Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US FEB.23, 2022

 FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE FEB. 23, 2022

Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US From the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University Confirmed US cases: 78,694,988 Confirmed US deaths: 940,783 From The New York Times COVID-19 map and case count: VACCINATIONS Fully vaccinated: 65 percent of all Americans Boosted: 28 percent of all Americans Partially vaccinated: 11 percent of all Americans No shots: 24 percent of all Americans INFECTIONS New cases yesterday: 123,182 A month ago: 337,384 HOSPITALIZATIONS Yesterday: 62,464 people infected with COVID-19 were in the hospital A month ago: 158,591 people DEATHS Yesterday: 2,726 Americans died from COVID-19 A month ago: 934 Americans died in one day

Just pointing out that more than 2,700 Americans died of COVID-19 yesterday, and another 123,000 became infected. A few of you have asked if I could list how many of the cases and deaths are people who were unvaccinated. Unfortunately, states aren't consistent in how they track the vaccination status of those infected or who have died. Some Republican states don't track it publicly at all, because they know it will crush their false talking points about the virulence of this virus and the effectiveness of the vaccines. And Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, months ago ordered his health department to stop reporting infections and deaths of anyone who isn't a full-time resident. Given that thousands of people spend some part of the winter in Florida, but not enough time to be considered full-time residents, the Florida numbers are dramatically undercounted, simply to enhance DeSantis's political fortunes. But in December, Time magazine checked the health websites of several states that publish stats on a regular basis. Some report the per-100,000-residents rate of hospital admissions: Minnesota: 117.8 unvaccinated, 8.8 vaccinated Connecticut: 68.6 unvaccinated, 4.6 vaccinated Utah: 56.7 unvaccinated, 4.4 vaccinated Colorado: 52.2 unvaccinated, 4.2 vaccinated Virginia: 39.6 unvaccinated, 1.6 vaccinated Other states reported the ratio of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated status among hospitalized patients. For example: Mississippi: 86 percent unvaccinated, 14 percent vaccinated Montana: 81 percent unvaccinated, 19 percent vaccinated South Carolina: 64 percent unvaccinated, 36 percent vaccinated The bottom line is that despite breakthrough infections among those who have been vaccinated (the vast majority of whom are immunocompromised or otherwise at high risk), this remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated. The good news is that one scientific model estimates that 73 percent of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, a number that could rise to 80 percent by mid-March. There certainly will be new surges in the future, given the versatility of this coronavirus to produce variants. But most of those who are protected will either not be infected or will have mild cases, which should reduce the amount of virus circulating overall and making new waves less deadly. We can only hope. BTW, forget herd immunity: The anti-vaxxers have killed that effective strategy. Vaccine-induced herd immunity stamped out polio and smallpox in the US, back when we had a much smarter population. Vaccines also eliminated measles as of 2000, but guess what? The anti-vaxxers brought that back, not caring that most of those who die of measles are children under age 5. Kids are disposable, I guess. Tempering that optimism about the future of more surges is the emerging variant dubbed BA.2 (omicron is BA.1). New research out of Japan -- which hasn't yet been peer-reviewed -- shows that the new variant is spreading faster than omicron and may cause more severe disease. The World Health Organization estimates that BA.2 is 30 percent more contagious than Omicron. Again, we have to rely on vaccines and masks to protect us against future surges. Many are in peril. It's so heartening to know that the overwhelming majority of Fast Forward readers care enough about their fellow Americans to take precautions (more of your comments below).