I think they might have reached herd immunity already. The daily cases have been consistently dropping for months now. They reached a daily peak of 10,213 cases about two months ago and yesterday they only had 202 cases. And they reached a peak of total active cases of 80,899 by February 4th, and it has dropped to only 2,945 cases yesterday.

When it comes to deaths, they reached a peak of 101 on January 20th and it has been consistently dropping to the point that only 2 people were reported yesterday.

60% alone would be not enough for herd immunity. But maybe immunity after infection might play a role too and push it to 70% or something (reported numbers indicate that around 9% of the population was infected at some point, with non-detected cases it moight be higher). That would be enough for the the initial variant, but not enough for some of the more infectious mutations. Still, this amount of immunity would slow spread enough, that with light measures you could control it.

Weekly Update. Daily new cases are reaching record heights again. Last recorded high was on Januari 7th with 835,547 new cases, Thursday saw 845,223 new cases in a single day and it's still increasing.

Around the world 5.22 million new cases were reported last week (up from 4.49 million) to a total of 140,504,994 reported cases
Also another 83,836 deaths were reported (up from 77,516) bringing the total casualties to 3,011,501

USA is slowly increasing again, Europe is about flat

The continents

Asia reported 2.35 million new cases (up from 1.73 million) and 17,075 more deaths (up from 14,720)
Europe reported 1.24 million new cases (1.23 million last week) and 24,761 more deaths (24,887 last week)
South America reported 909K new cases (up from 841K) and 28,662 more deaths (up from 27,272)
North America reported 633K new cases (up from 602K) and 11,143 more deaths (up from 10,444)
Africa reported 79.7K new cases (79.3K last week) and 2,180 more deaths (up from 1,799)
Oceania reported 1,674 new cases (1,519 last week) and 15 deaths (9 last week)

Corners of the world

India reported 1.32 million new cases (up from 812K) and 7,206 more deaths (up from 4,326)
USA reported 503 new cases (up from 488K) and 5,102 more deaths (down from 7,230)
Brazil reported 459K new cases (up from 463K) and 20,090 more deaths (down from 20,568)
Iran reported 165K new cases (up from 120K) and 1,969 more deaths (up from 1,163)
Canada reported 60.8K new cases (up from 54.7K) and 290 deaths (243 last week)
Japan reported 24.5K new cases (up from 18.7K) and 204 deaths (149 last week)
South Africa reported 8,113 new cases (up from 5,518) and 437 deaths (280 last week)
South Korea reported 4,520 new cases (up from 4,075) and 26 deaths (27 last week)
Australia reported 95 new cases (55 last week) and 1 death

Europe in detail

Europe is stabilizing, Germany still increasing, cases still high across the board.

India is getting out of hand, still no signs of slowing down.

We still have problems in Ontario as well. The hospitals are full, children's hospitals are now also used for adults. The lock down / stay at home orders have been extended to 6 weeks, provincial borders and parks are now closed as well. The variants are not slowing down.

Do we know why it's slowed down? not enough Pfizer shots? 

And according to reports, many of those who got one shot have achieved full immunity by now, "59.5% are fully vaccinated" isn't indicative of the real picture. 

Yesterday they only reported 34 news cases, with only one death. This gives me hope that once at least 60% of the population is vaccinated things might get back to normal.

Fully vaccinated: 57.4%
1st dose: 61.7%

https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination-israel-impact

Going to use the US for these stats because I know where to find the necessary info. 

standard flu season kills 20-60k. In the timeframe from March 2020 to March 2021, coronavirus killed 540,000. So we're talking closer to 10-20x the death toll of a standard flu season. 

0.17% of the US population has already been killed by coronavirus so the idea that the worst corona could do is kill 0.05% of the population seems a bit like an underestimate. 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge

Over 3 million dead (so far) world wide, the ones that were identified anyway.

Record flu attributed deaths were in the 2017-2018 flu season (USA), about 80,000 people.
The USA sits at 580,000 Covid-19 deaths so far and still close to 1,000 people a day lose their lives to Covid-19 in the states.

Plus, in this case, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger couldn't be more wrong. Long term symptoms have been widely recorded. Our hospitals are admitting more and more young people to the ICU. Hospitals are full. Recovery from the ICU is long.



However, thanks to the measures, last season has been influenza free for us, no Bronchitis for my wife. The kids have been home since last March and haven't been sick once. Which does beg the question, what will this to to their immunity long term. Online learning means no learning for the immune system.

I think it’s important to discuss the opposing view. I assume that’s allowed?