Omicron appears to have been discovered in Virginia. The state health department is not being too transparent in terms of details, but the region in which the case has been identified includes Charlottesville. It was only a matter of time until Omicron was found here. Virginia is apparently the 24th state to have identified Omicron, though that "24th" was as of this morning and could be higher now. It's gonna get interesting now.
Nationwide, covid hospitalizations are up 40 percent compared to a month ago. Hospitalizations are up 88 percent in the state of Michigan. It seems that younger and younger people are dying of covid there. One contributing factor may be weather. We are headed into not only winter but also our first winter with the Delta variant, at least until Omicron becomes dominant. I base that statement on the predictions from Britain that Omicron will become the dominant variant there before Christmas.
As for Britain, right now 30 percent of the cases reported in London are Omicron. The UK just reported its highest number of new cases since January 9, almost a year ago. There were 58,194 new cases and 120 deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive covid test. I found an intriguing reference in one of the articles in the Guardian. It was to the effect that the UK government has been "presented with some very challenging new information" about Omicron. Health officials will consider possibly necessary new actions while awaiting additional data.
Only about one in 10 Americans say that the covid vaccine would violate their religious beliefs, and 60 percent say that too many people are using religion as an excuse to avoid vaccination. A majority of Americans are critical of religious exemptions with the sharp divide seen in so many covid issues. Over 80 percent of vaccinated Democrats say they're angry at people who won't get vaccinated. Over 80 percent of unvaccinated Republicans say they're angry at people telling them to be vaccinated.
No major religions or denominations oppose covid vaccines, and many have publicly endorsed them. However, only 41 percent of white evangelical Protestants agreed with a statement that there are no religious reasons to refuse vaccination. White evangelical Protestants are also the only major religious group among which a majority of members believe the statement that "the government is not telling us about other treatments for Covid-19 that are just as effective as the vaccine."
One in five Americans say that the issue of vaccination has caused major conflict within their family. We are fortunate, it seems, in having a relatively small number of family members with whom to congregate on a holiday. There are relatives on The Professor's side of the family and probably on my side as well who are not going to get vaccinated, but they are far enough away that the subject of getting together never comes up. I did put at the end of my annual Christmas letter that we were only accepting guests who were fully vaccinated, but no one has complained so far. Given how few times we have had people stay with us, I don't expect it will become an issue.
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I have a friend whose husband received a cancer diagnosis just before Christmas last year. She's not seen her mother all year, not until after the funeral, because mummy sees no reason to be vaccinated. For her it was an easy decision, her mother was a risk to her husband on chemotherapy, one of them had a choice and one didn't.
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