Having worked its way through the vulnerable senior citizenry at the outset, the coronavirus has turned to the next most vulnerable group, children. The numbers of new covid cases among children and teenagers are at their highest weekly level since the pandemic began. During the week that ended on September 2, there were over 250,000 such cases, a 10 percent increase over the previous two weeks. Between August 5 and September 2, 750,000 kids tested positive and 54,859 were hospitalized. The highest numbers of pediatric cases per 100,000 children are found in Tennessee, South Carolina, Rhode Island, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Los Angeles has become the first major school district to require vaccinations for students aged 12 and older who are attending in-person classes. The district does offer on-line independent study, but very few students are enrolled. Kids will need a first vaccination by November 21 and a second one by December 19. Students participating in in-person extracurricular activities need to have had both shots by the end of October. A student who turns 12 after the dates stated above will have 30 days after the birthday in which to get their first vaccination. According to the local health department, 58 percent of the district's 12- to 18-year olds have already gotten at lest one dose. The resolution does mention "qualified and approved exemptions" but provides no detail. I cannot imagine what the reactions would be in states such as Florida or Texas were a school district to do this. Violence comes to mind, though.
POTUS is requiring all federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated with no option existing for regular testing of those remaining unvaccinated. He is addressing the nation today at the, for me, unusual time of 5:00 pm. His address is said to contain six main points: (1) vaccinating the unvaccinated; (2) offering further protection via booster shots; (3) keeping schools open; (4)increasing testing and requiring masks; (5) recovering economically; and (6) improving care for those with covid. I also saw a report that said he would be calling for more general vaccine mandates and regular covid tests for teachers and students.
Is the Delta variant making you feel uncomfortable? According to Dr. Fauci, the US needs to get below 10,000 new cases daily before people even start to feel comfortable. In March, he cautioned against loosening restrictions before cases fell below 10,000 "and maybe even considerably less than that." The lowest we got was in June, and that was still more than 11,000. Dr. Fauci again: "That's not even modestly good control, which means it's a public health threat." Many states were relaxing restrictions well before cases even got down to 11,000. How different would things be now if states had waited longer then? Would Delta have swept through the population as fast as it has? I gotta wonder about that one.
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