Hiking in Sky Meadows – Travel plans – The Taliban seizes Afghanistan – Another true believer winds up on a ventilator – Employers pressuring employees to get vaccinated – The U.S. leads the world again in infection rates – Evening statistics
Yesterday we had another winery hike, taking a 7-mile loop in Sky Meadows. The weather was cooperative, being much less oppressive than the weather earlier in the week – humid, to be sure, but less than 80 degrees, and quite breezy and comfortable on the ridgeline. The hike had an additional purpose, providing a means for LM and JM to distribute materials about the Idaho trip planned for September. Considering that the trip was improvised to replace the original trip to France that was canceled, it appears that we will be getting comfortable accommodations and well-coordinated flight arrangements. There were an abundance of butterflies to be seen throughout the hike, black swallowtails and tiger swallowtails in particular. I remarked to DC that I have been seeing more butterflies than usual this year on the hiking trails, and he said that that is a result of the cicada cycle; several birds have died as a result of the parasites they ingested after eating the cicadas and as a result more caterpillars have lived long enough to form chrysalises and transform themselves.
Afghanistan is now in control of the Taliban. Biden has received a great deal of criticism as a result, from Democrats and Republicans alike, and it may be that he was somewhat precipitous in withdrawing troops from that nation. But while I am sorry for the Afghanis I can’t blame him overmuch. We have, after all, been bolstering the government for twenty years. The fact that it fell within a week or so of our troops’ departure suggests that it never was able to exert a very strong hold on its populace to begin with. There comes a time when nationalities must be allowed to control their own destinies, without outside interference. If the Afghan government was not able to contain the Taliban in the course of being subsided for two decades on end, no wonder that it fell.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a former arch-bishop of St. Louis, has been an outspoken critic of inoculation and has claimed that the best weapon for battling “the evil of the coronavirus” is a relationship with Jesus Christ. In light of the fact that he contracted the virus this past Saturday and is currently on a ventilator, he might perhaps consider resorting to Pfizer or Moderna instead.
More employers are imposing a vaccine requirement for their employees: Tyson Foods (the nation’s largest meat producer), Morgan Stanley (investment bankers), Microsoft. Job postings that mention a COVID-19 vaccination requirement have increased by over a third, compared with just a month earlier. The pace of first doses being administered averaged 441,198 new vaccinations per day of August 5th, an increase of 95% since one month earlier.
Such pressures from employers are to be encouraged, since we are now accounting for over 18% of the daily increase in cases. In deaths, it is true, the ratio is considerably lower. A significant number of the cases are less serious than previously and our therapeutic treatments of the disease have improved over the past few months. But still, we are leading the world in the rate of infections, just as we had done about a year ago. About 72.1% of all American adults have received one dose by now. But that means that about 72 million American adults are still unvaccinated, allowing the delta variant a wide range in which to wreak its havoc.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 207,944,965; # of deaths worldwide: 4,374,233; # of cases U.S.: 37,466,718; # of deaths; U.S.: 638,736. Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 208,638,253; # of deaths worldwide: 4,382,882; # of cases U.S.: 37,719,467; # of deaths; U.S.: 637,561