Wishing you guys all the best; as someone with friends in both Europe and North America I'm acutely aware of how scary lucky we are.  At least now vaccinations have begun in many countries.

For all the suffering of the past year, it has also been demonstrated just how resourceful the human race can be when presented with a common problem like a new virus. In a little over 12 months we've gone from having no idea what we're dealing with to having multiple proven vaccines, that's a hell of a feat of medical science.

It's far from over, but it feels like the tide is starting to turn; things won't get better overnight but they will get better.

My grandmother caught it, becoming my first family member and really the first person I personally know to contract the virus. Feels surreal, this thing has dramatically impacted my life but I've never come across with it until now. She's quite bad, by the way, I don't want to fear the worst but it might be necessary to prepare for it.

How many will die from the  Corona virus in the USA?
Anywhere between 1 million to 2 million Americans will die from the Corona virus.
Americans must fear the virus and wake up to the fact that it is deadly and it is killing lots of people.

How many people are expected to die from the Corona virus globally?
10 million+ are expected to die from Corona virus. It is hard to keep track of all the people that will die from the virus in third world countries.

New Zealand and Australia have been able to control the virus by implementing measures to slow down, prevent and control the virus. Implementing travel bans,  quarantining travellers for 10 to 14 days and fining people who breach quarantines, are measures that helped reduce the impact of the deadly virus. Countries around the world are envious of the lucky countries that have helped control, prevent and stop the deadly Corona Virus. 

In regards to the virus you should fear it that it will kill you and kill anyone you care about who catches it. Prevention is far better than cure. It is uncertain how effective the vaccines will be or more doses are needed to ensure immunity into the future. Corona Virus is here for a long time and no one knows when this dark cloud of uncertainty will pass.

We need to stop saying people don't "get it". They do.

They just don't care.

And consider it fortunate that most people care still, because psychologically speaking, risk-averse behavior predominates in the population even when more favorable outcomes would occur, on average, with more risk taking.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has rather meh-ish efficacy.

72% in the US, 66% in South America and only 57% in South Africa. Hints at it being less effective with mutations.

85% against severe cases with zero deaths, and no hospitalizations 45 days after application. That's a huge win.

You folks are aware that the overall efficacy of the flu vaccine (that is, against transmission), for instance, is like 0%, right? It just reduces hospitalizations by 40-60%... while even the worst Covid-19 vaccine appears effective enough to make it less dangerous than the flu even after being vaccinated against it.

Hoping and reasonably confident that the vaccines will work (to at least avoid further waves) my eyes are on Israel.

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/israel-offers-glimpse-of-a-world-vaccinated-from-covid19-11611742270890.html

Israel’s citizens are at the forefront of the world’s most aggressive vaccination campaign. With more than 30% of its population having received the first dose of the vaccine and 14% having had the second, the country’s residents offer an early glimpse of what life might be like as vaccinations become the norm in society.

The answer: Not much different to now, public-health restrictions remain in place and new variants of the virus are on the loose.

“The war is still ahead of us," Chezi Levy, director-general of Israel’s health ministry, told Radio Kan on Monday. “If we don’t know how to behave according to the regulations we’ve made, we won’t beat this sickness. The vaccines alone won’t be enough."

Cases are going down in Israel yet no more or less than in other countries with restrictions, same with death rates. Changes should start to become visible in the next couple weeks though.

In about two weeks, Israel is expected to have given 2.5 million of its approximately nine million people both their first and second shots. Israeli officials are eyeing a full reopening of the economy if they can control the new variants in the coming weeks.

28% immune in two weeks should have an impact on the spread. Here we are currently at 0.7% that have received both doses, 5.7% has received one dose.

At this point, I would take any vaccine that has already being tested in a few hundreds of people, even if it offers just 40% protection. I mean, it is not like you can only have one vaccine. You can always have a shot from a different one whenever is available.

Remember Israel have the ultra orthodox jews that don't comply with the rules and keep protesting. 

Weekly update, cases going down more, deaths still managed to get to 100K for the week.

In total 3.89 million new cases were reported last week (down from 4.43 million) to a total of 102,607,583 cases reported
Also another 100,126 more deaths were reported (up from 98,025) to a total of 2,214,783

Cases in the USA and Europe are going down, however deaths are up in the USA while down in Europe

The continents

North America reported 1.32 million new cases (down from 1.50 million) and 34,097 more deaths (up from 32,603)
Europe reported 1.29 million new cases (down from 1.56 million) and 37,828 more deaths (down from 38,511)
South America reported 626K new cases (down from 646K) and 14,133 more deaths (up from 12,912)
Asia reported 515K new cases (down from 537K) and 7,985 more deaths (slightly up from 7,888)
Africa reported 145K new cases (down from 183K) and 6,080 more deaths (slightly down from 6,109)
Oceania reported 299 new cases and 3 deaths

Corners of the world

USA reported 1.12 million new cases (down from 1.29 million) and 23,282 more deaths (up from 22,321)
Brazil reported 364K new cases (up from 361K) and 7,476 more deaths (up from 7,008)
India reported 92.9K new cases (down from 96.9K) and 955 more deaths (down from 1,091)
South Africa reported 51.3K new cases (down from 80.9K) and 3,557 more deaths (down from 3,609)
Iran reported 44.6K new cases (up from 42.6K) and 582 deaths (604 last week)
Canada reported 33.4K new cases (down from 41.7K) and 973 deaths (1,099 last week)
Japan reported 28.5K new cases (down from 41.8K) and 622 deaths (515 last week)
South Korea reported 3,133 new cases (slightly up from 3,021) and 71 deaths (111 last week)
Australia reported 45 cases, no deaths

Europe in detail

On average, slowly heading back down, except Spain.
The UK still leads in daily deaths, over 1200 again yesterday.