[corty]

Vaccinated with a second dose means full immunity 1 week after, possible death 3 to 7 weeks after (1 + (1 to 2) + (2 to 4)). So a decline should start to be visible since last week maybe. But I wouldn't get nervous for another 2 to 3 weeks in case it doesn't fall sharply, data is always noisy and everything is spread out the more dependencies on previous events and times there are.

[EvgeniyZh]

We don't need full immunity to see the effect tho.

[corty]

Right. But still, don't worry yet, worry when it hasn't shown improvement in a few weeks.

Edit: Also, when you look at the JHU data (e.g. via google), it shows a peak at Jan 15th in the number of cases followed by a steady decline. The number of deaths peaks on Jan 28th, followed by a similar, steady decline. Which is as expected, so I would say we are already seeing the effects on the number of deaths.

Sorry that I didn't look at the data earlier before replying.

[EvgeniyZh]

I'm looking on case fatality rate: cases and death count are too volatile and depend on many factors.

My hypothesis (it's not mine but I agree with it): if population with high death risks is disproportionately vaccinated, at the level it can make visible effect on case count for this population, it should have effect on case fatality rate. Of course, multiple factors can reduce/slow down the decline, but it should be there. Reducing death probability by half for the 60+ people without changing anything else should significantly reduce case fatality rate.

Yet the data does not support it: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToS...

The case fatality rate peaked at the end of November, slightly declined until mid-January, then grown a bit and is almost constant in last three weeks.

So, the options I see are: either no effect at all can be seen yet behind the noise (it's hard to believe for me), or there is some factor compensating for the case fatality rate reduction (I can think of what could increase fatality that much and exactly compensate the effect), or the hypothesis is wrong (I can't see why either)

[chromaton]

The media and the CDC aren't talking about it yet, but I noticed the same thing independently as did a Facebook friend.

[corty]

Hm, yes, I think you are right. That is odd.

[corty]

After some thinking, I've got a theory: Deaths lag behind the infections by say 4 weeks. If the infections are falling after a peak, deaths are still rising or plateauing for 4 weeks. That means the ratio deaths/infections will produce a peak that lags the infection peak by 4 weeks, because the divisor is getting smaller while the dividend is still rising. Now if you look at the numbers for Israel, there is a plateau in the CFR for the last few weeks, it looks quite flat. However, e.g. Germany or Austria do have a pronounced peak there. The UK slightly less so.

So I would argue that we do see the CFR being lower than the peak we would expect without working vaccinations.

[EvgeniyZh]

If I take a look on (rolling average) of cases and deaths, peaks are more or less at the same point (about 1 week for this peak and 2 weeks for the previous one, definitely not 4 weeks apart. In particular, now b)oth number of cases and deaths are decreasing.