Covid Epi Weekly: A Week of Great Progress for Vaccines…But Also, Unfortunately, for the Virus

Encouraging vaccine news but deeply discouraging lack of action to stop pandemic. Coming weeks will be devastating but numbness to suffering is spreading as rapidly as the virus.1/10

First the good news. Good transparency about vaccines; data about as good as could be. Highly effective including for older people (tho few frail elderly included), and against severe infection. No serious adverse events - but need to track for this when millions vaccinated. 2/10

The road to immunity through vaccination will be bumpy. Production, supply, distribution, uptake, possible adverse events - all huge challenges. New vaccines will likely be approved in the New Year. An enormous challenge, but if the communication is done well, can succeed. 3/10

But we’re not there yet. It will be months before most people can get vaccinated. We must double down on protection protocols. Post-Thanksgiving surge is driving rates up. December holidays could bring new horrors at the start of 2021. I fear we are numbing to the numbers. 4/10

Cases continue to increase, hospitalizations at highest rate ever, deaths are continuing to increase. Horrifying to see 13% test positivity rate nationally, with 40 states more than 8%. Tho cases in midwest coming down, still very high, and increasing almost everywhere else. 5/10

It gets worse. Horrific disparities. In Rhode Island more than 1 in 8 Latinx people have tested positive vs 1 in 31 white people. In the Dakotas 1 in 8 Black people have tested positive. In South Dakota, 1 in 7 Native Americans has tested positive. https://bit.ly/344YhRW  6/10

Global disparities will worsen in 2021. Countries in Africa have fragile health systems, quickly overwhelmed by Covid. Vaccination rollout in richer countries in 2021: healthy people in the US before health care workers and nursing home residents in Africa? Indefensible. 7/10

Lessons from 2020:
* Reminder that public health is fundamental to society
* Science is as vulnerable to politics as humans are to viruses
* We will look back and ask why we didn’t do more
* We can control our health - but ONLY if we work together.
https://nbcnews.to/3mcL6V6  8/10

We just released materials to promote safer celebration. By celebrating more safely, we will have more to celebrate and less to regret. Being in a bubble or pod is an important concept, but each bubble is only as strong as its weakest part. https://bit.ly/3nfkLan  9/10

Merkel: Patience, discipline, and solidarity. We are inextricably connected. Empathy gives us the sense of others’ suffering, joys, and loss. “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” Hannah Arendt 10/end