Random and illustrative stories about the global pandemic and how businesses and various business sectors are trying to recover from it, with brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• The US Covid-19 coronavirus numbers: 32,824,389 total cases … 586,152 deaths … and 25,379,831 reported recoveries.
The global numbers: 147,874,905 cases … 3,124,681 fatalities … 125,450,701 reported recoveries. (Source.)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 53.6 percent of US adults 18 or older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 36.5 percent have been fully vaccinated.
• The New York Times reports that "millions of Americans are not getting the second doses of their Covid-19 vaccines, and their ranks are growing.
"More than five million people, or nearly 8 percent of those who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, have missed their second doses, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is more than double the rate among people who got inoculated in the first several weeks of the nationwide vaccine campaign."
There are two problems at play. First, vaccination hesitancy on the part of some, as people worry about side effects (the second shot can be tougher than the first one), and the feeling that one shot ought to be enough.
And second, "a number of vaccine providers have canceled second-dose appointments because they ran out of supply or didn’t have the right brand in stock."
• The Associated Press reports that "US health officials lifted an 11-day pause on COVID-19 vaccinations using Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot on Friday, after scientific advisers decided its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clot.
"The government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot, out of nearly 8 million people given the J&J shot. All were women, most under age 50. Three died, and seven remain hospitalized.
"But ultimately Friday, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided that J&J’s one-and-done vaccine is critical to fight the pandemic — and that the small clot risk could be handled with warnings to help younger women decide if they should use that shot or an alternative."
• The New York Times reports this morning that "American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer, the head of the bloc’s executive body said in an interview with the New York Times on Sunday, more than a year after shutting down nonessential travel from most countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
"The fast pace of vaccination in the United States, and advanced talks between authorities there and the European Union over how to make vaccine certificates acceptable as proof of immunity for visitors, will enable the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, to recommend a switch in policy that could see trans-Atlantic leisure travel restored."
