News Round-Up
7 May 2024
Once again, interventions are shown to be unnecessary to end a Covid surge. But is Delta the last variant to cause a surge or will there be more?
By comparing Delta when new to Alpha when spent, it's like comparing an athlete to a pensioner. The comparison tells us nothing useful.
Some of the U.S. states which have been experiencing a Delta surge, including Florida, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, appear to have peaked, once again confounding the modellers predictions of universal infection.
Today, Australia posted its largest daily total for the number of new infections since the pandemic began. Yet parts of Sydney have been under lockdown for almost two full months. Is it time for focused protection?
Apple has told its global corporate workforce they will not be allowed to return to the office until January 2022 at the earliest. The return has been pushed back partly due to fears over the Delta variant.
Brits who have had two doses of a Covid vaccine are as likely to spread the Delta variant as those who are unvaccinated, according to a new study. So why is the Government still considering introducing vaccine passports?
In Florida, despite no restrictions being imposed, the weekly increase in the percentage of Covid tests coming back positive has slowed almost to zero, meaning it should begin to drop soon.
In a recent blog post, the economist Tyler Cowen observes that "it is better to get a given amount of Covid over with more quickly ... subject to the constraint that you do not overwhelm your hospital system".
A panel of experts has told MPs that we should stop "frightening ourselves" with community testing because the Delta variant means there is no way of stopping Covid from spreading through the entire population.
Fears over the Delta variant could push the U.S. Defence Secretary to recommend that the Covid vaccine should be mandated for all 1.3 million active-duty troops. The final decision would lie with President Joe Biden.
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