From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):          DAY    USA    WORLD     Brazil      India      South Africa June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82 July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21     1225      6849        ...

First, some details about the FDA-approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine: Only for 16 years of age and older. Brand name Comirnaty.  Why?  Coined from COvid and the MRNA platform technology.  Also evokes the concept of community. Effectiveness dropped from 95% to 91%, which is still pretty good. Why did it take so long?  The argument is that the normal FDA process takes from 8 to 12 months.  It took only 3.5 months from submittal of the Pfizer application.  Plus, there is yet no permanent commissioner, who currently is Dr. Janet Woodcock as acting.  Why?  Apparently, President Joe Biden  can't find anyone who can win Senate confirmation .  Plus Senator Joe Manchin does not want Woodcock to be promoted for she ran the drug division and was too liberal about opioids. But during this time of pandemic shouldn't some kind of wartime or depression national emergency justification be made to accelerate approval?  I would not be surprised if the ...

You know how the U.S. has reacted to this Pandemic.  How do we compare with other parts of the world?  Let's look at  New Zealand, Japan and Australia , where they all initially well-handled this COVID-19 virus. New Zealand closed its border to non-residents and went into a protracted lockdown, eliminating COVID-19.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been praised for her leadership. It went months without a single locally spread case, and life returned to normal. But this month the Sydney outbreak spread to New Zealand by just one returning traveler Cases spread to 72 and 10,000 people exposed people were identified.   A total national lockdown was instituted, and widely supported by the populace. During the past two days they have had 24 new cases/day but no new deaths. Total deaths since the beginning amounted to 2873, or  5 per million population . Vaccination rate is only at 20%. Japan initially was successful because its citizens, mostly because o...