The coronavirus stats remain sobering. We've passed a new benchmark. Since the first reported infection back in 2020, one in every 500 Americans died of covid. Johns Hopkins University puts the current death toll at 663,913. According to the Census Bureau, the population of the US is 331.4 million. The rest is just arithmetic. There were 152,300 new cases each day last week. That's over 13 times the number of new cases on June 22. The 11,303 cases that day were the low point of 2021. As of Tuesday, we had 1,805 deaths per day over one week. The 2021 low point for deaths was July 5 when there were only 218 deaths. We've got 54 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, the rate of people getting a first dose each day is a four percent drop from last week and a 28 percent drop from one month ago.
The CDC recommends that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas of substantial or high community transmission. Over 99 percent of the population lives in counties designated as having substantial or high community transmission. There are really no safe spots to be found.
A consequence of those numbers and rates: Alaska's largest hospital has a line of people waiting in their cars to get into the emergency room. Medical teams have been forced to ration care. They are following "crisis standards of care" which translates to that they ae "unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it." They haven't done elective surgeries in some time, and rationed care may come to include dialysis and "specialized ventilatory support."
France could start suspending health care workers today if they are not yet vaccinated. The current number of unvaccinated health care workers is 300,000. Courts say that the unvaccinated workers cannot be fired, but if those workers cannot provide patient care, hospitals will be stretched even more than they currently are.
A couple of quickies: As of October 1, immigrants seeking permanent residency in the US must be fully vaccinated. The EU is creating a new biomedical authority designed to better respond to future pandemics. The EU is also donating another 200 million extra vaccines to low- and middle-income countries on top of the 250 million they have already promised by the end of 2021.
The Associated Press reports that 26 of the 50 largest public university campuses don't require vaccination. Universities with vaccine mandates are concentrated in the Northeast and California. Almost all with no mandates are located in states that restrict or outright ban vaccine mandates including Florida, Texas, and Arizona. The Press looked at three universities, one in the Northeast, one in Florida, and one halfway in between which just happened to be our local university.
The University of Connecticut has a vaccine mandate. Eight hundred students have been granted exemptions; the university has basically approved all requests for exemption no matter what reason was given. About 11,000 of 19,000 undergraduates live on campus. All students must wear masks indoors. Ninety-seven percent of students are vaccinated; those who are not must be tested weekly. There have been 10 student infections since the semester began.
The University of Central Florida is running raffles to encourage students who are not yet vaccinated to be vaccinated. Raffle prizes include textbooks, computers, and $5,000 worth of tuition and fee waivers. The school is campaigning to get students "Vacci-Knighted." Yes, the school sports teams are the Knights. Professors cannot reduce class sizes and in some large classes, students sit in aisles to avoid sitting next to another person. Some 12,000 of 72,000 students live on campus. Masks are recommended but not required indoors. In the two weeks ending on September 11, there were 377 student infections.
The local university disenrolled forty-some students who did not report vaccinations or request exemptions. About 97 percent of students and 92 percent of staff have been vaccinated. Anyone exempt from vaccination must wear a mask indoors and outdoors. Until October 1, masks are required for everybody in indoor spaces other than dorms. There have been 255 student cases since the semester started in late August.
I didn't happen to come across anything funny or interesting even in a bizarre way as I was trolling the news this morning, so let me just remind everyone that Sunday, September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrgh.
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