COVID-19 (Global) – 2021/08/16

The global pandemic is still increasing the speed at which new infections are recorded. At the moment almost 650,000 new cases are begin reported daily. The USA is back in the number one position for new daily cases with almost 132,000 new cases on average per day. The top ten countries make up half the number of daily cases. Apart from the USA, France and the UK are also on an upward trend. Mortalities are moving closer to 10,000 per day, more than half of the highest number of mortalities on 20 January (17,504) with Indonesia also having joined the top ten countries with the number of COVID-related deaths.

Almost a year ago I was privileged to listen in to a webinar where six professors discussed “Long COVID”, also known as chronic COVID. The symptoms include fatigue and ongoing breathing complications and lately another symptom, described as “brain fog” are also becoming more common, which lead to difficulties with attention and planning. If you want to refer back to my original post on this, including some links to articles in medical journals describing long COVID, you can read it here:
https://missionissues.wordpress.com/…/covid-19…/…

About a week ago new research was published where the effect of COVID on the brain is explained. According to this research by neuroscientists, COVID symptoms can remain for at least three to four months after infection and between 5 and 24% of people who had had COVID, suffer from these symptoms. What is quite worrying is that younger people and people who initially had only mild symptoms can still develop long COVID. Although the article is based on medical research, it is written in a style that can easily be followed:
https://theconversation.com/how-does-covid-affect-the…

Breaking (good) news for South Africans: The roll-out for people from 18 to 35 to be vaccinated would have started on 1 September. This is now being pushed forward to possibly sometime this week or Monday 23 August at the latest. Unfortunately, men are still reluctant to be vaccinated with 40% men and 60% women who have already been vaccinated. For those below 35: Keep your eyes and ears open and register for your vaccination as soon as it becomes possible:
https://businesstech.co.za/…/south-africa-to-open…/

The sad news in South Africa concerns the report which came out that a highly respected heart surgeon in Cape Town has taken a stand against COVID vaccinations with weird accusations being made against world-renowned scientists, epidemiologists and virologists. This reminds me of the time when the then president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, also sided with AIDS dissidents by denying that HIV caused AIDS. The Daily Maverick published a report on this story this morning, which can be read here:
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/…/2021-08-15…/

And lastly for today, South Africa’s Mia Malan speaks to Dr Fauci about vaccinations, masks, herd immunity, the Delta variant and breakthrough infections. This is absolutely worthwhile listening to. This will be twenty minutes well spent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFGPweLq004