Happy Cinco de Mayo or, for Star Wars junkies, revenge of the fifth! However you celebrate or don't, stay safe out there.
Starting with what I could save until the end, Sean Combs has (again) changed his name. He is now Sean Love Combs. This follows on the heels of (starting at the earliest) Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and P. Diddy (yes, for a second time). He probably has a personal assistant to manage all the name change forms.
POTUS has set a new vaccination goal. He wants 70 percent of US adults to have had at least one dose of vaccine and 160 million, to be fully vaccinated by July 4. These numbers evidently incorporate the current vaccination slowdown. Currently, 145 million or 56 percent have gotten at least one dose. I used to say that the two most important parenting strategies were threat and bribery. If the threat of getting covid-19 is not high enough to get people out to be vaccinated, some new research shows that bribery apparently does work. The amount used was $100. The only problem with that would be the hard feelings of all the people who were ready and willing to get vaccinated as soon as they could. It's too late now, of course, to use bribery to get people out at the beginning of the immunization phase.
The states with the highest rates of vaccination are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. Interestingly (or not) comparing the numbers of cases now compared to weeks ago falls out as follows: New Hampshire--down 44 percent; Massachusetts--down 37 percent; Connecticut--down 40 percent; Vermont--down 46 percent; and Maine--down 42 percent. Unfortunately, I don't think information such as this registers for the vaccine hesitant or resistant. It is, after all, dreaded data and suspect science.
Mask use has dropped since the CDC relaxed mask guidelines. Unfortunately, the decline is for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people despite the CDC's issuing it only for vaccinated people. Overall, 57 percent of vaccinated people say that they still wear their mask at all times when the leave their house. The rate is 46 percent for unvaccinated people.
Broadway theaters will open for business in September, meaning one can't do dinner and a show until then. All mitigation measures in Florida will be gone as of Monday. The governor has also implemented a permanent law allowing state officials to overrule local health authorities ay any time and for any matter. If the virus doesn't disrupt your life, your visa status might. Immigrants here on H1B visas who lose their jobs have 60 days in which to find another job at a company that will sponsor them. After the magic 60 days, they lose the visa and can be deported. Between the pandemic and the recession, there are a number of people sweating this out.
The US is the last major world power to enter the race for global vaccine diplomacy. China has given or sold vaccine doses to 90 countries; Russia, 70 countries. Between the two, every country in Latin America is covered. Perhaps the US will dedicate its doses to Africa or developing Asia. I am glad to see that we're finally taking action. We've been sitting on the sidelines for too long.
A German company could have a third mRNA vaccine ready by next month. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines that require some level of freezing, the German vaccine will stay stable in a refrigerator. This could be a game-changer in terms of the global situation.
In Brazil, a parliamentary inquiry has begun into the government's response to the pandemic. The country's former health minister says that President Bolsonaro was warned about the possible consequences of ignoring science and common pandemic safety measures. Would we be Brazil if XPot had been re-elected? I honestly don't want to think about that, but it is worth considering given the toxic allegiance of the Republican party to His XPotness. If he were to run again in 2024, he could be president during the next pandemic we know is coming but hopefully not that soon.
Continuing on the international front, Egypt is closing stores and restaurants for the next two weeks, a time period that happens to include Eid, the celebration at the end of Ramadan. Large concerts and gatherings are also banned. Parks and beaches will close for May 12 to 16, Eid and the days immediately after. Canada will start giving the Pfizer vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. Canada also just reported its third death from clotting following the AstraZeneca vaccine. Italy wants to admit tourists who had an EU-approved vaccine or tested negative 48 hours before travel. When I hear something like that, I want to shout, "And they could test positive 24 hours before travel!"
India was invited to attend the current G7 meeting in London. The entire delegation is now self-isolating after several members tested positive. All had negative tests before leaving India, but two tested positive on arrival in London. I repeat the concluding thought of the previous paragraph. In other India news, its neighbors are getting more worried about the surge in India spilling over the borders. Pakistan is particularly worried about Eid, given that Pakistan has the lowest vaccination rate in South Asia. The hardest his neighbor is Nepal, which shares a border with five Indian states and has had three consecutive days of more than 7,000 new cases. Perhaps more important given the revenue generated by a Himalayan climbing season, 19 more cases have been reported at Everest Base Camp. Both foreign climbers and Sherpas have tested positive. Financially, it's not clear Nepal can afford a second canceled climbing season, though if the permit fees are non-refundable, there would at least be some money generated, though not the moneys paid to Sherpas and other native helpers.
I started with Cinco de Mayo and revenge of the fifth. Today is also the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard's historic flight. He only spent 15 minutes in space, but he was the first American to get there. I'm old enough to remember, very vaguely, watching the early Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches and splashdowns and thinking that being an astronaut would be pretty cool. I still do actually.
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