The View from the Hermitage, Day 425

Some states and businesses are reconsidering their mask policies in the light of the CDC guidelines announced yesterday. Questions do remain about special needs of people with compromised immune systems or who have unvaccinated children. Remember that the CDC guidance applies to fully vaccinated people. So why did I today come across several reports of breakthrough cases of covid in fully vaccinated people. Eight members of the New York Yankees MLB franchise have tested positive for covid. All had been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. There was one Yankee who not only had been vaccinated but also had survived a case of covid before he got vaccinated. And if you read the above and thought that the issue might be with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being less effective than the mRNA vaccines, Singapore is announcing new restrictions after vaccinated airport workers became infected. Of the 28 infected workers, 19 had been fully vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. 

The Tokyo Summer Olympic Games remain scheduled for July despite a doctors' union in Japan urging cancellation. This one may be going down to the wire, especially if the IOC President continues to decline visiting. 

It appears that just over one fourth of adults in the European Union are "unlikely" to get vaccinated. Slightly more of these are men than women, and the rate is higher in eastern European countries. Bulgaria appears to be the most resistant with 61 percent of adults saying they are very or rather unlikely to get vaccinated. France and Austria have the highest resistance rate in western Europe, with just over one third of adults in each expressing resistance. Those aged 35 to 49 are slightly more likely to express reluctance, along with people who are unemployed and have a long-term illness or disability. Full-time homemakers are also more hesitant. It is probably not surprising to learn that 40 percent of people who use social media as their primary news source are vaccine hesitant compare to 18 percent of people using more mainstream news sources. Vaccine hesitancy aside, the EU hopes to have 70 percent of people inoculated by the end of July. To date, 29.5 percent of the 450 million inhabitants have gotten at least one dose of vaccine. 

Denmark has started excavating decomposing mink bodies after issues arose with the possible pollution of drinking water. The excavated bodies will be incinerated. The minks were killed en masse in response to a concern that they had a variant form of covid that might be transmitted to humans. 

Interesting thought on pandemics from Joel Achenbach: they "start quickly and end slowly." Some people here in the US see the new guidance on masks as evidence that the pandemic is over, at least here. I don't buy it. The pandemic is not going to end in one country as opposed to another. That might have been possible in the days of sailing ships as the principal means of getting from one land mass to another, but I don't see it as possible today, unless we are willing to lock the doors at the border and keep them locked.

Here's a thought for the upcoming school year. Three quarters of people ages 18 to 29 say that vaccinations should be a requirement for campus or work in the fall, and 37 percent say they would refuse to go back in the fall if vaccinations are not required.