Would you like to see why vaccines work? The only chart that you need... (Thanks UK Gov't, ONS).

Many countries around the world are seeing a renewed increase in Covid cases. Some of the more astute politicians and health officials have even come to the conclusion that we will not be able to totally eradicate Covid but will have to learn how to live with it (see statements from UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Singapore's Covid 19 Multi-Ministry Task Force). To some extent we have had that here in the US for quite some time with the country basically reopened since May/June depending on the state and I wrote about this in May: 

https://thrivingwithinterest.blogspot.com/2021/05/how-quickly-do-we-get-back-to-post.html)

With vaccinations becoming more and more widely available in most western countries (even in Japan they are doing much better), and with the US now willing to step up and take a leading role in helping the rest of the world by shipping excess doses to countries in need, we will slowly get to a situation where people who want to get the vaccine will be able to get them pretty easily. Unfortunately this still hasn't convinced everyone who is able to to get the vaccine. Which is a shame. Why? Well although the number of cases may rise once again (and hence created a 3rd, or 4th wave in many countries), at least the number of deaths is held way down. The UK Government and Office of National Statistics has recently released a wonderful chart showing just that, as the UK is in the middle a renewed spike in cases (see below). Thankfully the number of deaths per 10mil population is very steady. The one explanation? The fact that 86% of adults have received at least one dose and 63% have received two....

So if you have a family member or friend who is still hesitant to get the vaccine, please show them this chart and hopefully that will help push them over the hump to get the jab as soon as possible.