Amid the global scramble for vaccines, one positive piece of news is hard to ignore: vaccines do seem to work.
The number of new crown deaths in the UK has also fallen by 11 per cent in the latest week and infection rates are down by 30 per cent. In Israel, which leads the world in vaccination, the figures are even more encouraging - a week after receiving the second dose, only 0.01% of an estimated 128,600 people were infected. Twelve U.S. states reported declines of 25 percent or more in new crown confirmed cases, according to U.S. News.
The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to appear. Canada is also moving ahead, speeding up the development of its own vaccine, and plans to approve a third vaccine within two weeks!
On December 8, a British woman in her 90s became the first person in the world to receive the vaccine. About two months on, 8.38 million British have received at least their first dose of the vaccine.
Experts believe the vaccine has begun to work and the speed of transmission of the virus has slowed markedly, with infection rates falling by 30 percent and deaths by 11 percent in the latest week. The number of hospital admissions has dropped by 25%.
The epidemic appears to be turning a corner.
On the other hand, current data from Israel, the global leader in vaccination, are also encouraging.
This week, the Israeli Ministry of Health released new data on the vaccine, which shows extremely high effectiveness. Of the 428,000 Israelis who received the second dose of the vaccine, only 0.014 percent became infected.
According to data released by the Israeli Military Intelligence Agency on Jan. 21, the infection rate (R-value) of novel corona-virus in Israel has dropped below 1 for the first time, indicating that the spread rate of novel corona-virus in Israel may have begun to wane.
"We are excited to see the actual impact of the vaccine in the preliminary results." Ran Balicer, an epidemiologist. Balicer expects to see more conclusive results a few weeks after the second dose.
Turkey, which recently launched a vaccination campaign, has seen a significant drop in the number of infections. Turkish President said the fall in the death toll of the novel Corona-virus makes me hopeful.
Even the US, the worst-hit country, has recently seen a decline in confirmed cases.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the number of new cases in the US was down 21 per cent from the previous week.
While health experts said it was hard to say whether that was the result of the massive spread of the vaccine, it could have something to do with the daily behavior of Americans recently, such as coming back from the holidays or wearing masks and keeping a social distance as the vaccine approached.
In any case, a turning point in the epidemic is always a hope, and everyone would like to see a vaccine that works.