The View from the Hermitage, Day 499

The CDC is expected to recommend masks for vaccinated people but only in certain areas of the country. Those areas will likely not include Virginia, but that’s not going to stop me from wearing mine. At the same time, more places and businesses are working on both mask and vaccine mandates. The Veterans Administration has become the first federal agency to require employees bbe vaccinated. California is going to require all state employees and health care workers provide proof of vaccination status or be tested regularly. New York City has a similar plan for all municipal employees including police and teachers. My favorite one is the San Francisco Bar Alliance calling on member establishments to require vaccinations for patrons wishing to be served inside. All these follow over 50 major medical and health groups issuing a joint statement calling for a vaccine mandate for all health care workers. Of course, many Republican-led states are preemptively prohibiting mask mandates, but courts have already ruled that employers can issue vaccine mandates.

An article in The Guardian said that the current vaccination slowdown repeats historical patterns of vaccination campaigns in the US, going back to poliomyelitis in the 1950s. I wonder if the same sort of patterns happened then as now. That is, wealthy and well-resourced people get vaccinated more than those in vulnerable situations. People in urban areas get vaccinated more than people who live in rural areas. People in the north are vaccinated more than those in the south. White Americans are more vaccinated than Black and Latino Americans. Finally, and this is one I don’t think held historically, Democrats are more vaccinated than Republicans.

Every county in Arkansas and Florida is listed as “high transmission.” Every single one. This past week, Florida accounted or almost one fourth of all new cases in the country, more than any other state. Orange County, Florida, home to Disneyworld, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld Orlando, is seeing almost 1,000 new cases daily, the same numbers as seen at the highest peak last year according to the mayor. Some 61.59 percent of residents ages 12 and older have had at least one dose of vaccine.

Remember how Detroit could not share its about-to-expire vaccine with Canadians living across the border in Windsor, Ontario? Well, workers in US factories in Mexico just south of the border are being bused across the border to San Diego to be vaccinated with doses nearing expiration. The factories in which the workers work produce items for the US. Were the Coca Cola plant to have to stop production temporarily would mean San Diegans would be off Coke, and I’m not talking about the drug.

Restrictions on travel to the US from Europe and other parts of the world will remain in place for the time being. No information is out there as to how long that might be. And long covid patients are to be covered by federal disability law.

New cases in Britain have declined for six days in a row. It is not clear if it is transient factors such as summer break for schools, the end of the EuroCup, or fewer tests being administered that are causing the decline. It could be that the prime minister was correct in saying that the country could withstand a return to normalcy despite the presence of the Delta variant. Scientists say it will take longer to know bette.r Hospitalizations and deaths, but lagging indicators, have not dropped.  In Australia, Victoria and South Australia are coming out of lockdown while Sydney enters its fifth week. The outbreak there is now up to 2,000 cases.  Tokyo cases outside the Olympics continue to rise, with the recent 2,848 being the highest daily case count since the pandemic began. The test positivity rate is 14.5 percent. The Olympics are up to at least 160 cases, including 21 athletes.

In other Olympic news, Simone Biles withdrew from the team final citing mental health issues. The pressure on that young woman has been incredible. She expressed concern when spectators were banned that looking at her parents in the crowd before she performed an event centered her and helped her remain calm. She gave her teammates, especially the alternate who had to step up and perform on no real notice all the credit for winning the silver medal. The 17-year-old gold medalist in the 100m breaststroke lives and trains, where else, in Alaska.

If you need something beyond the pandemic about which to worry, the US is monitoring 200 people for possible exposure to monkey pox. No, it does not make a sufferer crave bananas; it is a rare relative of smallpox.