Wetter and cooler weather – Elimination of wild polio in Africa – India and the COVID virus – Evening statistics
Rain today, and fairly constant too, so it rather discouraged being out of doors much. But rain is very welcome after the long, hot, dusty July. When I saw my friends earlier this week, HG told me that the amount of rain her garden was greatly benefited by the rain in August, after it had been severely tried by the drought of July. Besides, the rain is bringing the temperature down. Tomorrow it is supposed to be quite cool in Shenandoah, where I will be meeting the Vigorous Hikers. And wet as well, unfortunately; there is a flood warning currently in effect for the park that is supposed to end at 2:00 AM; but the trails will be quite muddy as a result.
With all of the news about the coronavirus a more promising development has been hardly touched upon in the news. The entire continent of Africa has just been declared free from wild polio, which a mere twenty-five years ago paralyzed thousands of children. The Sabin-Salk vaccine has been successfully distributed all over the continent. In South Africa the elimination of the virus came about as a result of an especially vigorous immunization campaign spearheaded by Nelson Mandela – one of the many achievements of that amazing man. At this point there are only 177 cases of vaccine-derived polio virus in all of Africa. Two out of three strains of wild polio virus have been eradicated worldwide. There is, unhappily, one strain still active in Afghanistan and Pakistan (but nowhere else), so the disease has not been eliminated altogether. But we may not be far from the day when it becomes, like smallpox, only a historical memory.
There is another country besides our own where the increases in the COVID virus have been alarming. India has steadily acquiring new cases at the rate of 60,000 – 70,000 per day. It has four times the population of the U.S., so proportionately its rate of increase is less than ours; but its case count is threatening to close out Brazil’s as the second largest in the world. Despite this, India is entering a new phase of reopening that will see subway trains running for the first time in months. Gatherings of up to 100 people will be permitted at sports, entertainment, cultural, religious and political events. It is true that the recovery rate has been rate (about 77%) and the mortality rate has been low (1.7%). “Recovery,” however, can be a somewhat flexible term; in India patients with mild and moderate symptoms in India are considered no longer active after 10 days of symptom onset if they meet certain conditions. A test to confirm that they no longer have the virus is not required.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 25,620,737; # of deaths worldwide: 854,222; # of cases U.S.: 6,210,796; # of deaths U.S.: 187,713. There is a bit of a lessening in intensity of our increases. It is the second day of case count increases less than 40,000 and of deaths well under 500. Brazil’s case rate is close to our own, i.e., a little under 2% of its population. It is far from being the only South American country where the virus is steadily increasing: Colombia, Peru, and Argentina are all seeing thousands of new cases daily, and Peru’s infection rate is the third-highest in the world, exceeded only by San Marino (a nation by courtesy but actually a micro-state) and Kuwait.