It used to be “two weeks to flatten the curve”, but somehow it has developed to “imprison the unvaccinated (or worse)”. Lockdownistas have been on parade also over the past week, with “papers please”-systems being implemented in many countries to try to boost the injection rate.

Ireland has implemented a semi-lockdown with a midnight curfew. Austria has not only decided to imprison the unvaccinated (albeit so far only in their homes), the entire country is now going back into a lockdown and a nationwide vaccine mandate is launched. The vaccine is apparently so good that you need to force people in to taking it. This is unlikely to work wonders for the lack of trust in the system.

Even Sweden has thrown in the towel, moving towards vaccine passports for large gatherings starting December 1. And if that’s not enough, limits on restaurants, working from home-recommendation, and so on, will follow. In contrast, it seems as if the federal vaccine mandate for big private employers will be challenged in court, which may compromise the deadline 4 Jan.

This removes some of the risk of potential very weak non farm payroll reports in Q1 due to vaccine mandates, and leaves us with a good risk/reward in paying 1y1y USD rates still, in particular now that Clarida is warning that tapering will be accelerated already in December.

Chart 1. Predictable virus surge has weighted on lockdown-sensitive sectors (& EUR)

All of this was predictable. In August we warned of “plenty of alarmist media coverage” and that this could trigger the politicians’ logic, i.e. i) we must do something [about delta], ii) this is something, iii) therefore, we must do this…”. We went further in September we argued that new lockdowns should NOT be ruled out and that “the chosen path forward is vaccination mandates and booster shots forever”.

We are therefore not too impressed by the forecast record of Fauci and his colleagues (in July he stated that the US is on track to “crush the outbreak”, and that “you’re not going see the kind of surges we’ve seen in the past” (if 62% of adults get at least one dose). Now you may say that delta has changed everything – and that Fauci was right at the time, but the thing is that viruses mutate…

Chart 2. A mega vaccination rate has not prevented rampant case growth in Vermont

While a lot of people still appear to believe the vaccines block transmission, they clearly do not. Vermont – the most vaccinated state in the US – has seen case growth explode recently. This paper, for instance, finds “no discernible association between COVID-19 cases and levels of fully vaccinated”. What’s more, in a new paper on data from Israel’s national airport – an excellent data set – the authors conclude that Israel’s Green Pass system is inefficient in preventing infection spread (why is everything called green nowadays?), and that the relative protection from booster shot is 60% at best vs the unvaccinated (defined as those who have not been injected within the past six months).

With that in mind, if you want to prevent transmission it might make sense to lock up everybody, unvaccinated or not.

We also urge you to take caution when interpreting right about every single official Covid-19 number across the globe. First, case growth is extremely distorted by political decisions and messages such as conflicting viewpoints on whether vaccinated needed to be tested or not.

Second, hospitalisation data cannot be fully trusted either as you count as a Covid patient if you have tested positive within 7-days of hospitalization, no matter whether you have a broken leg, a depression or severe Covid-19 symptoms.

These “fake Covid-hospitalizations” account for 20-33% of all hospitalizations according to various studies, and this effect ought to be bigger this year than last year as the vaccine still works decently well against severe illness. Politicians sadly look at these numbers without a deeper investigation, why this is all that matters for any market relevant research.

Chart 3. Israel’s booster campaign may have led to more case growth

The authors also observed that the positivity rate among vaccinated was significantly higher than for the unvaccinated during Israel’s “aggressive booster campaign”, suggesting that the booster shots made individuals more vulnerable to infection in the immediate weeks afterwards. This is not only supported from Israeli data. Gibraltar’s experiences from a 99%+ vaccination rate also suggest that case growth could accelerate even more as injection rates accelerate with the boosters…

Chart 4. Gibraltar’s booster campaign preceded the surge in case growth

Leaving aside the lessons from the Nuremberg trials such as bodily integrity, informed choice, the impact on civil liberties, and so on (because who cares?), lockdown policies, vaccine mandates and so on do carry costs. School closures can lead to children missing out on education, and with humans being social animals, locking them up or reducing socialising also carry costs even if these will not be visible in GDP figures. And as The Telegraph recently noted: “nearly 10,000 more people than usual have died in the past four months from non-Covid reason [in the UK]” (and no one knows why).

Chart 5. UK case growth picking up

Speaking of which, UK case growth has actually been picking up recently, after the downdraft in early November. In 2020, case growth accelerated a couple of weeks after that same holiday – and it looks as if that may be unfolding this time around as well (perhaps the lull in case growth can be explained by the October school holiday).

Chart 6. US case growth went on a tear at this time of the year last year

For all that, we want to remind you that last year US case growth went on a tear, and perhaps this will translate to the dollar losing its lustre in coming weeks… Pfizer has asked the FDA to authorize booster shots, a request which could be approved before Thanksgiving. So maybe a mega acceleration of US case growth should be expected given Israel’s experiences…