AndyO Blog

Since the last time I wrote in this blog, the pandemic has continued to mutate and cause deaths around the world. We've been through four variants, including the original, Delta (last summer/fall in the U.S.), Omicron, and additional Omicron sub-variants.

Here's what the waves have looked like since the beginning. The big spike at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 was Delta. 

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Last year at the end of June, I ended up going on vacation to try to deal with work burnout. It was the first time I'd stayed in a hotel, and I felt safe enough to eat out. By the time Brenda and I were scheduled to go on another summer vacation, Delta was already starting to ramp up and everyone. But it was the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in the United States that eventually caused the giant spike.

Here's an image from the Johns Hopkins website that shows current numbers of cases, deaths, and vaccines:

Here are the current variants in the United States, showing that Omicron BA 2.12.1 is 56.0% of the infections.

Finally, as one might wonder in the middle of the pandemic, how does COVID-19 compare to other viruses? As you can see, it's not the worst -- but also not the best. The Spanish Flu and HIV/AIDS recorded many more deaths. H1N1 Influenza infected the most people of any pandemic. But as a virus appearing in the modern age, COVID-19 has recorded the most deaths of any coronavirus or influenza since the Spanish Flu.

It's because of the advances of modern medicine and technology that COVID-19 didn't cause more deaths. The 2.1 million deaths around the world are still too many, but it was still a miracle that the new mRNA, genetically-engineered vaccines were developed in less than a year -- instead of four years (which is what it took for the mumps). 

Labels: covid-19