As of July 1, 2021, we still don't know who Patient Zero is. China has not been cooperative with WHO investigations and on May 26th, President Biden wants some definitive answers of how the pandemic started. Because animal spillover theories have not resulted in identifying the animal that passed it to humans, the lab leak theory has been proposed to explained the spread. Unless something definitive comes up, the only "sure" explanations right now is the report that the pandemic started on November 17, 2019 and a 55 year old (no gender given) Hubei resident may be the index case.

The death toll from COVID-19 for the U.S. reached 600,000 on June 16, 2021. As of July 1, 2021, Biden's hope for 70% of the population to have at least one shot (even though Pfizer and Moderna require 2 shots for full protected) is being dashed as vaccination has come to almost a standstill in many counties with low vaccination rates.

If you think of March 11, 2020 as the start of the pandemic in the U.S., (when WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic), it's been 16 months with no end in sight. Vaccinations have been slowing down in recent months in the U.S., and many countries are slow in general vaccinating their citizens. Tokyo is still holding the Olympics even though surveys of Japanese citizens say they don't want it. It all comes down to money. If Japan pulls out now, it will cost the country millions.

As of July 1st, 47.7% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. If you look at only U.S. adults, it's 57%, so still not the proverbial 70% (but may need to be higher, depending on how bad the variants are in transmitting the virus) for herd immunity.

Efforts to get people vaccinated include offering free food and drinks, free trips and a chance to win big playing the lottery. There are reports that people would get the shot if they got paid $100. How avaricious people have become! Like, doing it because it's the right thing to do is no longer in the equation! This goes along with the reports of skepticism over why are people being bribed to get vaccinated? What a crazy world!

Masking continue to be an issue with some, especially after Rochelle Walensky added to the confusion why saying those vaccinated can rip off their masks. Some posit that it has become a social class thing where the rich don't need to wear masks and the working class do. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/style/are-masks-a-new-signifier-of-social-class.html

I reminded people about the October 2020 White House superspreader event where many were infected for not wearing a mask. (https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-hope-hicks-test-positive-covid-19-doubters-become-possible-ncna1241934; https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/politics/white-house-contact-tracing/index.html; https://media11.s-nbcnews.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Video/202010/nn_pal_white_house_contact_tracing_201002_1920x1080.jpg) and, that vaccinations are protecting the vaccinated from getting infected (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/vaccinated-attendees-west-hoxton-birthday-party-avoid-covid-19/100249612)