The singular characteristic of Covid-19 remains heterogeneity of impact.
Regional Heterogeneity: For 3/4 of the global population, Covid has never been a virus of concern; for Europe and the Americas Covid was a major driver of mortality.
Age Heterogeneity: Covid nearly exclusively impacts the elderly, with risk dramatically rising with age. Those under age 50, globally, are at no elevated risk of death from Covid compared to a normal respiratory virus season.
Seasonal Heterogeneity: During the Summer, Covid essentially disappeared from Europe and the temperate regions of the United States. Around the world, Covid has closely followed standard Hope-Simpson seasonal waves.
Despite the heterogeneity of Covid, the world remains hell-bent on a failed uniform standard strategy of Covid mitigation based entirely upon universal reduction of exposure.
Panic and mass hysteria explain the Spring of 2020.
Sunk Cost Fallacy explains the Winter of 2021.
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As most are aware, there has been no flu season this year, with many people mistakenly attributing this to Covid control measures (which work for flu but not covid, apparently).
The Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has released final birth and death estimates for 2020, which show that Covid-19 did not cause any excess mortality in Japan:
Focusing on just this century's data, it is evident that there were between 8K and 30K fewer deaths than expected in 2020, depending upon the trend period chosen (there were an approximately equal number of missing births):
Japan never had a national lockdown; public mask compliance is lower than in Europe or the blue states in the USA, gyms and restaurants remained open, people continued to commute on crowded trains, and most children continue to go to school.
I hiked up Angel's Landing in Zion NP a few days ago. For the first mile of the hike, ~60% wore masks. By the end of the second mile, it was down to 20% masks. At the summit, there were exactly zero masks worn.
I also visited a mini-mart near St. George, UT and watched as person after person walked in with their mask on, looked around at the maskless faces, and immediately took the mask off.
Southern UT, despite the statewide mask mandate, appears to be as open as FL or SD.
I also spent time hiking and climbing in Nevada - and the variance to UT could not have been more stark.
In NV, you are never unaware of Covid. Retail/restaurants are open but operate under capacity limits. Many people wear masks outdoors. Public health posters are everywhere.
In 4 weeks, cases worldwide have fallen by 40%; this is worldwide phenomenon - with one notable exception. One nation remains with stubbornly high cases counts - in fact, the very highest cases per capital in the world....
Israel currently has higher cases per capita than any other nation with more than 7 million people and their case count appears to have plateaued while every other nation sees cases rapidly declining or already very low:
Israel's high case count comes despite a hard lockdown and the world's best, by far, rate of vaccination: