SHOULD YOU CONTINUE TO WORRY ABOUT COVID-19 WHEN YOU TRAVEL?

In a word, yes, you should continue to worry about Covid-19 when you travel.  Although we luckily avoided getting sick on our 53-day world journey, just around the time we returned, three of the residents at 15 Craigside where we live came back from trips and tested positive.  I also learned that we have a resident who traveled outside of Hawaii on three occasions after the pandemic was declared over, and each time contracted this virus while on the road.  They were all up-to-date in every Covid vaccination, including the latest booster.  But because of that, symptoms were mild.

As I once devoted Thursdays to this disease, let me today bring you up to date on the latest info.

• In 2017, the leading causes of deaths in the USA were heart disease, cancer and accidents.

• 
  During the pandemic, Covid-19 replaced accidents at #3.
• In 2023:
• Heart disease:  702,880
• Cancer:  608,371
• Accidents:  227,039
• Covid-19:  186,552
• Stroke:  165,393
• Respiratory causes:  147,382
• Alzheimer's:  120,122
• Diabetes:  101,209
• Using Worldometer data:
• The World has had 705 million cases with 7 million deaths, a mortality rate of 1%.

• 
  The USA has had the most cases, 112 million, with 1.2 million deaths, also a mortality rate of around 1%.  
• We had, by far, the most cases and deaths in the world.  
• However, the reporting accuracy of many countries are suspect.

• 
  India, for example, has the second-most number of Covid deaths with 0.53 million.  
• The World Health Organization reported that the number of people who died in India is nearly 10 times higher than officially admitted, and Egypt is worse.

• 
  One indicator of this disparity is that the U.S. is in 14th place in deaths/million population.  The world leaders are:
• #1      Peru            6595
• #2      Bulgaria     5661
• #3      Hungary     5106
• (#3     Diamond Princess  5625)
• #14    USA           3642
• #22    Italy           3262
• #51    Germany   2182
• #100  Honduras  1092
• #108  Australia     937
• #114  Taiwan        796
• #122  S. Korea     700
• #129  Japan         595
• #145  India           379
• #221  China         347
• 
  For the last few months of the pandemic, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Australia reported the most number of new cases/day.  
• However, they rank very low in deaths/million population.
• This is because these countries avoided the pandemic in the early days when the mortality rate was high.
• By the time these countries were struck with this infection, most of their citizens had been vaccinated, which prevented a lot of deaths.
• In other words, getting inoculated does not necessarily prevent you from getting infected.  However, this shot does lower the risk of hospitalization and death.

China deserves a lot more mention because that #221 ranking on deaths/million population is not accurate.  Read Wikipedia for details, but here is a quick summary:

• 
  As of yesterday, China reported 5272 Covid-19 deaths to Worldometer.  This Wikipedia article indicates more than 100,000 deaths.  So the deaths/million population is still only 69, placing the country at #193, or pretty good.  So what is the true story?

• 
  The outbreak started in China, mostly related to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.
• The first case probably was a 55-year old patient in Hubei on 17November2019.
• But the outbreak was essentially unnoticed until 26December2019, when a cluster of patients of an unknown pneumonia was found in a hospital.  Many were connected to that Wuhan market.
• It took a month to begin lockdown processes.
• By 29January2020 the virus was found to have spread to all the provinces of China.
• In January 2021 many cities and districts in Hebei, Jilin and Heilongjian were locked down.
• Over the next few months, more lock downs occurred.
• 
  In December, the city Xi'an with 13 million people went into strict lockdown.  The Delta variant was prominent.
• In March 2021 Shenzhen was locked down, and Hong Kong was suffering, Shanghai, too.  Omicron was the variant.
• By April, 193 million were in lockdown.
• 
  This mostly continued into the fall of 2021.
• Protests began to occur here and there.
• The government reacted by in late 2022 pretty much opening up the economy.

• Everything went haywire in December when it was suspected that 250 million had contracted Covid-19 in December 2022 alone, with a one day peak of 37 million.
• Note that Worldometer still has China at only at half a million cases, total.
• On 25December2022 the National Health Commission announced that it would no longer report daily reporting.
• 
  The People's Daily reported that up to 70% of Shanghai's populated had been infected.
• As of today, only 33% of the Americans have caught Covid-19.
• In January, Henan province reached 89% in infection rate, and the total with Covid-19 Covid during this period was 900 million, or 64% of the population.
• 
  The Chinese New Year was beginning and two billion trips were expected within the country.
• The Chinese National Health Commission reported 59,938 Covid deaths just from 8December 2022 to 12January2023.
• Remember, Worldometer still shows 5272 total deaths for China.
• China CDC reported that 80% of the populated was infected, and there were 13,000 deaths from January 13-19, 2023.
• Even in June of 2023 the expectation was 65 million new cases/week.
• In short:

China's response to the initial Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak has been both praised and criticised. Some have criticised the censorship of information that might be unfavorable for local officials. Observers have attributed this to a culture of institutional censorship affecting the country's press and Internet. The government censored whistleblowers, journalists, and social media posts about the outbreak. During the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese government made efforts to clamp down on discussion and hide reporting about it. Efforts to fund and control research into the virus's origins and to promote fringe theories about the virus have continued up to the present.^[265] In October 2020, The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported: "While the world is struggling to control COVID-19, China has managed to control the pandemic rapidly and effectively."^[266]

• Whew!

According to the Mayo Clinic:

Travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. If you're unvaccinated, staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. If you must travel and aren't vaccinated, talk with your health care provider and ask about any additional precautions you may need to take.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you should avoid travel until you've had all recommended COVID-19 vaccine and booster doses.

In the U.S., you must wear a face mask on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation. The mask must fit snugly and cover both your mouth and nose.

Because of the high air flow and air filter efficiency on airplanes, most viruses such as the COVID-19 virus don't spread easily on flights. Wearing masks on planes has likely helped lower the risk of getting the COVID-19 virus on flights too.

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