New data from the Israel Health Ministry has revealed that the Pfizer vaccine is continuing to work well against the new Delta variant, effectively preventing hospitalizations and serious illness. Israel has had one of the world’s most effective vaccine drives – with around 57% of their population now fully vaccinated. Now, the Delta variant has spread to Israel, allowing us to see how it spreads in a country with high vaccination rates. From June 6 to July 3, the Pfizer vaccine prevented hospitalizations and serious illness with a 93% efficacy rate. However, the Delta variant seems to compromise Pfizer’s efficacy at preventing overall infection – dropping from 94.3% to 64%.
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Getting to sleep can be a major struggle if you have a sleep disorder, suffer from stress or anxiety or have a busy schedule. You may have heard time and time again that you need to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, but are still looking for help.
Poor sleep is a widespread problem, but statistics show that some racial and socioeconomic groups are suffering more than others.
As the coronavirus has evolved, common COVID-19 symptoms have been changing. In the UK, where the Delta strain dominates, a self-reporting system has shown that symptoms have changed. The most common symptoms have been headache, sore throat, runny nose, fever and a persistent cough – things most of us would brush off as a ‘winter sniffle’. Loss of smell or taste is no longer particularly common with the Delta variant.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging people to keep wearing masks and social distancing even if they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. With the alarming spread of the Delta variant, it is crucial that community transmission is limited as much as possible. As WHO Senior Advisor Bruce Aylward said, “once you’ve been fully vaccinated continue to play it safe because you could end up as part of a transmission chain.”
The short fallings of Australia’s vaccine rollout are becoming more and more obvious, as new data shows we are ranked dead-last amongst OECD countries. With less than 5% of the population vaccinated, Australia is one of the developed world’s worst performers. Currently, vaccination rates are being led by Israel, Chile, and Iceland, who have 60%, 54%, and 52% respectively of their population fully vaccinated. Despite their large size, even the US has over 45% of their population fully vaccinated. New Zealand, with 7.9% of the population fully vaccinated, is second last.
The West Hoxton party acted as a superspreader event, with 24 people from the party of over 30 attendees testing positive for COVID-19. But this party has also shown the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. None of the 24 people who tested positive were vaccinated. By comparison, the 6 fully vaccinated health workers and partially vaccinated aged care worker at the party have come out unscathed – not one has tested positive.
Sydney has been plunged into lockdown again, as health authorities try to stop the growing outbreak caused by the Delta variant of COVID-19. However, an expert from the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, Dr Amesh Adalja, has warned that Australia’s elimination/eradication strategy is not sustainable. “You have to remember that Covid-19 is not going to go anywhere.” Instead, Dr Adalja says that Australia needs to ramp up its vaccination program to make sure high-risk individuals are protected so the disease becomes more manageable.
