As my Worldometer table has weekly been showing, COVID-19 and the Delta variant are now in worldwide decline.   From the  New York Times  this morning, the USA reflects this drop: There is a ten-day to two week lag from new cases to new deaths, as shown here: The next worry will be the Fall and Winter, when people go indoors.  However, schools have returned, and yet we are experiencing those above declines.  Part of the reason must have to do with vaccinations.   76% of Americans have now received at least one  shot. United States vaccinations At least one dose Fully vaccinated All ages* 65% 56% 12 and up 76% 65% 18 and up 77% 67% 65 and up 94% 83% The latest guess is that  90%  of the population needs to be fully vaccinated for herd immunity to be reached. Said former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb and author of  Uncontrolled Spread :    Covid has not only been one of the worst pandemics in modern times. It has been an unnecessarily terrible pandemic. Of the   more than 700,000 Ameri

  I'll get  to the pizza part later, but will begin with this pandemic, using a few graphics from the morning   New York Times : If you've forgotten how to read graphs, the results are clear.  Those states voting for Donald Trump are killing themselves by avoiding being vaccinated.  How serious is this?  Almost a factor of 5. Further from the  NYT : Since Delta began circulating widely in the U.S., Covid has exacted a horrific death toll on red America: In counties where Donald Trump received at least 70 percent of the vote, the virus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June,   according to Charles Gaba,   a health care analyst. In counties where Trump won less than 32 percent of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000 . How do these numbers compare with the world in deaths/100,000 population? U.S.  21 Hawaii  and Vermont  5  ( lowest in  nation--yet, Hawaii's governor still refuses to allow spectators at football games) Mississippi  3

The world is into our 5th wave of COVID-19 deaths, and perhaps 6th, if you count two in that middle wave  Note, however, that there seems to be a definite decline of new deaths in our current surge: However, if you look closely at the  Worldometer  data: The USA yesterday dwarfed other countries in new cases with 171,125 and new deaths with 1761. India and the UK were at around 37,000. Russia had the second most new deaths with 789 and Mexico was next with 730. Florida had the most new cases in the country with 17,854, but did not report how many new deaths they had.   Texas had 17,208 new cases and 412 new deaths, the most in the nation, if higher than Florida.  This rate is 14 new deaths/million population. The world new deaths/million yesterday was around 1.0.  India was only at 0.2/million. Russia had 5.4 new deaths/million. Hawaii had 5.8 new deaths/million, higher than Russia, which yesterday had the second-most new deaths in the world. What is wrong with the USA??? Petite Syrah