The View from the Hermitage, Day 495

Vaccination news from the US? Same old, same old. The seven-day average vaccination rate at the start of July was around 500,000. Three weeks later, it's half that, or 252,000. Experts are calling the Delta-linked surge a "self-inflicted wound." One unvaccinated mother who got infected summed it up as, "Just get the stupid shot." There are 48 states here that have a seven-day average number of new cases that's at least 10 percent higher than last week. Experts say that even people who are vaccinated need to worry about the surge. It's summer now, and that means socializing is probably done outdoors, which is good. Fall and winter will see socializing moving indoors, which is not. CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta notes that "this could be as good as it gets at least for a period of time."

The government just bought 200 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Over half should arrive by the end of the year with the remainder coming by May 2022. This would bring the total number of doses purchased from Pfizer to 500 million. The new doses were purchased in anticipation of children under 12 needing vaccination as well as possible booster shots for some segments of the population. Children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated, but several school systems will require masks of all students, staff, and visitors this fall. Chicago Public Schools follows New York City and the state of California in requiring masks at school. 

The Olympics have officially opened. So far, at least 110 people connected to the Olympics have tested positive. The US Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee's chief medical operator says that all members of the US delegation are being treated as if unvaccinated just to be safe. Remember the charts that show the number of each type of medals won by each country? I'm envisioning one for covid cases and, in a worst-case scenario, hospitalizations and deaths.

New Zealand has suspended its quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia for at least eight weeks. While the outbreaks in Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia appear to be contained, that is not at all the case for New South Wales. Both countries have relatively low vaccination rates. In New Zealand, 19 percent of the population has gotten at least one dose of vaccine; in Australia, 29 percent. Greece is enlisting clergy to try to raise the vaccination rate. Clerics were given a circular to distribute to churchgoers on Sunday; the circular describes vaccination as "the greatest act of responsibility toward one's fellow human being." Clergy were also asked to deliver a pro-vaccine sermon. Not all clergy are on board with this, though. One priest was removed from his parish this month after telling worshipers not to get vaccinated. Another priest banned vaccinated and masked worshipers from his services. With 44 percent of the population fully vaccinated, Greece is allowing businesses to admit only vaccinated people or people who have recovered from a case of covid if they want to. Those places admitting only vaccinated or recovered customers can operate at a higher capacity.

I have been making the notes for each day's post in the pages of journals I stopped keeping or books in which I had to-do lists that I stopped adding. I have six pages to go in the current book which means I'm taking a new one on our trip to the wilderness. I expect I shall give thought there to just why the hell I keep making the time to write something substantive every day with the rare copout. I pull each day's post and comments into a Word file just for the hell of it. Were I to print that document one-sided, it would take more than a ream of paper. The sequel to "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" can be "How I Spent the Pandemic," and my six-word essay can be "I looked things up and wrote." There are probably worse things I could have been doing.