Vaccine effect
The latest CDC vaccine study results are better than we could have ever dared hope.
Not only are the vaccines effective at preventing death or serious illness, they are proving to be extremely effective at stopping infection too.
This is hugely positive news.
In short it means that once countries vaccinate enough people, the whole COVID thing is likely to be going away (unless deadly variants come along, which doesn't appear to be the case at this juncture).
The countries which have vaccinated most of their adult populations are Israel and the United Kingdom, with the US making some serious inroads too with some 146 million doses administered.
Israel's results have been devastatingly good, while the UK has smashed the death curve to the extent that the week of March 19 again saw deaths 8 per cent below their 5-year average.
Jab's army
It's been a shock post-Brexit triumph that Britain has vaccinated about 31 million people with a first dose, or about 60 per cent of adults, with a pleasingly high take-up rate.
I wasn't pro-Brexit, but have to admit this has been an early surprise tick in the box for a more nimble and autonomous future.
Whatever, the referendum is done with now, so we just have to get on with things in any case.
'Deaths within 28 days of a positive test' have slowed to a crawl, with so much back-dating and data adjustment going on the official deaths figures are largely accounting noise now.
In England deaths were at their lowest point in 20 years in the week of March 19, even though most adults have only had their first dose so far, while hospital admissions have also slowed to a dribble.
The US is flying through its own vaccination programme so will be next in line, rolling out up to 3½ million doses per day.
The contrast with European countries such as Poland, with more than 30,000 cases in hospital, is stark.
Most European countries were much slower to get started with their vaccination programmes, but are now playing catch-up with vigour, and the coming warmer summer weather may also help to end the third wave there.
You might have seen on other social media platforms that - although I've never believed in personally being much at risk of serious illness - I reluctantly got jabbed with a first dose myself last week (and, yes, I only felt a small prick etc.).
Australia has only delivered 541,761 doses so far, but will begin to ramp up domestic production through CSL now as FOMO kicks in, and the locked down residents of Brisbane begin to vent their fury at political leaders.
Overall, good news from study results, though.
This thing is ending, and vaccines look to be the way out.
