Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong.
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 911th day of the pandemic.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but, if you’re a Republican, you have a much higher likelyhood of dying from Covid than a Democrat would.
Multiple studies show consistently higher death rates among Republicans than Democrats and three factors seem to be at play here.
Vaccine hesitancy may be the greatest reason for the significantly higher death rate, followed by a refusal to don face masks and a predilection towards ignoring social distancing.
Average excess death rates in Florida and Ohio were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats between March 2020 and December 2021, according to a working paper from researchers at the Yale School of Public Health, “Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The phrase “excess deaths” refers to deaths above what would be anticipated based on historical trends.
“Political affiliation has emerged as a potential risk factor for Covid-19,” the Yale researchers wrote. “We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states.”
It’s important to note that a vaccine hesitancy has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths which otherwise would have been preventable.
One can only hope that this trend won’t continue but, if it does, it lends an entirely new meaning to a form of class divide.
In other news we cover today, New York State issued a flu warning, the state of Victoria in Australia is ending coronavirus restrictions, and Hong Kong will distribute 500,000 free air tickets to visitors next year.
If you’re not going to don a face mask to protect yourself against Covid, do it to prevent catching the flu. Health officials in New York State issued a warning over an “early and aggressive” influenza outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would stop publishing daily Covid case figures and switch to weekly reports starting later this month.
U.S. government researchers believe that a rebound of coronavirus symptoms in some patients after taking the Pfizer antiviral Paxlovid may be related to a robust immune response rather than a weak one. The researchers said that taking a longer course of the drug – beyond the recommended five days – was not required to reduce the risk of a recurrence of symptoms as some have suggested. The findings are based on an intensive investigation of rebound in eight patients at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center.
In Hong Kong, four civil servants including a teacher and two social workers are among those who were arrested on suspicion of buying fake Covid-19 vaccine exemption certificates, police said. Seven doctors were recently arrested for selling over 20,000 fake vaccination exemption certificates to residents there.
Education officials in Hong Kong are rejecting calls to resume full day in-person instruction at primary schools in the special administrative region. The officials say that vaccination rates among pupils are still too low to safely permit this.
In Australia, Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, said that the state of emergency there will end next week on October 12. The end of the state of emergency also ends any remaining coronavirus restrictions and vaccine orders.
Hong Kong officials said they will give away 500,000 airline tickets worth two billion Hong Kong dollars ($254 million) as part of an effort early next year to entice travelers to visit the city. The program would go into effect once all coronavirus restrictions for arrivals have been lifted.
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, October 7.
As of Friday morning, the world has recorded 625.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.6 million cases, and almost 6.6 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 605.4 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.5 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday is 13,829,226, an increase of 204,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 13,789,364, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 39,862, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 73,751 new coronavirus infections on Friday for the previous day, compared to 80,585 on Thursday, 35,981 on Wednesday, 47,898 on Tuesday, and 4,755 on Monday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 41,538. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 41,605, a 25% decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 390, a decrease of 8% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 27,125, an 11% decrease.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 98.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of just under 1.09 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.6 million, and a reported death toll of 528,754.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 35.7 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 686,759, and has recorded just under 34.7 million cases, placing it in the number four slot.
Germany is in the number five slot with over 33.8 million cases.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with over 24.9 million cases, the United Kingdom, with 23.7 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 22.7 million, as number eight, as well as Japan, with just under 21.5 million, and Russia, with just under 21.2 million.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the Thursday, over 264.6 million people in the United States – or 79.7% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68%, or 225.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 624.2 million. Breaking this down further, 90.6% of the population over the age of 18 – or 234 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.9% of the same group – or 200.9 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 52.1% of that population, or 104.7 million people, has already received a first booster dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 68% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.79 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4.54 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 22.9% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain in the single digits, if not lower.
In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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