Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[SYZ]

Oh that we in the US could have done so well.  And yet it means that more than 80% even in the UK have not had both shots...

Here in Australia, we're not beginning our vaccination program for the first recipients—including
frontline healthcare workers, quarantine and border workers, aged care and disability care staff,
and aged care and disability care residents—until the end of February.  My age group's jab is to
commence mid-March, with all eligible Aussies getting vaccinated by the end of October.

Before the vaccination's administered, each recipient will need to go through a screening process
to check whether they're at risk of having an adverse reaction or have any medical conditions or
allergies that could exclude them from getting the jab.

Up to 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are due in Australia from overseas in March,
while 80,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be available each week from later this month.

—And I can only agree with your comments about America.  Had the Trump administration not
ignored the seriousness of the pandemic, particularly the 30 January WHO issue of its Public Health
Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) directive, things may well have turned out differently. 

Contrarily—and subsequently tragically—Trump was still playing down the seriousness of COVID-19
with fatuous, and critically ill-informed comments and outright lies, even claiming one full month
later, "It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear".

And yet another  whole month later Trump said,  "Stay calm, it will go away... and we're going
to have a great victory."

I'm guessing that had America, as the world's de facto "sheriff" mounted a far earlier and more
proactive campaign, it may have positively influenced a larger number of other countries to take
more serious action, and far earlier.  Trump's disinformation campaign should rightly be defined as
a crime against humanity.