Turning once more to Katelyn Jetelina, a professional epidimiologist, we get her take on relative risk of COVID.  Rather than just reporting percentages, she adopts a relative risk measure called the micro-mort (MM) which gives risk in terms of death per million.  In this post, she compares relative risks of dying of COVID to driving, flying, and serving in Afghanistan for a year.  Breakdowns are also given based on age and vaccination status.  The bottom line is that your relative risk can depend on a lot of things, but f

Carolyn Crist of WebMD writes about the state of affairs in Denmark where they lifted all COVID restrictions in February 2022 which is 81% vaccinated and 62% boosted (see summary here).  In addition to growing case counts, hospitalizations and deaths in Denmark have increased by nearly a third - providing a cautionary tale to other countries which may be thinking of acting similarly.

In this article by Thaisa Semenova of the Kyiv Independent, we see how war has exacerbated the spread of COVID, and how this new crisis in Eastern Europe is likely to prolong the pandemic.  Given the low vaccination rate of Ukrainians, the article underscores the need for effective communication strategies to promote vaccination as well as the need for the availability of vaccines on the ground.

Remember when you were a kid on the way to somewhere fun - but you wouldn't do what you parents asked you to do (whatever that was)?  Invariably, if you stood your ground, there was the invitable "I will turn this car around" speech.  Well it's finally happened with an airplane flying from Miami to London.  The incident involved a non-mask-compliant passenger and a flight crew that had clearly had enough.  Read more below, but take note of the intended message - you have to properly wear a mask to fly these days.  See more from Marnie Hunter and Pete Muntean of CNN

Sandee LaMotte of CNN cautions vaxxed and boosted readers NOT to try to get Omicron to get it over with. These reasons include

1. It's not a bad cold
2. You could get long COVID
3. You could spread it to children (who are less vaccinated)
4. You will stress the health system
5. Don't mess with Mother Nature (no really!)

For more details click below.