The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 39 (539)

Up for some sobering news? We're in the midst of Labor Day weekend 2021. In the weeks leading up to Labor Day 2020, average US daily covid cases had dropped to about 38,000. Between Labor Day and Thanksgiving 2020, daily cases increased 400 percent. Currently, the seven-day average number of cases in the US is 163,716; the seven-day average number of deaths is 1,550. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see any 400 percent increase starting from those numbers. As of September 4, cases had increased six percent in the prior week, while deaths were up 22 percent. Some 53 percent of the US population is fully vaccinated now, while 62 percent have gotten at least one dose. That's short of the 70 percent goal set for July 4, a goal I thought had been met in the days following. Perhaps I missed something.

A large portion of the US population cannot yet be vaccinated, the 48 million kids under the age of 12. The Delta variant has sent pediatric hospitalizations soaring. In Kentucky, 34 of the 171 school districts have had to close temporarily because of covid since classes started last month. Health insurance companies that did not charge for covid treatment in the early days of the pandemic are now charging. Some companies argue that with vaccination, covering treatment costs can support people's not getting vaccinated. Those companies, though, are not covering costs for children who have no choice about being unvaccinated.

On the fringe front, hospitals and poison control centers are still overflowing with people who have taken ivermectin. According to the CDC, almost 90,000 prescriptions for ivermectin were written per week in August, up from a pre-pandemic per-week figure of 3,600. Vet supply stores are sold out of it. The situation is so serious that the FDA tweeted "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y'all. Stop it." When I read that one patient drank an ivermectin formula meant for cattle and was hospitalized for nine days with tremors and hallucinations and another patient experienced "altered mental states," I have to wonder if some people are taking it not as a covid preventative but a substitute for LSD. I know that's just wishful thinking. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.