The coronavirus pandemic.
You know, the reason we're all saying, "This feels so amazing,"
when we have lunch with two friends.
So let's check in on the latest developments in another episode
of "Keeping Up with Corona."
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As of now, 95 million Americans
are fully vaccinated against COVID,
which, I don't care what anybody says, is amazing.
Americans are getting their shots almost as fast
as Americans are getting shot.
But the bad news is, America might be running out of people
who are interested in saving their own life.
There are growing signs
that the nation's vaccination program is losing some steam.
Nationwide, the average rate of vaccinations is down roughly 20%
in the last two weeks.
Some states are starting to actually turn down shipments
of the vaccine because they have more supply than demand.
NEWSMAN: In Arkansas, 17 counties are cutting back.
NEWSWOMAN 2: A number of mass vaccination sites
in Texas are closing, and more than half
of have the counties in Kansas have turned down
vaccine shipments because they'll go unused.
NEWSWOMAN 1: All of this comes amid new reports
that more than five million Americans,
or about eight percent who got the first shot
of either Pfizer or Moderna vaccine,
missed getting the second shot.
Okay. I-I mean, this is just weird to me, people.
You're seriously going to wait this long for a vaccine,
take half the doses, and then just bail?
Getting half the vaccine isn't good enough.
I mean, it's the same reason that Trojan discontinued
their crop Crop Top line of condoms.
It just doesn't work as well.
And please, don't get me wrong, I don't like the framing
where it's, like, "Oh, this is doom and gloom.
Eight percent..." NO, 92% of the people
getting their second dose on time--
that's still really impressive.
But the bigger problem is that demand for the vaccine
in America overall, is falling.
I mean, just a few weeks ago,
we were all scrambling for appointments.
Refresh, refresh, refresh.
Now you can pick up Moderna shots
in the two-for-one bin at a Walmart.
And I don't know, maybe the problem
is that people like things that are new,
and now the vaccine doesn't feel new anymore.
Maybe what we need is a rebrand.
Start calling it the vaccine Pro-S.
Change the color. And then people would be
lining up around the block.
So, America finds itself now having so much vaccine supply
that it doesn't know what to do with it.
And this is a really unique situation
when you look at the rest of the world,
because many countries have barely any vaccines at all.
And for them, the pandemic is worse than ever before.
And no place is in worse shape right now than India.
NEWSWOMAN: Tonight what officials in India
call a tsunami of coronavirus cases
is fast becoming a global catastrophe.
For the third day in a row,
the country shattering world records.
More than 345,000 cases reported in the last 24 hours.
Nearly one million in the last three days alone.
MEWSMAN: An aggressive mutant variant
no match for the country's underfunded medical system.
Hospitals are turning patients away for lack of oxygen,
medicine and beds.
NEWSWOMAN: While India's official death toll,
at under 200,000, is still only one-third that of the U.S.,
Indian funeral workers say the true number of casualties
is far higher.
The black market is now thriving.
To give you some idea, a tank of oxygen
was about $80 before the pandemic.
They're now going for more than a thousand dollars.
Yeah, people, things are really dire in India right now.
Countless people are dying, the hospital system is collapsing,
and oxygen is going for a thousand dollars
on the black market.
That is so much money.
Like, I'm surprised people aren't out there
mugging scuba divers.
And the really sad part about this crisis
is that it could have been avoided
if India's government hadn't taken their eye off the ball.
NEWSMAN: Only two months ago, it looked like India
had avoided the worst.
The government relaxed rules,
even allowed a huge Hindu festival
just a few weeks ago.
NEWSWOMAN: In recent months, even as cases rose,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted huge political rallies,
flouted social distancing and allowed mass gatherings.
Thousands of people have been taking to Twitter
with trending hashtags like #ResignModi,
#SuperSpreaderModi, and the reason is
because Prime Minister Modi's ruling political party
has been holding rallies.
The government of Narendra Modi has contacted Twitter
to censor some of the tweets that have been highly critical
of his government's mishandling of this second wave.
And, interestingly, Twitter complied,
removing some of these tweets.
Okay, you know things are getting bad
when a leader's response to criticism of his failures
is to try and shut down the criticism, not the failures.
(Indian accent): We've got to stop the spread
of these mean tweets about me.
Honestly, you know who must be so jealous of Modi right now?
Donald Trump.
Yeah, 'cause Modi's got it on lock.
He got Twitter to censor his enemies.
He's out here holding huge rallies
in the middle of a pandemic, and he's even got the skin tone
that Trump has been trying to get for years.
And look, maybe Modi thought there were good reasons
to let crowds gather indoors, but I'll say it again:
the virus...
does not care why you're gathering!
It's still coming to get you!
But look, regardless of how it got there,
India is in a really, really bad place right now,
and it needs help from the rest of the world
before things get even worse.
Thankfully, the United States has stepped up
to grudgingly answer the call.
NEWSMAN: Tonight, a global response
to the COVID crisis ravaging India,
as the U.S. pledges immediate medical aid,
including drug treatments,
rapid diagnostic COVID-19 testing kits,
ventilators, PPE, oxygen supplies
and ingredients for producing vaccines.
The United States is partially lifting a ban
on exports of the materials needed
to make coronavirus vaccines in India.
The move is an abrupt policy change
for the Biden Administration,
which had previously denied the request to allow the exports,
claiming their focus was on vaccinating Americans.
The United States' first answer
when this was discussed last week was,
well, America comes first.
That's what we heard from the State Department.
The United States, first and foremost,
is engaged in an ambitious and affective,
and so far successful effort
to vaccinate the American people.
Okay. Yeah. This is good.
Look, I’m glad to see America sending something
to the rest of the world that doesn't have the name
of the wrong Super Bowl winner printed on it,
But I still feel like America could be doing a lot more.
I mean, just today, just today,
America announced that it would start sharing
its massive stockpile of millions of doses
of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Which, by the way, America has been sitting on for months,
even though it doesn't need it.
Doesn't need it.
But just has it.
So America's basically treating these vaccines
like it was the old can of pumpkin puree
in the back of the cabinet.
I mean, you knew you were never gonna use it,
but you still held on to it way longer than you should.
Because maybe, just maybe one day,
someone would be like: I'm dying. I need pumpkin puree.
Ha-ha! Got some in the back of my cabinet.
And don’t get me wrong, I know that a country's priority
has to be looking after its own people.
But don't forget that it makes America safer
when corona is under control in the rest of the world.
Because the more corona has time to run wild,
we've seen the more opportunity it has to mutate
and become more deadly.
And trust me, if a bad mutation emerges,
it's gonna come to America.
Corona spreads through respiratory droplets.
And when have you ever met someone who took a trip to India
and didn't shut up about it?
So look, we need to remember that until everyone is immune,
the job is always gonna be only half done.
You know, it's kind of like only getting your first shot.
It helps, but the job's not complete.
So America really needs to start helping
the rest of the world now, or it can start saving up
for those thousand-dollar tanks of oxygen.