COVID Transmissions for 3-22-2021
And we're back!
Greetings from an undisclosed location in my new apartment. Good morning and welcome to COVID Transmissions.
It has been 490 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. In the year 490, a war raged in Italy in the ruins of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer, who had deposed the last Western Emperor, had been crowned King of Italy, but Theodoric the Great, of the Ostrogoths, was trying to remove him. Several battles—some of the most important at Milan and Ravenna—occurred in 490, but the overall course of the war was not to be decided yet.
Much like that war was in 490, the conflict against COVID-19 remains a battle that is up in the air—but it is ours to lose. The virus can still escape the vaccines we have invented, and perhaps continue to hold our lives hostage. We depend on responsible action by people the world over to keep the pandemic on the retreat.
Today I have a vaccine-diplomacy story, as well as a video that I think helps make the case for vaccination in a good and creative way. Other than that I’m keeping it relatively short as I get back in the habit of writing these after my brief moving-related hiatus.
As usual, bolded terms are linked to the running newsletter glossary.
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Now, let’s talk COVID.
Biden administration trades vaccine doses to Mexico and Canada
Right now, the US has tens of millions of AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccines that will not be used any time soon within the country, because that vaccine isn’t yet approved here.
However, there are many places around the world where far fewer people have been vaccinated than in the US. The countries that share a land border with the US, Canada and Mexico, are both places where a very small percentage of the population have been vaccinated.
As the US and other wealthy countries deploy vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic will become a global health problem like many others, with a huge disparity between the wealthiest countries and everyone else.
However, the Biden Administration has made at least one deal that will share COVID-19 vaccines with another country—Mexico and Canada, as described here: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/18/biden-administration-astrazeneca-mexico-canada-476977
It’s thought that at least part of this deal may have something to do with getting assistance from Mexican authorities with border enforcement, though I’m not sure if there’s clear confirmation of that sort of horse-trading. It’s also not in the purview of this newsletter, exactly.
Still, even the possibility goes to show that COVID-19 vaccines are a hot commodity that could be used to exact substantial political leverage, something that I think would be short-sighted and immoral. These vaccines work best if everyone can get them. That doesn’t mean everyone in the US and Europe. That means everyone.
My Shot
A group of doctors calling themselves “Vax’n 8” created the following Hamilton “My Shot” send up that I think is worth boosting further:
I think this is a great vehicle to spread good information about vaccines, with some meaningful and poignant moments with these healthcare professionals. I love things like this, that try to get a scientifically valid message out using whatever means possible. Yeah, they’re not Broadway singers. But we’re going to need them if we want to see Broadway come back.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Moving in
In what amounts to the opposite of a Billy Joel song, my wife and I moved into a new apartment last week. It has been quite an experience getting everything up and running—first assembling all the furniture, then getting things arranged nicely, then getting all the various trash generated through this experience out of the way.
Special thanks to my parents and in-laws for variously helping out through this, including several days spent either helping us clean up or helping us get necessary things to make the space livable. Finally, it’s starting to feel like a home.
Of course, we still have a little way to go. But I feel comfortable enough to at least have attempted writing today’s COVID Transmissions, and that’s something!
I owe a number of you comment replies, email replies, or coverage of specific news stories—I have not forgotten these! However, I’m writing this issue while feeling a bit rusty and still getting settled again. I will be back in full swing soon.
You might have some questions or comments! Send them in. As several folks have figured out, you can also email me if you have a comment that you don’t want to share with the whole group.
Join the conversation, and what you say will impact what I talk about in the next issue.
Also, let me know any other thoughts you might have about the newsletter. I’d like to make sure you’re getting what you want out of this.
Part of science is identifying and correcting errors. If you find a mistake, please tell me about it.
Though I can’t correct the emailed version after it has been sent, I do update the online post of the newsletter every time a mistake is brought to my attention.
No corrections since last issue.
See you all next time.
Always,
JS