The Herman Trend Alert

November 26, 2020

Update on What's Happening Now and What We Can Expect

All of us are worn out from the stress of coping with COVID-19. I thought it might be valuable to check in and see where we are. While France appears to be a bright spot of relative COVID calm, cases of the coronavirus are still spiking in most of the United States and many places elsewhere in the world. It seems like every day the US is breaking new records for cases and/or deaths.

Cases in the US and Elsewhere

Without the needed national leadership, the US cannot keep up with the infections and the country is now at over 250,000 deaths. To make matters worse, many people in the US, fatigued by their personal battles with isolation, plan to see family during this Thanksgiving holiday. These family gatherings are so likely to multiply the number of infections and ultimately deaths that some areas are currently constructing temporary military-supported hospitals to accommodate the expected infections. In many countries throughout the Northern Hemisphere, cases are continuing to spike. Even in Russia, the number of cases is out of control. France appears to be on the downside of their second wave and is considering a slight easing of lockdown restrictions. Spain is also seeing declining infections, but not quite as impressive as what is happening in France.

Staffing Shortages Abound

Healthcare professionals are exhausted and getting sick at an increasing rate. Their fatigue is not surprising, given that the increasing number of cases requiring hospitalization. The US and other countries can no longer simply move people around. There are no areas where the disease is not raging. Long hours and endless streams of patients, plus the inability to allow patients' families to help, have left some frontline healthcare professionals tired and sick. Some are even taking to social media to talk about ignorant patients and family members who still claim that COVID-19 is a hoax, have refused to wear masks, and stay physically distant from others.

New Studies Validate the Value of Masking

At the same as time as some continue to deny the importance of wearing masks, several new human studies across the globe have validated the significant effects of mask-wearing. A study in Thailand, a retrospective case-control study documented that those who reported having always worn a mask during high-risk exposures experienced a greater than 70 percent reduction of their risk of acquiring infection compared with persons who did not wear masks under these circumstances. Similar results were derived from the additional analysis of data from 200 countries that included the US. All demonstrated reductions in mortality.

When You Might Expect to Receive a Vaccine

We have three promising vaccine candidates: The Oxford vaccine based on a DNA from a chimpanzee adenovirus (cold) vaccine that worked for SARS. The other two are vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. Both are based on RNA and both offeri over 90 percent effectiveness, but both require extremely low temperatures to preserve their value---though governments and scientists worldwide are scrambling to develop solutions. To be accurate, none of the vaccines has yet been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (or any other country's similar agency) for use with humans. For people at lower risk or outside of the US, your wait will be at least 4 to 6 months. Hold on world, the vaccine developers are working as fast as possible to get you immune. For more information about the differences between these three vaccines, visit MedCram.com.

Special thanks, once again, to our subscriber in Naples, Florida, USA, Craig McDermott for introducing me to MedCram.com.

Next Week's Herman Trend Alert: "Adaptability---the Must-Have Skill Set for Normal 2.0"

My new podcast partner Ira Wolfe has created an effective hybrid course for individuals and teams to master this leading edge set of skills. Next week, we will explore how you can embrace these in-demand skills to make you more effective in work and in life.

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Read this Herman Trend Alert on the web: http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive 11-25-2020.html