The tameness of the predictions of early 2020 – People becoming careless again – Donald Trump’s latest lawsuit – The pandemic blamed for loss of sleep and loss of exercise – Decrease in antibiotic prescriptions – Improved conditions in Oklahoma – The anti-vaxxers claim another victim – Evening statistics
It is now slightly over eighteen months since I began this journal. How curious it is to read earlier entries and to see how the most dire predictions during the first few months of the pandemic have fallen far short of the reality! As the saying goes, may God protect us from what we can get used to. Currently nearly 13% of all Americans have contracted the virus since the beginning of 2020 – more than one-eighth of the national population. The death toll is now over 0.2%, more than one for every 500, or a total number greater than the population of the District of Columbia or of Portland, OR.
And even as the summer temperatures are moderating and autumn is beginning, people are letting their guard down. When I went to the Post Office today at least half of the customers were maskless. The Post Office workers did not instruct these customers to put masks on in order to interact with them; perhaps they felt that such an attempt would have been useless. It is rather strange: in the grocery stores every customer was wearing a mask – why do they feel that the Post Office is safer? If anything, one is less at risk in a grocery store, where one is continually moving from one aisle to the next, as opposed to standing in line for several minutes on end in the physical proximity of several other patrons.
Genial, avuncular Donald Trump has initiated a lawsuit against his niece for an undisclosed amount that he has promised will be “no less than one hundred million dollars.” The suit alleges that Mary Trump, in disclosing details of her uncle’s fraudulent income tax returns, committed an illegal breach of contract, the said contract being a 2001 settlement agreement among the Trump family. The suit extends to the New York Times’ journalists who reported his defalcations. Considering the number of lawsuits that Trump has either initiated or is currently receiving, it is a wonder that he has time to do any campaigning. If I were still working I might consider occupying a position on his legal staff: it must be the equivalent of guaranteed lifetime employment.
A recently published study by the Journal of Sleep Research concluded that about half of adults worldwide experienced declines in quality of life due to COVID-related restrictions, either on account of worsening sleep habits as a result of anxiety from the enforced closure of businesses and schools or of reduced physical activity because many people were confined to their homes. I can readily understand how the increase in anxiety would affect sleeping habits. But the notion of COVID-related restrictions confining people indoors seems questionable to me, at any rate in this country. I myself hiked over 2000 miles in 2020 and have already hiked nearly 1500 miles this year. It’s always dangerous to extrapolate from one’s personal experience, of course; but it seems to me that for those who were willing to leave their homes and get outside for a portion of the day, the opportunities were available.
A rather interesting side effect of the pandemic is an unexpected drop in the number of antibiotic prescriptions. Prescriptions for amoxicillin were 25% to 44% lower than estimates based on pre-pandemic trends, 30% to 40% lower for amoxicillin-clavulanate, 18% to 21% for doxycycline, and 32% to 35% for azithromycin. It is unclear what has caused this reduction; but a possible explanation is that they are frequently used for respiratory ailments, and respiratory ailments that are not COVID-related have decreased as a result of mask mandates and social distancing. Even after the pandemic recedes, mask-wearing may become the norm in many American cities, just as it already was the norm in many East Asian cities before COVID was ever heard of.
There is some encouraging news from Oklahoma, which is slightly below the national average in the amount of vaccinations administered to its population. The 7-day average of new hospitalizations has decreased by 336 compared with those of a week ago and the 3-day average of new hospitalizations has decreased by 172 compared with those of a week ago. It appears, then, that the effects of the COVID virus, and of the delta variant in particular, are beginning to moderate, at least in that particular part of the country.
Another depressing story: Samantha Wendell and Austin Eskew became engaged in 2019 and had planned their wedding for Aug. 21st. They deferred getting their vaccinations because Wendell’s co-workers had informed her – quite mistakenly – that the vaccines caused infertility, and the young couple wished to start a family shortly after their marriage. As the delta variant began to spread, the two changed their minds and made appointments to receive vaccines in July. But before they could receive the vaccines, Wendell began to fall ill, developed a severe cough, and, along with her fiancé, tested positive for the virus. Eskew recovered but Wendell’s condition worsened. She was placed on a ventilator on August 16th – just five days before the wedding was scheduled – and she never recovered the ability to breath on her own again, dying on September 10th. She requested a vaccine just before she was placed on the ventilator but by then, obviously, it was too late. She was 29. Her funeral service was held in the same church she had chosen for the marriage ceremony, about a month after the scheduled wedding date. In the words of one of her cousins, “misinformation killed her.”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 230,825,116; # of deaths worldwide: 4,731,475; # of cases U.S.: 43,394,384; # of deaths; U.S.: 699,619. If, as the experts claim, the pandemic is receding, it is doing so at a very leisurely pace. Today we saw half a million new cases globally, of which the U.S. accounts for nearly a fourth, and over 9,000 deaths, more than 2,000 of whom were Americans. The total number of deaths in this country is rapidly approaching 700,000 and that is only the official tally; the number of deaths that exceed the expected death toll for this time of year is substantially higher.