%
Australia 51,4%
Cuba 51,2%
Poland 51,0%
-
Cyprus 48,3%
Colombia 47,7%
Mexico 46,1%
Latvia 45,5%
Croatia 42,8%
Serbia 42,3%
-
India 38,4%
Tunisia 37,3%
Kazakhstan 36,8%
Bolivia 35,4%
Jordan 34,8%
Thailand 33,6%
Peru 33,4%
Paraguay 32,5%
Russia 30,8%
-
Honduras 28,4%
Romania 27,2%
Indonesia 24,7%
Georgia 22,7%
Iran 22,4%
Pakistan 21,7%
Venezuela 21,1%
Guatemala 20,9%
Lebanon 20,3%
Palestine 20,0%
-
Nepal 19,3%
Zimbabwe 18,5%
Vietnam 18,1%
Belarus 17,2%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 17,2%
South Africa 17,0%
Jamaica 14,3%
Botswana 13,9%
Ukraine 12,6%
Bangladesh 11,7%
Algeria 11,6%
-
Namibia 8,6%
Myanmar 8,2%
Gambia 8,2%
Senegal 7,2%
Nicaragua 7,1%
Egypt 6,2%
Mozambique 5,4%
Mauritania 5,4%
Ivory Coast 5,3%
-
Togo 4,4%
Kenya 3,9%
Malawi 3,7%
Gabon 3,6%
Ghana 2,8%
Ethiopia 2,2%
Liberia 2,1%
Sierra Leone 2,0%
Afghanistan 2,0%
Sudan 1,5%
Nigeria 1,5%
Syria 1,4%
Cameroon 1,4%
Somalia 1,3%
Mali 1,2%
Yemen 1,0%
Benin 1,0%
Burkina Faso 0,5%
Haiti 0,3%
DR of Congo <0,1%

Antivaxxers per country (Morning Consult poll):

The discussion in Germany is going in the direction of "we need to get the vaccination rates up or there will be another lockdown in the winter... which depending on the situation may even have to include the vaccinated people".

Which certainly sounds like a recipe for conflict. From a potential schism of the political elite into a pro-lockdown camp (because they think compulsary vaccination is unconstitutional) and a pro-compulsary vaccination camp (because they think it's preferable to a lockdown) to anti-vaxxers being increasingly shunned by the rest of society because they're responsible for the lockdown to the fact that I happen to know a couple of vaccinated people who probably don't read as much news as I do and who are still working on the assumption that the pandemic is essentially over for them and the restrictions lie behind them.

[CumbrianLefty]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

It could be a course of action recommended by virologists (one Christian Drosten has in fact already hinted at in a recent interview). Whether this recommendation is implemented will be a political decisison and the points you just brought forward will certainly factor into it.

[SnowLabrador]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

A vaccinated adult is less likely to die from coronavirus than a bee sting, even with the delta variant around. Lockdowns will not be necessary, and any country using them should instead look to vaccination.

[SnowLabrador]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

A vaccinated adult is less likely to die from coronavirus than a bee sting, even with the delta variant around. Lockdowns will not be necessary, and any country using them should instead look to vaccination.

Thousands of fully vaccinated people have died in the US alone. Just read FacesofCOVID like I do.

[MATTROSE94]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

A vaccinated adult is less likely to die from coronavirus than a bee sting, even with the delta variant around. Lockdowns will not be necessary, and any country using them should instead look to vaccination.

Thousands of fully vaccinated people have died in the US alone. Just read FacesofCOVID like I do.

I Agree. It seems like 25,000-50,000 fully vaccinated people died so far in the US. That is why a permanent premium mask mandate and long-term lockdowns on pretty much everything except grocery stores, utility companies, and medical offices are 100% necessary going forward.

[Pericles]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

A vaccinated adult is less likely to die from coronavirus than a bee sting, even with the delta variant around. Lockdowns will not be necessary, and any country using them should instead look to vaccination.

Thousands of fully vaccinated people have died in the US alone. Just read FacesofCOVID like I do.

A very small fraction of the death tolls since vaccines became available, especially once you exclude those who died less than 3 weeks after their first or second jab. For example, in the UK for the first 6 months of this year, out of an adult population that is now nearly 90% vaccinated, only 252/51,000 (disgraceful) something deaths were of those double jabbed 3 weeks or more. And 73% of those were extremely vulnerable. If you're double jabbed, it's been 3 weeks, and you're not very old and/or unhealthy, you're fine and should be able to live a normal life and treat Covid like any other disease. The vaccines are truly wonderful.

[MATTROSE94]

Any country that tries to impose any sort of major lockdown this winter on a *mostly vaccinated* population is going to encounter significant resistance. Almost everywhere, vaccines have been sold as a de facto "passport to freedom" and people won't take kindly if they think they have been sold a pup.

That sucks, because lockdowns will be necessary thanks to the Delta variant.

A vaccinated adult is less likely to die from coronavirus than a bee sting, even with the delta variant around. Lockdowns will not be necessary, and any country using them should instead look to vaccination.

Thousands of fully vaccinated people have died in the US alone. Just read FacesofCOVID like I do.

A very small fraction of the death tolls since vaccines became available, especially once you exclude those who died less than 3 weeks after their first or second jab. For example, in the UK for the first 6 months of this year, out of an adult population that is now nearly 90% vaccinated, only 252/51,000 (disgraceful) something deaths were of those double jabbed 3 weeks or more. And 73% of those were extremely vulnerable. If you're double jabbed, it's been 3 weeks, and you're not very old and/or unhealthy, you're fine and should be able to live a normal life and treat Covid like any other disease. The vaccines are truly wonderful.

The Delta variant is more contagious than Smallpox and has a much higher death rate than the original strains of COVID from China, Spain, and Italy. I know of at least 25 people who died from Delta who were fully vaccinated.