Yesterday I was chatting with a long-time friend in Sharon. She is 65, but Massachusetts appears to have sufficient coronavirus vaccine to provide immunizations to individuals 75 and older. Further, that distribution is not going particularly well, leaving many seniors struggling to figure out where to go and how to set up appointments. That latter problem is common to many states. Although our government knew for months and months that this was coming, setting up the infrastructure to make it all happen was left to localities that are ill prepared to deal with the distribution at the same time they are dealing with all the pain and suffering the virus has left in its wake.
After we spoke, I was stunned to see this ranking of the pandemic response in 98 countries. The categories used in the rankings included total confirmed cases and total deaths (raw numbers and rates per million population), number of tests performed and number of cases confirmed for each test performed. New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand had the best overall performances in the ranking. Shockingly, the United States ranked 94th, followed by Iran, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil.
I am certain that this is not the only way to look the numbers. Another site that has quite a bit of data is the one compiled by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
While the United States is certainly not the worst country, we are nowhere near where it would seem that a country as wealthy and educated as we are should be. We rank 4th in the number of deaths per 100,000 population, better than only the United Kingdom, Czechia, and Italy.
We have a lot of work to do, and every second counts. At the moment, we here in the northeast find ourselves buried in over a foot of snow, which will mean numerous cancellations of appointments for vaccinations, causing more anguish, pain, and suffering all around.
Just do your best to
stay safe and warm and dry.
Love,
Rebecca
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