@ wrote:

Researchers warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus variant in Britain is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, might be necessary.

@ wrote:

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been slowly but deliberately moving the goal posts on when herd immunity is possible. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the U.S. is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.

@ wrote:

Hard as it may be to hear, he said, he believes that it may take close to 90 percent immunity to bring the virus to a halt — almost as much as is needed to stop a measles outbreak.

Asked about Dr. Fauci’s conclusions, prominent epidemiologists said that he might be proven right. The early range of 60 to 70 percent was almost undoubtedly too low, they said, and the virus is becoming more transmissible, so it will take greater herd immunity to stop it.

@shoptastic wrote:

U.S. (330 million pop.): 500,000 deaths
Mexico (127.5 million pop.): 180,000 deaths
Germany (83 million pop.): 67,885 deaths
Iran (83 million pop.): 59,410 deaths
U.K. (66 million pop.): 120,000 deaths
Italy (60 million pop.): 95,485 deaths
South Africa (58.5 million pop.): 48,940 deaths
Spain (47 million pop.): 67,100 deaths
Canada (37.5 million pop.): 21,630 deaths

India (1.3 billion pop.): 156,000 deaths
Japan (126 million pop.): 7,450 deaths
Vietnam (96.5 million pop.): 35 deaths (you read that correctly)
Thailand (70 million pop.): 83 deaths (you read that correctly)
South Korea (52 million pop.): 1,557 deaths
Australia (25 million pop.): 910 deaths
New Zealand (5 million pop.): 26 deaths

California (39 million pop.): 49,111 deaths
Texas (29 million pop.): 42,200 deaths
Florida (21.5 million pop.): 29,812 deaths
New York (19.5 million pop.): 46,233 deaths

Couldn't help but look up some figures. Astounding for America!

@ wrote:

Brazil’s Covid Crisis Is a Warning to the Whole World, Scientists Say
No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse. Many other hard-hit nations are, instead, taking tentative steps toward a semblance of normalcy.

But Brazil is battling a more contagious variant that has trampled one major city and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures that could keep them safe. . .

Preliminary studies suggest that the variant that swept through the city of Manaus is not only more contagious, but it also appears able to infect some people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus. And the variant has slipped Brazil’s borders, showing up in two dozen other countries and in small numbers in the United States.