February weather – Increasing COVID immunity – The path to normalcy – Evening statistics
Spring is entering its long flirtation with the mid-Atlantic region, coquettishly dangling its charms and then withdrawing them. Crocuses and hellebore (sometimes called “Lenten roses”) are showing their first blooms. It was in the 60s today, but we may be getting another snowstorm next week. Even during days with high temperatures the nights are still cold, with temperatures expected to dip below 20 degrees on Saturday evening. In short, we are having typical late-winter weather. Over the past few years we have had warmer weather than normal, so many people have been complaining about the unusually cold winter this year – but the fact is, what we are experiencing for this year is far more typical of the winters in this area than, say, the winter of 2021.
A study from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that 73% of Americans have immunity from the omicron variant, either via previous infection or from vaccination, and that that number could rise to 80% by mid-March. This means, however, that about 80 million Americans are still vulnerable. In addition, more than seven million immuno-compromised adults in the U.S. may never have strong immunity and tens of million more with at least one medical condition puts them at greater risk of serious COVID infections.
Despite these risks, Dr. Fauci has announced that the time has come for the nation to start “inching” back to normality, i.e., conditions as they were before the pandemic began. “There is no perfect solution to this,” he added. More than a quarter of the population is still vulnerable, but at this stage the disease is starting to appear containable. The current seven-day daily average of COVID-19 cases shows a decrease of about 40% from the previous week and hospital admissions fell about 28%.
Today’s statistics as of 10:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 420,165,628; # of deaths worldwide: 5,881,128; # of cases U.S.: 79,915,734; # of deaths; U.S.: 955,497.