The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 43 (543)

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.

The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 36 (536)

I review various websites and emailed columns to find tidbits to put and comment on here. One is the Associated Press Morning File. Today, it's what is missing from that email that I find important. The only mention of the coronavirus is a small blurb that the release of one of Tom Cruise's new movie's "Top Gun: Maverick," has been moved from November 19, 2021 to May 27, 2022. Another of his new movies, Mission: Impossible 7" will be delayed from May 27, 2022 to September 30, 2022. I guess Paramount doesn't want two Tom Cruise movies competing with each other. The schedule moves were made in response to the rise in coronavirus cases and the Delta variant. 

We're seeing about 160,000 new covid cases every day, and five states are still using more than 90 percent of their ICU beds: Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Florida, and Arkansas. The average number of cases per 100,000 people is trending up over the last two weeks. Cases are down over 40 percent in Louisiana, and down 20 to 40 percent in Mississippi. They're down 0 to 20 percent in Rhode Island, Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida. In all other states the per capita rate is increasing. That increase is more than 20 percent in South Dakota, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. In all the other states, the per capita rate has increased between 0 and 20 percent. 

More disturbing than overall increases is the growing number of children being infected. Over 500,000 children tested positive within three weeks in August. Half. A. Million. At the outset, the virus seemed to target elderly people; now it's the other end of the age range. The best way to control the spread in children is wearing masks. Says CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, "The virus is raging in these children who are unvaccinated ... They have no other protection. They're literally sitting ducks." Arizona has blocked school mask mandates, and only a few weeks in, thousands of students and teachers are in quarantine. In one district, school buses are running 90 minutes late because so many drivers are sick. 

Covax offered North Korea 2.97 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine. North Korea refused to accept the doses saying that they should go to countries with worse outbreaks. North Korea never accepted an earlier shipment of AstraZeneca either. They have, however, attempted to steal vaccine technology by hacking international pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer. A British study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reports that people with breakthrough infections after full vaccination are about 50 percent less likely to have long Covid. That won't make me any more likely to let my guard down, but it's a good result to keep in mind. While we in the US await official guidance on booster shots of vaccines, booster shots are already being given in the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and Israel.

Finally, Hawaii is struggling to get enough liquid oxygen. The demand for medical oxygen is up some 250 percent since August 1. An international shortage limits the number of liquid oxygen tanks that a state can order. Tanks of liquid oxygen are highly flammable and cannot be shipped by air. It can take up to a month to ship tanks from the mainland to Hawaii. Hawaii currently has 10 tanks, each holding 3,500 gallons, which they're hoping will be enough. Since July, they've been in their highest surge of the pandemic. Only 16 of the state's 223 ICU beds are available.