Over the past two years EGG-NEWS, and companion newsletter CHICK-NEWS, have devoted considerable coverage of the ongoing COVID pandemic.  The overwhelming impact of the infection on the economy including patterns of food consumption and specifically affecting the egg industry were apparent from the onset of the infection and have persisted to the present time.  The first impact was panic buying in March and April of 2020. This resulted in store shelves being stripped of dairy products and a consequential spike in retail prices contributing to high retail margins.  As stock was replenished, prices fell with seasonal and then sub-normal values through the year. Closing of schools and universities and disinclination of customers to patronize restaurants impacted the liquid segment of the U.S. egg industry, resulting in diversion of eggs from flocks dedicated to breaking into the shell egg stream.  Naturally this impacted the availability of cartons and packing material eventually resolved by increased production by the major manufacturers.

COVID had less impact on egg packing compared to red meat production, basically due to the lower concentration of workers in plants. Despite this advantage difficulties were experienced with distribution mainly the availability of drivers in common with all agricultural and industrial activities. Disruption of supply chains contributed to inflation in the costs of all inputs shaving margins in the face of depressed unit revenue.

The introduction of COVID vaccine with general availability during the first quarter of 2021 reduced concern and offered a solution to COVID.  Unfortunately, the emergence of new variants complicated control that depended on social distancing, masking, and attaining a level of population immunity that would have inhibited transmission of the virus. A further complication was the initial reluctance of a third of the U.S. population to be vaccinated with a residual 25 percent totally opposed to receive a dose based on religious, political or personal objections fueled by web-based and talk-radio misinformation.

In reviewing statistics on COVID, there are clear indications of an improvement in weekly statistics.  This however does not minimize the death of at least 920,000 of our fellow citizens each of whom was a person with a family and each a small but important tragedy.  It is regrettable that since the advent of vaccination over 90 percent of fatalities could have been avoided even with exposure to the virulent Delta variant.  As of Monday, January 14th there were 2,586 deaths in the U.S. with and from COVID down from 2,991 in mid-January and still representing 2,300 unnecessary fatalities given the preponderance of unvaccinated in body bags.  There have been 78 million diagnosed cases of COVID since the onset of the pandemic with 206,317 cases recorded on February 14th down 78 percent in a month. On February 5th, the seven-day average of tests conducted approached 1.2 million but with a positive rate of 14.3 percent.  That far exceeds the WHO target of five percent denoting control of an infection.  We currently have 89,000 in hospital with 19,000 in ICU facilities creating a burden on our healthcare resources and personnel. This is an improvement on 152,000 hospitalizations from and with COVID in mid-January.

Since the introduction of COVID vaccines on an FDA emergency-use basis, 252 million have received at least one dose representing 76.5 percent of the population and 64.4 percent have received two doses of predominantly mRNA vaccines. Only 27.7 percent of those eligible have received a booster dose which stimulates solid immunity, hopefully for longer than six months.  Unfortunately the uptake of vaccines varies among states, demographics and between urban and rural populations.  There are still areas of rural America with vaccination rates between 25 and 30 percent, representing the potential for emergence of new variants and perpetuation of the disease. Hopefully the encouraging trends in reduced cases and consequentially lower levels of hospitalization will reflect in reduced fatality rates.

It is reemphasized that resolving inflation, restoring our national productivity, educating our children, reducing our national debt, and improving our quality of life will be dependent on suppression of COVID.  We can regard the current situation as Churchill’s “end of the beginning but not the beginning of the end”.  COVID is now endemic worldwide and will never be eradicated and we will live with the prospect of emerging variants.  The best we can hope for is to regard COVID as the ‘influenza of the 2020s’ and receive an annual booster vaccination. At least we have the opportunity to dispense with masks, attend in-person entertainment and industry meetings and revert to our pre-COVID lifestyle.