Payback for Agent Orange?

 


Vietnam has discovered a new Covid variant, a hybrid. 

“We have discovered a new hybrid variant from the Indian and the UK strains,” the health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, was quoted as telling a national meeting on the pandemic on Saturday.

“The characteristic of this strain is that it spreads quickly in the air. The concentration of virus in the throat fluid increases rapidly and spreads very strongly to the surrounding environment.”

The new round of infections has made the public and government fearful and authorities quickly moved to place strict limits on movement and business activity. Cafes, restaurants, hair salons and massage parlours as well as tourism and religious spots have been ordered to close in various areas of the country.

Vietnam, a country of 97 million people, has vaccinated just over 1 million citizens. It is now ramping up its vaccine rollout and hopes to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year, according to the health minister.


Comments

  1. Northern PoVMay 30, 2021 at 7:04 AM

    For a little perspective, I just looked up 'cases by 100k' (i.e. per capita).

    https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-maps-and-cases/

    a sample:

    Sweden 10,388
    USA 10,130
    UK 6,705
    Canada 3,683
    India 2,041
    Thailand 225
    Vietnam 7

    The table at the link can also be sorted by death/100k.

    My take-away:

    While some poor countries can contain Covid-19 via public health etc., the rich essentially 'buy' their way out of a pandemic with a technological solution developed in record time.
    Bad lesson.
    Rather than causing a sense of urgency for fixing the myriad environmental crisis we've spawned, this will fuel the ' (black swan) technology will solve these problems' complacencies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibMay 30, 2021 at 8:48 AM

      Thanks for the link, NPoV. The maps are pretty informative, especially on deaths per 100K. The authoritarian states - US (Trump), Brazil, India, Hungary, Poland, various Eastern European and Balkan nations have the worst outcomes although Sweden and Italy are well up there. I guess the message is that rightwing authoritarian regimes aren't responsive to public health threats.

      Delete
  2. TrailblazerMay 30, 2021 at 5:00 PM

    Covid will be over when we reach infection and death rates we can live with !
    Undertaking will soon be a preferred occupation.

    TB

    ReplyDelete
  3. Northern PoVJune 3, 2021 at 8:45 AM

    And so it goes ....

    "WHO rules out new 'hybrid' Covid-19 variant in Vietnam"

    hurray.
    Pho, anyone?

    ReplyDelete

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